My Top 8 Books of 2022 Part Four

Here are my favourite eight books of the final quarter of 2022. One of these will make it into my top four books of 2022 (I just couldn’t cut it down to three this year).

The Parlour Game by Jennifer Renshaw

This is the book I have been waiting for! A gothic tale of sinister goings-on, mysterious disappearances, hauntings and macabre artefacts with special powers.

The Parlour Game really was a book I could not put down. I’m so glad I read it on holiday so I didn’t have to. There is an underlying spookiness in every page, just waiting for the darkness, the bumps in the night, the voices in the walls.

Following the death of her beloved mother and the attendance of the celebrated spiritualist Miss Earnshaw at the funeral, Ivy Granger’s life will never be the same. The spiritualist tells her that she knew her mother and that Ivy’s life is in peril and gives her a card with her address. But Ivy’s father tells her it’s all nonsense and has decided that Ivy is to be married to the local undertaker. Her dream of studying to be a botanist is fast fading.

For my full review click here

Surviving Her by Jo Johnson

The book is set in two timelines – one is Nicky’s childhood in the eighties – though the exact date is not always clear – and at times so sad I wasn’t sure initially if I would be able to carry on reading. The other is told from the point of view of Keziah, a primary school teacher who has recently married Claus, supposedly the man of her dreams, the man who would rescue her. Because Keziah’s life has never been the same since her sister Esther died when they were both in their teens and she still harbours the guilt she felt at the time. I think sometimes she feels she deserves whatever has been handed out to her.

It’s an amazing book which perfectly captures the themes of love, loss, parenthood, childhood trauma, guilt and control. Having been written by a psychologist, we know that these themes, together with that of mental health, will be dealt with sensitively and realistically.

For my full review click here

The Pain Tourist by Paul Cleave

What a fantastic book – towards the end it was so exciting I was almost holding my breath. But it is quite complicated, so you need to concentrate.

There are numerous storylines going on here. We begin with a terrible murder nine years ago, when 11-year-old James Garrett’s mum and dad were shot to death, execution style. Having witnessed his parents’ deaths, James was shot in the head, which left him in a coma from which no-one expected him to emerge. But he did and Detective Inspector Rebecca Kent is tasked with finding out who did it. Theodore Tate was the investigating officer at the time but failed to solve the crime. He is no longer a police officer – he now works as a consultant on two TV programmes, one fiction – the other a re-enactment series called New Zealand Crime Busters, a bit like Crimewatch in the UK.

For my full review click here

The Crooked Little Pieces Volume 2 by Sophia Lambton

I finished the review of volume one of The Crooked Little Pieces with this:

‘…. it’s very different. Don’t expect straightforward historical fiction. It’s more about emotions and the relationship between two women, who even though they are twins are disparate and diverse. As we leave them amidst world war two, I look forward to the next instalment in this fascinating tale.’

And I couldn’t wait for the second instalment of this brilliant story. Then it arrived and I wasn’t disappointed. We continue to follow the sisters two years on. The war is over. Isabel is married to Steven, whose tastes in the bedroom are both weird and dangerous. Isabel is accepting but her sister Anneliese is worried and rightly so. But Isabel wants a baby so badly that she is prepared to put up with anything.

For my full review click here

Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan

As this book is jointly written by Jodi Picoult, you know that it will raise important questions and make you think.

One of the questions this book asks is whether we are entitled to keep secrets about our past from the people we love. Some secrets are best left buried if they do not in any way affect anyone else. But there are others where it is necessary to tell the truth and leave the recipient of the secret to decide for themselves whether it’s something they can live with. Or is it?

For my full review click here

Dragonfly Summer by JH Moncrieff

I really loved this book. It has touches of magic and the supernatural which adds an extra layer to a an exciting thriller.

Following the mysterious disappearance of Jo Carter’s friend Sam, she leaves her home town of Clear Springs to go to university and then to live in New York where she starts out as an investigative journalist, but now works in PR. As far as she is concerned, there is nothing to go back for.

For my full review click here

The Celeste Experiment by Omar Imady

Wow! Just wow! What a fantastic book! The story is beautiful, the writing is beautiful, it exceeded all expectations and then some.

It starts with Michael and his love for his wife Celeste. But when she is diagnosed with a terminal illness, Michael decides he will do anything to save her. Medical science does not have the answer, so he turns to religion, but when that also fails he sets out to prove that if religion can’t save her, then religion must be a lie.

For my full review click here

The Bookstore Sisters by Alice Hoffman

I often comment that a book is too long but The Bookstore Sisters is too short! I wanted more – more Isabel and Sophie and Violet and the dog Hank. I wish she had taken the Jack Russell as well as I desperately miss my beloved Pancake whom we lost last year aged almost 17.

Alice Hoffman has been one of my favourite authors – if not THE favourite – ever since I read The Museum of Extraordinary Things a number of years ago and then devoured every one of her books that had been released on Kindle.

For my full review click here