NHFT Virtual book club meeting #42 – The Chemistry of Death

Following our visit to the remote mountainous range, the Appalachians where a father and daughter lived with no electricity, no family or connection to the outside world whilst reckoning with ghosts of their past in These Silent Woods

by Kimi Cunningham Grant; we move on to our next read - 'the skin crawlingly frightening David Hunter thriller' The Chemistry of Death by Simon Beckett. 

Dr David Hunter hoped he might at last have put the past behind him. But then they found what was left of Sally Palmer . . . 

It isn't just that she was a friend that disturbs him. Once he'd been a high-profile forensic anthropologist and all too familiar with the many faces of death, before tragedy made him abandon this previous life. 

Now the police want his help. 

But to become involved will stir up memories he's long tried to forget. Then a second woman disappears, plunging the close-knit community into a maelstrom of fear and paranoia. And no one, not even Hunter, is exempt from suspicion. 

Gruesome and gripping, this startling new British crime thriller has an unnerving and original twist. 

"A classy debut." The Times 

"Best thriller I've read all year." Tess Gerritsen 

We’ll be meeting on Thursday 9 January 2025 via MS Teams where we will be discussing the novel. You can find the link via the events calendar on the Staff Room. 

We look forward to seeing you…

NHFT virtual book club meeting #41 – These Silent Woods

 

After our Halloween spooky read of the most chilling and compelling ghost story of the year, Thin Air by Michelle Paver we are heading to another mountainous range, the remote Appalachians where a father and daughter live and must reckon with ghosts of their past in These Silent Woods by Kimi Cunningham Grant.

No electricity, no family, no connection to the outside world.

For eight years, Cooper and his young daughter, Finch, have lived in isolation in a remote cabin in the northern Appalachian woods. And that's exactly the way Cooper wants it, because he's got a lot to hide. Finch has been raised on the books filling the cabin's shelves and the beautiful but brutal code of life in the wilderness. But she's starting to push back against the sheltered life Cooper has created for her-and he's still haunted by the painful truth of what it took to get them there.

The only people who know they exist are a mysterious local hermit named Scotland, and Cooper's old friend, Jake, who visits each winter to bring them food and supplies. But this year, Jake doesn't show up, setting off an irreversible chain of events that reveals just how precarious their situation really is. Suddenly, the boundaries of their safe haven have blurred-and when a stranger wanders into their woods, Finch's growing obsession with her could put them all in danger. After a shocking disappearance threatens to upend the only life Finch has ever known, Cooper is forced to decide whether to keep hiding-or finally face the sins of his past.

Vividly atmospheric and masterfully tense, These Silent Woods is a poignant story of survival, sacrifice, and how far a father will go when faced with losing it all.

 

"Your next must read". --Country Living

"Gorgeously written, taut and compelling". --John Hart, bestselling author of The Hush

 

We’ll be meeting on Thursday 28 November via MS Teams where we will be discussing the novel.  You can find the link via the events calendar on the Staff Room.

 

We look forward to seeing you…

NHFT virtual book club meeting #39 - Dear Mrs Bird

Following our visit to Georgian London in the excellent historical crime thriller, Daughters of Night, we are (unusually for us) staying put, but moving forward in time in the shape of A.J. Pearce's Blitz set novel, Dear Mrs Bird.

London 1940, bombs are falling. Emmy Lake is Doing Her Bit for the war effort as a telephone operator with the Auxiliary Fire Services. When Emmy sees an advertisement for a job at the London Evening Chronicle, her dreams of becoming a Lady War Correspondent seem suddenly achievable. But the job turns out to be typist to the fierce and renowned advice columnist, Henrietta Bird. Emmy is disappointed, but gamely bucks up and buckles down.

