A Presumption of Death
by Jill Paton Walsh and Dorothy L. Sayers, Hodder Headline, $29.95.
While Harriet Vane’s husband, Lord Peter Wimsey, is aboard on hugely hush-hush business at the beginning of World War II, she takes their children to the safety of Tallboys, their country home. But as villagers emerge from the inn cellars after an air-raid practice, a dead body lies outside. Paton Walsh uses the style and flavour of Sayers, Wimsey’s creator, to weave a skillful mystery, where Harriet finds herself surveying suspects, soldiers and spies, and solving it all with Lord Peter’s help, of course. This will please Wimsey devotees.
The Piano Tuner
by Daniel Mason, Picador, $35.
In 1886, Edgar Drake is asked by the war office in London to tune a valuable piano – which just happens to be across the world in the jungles of Burma. It’s a bizarre request, but the piano’s owner is an army surgeon whose peace-making efforts amongst the warring states in the area are under suspicion. Drake’s long journey to an exotic land means a new outlook on his previous everyday world, and a new life which he may find difficult to leave once he has restored the magic of music within a beautiful land.
The Four Temperaments
by Yona McDonough, Random House, $29,95.
A saga set in the tempestuous and creative world of New York ballet. When Oscar, the orchestra’s leading violinist, starts an affair with Ginny, a young dancer from the corps de ballet, he knows it will not be a long-term one. When Ginny goes on to fall in love with Oscar’s son, Gabriel, emotions erupt and two marriages are endangered; Gabriel’s to beautiful, erratic Penelope and Oscar’s to practical, determined Ruth. A great mix of ambition, desperation and love.
The Bridge to Holy Cross
by Paullina Simons, Harper Collins, $29.95
The sequel to The Bronze Horseman, this book moves swiftly from the ’30s to the ruthless wartime years of the early ’40s. Alexander decides to stay in communist Russia while Tatiana begins a new life in New York. The difference in their frightening circumstances challenge fate as we wonder if the strength of their love can be kept intact over the hostile distances between them. A big tapestry of a book to fully absorb you.
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