The past is a tricky thing; it pops up sometimes when we least expect it. In May, when the world seems new, I am often reminded of things past. Thankfully, not in the way that these protagonists are! Enjoy.
Photograph: iStock
Text: Susan Jessen Spiele
A creepy crime story
The Nothing Man
By Catherine Ryan Howard
Eve was the only member of her family to survive serial attacker, the Nothing Man. Now an adult, she is obsessed with identifying the killer and has written a true-crime memoir. But the Nothing Man has just started reading the book.
Vintage Tudor – with ghosts
The Burning Girls
By C J Tudor
A reverend is sent to a remote village after an incident at her former parish. The fresh start she and her daughter hope for will not happen in a place where the past refuses to stay buried – whether it happened 500 or 30 years ago.
A stunningly good debut
Girl A
By Abigail Dean
Lex Gracie doesn't want to think about growing up in her parents' House of Horrors. Or her identity as Girl A, the girl who escaped and freed her siblings. But when her mother dies in prison, she can't run from her past any longer.
Books, libraries and heroics
The Paris Library
By Janet Skeslien Charles
A young woman starting work in the American Library in 1939 and a teenager in Montana in 1983 have more in common than they know. Odile had everything she wished for, then the Germans invaded Paris and changed everything.
Did you know?
Finally, the world is opening up again, and so are the public libraries. All it takes for you to visit and hang out at your local library is a negative test or a corona passport and ID; children under 15 are exempt. Same for events from the 6th of May, so check out the library’s website. Vi ses!