Mrs Bird is very clear: Any letters containing Unpleasantness and definitely not those from the lovelorn, grief-stricken or morally conflicted,—must go straight in the bin. But when Emmy reads poignant letters from women who are lonely, may have Gone Too Far with the wrong men and found themselves in trouble, or who can’t bear to let their children be evacuated, she is unable to resist responding. As the German planes make their nightly raids, and London picks up the smouldering pieces each morning, Emmy secretly begins to write letters back to the women of all ages who have spilled out their troubles. After all, what harm could that possibly do?

‘Imagine Bridget Jones running amok in the wartime world of Mrs Miniver. AJ Pearce’s hoot of a debut … is a comic confection that is sweetly uplifting.' - The Sunday Times

‘Stiff upper lips all round: a comic novel about an agony aunt in wartime London proves hilarious as it is moving.'  - The Guardian

We'll be meeting on Thursday 26th of September via MS Teams where we will be discussing the novel. You can find the link via the Events Calendar on the Staff Room.

Hope to see you there...

NHFT virtual book club meeting #38 - Daughters of Night

Returning from contemporary Japan via Durian Sukegawa's touching Sweet Bean Paste, we have arrived in Georgian London courtesy of Laura Shepherd-Robinson's Daughters of Night.

London, 1782. Desperate for her politician husband to return home from France, Caroline 'Caro' Corsham is already in a state of anxiety when she finds a well-dressed woman mortally wounded in the bowers of the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens. 

The Bow Street constables are swift to act, until they discover that the deceased woman was a highly-paid prostitute, at which point they cease to care entirely. But Caro has motives of her own for wanting to see justice done, and so sets out to solve the crime herself. 

Enlisting the help of thieftaker, Peregrine Child, their inquiry delves into the hidden corners of Georgian society, a world of artifice, deception and secret lives.

But with many gentlemen refusing to speak about their dealings with the dead woman, and Caro's own reputation under threat, finding the killer will be harder, and more treacherous than she can know . . .

‘Daughters of Night has everything a historical crime thriller needs – intrigue, attention to detail, suspense, colourful characters and heroines a plenty. A triumph in its field.’ – The Wee Review

‘I would gamble what’s left of my virtue on Daughters of Night being the best historical crime novel I will read this year.’ - Antonia Senior, The Times

We'll be meeting on Thursday 29th of August via MS Teams where we will be discussing the novel. You can find the link via the Events Calendar on the Staff Room.

Hope to see you there...

NHFT virtual book club meeting #37 - Sweet Bean Paste

After our visit to Charon County, Virgina, via S.A. Cosby's searing mix of crime, religion and race in the superb gritty thriller All the Sinners Bleed, we are off to Japan for a rather different tale of friendship and social stigma in Durian Sukegawa's Sweet Bean Paste.

Sentaro has failed. He has a criminal record, drinks too much, and his dream of becoming a writer is just a distant memory. With only the blossoming of the cherry trees to mark the passing of time, he spends his days in a tiny confectionery shop selling dorayaki, a type of pancake filled with sweet bean paste.

But everything is about to change.

Into his life comes Tokue, an elderly woman with disfigured hands and a troubled past. Tokue makes the best sweet bean paste Sentaro has ever tasted. She begins to teach him her craft, but as their friendship flourishes, social pressures become impossible to escape and Tokue’s dark secret is revealed, with devastating consequences.

‘Simply delicious.’ – The Guardian 

‘An endearing, thoughtful tale about relationships and the everyday meaning of life....’ – Library Journal

‘A subtle, moving exploration of redemption in an unforgiving society... A book with deceptive heft and lingering resonance.’ - Japan Times

We'll be meeting on Thursday 25th of July via MS Teams where we will be discussing the novel. You can find the link via the Events Calendar on the Staff Room.

Hope to see you there...

NHFT virtual book club meeting #36 - All the Sinners Bleed

Following on from the mind-expanding visit to the multiverse in Blake Crouch's excellent ode to the many worlds interpretation of quantum physics, Dark Matter, we are off to southeast Virginia with S.A Cosby's gritty thriller, All the Sinners Bleed.

