Each week Better Read Than Dead's owner, Derek Dryden, reviews three books with John Kerr on New Day Australia, broadcast by Sydney's Radio 2UE and heard all around Australia at 3.45am on Sunday.
Books reviewed by Derek on Sunday 6th July include:
The Forgotten Garden
Kate Morton
PB $32.95
A lost child On the eve of the first world war, a little girl is found abandoned on a ship to Australia. A mysterious woman called the Authoress had promised to look after her - but the Authoress has disappeared without a trace.A terrible secret On the night of her twenty-first birthday, Nell O'Connor learns a secret that will change her life forever. Decades later, she embarks upon a search for the truth that leads her to the windswept Cornish coast and the strange and beautiful Blackhurst Manor, once owned by the aristocratic Mountrachet family.A mysterious inheritance On Nell's death, her grand-daughter, Cassandra, comes into an unexpected inheritance. Cliff Cottage and its forgotten garden are notorious amongst the Cornish locals for the secrets they hold - secrets about the doomed Mountrachet family and their ward Eliza Makepeace, a writer of dark Victorian fairytales. It is here that Cassandra will finally uncover the truth about the family, and solve the century-old mystery of a little girl lost.A captivating and atmospheric story of secrets, family and memory from the international bestselling author Kate Morton.
The Broken Window
Jeffrey Deaver
PB $32.99
Rhyme's cousin has been arrested for murder. The evidence clearly shows he did it, but Rhyme agrees to check things out. It turns out that the cousin along with other people has been wrongly convicted because the true killer knows every single detail about the lives of the victims he kills and the men he sets up to take the fall for those crimes. This allows him to get close to the victims under false pretenses, murder or rape, and escape safely. And then he sets up others to take the fall for his crimes, planting incontrovertible evidence Rhyme, Sachs and the rest of the team have to find out who at the huge, ominous data mining company is getting access to this information. Meanwhile the villain-known only by a number to us-realizes he's being pursued and turns his knowledge of data and information into a weapon. Oh, and lest things seem too delicate, he also gets information through good old-fashioned murder and torture too
When You Are Engulfed in Flames
David Sedaris
PB $32.99
A new roundup of personal essays from the number 1 bestselling writer named by TIME as America's Favourite HumoristWhen set on fire, most of us either fumble for our wallets or waste valuable time feeling sorry for ourselves. David Sedaris has studied this phenomenon, and his resulting insights may very well save your life. Author of the national bestsellers Should You Be Attacked by Snakes and If You Are Surrounded by Mean Ghosts, WHEN YOU ARE ENGULFED IN FLAMES finds Sedaris at the top of his game.Oh, all right...David Sedaris has written yet another book of essays (his sixth). Subjects include a parasitic worm that once lived in his mother-in-law's leg, an encounter with a dingo, and the recreational use of an external catheter. Also recounted is the buying of a human skeleton, and the author's attempt to quit smoking. In Tokyo. Master of nothing, at the dead centre of his game, Sedaris proves that when you play with matches, you sometimes light the whole pack on fire.