Whitcoulls Recommends: Tall Bones and Fall: The Mystery of Robert Maxwell

Tall Bones by Anna BaileyFirst novel from a young writer (I think she’s around 24) – set in a small conservative and deeply religious Colorado town, with all the hypocrisy that can go along with that. Emma and Abi are best friends and when Emma leaves Abi at a party out at the place on the edge of town known as the Tall Bones, she doesn’t realise it’s the last time she’ll ever see her friend. As the town unravels in the face of her disappearance, all the secrets start spilling out. It’s incredibly atmospheric and really well done. Fall : The Mystery of Robert Maxwell by John PrestonBorn into a poor Yiddish speaking family in Czechoslovakia, Robert Maxwell survived the war (unlike many of his family) and after arriving in England became a self made media tycoon – a Rupert Murdoch wannabe. He was larger than life – brash, rude, gluttonous, powerful and terrifying, and built an empire through sheer bravado, bluster and fraud.In 1991 he fell from the back of his boat, the Lady Ghislaine (that name sound familiar? – his daughter), and died in the Mediterranean, after which it was found he’d embezzled 763m pounds sterling of pension funds from his staff.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.