Titus Crown is the first Black sheriff in the history of Charon County, Virginia. In recent decades, Charon has had only two murders. After years of working as an FBI agent, no one knows better than Titus that while his hometown might seem like a land of moonshine, cornbread, and honeysuckle, secrets always fester under the surface.

But a year to the day after Titus's election, a schoolteacher is killed by a former student. The student is then fatally shot by Titus's deputies.

As Titus investigates the shootings, he unearths terrible crimes, and a serial killer who has been hiding in plain sight, haunting the dirt lanes and woodland clearings of Charon. With the killer's possible connections to a local church and the town's harrowing history weighing on him, Titus tries to project confidence about closing the case while concealing a painful secret from his own past. At the same time, he also has to contend with a far-right group that wants to hold a parade in celebration of the town's Confederate history.

Charon is Titus's home and his heart. But where faith and violence meet, there will be a reckoning.

“One of the most muscular, distinctive, grab-you-by-both-ears voices in American crime fiction” The Washington Post

'A crackling good police procedural....fresh and exhilarating' Stephen King

"To read a book like this is to learn about lives that may be outside of our own—and to discover something(s) about ourselves in the process. This one comes with my highest recommendation." Criminal Element

We'll be meeting on Thursday 27th of June via MS Teams where we will be discussing the novel. You can find the link via the Events Calendar on the Staff Room.

Hope to see you there...

NHFT virtual book club meeting #35 - Dark Matter

Following on from time spent in Wales in Orla Owen's excellent dark, twisty story of envy, materialism and toxicity, Christ on a Bike, we are boldly going into the multiverse in our first science fiction read (picked by the group), Blake Crouch's Dark Matter.

Jason Dessen is walking home through the chilly Chicago streets one night, looking forward to a quiet evening in front of the fireplace with his wife, Daniela, and their son, Charlie—when his reality shatters.

"Are you happy with your life?"

Those are the last words Jason Dessen hears before the masked abductor knocks him unconscious.

Before he awakens to find himself strapped to a gurney, surrounded by strangers in hazmat suits.

Before a man Jason's never met smiles down at him and says, "Welcome back, my friend."

In this world he's woken up to, Jason's life is not the one he knows. His wife is not his wife. His son was never born. And Jason is not an ordinary college physics professor, but a celebrated genius who has achieved something remarkable. Something impossible.

Is it this world or the other that's the dream?

And even if the home he remembers is real, how can Jason possibly make it back to the family he loves? The answers lie in a journey more wondrous and horrifying than anything he could've imagined—one that will force him to confront the darkest parts of himself even as he battles a terrifying, seemingly unbeatable foe.

'It's been a long time since a novel sucked me in and kept me turning pages the way this one did. Exceptional' - Andy Weir (author of The Martian)

'A mind-blowing sci-fi/suspense/love-story mash-up' - Entertainment Weekly

We'll be meeting on Thursday 30th of May via MS Teams where we will be discussing the novel. You can find the link via the Events Calendar on the Staff Room.

Hope to see you there...

NHFT virtual book club meeting #34 - Christ on a Bike

After our visit to Warwickshire and the company of an AI detective in the excellent In the Blink of an Eye, we are off to Wales with Orla Owen's off-beat, twisty psychological story of envy, materialism and toxicity, Christ on a Bike. 

When Cerys Jones, a middle-aged office-worker, comes into an unexpected inheritance, her life is appears to be getting an upgrade. Leaving the drudgery of her London life behind for a designer place on the Welsh coast, with nothing to do but relax and enjoy a luxury lifestyle.

Of course it isn't that simple and there are rules. Three simple rules that have to be followed at all times.

She cannot share her wealth with anyone and visitors may stay for no longer than three days at a time. All financial aspects of her life will be scrutinised by the inheritance lawyers.

Her younger sister is jealous, Cerys is starting to feel pretty uncomfortable in her rural luxury, and just who is the bearded figure in a red cagoule that seems to be peering at her from behind every tree?

