Snowflakes over Moon Cottage

A DAILY MAIL STARS BOOK OF THE YEARA FOYLES BEST BOOK OF 2017'Langdale is excellent . . . The Brittle Star is a great beginning to what I hope is a long and productive career' GuardianIf a man beats you, you never let your anger show, never at the time. You wait, until he least expects it, until nobody remembers that you were angry at all . . . In 1860s Southern California, life on the Burn ranch has been peaceful for 15-year-old John Evert since the death of his father. But recently there have been violent raids on nearby properties, where it's not just cattle and horses that are taken, but women too. And when the white-painted men arrive at the Burn ranch on horses in the dead of night, John Evert is near-fatally injured, his beloved mother spirited away, and their house torched to the ground. Setting out on a journey to find his mother and reclaim his land, John Evert will fight in the Civil War and befriend an outlaw, challenge his assumptions and fall in love, before returning to fledgling Los Angeles older, sager and set on revenge . . .'Fans of Annie Proulx, or Cormac McCarthy's Border Trilogy will love her eloquent descriptions of California's rural terrain' Henry Deedes, Daily Mail'This book artfully blends careful research with beautiful writing. This young British writer is clearly incredibly talented and versatile, and I hope this will be the first book in a long and fruitful career' Historical Novel Society

The gripping summer read perfect for fans of Megan Abbott's The Fever and Louise O'Neill's Asking For It . 'Prods at the dark underbelly of society.' Red Best Summer Beach ReadsA Prima Best Summer Read'Compelling story characters readers will recognize and come to love and writing that makes it effortless to turn page after page.' Vancouver SunTHE BEST KIND OF PEOPLE is a page-turning Canadian bestseller about a family on the brink of collapse. It gives no easy answers, but once you stay up all night reading it, you'll want to talk about it with everyone you know.What if someone you trusted was accused of the unthinkable?George Woodbury is a teacher at a prestigious Connecticut private school. He is voted Teacher of the Year every year, after he rescued the school from a gunman attack. On his daughter's 17th birthday this beloved husband and father, is arrested for sexual impropriety with teenage girls on a skiing trip. His wife, Joan, vaults between denial and rage as the community she loved turns on her. Their daughter, Sadie, a popular over-achieving high school senior, becomes a social pariah. Their son, Andrew, a lawyer, assists in his father's defense, while wrestling with his own unhappy memories of his teen years coming out as gay. With George awaiting trial, how do the members of his family pick up the pieces and keep living their lives? How do they defend someone they love while wrestling with the possibility of his guilt?'Whittall places the reader right at the centre of their pain. It's the best depiction of female suffering I've read since Jane Smiley eloquently tackled sexual abuse in A Thousand Acres.' Toronto Star

He was supposed to be having fun with his friends, not playing detective and stalking a serial killer.Theodore Boone - teenage lawyer and courtroom hero - is on a class trip seeing the sights of the capital city. But he hadn't counted on seeing the most wanted man in the history of his home town, Strattenberg.Suddenly Theo is caught in the hunt for an accused murderer, alongside the FBI. Theo knows he's getting in deep - and things could become even more dangerous. Because if this case goes back to court, it will be down to him. Will justice finally be done...or will the killer's criminal allies be out for revenge?

'As hypnotic as an opium dream and pretty unputdownable' Daily MailIn September 1838 a storm blows up on the Indian Ocean and the Ibis, a ship carrying a consignment of convicts and indentured laborers from Calcutta to Mauritius, is caught up in the whirlwind. When the seas settle, five men have disappeared - two lascars, two convicts and one of the passengers. Did the same storm upend the fortunes of those aboard the Anahita, an opium carrier heading towards Canton? And what fate befell those aboard the Redruth, a sturdy two-masted brig heading East out of Cornwall? Was it the storm that altered their course or were the destinies of these passengers at the mercy of even more powerful forces?On the grand scale of an historical epic, River of Smoke follows its storm-tossed characters to the crowded harbors of China. There, despite efforts of the emperor to stop them, ships from Europe and India exchange their cargoes of opium for boxes of tea, silk, porcelain and silver. Among them are Bahram Modi, a wealthy Parsi opium merchant out of Bombay, his estranged half-Chinese son Ah Fatt, the orphaned Paulette and a motley collection of others whose pursuit of romance, riches and a legendary rare flower have thrown together. All struggle to cope with their losses - and for some, unimaginable freedoms - in the alleys and crowded waterways of 19th century Canton. As transporting and mesmerizing as an opiate induced dream, River of Smoke will soon be heralded as a masterpiece of twenty-first century literature.

When Cait, a chaotic single mother, becomes the agony aunt for a glossy parenting magazine, she thinks she might be the single worst person to do the job. But despite her early unwillingness, she gradually realises that the women writing might really need her help. Perhaps mothers need to realise that they're not actually expected to be perfect, after all? Then Cait gets an email from a mysterious reader - a single dad who simply signs his name R...