First Chapter: Liar, Liar by M.J. Arlidge

Liar, Liar

This police procedural by M.J. Arlidge, set in Southhampton, England, is the fourth in the Helen Grace series, paperback released today, June 7, 2016 by NAL.
Book description:

Detective Helen Grace has never seen such destruction. Six fires in twenty-four hours. Two people dead. Several more injured. It’s as if someone wants to burn the city to the ground...
With the whole town on high alert, Helen and her team must sift through the rubble to find the arsonist, someone whose thirst for fire—and control—is reducing entire lives to ashes.  

First chapter:
Luke scrambled through the open window and onto the narrow ledge outside. Grasping the plastic guttering above his head, he pulled himself upright. The guttering creaked ominously, threatening to give way at tny moment, but Luke couldn't risk letting go. He was dizzy, breathless and very, very scared.

A blast of icy wind roared over him, flapping his thin cotton pajamas like a manic kite. He was already losing the feeling in his feet - the chill from the rough stone creeping up is body -- and the sixteen-year-old knew he would have to act quickly if he was to save his life. 

Other books in the series:
Eeny Meeny: Helen Grace #1
Pop Goes the Weasel (Helen Grace #2)
The Doll's House (Helen Grace #3)
Little Boy Blue (Helen Grace #5)

Meme: Every Tuesday Bibliophile By the Sea hosts First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros where readers share the first paragraph sometimes two, of a book that they are reading or plan to read soon. 

Do the book description and first paragraph of the first chapter above appeal to you? Would you read on?

Book Tour: Remember My Beauties by Lynne Hugo

Remember My Beauties by Lynne Hugo
Paperback: 194 pages
Publisher: Switchgrass Books; 1 edition (April 18, 2016)
Genre: literary fiction

My comments: Family conflicts amid the Kentucky bluegrass country and purebred horses. Jewell tries to hold things together when her parents become disabled, but her brother Cal appears and tries to put her efforts to waste.

Lovers of novels that tackle the theme of family dysfunction, particularly between siblings, will enjoy Lynne Hugo's book, and those who want to read more or learn about Kentucky and their horse rearing traditions and lore will likewise find this novel alluring.

Book description: Imagine a hawk’s view of the magnificent bluegrass pastures of Kentucky horse country. Circle around the remnants of a breeding farm, four beautiful horses grazing just beyond the paddock. Inside the ramshackle house, a family is falling apart.

Hack, the patriarch breeder and trainer, is aged and blind, and his wife, Louetta, is confined by rheumatoid arthritis. Their daughter, Jewel, struggles to care for them and the horses while dealing with her own home and job—not to mention her lackluster second husband, Eddie, and Carley, her drug-addicted daughter. Many days, Jewel is only sure she loves the horses. But she holds it all together. Until her brother, Cal, shows up again. Jewel already has reason to hate Cal, and when he meets up with Carley, he throws the family into crisis—and gives Jewel reason to pick up a gun.

Every family has heartbreaks, failures, a black sheep or two. And some families end in tatters. But some stumble on the secret of survival: if the leader breaks down, others step up and step in. In this lyrical novel, when the inept, the addict, and the ex-con join to weave the family story back together, either the barn will burn to the ground or something bigger than any of them will emerge, shining with hope. Remember My Beauties grows large and wide as it reveals what may save us. (publisher)

About Lynne Hugo 

Lynne Hugo has published ten previous books, including poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. Her memoir, Where the Trail Grows Faint, won the River Teeth Literary Nonfiction Book Prize in 2004, and her sixth novel, A Matter of Mercy, was awarded an Independent Publisher silver medal for best regional fiction in 2014. The recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, she lives in Ohio with her husband and their yellow Labrador retriever.

Connect with Lynne

Website | Facebook | Twitter.

Click for other reviews of the book at TLC Book Tours 

Sunday Salon: Eye-Catching Book Covers

 I received another copy of this book, which I blogged about in April of last year

Girl in the Moonlight by Charles Dubow, a contemporary novel about a young man and his obsession over time with a tantalizing girl who refuses to commit to a relationship with any of her lovers.  Cesca changes over time in the book, from a frivolous girl to one who finds more meaning in her life. 

This historical mystery novel I will be reading for a TLC book tour in July:

The Ninja's Daughter: A Hiro Hattori  Novel by Susan Spann, to be published August 2, 2016 by Seventh Street Books
Autumn, 1565: When an actor's daughter is murdered on the banks of Kyoto's Kamo River, master ninja Hiro Hattori and Portuguese Jesuit Father Mateo are the victim's only hope for justice. This is the fourth in the historical mystery series set in Japan.