‘Black Mirror meets Tales of The Unexpected with shades of Shirley Jackson.’ - Nina Pottell

‘So fresh and quirky and unlike anything I’ve read before. I really urge you to give it a try.’ Laura Pearson

We'll be meeting on Thursday 25th of April via MS Teams where we will be discussing the novel. You can find the link via the Events Calendar on the Staff Room.

Hope to see you there...

NHFT virtual book club meeting #33 - In the Blink of an Eye

After our visit to the Sowell Bay Aquarium with Tova, Cameron, and Marcellus, the giant Pacific octopus in Remarkably Bright Creatures, we are off to Warwickshire with Jo Callaghan's up to the minute/just over the horizon crime novel, In the Blink of an Eye. 

In the UK, someone is reported missing every 90 seconds.

Just gone. Vanished. In the blink of an eye.

DCS Kat Frank knows all about loss. A widowed single mother, Kat is a cop who trusts her instincts. Picked to lead a pilot programme that has her paired with AIDE (Artificially Intelligent Detective Entity) Lock, Kat's instincts come up against Lock's logic. But when the two missing person's cold cases they are reviewing suddenly become active, Lock is the only one who can help Kat when the case gets personal.

AI versus human experience.

Logic versus instinct.

With lives on the line can the pair work together before someone else becomes another statistic?

‘Terrifyingly timely and provocative' Val McDermid

‘The moral dilemmas created by artificial intelligence are brilliantly explored in this altogether very human novel’ Sunday Times

‘In the Blink of an Eye is fresh, innovative and very, very clever. Flawlessly paced, plotted and researched, it’s laugh out loud, heart-achingly sad and doesn’t have a dull moment. I raced through it. Simply sensational’ M.W. Craven

Jo Callaghan works full time as a senior strategist, carrying out research into the future impact of AI and genomics on the workforce.

We'll be meeting on Thursday 28th of March via MS Teams where we will be discussing the novel. You can find the link via the Events Calendar on the Staff Room.

Hope to see you there...

NHFT virtual book club meeting #32 - Remarkably Bright Creatures

After our visit to Pine Cove, California in our Christmas book The Stupidest Angel, we are embarking on a rather different read, Shelby Van Pelt's debut novel, Remarkably Bright Creatures.

After Tova Sullivan's husband died, she began working the night cleaner shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium. Ever since her eighteen-year-old son, Erik, mysteriously vanished on a boat over thirty years ago keeping busy has helped her cope. 

One night she meets Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus living at the aquarium who sees everything but wouldn't dream of lifting one of his eight arms for his human captors – until he forms a remarkable friendship with Tova.

Ever the detective, Marcellus deduces what happened the night Tova's son disappeared. And now Marcellus must use every trick his old body can muster to unearth the truth for her before it's too late...

'Humans. For the most part, you are dull and blundering. But occasionally, you can be remarkably bright creatures.'

‘Filled with a quirky unconventional charm, I’ll be smiling every time I think of this story. A story that embraces the idea of love and connection across borders in every sense, and a story of family lost and found.’ Goodreads Reviewer

We'll be meeting on Thursday 22nd of February via MS Teams where we will be discussing the novel. You can find the link via the Events Calendar on the Staff Room.

Hope to see you there...

NHFT virtual book club meeting #31 - The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas terror

After our heart stopping last read, the creepy No Good Deed, we are moving on to a California-set festive read in Christopher Moore's comic fantasy, The Stupidest Angel. However, this is no Christmas Carol...

T’was the night (okay, more like the week) before Christmas and little Joshua Barker is in desperate need of a Christmas miracle. No, he's not on his deathbed; no, his dog hasn't run away from home. But Josh is sure that he saw Santa take a shovel to the head, and now the seven-year-old has only one prayer: Please, Santa, come back from the dead.

But coming to Earth, seeking a small child whose wish needs granting, is none other than Archangel Raziel. Unfortunately, he's not sporting the brightest halo in the bunch and before you can say 'Kris Kringle,' he's botched his sacred mission and sent the residents of Pine Cove headlong into Christmas chaos, culminating in the most hilarious and horrifying holiday party the town has ever seen.

