In The Dutch House, by Ann Patchett, we see human nature observed through the eyes of a confident storyteller. Weaving from past to present the story unfolds slowly telling how Danny and his sister, Maeve, came to the house and how their father’s second wife evicted them after their father’s death. It’s a tale of obsession, siblings, love and betrayal. An examination of the injustices that life often throws at us and how resilience and justice find a way through.

‘Becoming’ by Michelle Obama is her absorbing, eloquent and highly acclaimed memoir. It has received great praise as a thoughtful and candid account of an extraordinary life, before and during eight years in the White House as First Lady of the United States.

The Midnight Library is an engaging and unusual story in its narrative structure and in the way it combines philosophical discussion with humour and contemporary dialogue. An extraordinary book for extraordinary times it examines choices and how the main character, Nora Seed, could have had different lives if she had made different choices. It has been serialised for Radio Four and highly acclaimed as a Goodreads Choice Award for Fiction 2020.

Richard Osman’s debut crime novel is a whodunnit with many plot twists and a charm reminiscent of classic crime fiction. A retirement home is the unusual setting for this story. The residents work in parallel with the police to solve two murders.

Those Who Know is Alis Hawkins’ third novel in the historical crime series set in nineteenth century West Wales. The story concerns political hustings for Harry Probert-Lloyd to secure the coroner’s post, which he currently holds on a temporary basis, and an investigation into the death of a schoolteacher, Nicholas Rowland. Both events are, ultimately, integrally tied together, as the threads of the plot unfold.