I've just finished reading a winery cozy mystery set in northern California, which I gave  a thumbs up for characters, setting, and plot:

Ripe for Murder: Cypress Cove Mystery #2 by Carlene O'Neil, published March 1, 2016.
Penny Lively loves running her family’s winery. When she’s approached to invest in a new train line through wine country, Penny and her winery manager, Connor, hightail it to a lavish resort to hear the details. And murder ensues....

I have a similar mystery on my shelves, this one set in a small olive plantation in Georgia!

One Foot in the Grove by Kelly Lane is the first in the series set in the Knox family's olive farm. Published in January 2016. 

Setting in a cozy is key, don't you think? Not to mention clever titles and eye-catching covers. What are you reading this week?

Welcome to the Sunday Salon where bloggers share their reading each week. Visit The Sunday Post hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer.
Also visit It's Monday, What Are You Reading? hosted by Book Date. 

Book Beginning: Why the Dutch Are Different by Ben Coates

Why the Dutch Are Different: A Journey into the Hidden Heart of the Netherlands by Ben Coates
Published September 24, 2015
Genre: travel, nonfiction

Book beginning:
Introduction
Almost Dutch

Rotterdam is not a beautiful city. A sprawling industrial conurbation of some 600,000 people, the Netherland's second largest metropolis has none of the canals, cobbles or picturesque bridges of its more famous rival, Amsterdam, and as such is rarely troubled by tourists. However, much to my surprise, it soon began to feel like home. Literally hours after walking out of the airport in the snow, I found myself living in a tall, crooked townhouse, on a tree-lined street between a canal, a tramstop, and a bar selling tiny glasses of Heineken. My Caribbean suntan quickly faded and my long beard joined my tattered beach clothes in a rubbish bin on a rain-soaked balcony. By the time the snow melted, my belongings had already arrived in the post from England, and I was eating bright green erwtensoep (pea soup) with gusto. The skinny girl - a feisty, fiercely intelligent Rotterdammer with a pretty smile - showed no signs of kicking me out, and I began the slow process of integrating into Dutch society.

Page 56:
In the fourth century, the bishop Servatius died while passing through Maastricht. A basilica was built to honour of the dead pilgrims and something of a cult developed around him, with Maastricht becoming an important stopping point for pilgrims on their way to other religious centers...

Book description: a personal portrait of a fascinating people, a sideways history and an entertaining travelogue.

The Friday 56. Grab a book, turn to page 56 or 56% of your eReader. Find any sentence that grabs you. Post it, and add your URL post in Linky at Freda's Voice. Also visit Book Beginning at Rose City Reader.

First Chapter: Murder in Morningside Heights by Victoria Thompson

Murder in Morningside Heights: A Gaslight Mystery

Author: Victoria Thompson
Published May 3, 2016 by Berkley
Genre: historical mystery
Former police sergeant Frank Malloy and his wife adjust to life in New York high society as they investigate a death in the field of higher learning.

First chapter:

Frank Malloy, Confidential Inquiries.
Frank hesitated a moment to admire the sight of his name in gilt letters on the frosted glass of the office door. The "Confidential Inquiries" had been his mother-in-law's idea. Elizabeth Decker felt that "Detective Agency" was somehow undignified and might attract the wrong type of client. Frank wasn't sure what the wrong type of client might be for a private detective agency, but he was more than willing to give his new business at last a hint of respectability. 

Would you keep reading based on the opening paragraph of the book?

Bibliophile By the Sea hosts First Chapter, First Paragraph every Tuesday. Share the first paragraph(s) of your current read or book interest, with information for readers

It's Monday: Light Women's Fiction and Others

I have just started this book and others in my new TBR pile as I'm in the mood for some light women's fiction.

By the Numbers

The Memory of Lemon

And an historical fiction title:

The Woman in the Photo

The Woman in the Photo is timely as it begins on Memorial Day, but in 1889.

Can't forget the nonfiction:

Why the Dutch Are Different

What books are on your desk this week?
Visit It's Monday, What Are You Reading? hosted by Book Date.

Armchair Travel on a Cruise

Armchair and actual travel this weekend for me, but not on a cruise. Too bad!

Title Wave: Booktown Mystery #10  by Lorna Barrett
Bookstore owners and authors and their readers are on an ocean cruise. There is a troublesome, disagreeable crime writer on board and I have picked her out to be the likely victim of the inevitable crime for this cozy mystery. We will see if that proves true! 

Happy reading, traveling this weekend!