‘Pacy and engaging, this is a comic fantasy crammed with sharp and funny one-liners’ The Guardian

‘If you're buying this book as a gift for your grandma or a kid, you should be aware that it contains cuss words as well as tasteful descriptions of cannibalism... Don't blame me. I told you.’ The author

We'll be meeting on Thursday 18th of January via MS Teams where we will be discussing the novel. You can find the link via the Events Calendar on the Staff Room.

Hope to see you there... 

NHFT virtual book club meeting #30 - No Good Deed

After our visit to the Ashokan Reservoir, in upstate New York, with John Langan's delightfully scary The Fisherman, we are returning to more familiar territory for our 30th book club read, David Jackson's UK set thriller, One Good Deed.

Elliott has never thought of himself as a hero. Until one dark night he meets Rebecca, a scared and vulnerable young woman who needs his help. There's a man harassing her, following her; would he mind pretending to be her boyfriend, just while she walks home, to put him off?

And that is that - just a favour for a stranger - until there is a knock at Elliott's door. It's the man who was following Rebecca. He claims he's her ex-boyfriend, but it's clear that he's been stalking her. He's obsessed, dangerously so. He wants Rebecca, and he will do anything to have her.

When Elliott eventually tries to tell him the truth, the man doesn't believe him. The only way to save himself is to get Rebecca to explain. There's just one problem: Rebecca is nowhere to be found. And now it looks like one good deed will cost Elliott everything...

‘One Good Deed is an addictive, fast-paced and suspenseful thriller. If you like your thrillers action-packed and nail-bitingly tense and/or you love a cat-loving antihero to root for, One Good Deed should be at the top of your shopping list.’ Kelly Van Damme (Goodreads)

We'll be meeting on Thursday 14th of December via MS Teams where we will be discussing the novel. You can find the link via the Events Calendar on the Staff Room.

Hope to see you there... 

NHFT virtual book club meeting #29 - The Fisherman

Following on from our visit to Japan and the world of the gig economy in Kikuko Tsumara's There's no such thing as an easy job, things are taking a darker turn in our creepy Halloween read (and Bram Stoker award winner), The Fisherman by John Langan.

In upstate New York, within the woods, Dutchman’s Creek flows out of the Ashokan Reservoir. Steep-banked and fast-moving, it offers the promise of fine fishing, and of something more, a possibility too fantastic to be true.

When Abe and Dan, two widowers who have found solace in each other’s company and a shared passion for fishing, hear rumours of the Creek and what might be found there, the remedy to both their losses, they dismiss them. Soon, though, the men find themselves drawn into a tale as deep and old as the Reservoir.

It’s a tale of dark pacts, of long-buried secrets, and of a mysterious figure known as Der Fisher: the Fisherman. It will bring Abe and Dan face to face with all that they have lost, and with the price they must pay to regain it.

‘What starts as a slow, melancholy tale gains momentum and drops you headfirst into a churning nightmare from which you might escape, but you’ll never forget” - Richard Kadrey (author)

‘The Fisherman is a treasure, the kind of book you just want to snuggle up and shiver through. I can’t say enough good things about the confidence, the patience, the satisfying cumulative power of this book. It was a pleasure to read from the first page to the last’ - Victor LaValle (author)

We'll be meeting on Thursday 16th of November  via MS Teams where we will be discussing the novel. You can find the link via the Events Calendar on the Staff Room.

Hope to see you there... 

We are recruiting - could you be our next Library Services Manager?

Due to the retirement of the current post holder, we are looking to recruit a librarian to manage the library service for Northamptonshire Healthcare and Northampton General Hospital.

This is a great opportunity to shape services for community, mental health, and acute staff, across the county, ensuring knowledge and evidence are available and accessible to support clinical practice, management, education, research, continuing professional development and all decision making across the organisations we serve.

The service has a well-established team of experienced professional and para-professional staff across three sites, and you would be working for an outstanding trust that understands the value of what the library service offers, within a supportive management structure.

