Novel ideas
Cosy crime, cracking jokes, foodie pleasure and fairy tales. Our pick of the best books for giving
by ROSE SHEPHERD
INTO THE STORM
Cecelia Ahern
Driving at night through torrential rain in the run-up to Christmas, Dr Enya Pickering is flagged down by a man who has found a boy injured in the road. She performs CPR, revives him, but nothing can breathe life into her dying marriage, and the time has come to start over. The hunt is on for a hit-and-run driver, as Enya leaves her husband and teenage son to reinvent herself as a rural GP. Gripping and complex.
THE BELLS OF WESTMINSTER
Leonora Nattrass
Georgian London and the great Gothic mausoleum of Westminster Abbey provides a backdrop for Nattrass’s new historical romp. Dean’s daughter Susan Bell wryly relates a tale of murder, ghostly hauntings and weird happenings. A teenage William Blake, a garrulous parrot named Cuthbert, the exhumed remains of Edward I and a bunch of antiquaries make for a rich mix.