Whitcoulls recommends Lucinda Riley and Hayley Scrivenor

The Murders at Fleat House by Lucinda Riley – she’s of course the author of the Seven Sisters series, who sadly died last year. She was incredibly prolific and managed to write this one even whilst unwell. It’s a standalone story, not related to any other series, about the murder of a boy at a private school which the headmaster is very keen to call a tragic mistake but of course there’s a lot more to it than that. This is the one I still need to read – but expect it to be great storytelling, and I know her fans are terribly excited about its publication.  Dirt Town by Hayley Scrivenor. There’s recently been an explosion of crime thrillers out of Australia – in the last 2–3 years there’s been a huge number published, many of them from previously unknown writers who are doing a great job and this is the first book from Hayley Scrivenor. It’s really good … set in a small Australian town on the wane where there’s an air of general hopelessness, and one day a 12-year-old girl doesn’t come home from school. We know right from the beginning where she ended up, but we don’t know who was responsible, or why. Two Sydney missing persons cops with their own issues are sent to the town to figure it out but one of the most interesting features of the story – to me, at least – is a kind of Greek chorus of the town’s children who have their own chapters (headed up, We) and who comment on the goings-on in the town, seeing things that the adults might not.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.