We are looking for a professionally qualified librarian with extensive experience in health to lead on the library service across both trusts. You will be proactive, adaptable and able to identify opportunities for further embedding service provision into the organisations we serve.

For more information about the role, contact details and to apply, please see the vacancies section of the Trust web site.

NHFT virtual book club meeting #23 - Damascus Station

Following our aquatic adventure in 1940's Manhattan Beach, we are off to Syria with former CIA analyst David McCloskey's spy thriller, Damascus Station.

CIA case officer Sam Joseph is dispatched to Paris to recruit Syrian official Mariam Haddad. The two fall into a forbidden relationship creating danger when they enter Damascus to find the man responsible for the disappearance of another American spy. 

But the cat-and-mouse chase for the killer soon leads to a trail of high-profile assassinations and the discovery of a dark secret at the heart of the Syrian regime, bringing the pair under the all-seeing eyes of Asad’s spycatcher, Ali Hassan, and his brother Rustum, the head of the Republican Guard.

Set against the backdrop of a Syria pulsing with murder, fear, and rebellion, and drawing on real events and authentic CIA tradecraft, Damascus Station is a gripping thriller that offers a textured portrayal of espionage, love, loyalty, and betrayal in one of the most difficult CIA assignments on the planet.

"The power of this book is that it tells this devastating story through the eyes of those who suffered and survived because of love, the human relationship, and the power of what makes life worth living.“ Leon E. Panetta, former Director of the CIA and former Secretary of Defence

'One of the best - and most authentic - spy thrillers in years' The Times

The next meeting will be Thursday the 30th of March at 7pm via MS Teams where we will be discussing the novel. You can find the link via the Events Calendar on the Staff Room. 

NHFT virtual book club meeting #22 - Manhattan Beach

Following our visit to Brixton and splashing around in The Lido, we are crossing the Atlantic to New York and stepping back to the 1930s/1940s with Jennifer Egan in the much deeper waters of Manhattan Beach.

Anna Kerrigan, nearly twelve years old, accompanies her father to visit Dexter Styles, a man who, she gleans, is crucial to the survival of her father and her family. She is mesmerized by the sea beyond the house and by some charged mystery between the two men.

‎Years later, her father has disappeared and the country is at war. Anna works at the Brooklyn Naval Yard, where women are allowed to hold jobs that once belonged to men, now soldiers abroad. She becomes the first female diver, the most dangerous and exclusive of occupations, repairing the ships that will help America win the war. One evening at a nightclub, she meets Dexter Styles again, and begins to understand the complexity of her father’s life, the reasons he might have vanished.

"At once a suspenseful novel of noir intrigue, a gorgeously wrought and richly allusive literary tapestry, and a transporting work of lyrical beauty and emotional heft, “Manhattan Beach’’ is a magnificent achievement.” The Boston Globe

The next meeting will be Thursday the 23rd of February at 7pm via MS Teams where we will be discussing the novel. You can find the link via the Events Calendar on the Staff Room. 

NHFT virtual book club meeting #21 - The Lido

Following our visit to the rather creepy Eel Marsh House in The Woman in Black, we are off to Brixton to read the altogether sunnier The Lido by Libby Page.

Meet Rosemary, 86, and Kate, 26: dreamers, campaigners, outdoor swimmers.

Rosemary has lived in Brixton all her life, but everything she knows is changing. Only the local lido, where she swims every day, remains a constant reminder of the past and her beloved husband George.

Kate has just moved and feels adrift in a city that is too big for her. She's on the bottom rung of her career as a local journalist, and is determined to make something of it.

But when a local developer attempts to buy the lido for a posh new apartment complex, Rosemary’s fond memories and sense of community are under threat.

As Kate dives deeper into the lido’s history—with the help of a charming photographer—she pieces together a portrait of the pool, and a portrait of a singular woman, Rosemary.

