December 3, 2018 | in

Fresh Talent – Best of 2018

 

The Tattooist of Auschwitz

Lale Sokolov is a charmer, a ladies’ man. He is also a Jew. On the first transport from Slovakia to Auschwitz in 1942, Lale immediately stands out. He is looked up to, looked out for, and given the privileged position of Tetovierer – the tattooist – to mark his fellow prisoners, forever. One of them is a young woman, Gita, who steals his heart at first glance.

His life given new purpose, Lale does his best to use his position for good.

This unforgettable story is based on interviews Heather Morris conducted with real-life Holocaust survivor and tattooist Ludwig (Lale) Sokolov..


The Nowhere Child

On a break between teaching photography classes, Kim Leamy is approached by a stranger investigating the disappearance of a little girl from her Kentucky home twenty-eight years earlier. He believes she is that girl.

At first Kim brushes it off, but when she scratches the surface of her family background in Australia, questions arise that aren’t easily answered. To find the truth, she must travel to Sammy’s home in Kentucky, and into a dark past. As the mystery unravels and the town’s secrets are revealed, this superb novel builds towards a tense, terrifying, and entirely unexpected climax.


April in Paris, 1921

Katherine King Button feels trapped.  After returning from the Great War where she served as a nurse, she is now being hounded by her parents to get married.  Desperate for freedom, Katherine flees for Paris.

It is here that she reinvents herself as Kiki Button, an alluring socialite and spy, who mingles with the rich, the famous, and the bohemian.

However, when Picasso asks her to find his wife’s stolen portrait, and her old spymaster tells her to find a double agent immediately or face jail time, Kiki must draw on her wartime knowledge to save all that she holds dear.


Scrublands

In an isolated town, a young priest opens fire on his congregation, killing five parishioners before being shot dead.

A year later, journalist Martin Scarsden arrives in Riversend to write a feature on the anniversary of the tragedy. But the stories from locals contradict the events reported by his own newspaper.

Just as Martin is making headway, a shocking development rocks the town, becoming the biggest story in Australia. Martin is in the spotlight, and the reasons for his investigation become very personal.
Martin risks everything to discover the truth, while powerful forces attempt to keep the town’s secrets buried.


The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart

After suffering from a family tragedy, nine-year-old Alice is forced to leave her idyllic seaside home, and is taken in by her grandmother, a flower farmer.

Alice grows up increasingly frustrated by how little she knows of her family’s story. In her early twenties, Alice suffers devastating betrayal and loss, and flees to the beautiful central Australian desert.  She thinks she has found solace, until she meets a charismatic and ultimately dangerous man.

Spanning two decades, this novel follows Alice’s unforgettable journey, as she learns that the most powerful story she will ever possess is her own.


The Ruin

Responding to a call that took him to a decrepit country house, young Garda Cormac Reilly found two silent, neglected children – fifteen-year-old Maude and five-year-old Jack. Their mother lay dead upstairs.

Since then Cormac’s had twenty high-flying years working as a detective in Dublin, but he’s returned to Galway for reasons of his own. As he struggles to navigate the politics of a new police station, Maude and Jack return to haunt him.

What ties a recent suicide to that death from so long ago? And who among his new colleagues can Cormac really trust?

 

 

TitleFresh Talent – Best of 2018
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