"A joyful celebration of community and friendship " The Observer

The next meeting will be Thursday the 12th of January at 7pm via MS Teams where we will be discussing the novel. You can find the link via the Events Calendar on the Staff Room. 

NHFT virtual book club - our next read is The Woman in Black

Following our visit to California and Wyoming in the terrific We Begin at the End, things have taken a darker turn. With Halloween almost upon us, for our 20th meeting we will be reading Susan's Hill's classic ghost story, The Woman in Black.

Arthur Kipps, a junior solicitor, is summoned to attend the funeral of Mrs Alice Drablow, the sole inhabitant of Eel Marsh House. The house stands at the end of a causeway, wreathed in fog and mystery, but it is not until he glimpses a wasted young woman, dressed all in black, at the funeral, that a creeping sense of unease begins to take hold, a feeling deepened by the reluctance of the locals to talk of the woman in black - and her terrible purpose.

Spending time in Eel Marsh House to settle Alice Drablow's affairs reveals a lot more than correspondence and paperwork. What are the terrifying sounds on the marsh? Who is the woman in black? All will be revealed... 😱

The next meeting will be Thursday the 24th of November at 7pm via MS Teams where we will be discussing the novel. You can find the link via the Events Calendar on the Staff Room. Come if you dare. 

NHFT virtual book club - our next read is We Begin at the End

Following our visit to Nigeria in the excellent The Death of Vivek Oji, we are now off to both California and Wyoming in Chris Whitaker's CWA Gold Dagger winning We Begin at the End.

Walk has never left the coastal California town where he grew up. He may have become the chief of police, but he’s still trying to heal the old wound of having given the testimony that sent his best friend, Vincent King, to prison decades before. Now, thirty years later, Vincent is being released.

Not everyone is pleased to see him. Like Star Radley, his ex-girlfriend, and sister of the girl he killed.

Duchess Radley, Star's thirteen-year-old daughter, is part-carer, part-protector to her younger brother, Robin - and to her deeply troubled mother. But in trying to protect Star, Duchess inadvertently sets off a chain of events that will have tragic consequences not only for her family, but also the whole town.

Murder, revenge, retribution. How far can we run from the past, when the past seems doomed to repeat itself? 

"...as perfect a novel as you'll read all year. Devastating and hopeful in equal measure, with pitch-perfect characters you'll root for at each jaw-dropping turn - Duchess, in particular, deserves a fast-track pass to the literary hall of fame. A sophisticated, utterly absorbing read." - Caz Frear

The next meeting will be Thursday the 20th of  October at 7pm via MS Teams where we will be discussing the novel. You can find the link via the Events Calendar on the Staff Room.

NHFT virtual book club - our next read is The Death of Vivek Oji

After solving a murder mystery at The Sanitorium in the Swiss Alps, we are now going to visit Nigeria in the critically lauded The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi (author of the excellent Freshwater).

One afternoon, a mother opens her front door to find the length of her son's body stretched out on the veranda, swaddled in akwete material, his head on her welcome mat.

What follows is the tumultuous, heart-wrenching story of one family’s struggle to understand a child whose spirit is both gentle and mysterious.

The Death of Vivek Oji transports us to the day of Vivek's birth, the day his grandmother Ahunna died. It is the story of an over protective mother and a distant father, and the heart-wrenching tale of one family's struggle to understand their child, just as Vivek learns to recognize himself.

“A robust literary triumph. . . . A sensitively drawn, achingly beautiful portrayal of the boundaries of personal, gender and societal identities.”  - Chicago Review of Books 

“Emezi has a gift for prose that is often as visceral, tender and heart-breaking as what it describes. . . . While the novel sets out to solve the mystery of Oji’s death, what gives it power is how it uncovers the story of a person shielded by the peace of self-acceptance against the pain of the world. Here is proof of what good fiction does best: it is an antidote to invisibility.”  - The Guardian

The next meeting will be Thursday the 8th of September at 7pm via MS Teams where we will be discussing the novel. You can find the link via the Events Calendar on the Staff Room.