All you need to know about books at www.booksmonthly.co.uk                                                     Issue 4 July 2008

KATHERINE JOHN: A WELL-DESERVED MURDER ~ Sergeant Peter Collins' cousin, journalist and photographer, Alan Piper, is living next door to the neighbours from Hell. They build a deck that overlooks his patio and monitor his every movement. Under the cover of darkness they steal plants and building materials from his garden, but when his gate and gatepost disappear he calls in the police who advise him to put up a CCTV camera. Alan has a better idea. Mousy civil servant Kacy Howell is amazed to suddenly find herself the centre of attention at work and showered with unprompted gifts of flowers, chocolates and - discreetly wrapped sex toys. Her husband, George, is bewildered until a colleague shows him a pornographic magazine aimed at the amateur photographer.Before George finds out if the photos are real, Kacy is found battered to death on the decking that overlooks Alan's garden. Inspector Trevor Joseph and Sergeant Peter Collins find themselves wanting to look beyond the obvious suspect for a murder, which Kacy's neighbours have already Christened 'justifiable homocide'.

DENNIS LEWIS: THE CORRUPTED ~ Taff Motley is a disgraced Iraq war veteran who returns to his home city of Cardiff. He accepts without qualms a job as a drug dealer - which soon involves him in a murderous 'turf war' against a corrupt police force. Motley's uncertain destiny is decided for him by his abiding love for a woman. There are no heroes and no villains between these covers. There are only people; ordinary people, struggling to forget their pasts, hoping to find forgiveness, or revealing their dangerous weaknesses, their potent evils. At its heart, "The Corrupted" is a story about love. Its pages lift a poignant mask on the questions of why men love and what love does to men. The reader may be shocked by the realism of this story; with its mixture of sensualism and moral degeneracy, its violence and ferocity.

PETER KERR: THE GANNET HAS LANDED ~ In this humour-tinged romantic adventure, Doogie O'Mara, a young Scottish veterinary student, applies for a gap-year job as a tour rep in Africa, where he also hopes to find time to study the wildlife. Instead, he finds himself on Mallorca, thrust in at the deep end of the madcap package tour business - a fish out of water, for whom the nearest thing to wildlife appears to be the hordes of rowdy holidaymakers pouring off the gannets (charter planes) from the UK. Problems are bound to arise, and they do, as does the bewitching influence of Mallorca and a beautiful young Mallorquina called Catalina. When the time finally comes for Doogie to leave the island, he must decide if there's more to life than a secure career as a vet back in Scotland.

ELIZABETH OLDFIELD: VINTAGE BABES ~ VINTAGE BABES tells the story of three older women whose friendship changes their outlook and their lives. Carol, the narrator, is a divorced woman in her mid 50s who works for the local Dursleigh newspaper. At the beginning, Carol's fantasy is to have a young escort by her side to take her to all those twosome affairs and parties but go away when she doesn't need him. Carol wants all the would-be matchmakers to leave her alone. An escort seems the best solution to being a single woman of her age. Tina, a glamorous but widowed former media star, does not like getting older. When her husband dies, she feels helpless in managing her financial affairs and the town's residents prefer to gossip rather than lend a helping hand to this talked about gold-digger. Jenny, a plump stay-at-home mom and Carol's close friend, lacks confidence to enter the career world against the wishes of her husband. After some funny escapades and meetings at Tina's husband's funeral, Carol has some encounters with the new young editor replacement who wants to bring change to the paper. Despite initial impressions and comical encounters with Tina, Carol and Jenny get roped into coming to Tina's aid. The two friends congregate at Tina's house around a young hip gorgeous personal trainer and the three exercise together. Their friendship, courage and spunk lead them in directions they never would have imagined at the beginning.

DELLA GALTON: HELTER SKELTER ~ Brought up on a seaside fairground, Vanessa knows all about what a rollercoaster ride life can be. Tragedy forces her to flee but when she discovers that her husband, a property developer, is cheating on her she returns. But the fair has gone, the land, brought by her husband, is now covered by luxury flats. Going back can be painful but this is just the start of the Helter Skelter for Vanessa. While she feels her life is spiralling ever downwards, there are the strong arms of a passion from her past to catch her at the end.

Caddy is just 40, blonde and beautiful. She has a wonderful man who loves her, and yet she's running away from him and from a secret and painful past. Her friend Ros works in advertising, writing pithy slogans for dog food, but she yearns to be a proper writer. Tom Armstrong dreams of being a famous photographer, but instead he's selling mobile phones and has a son he never sees. And Dan, already a famous actor with Hollywood at his feet, only wants Caddy...At times poignant and hilarious, "Ready or Not?" charts the romantic progress of four star-crossed lovers over a Dublin summer as they make mistakes, take chances and try to live their dreams.

LYNNE BARRETT-LEE ~ 'My mother has just the two modes of operation. Either slightly dramatic or seriously dramatic. That this is the latter means just the one thing. That my day is about to get worse...' And for single mum, Abbie, life is complex enough. So once her eldest son, Seb, has gone on his gap year, she's decided it's time to make changes. She's just left her old job and started a new one (to escape the gorgeous man-who-turned-out-to-be-married), and is planning some space for herself at long last. But fate seems to have something else in mind for Abbie, in the shape of her demanding and incorrigible mother, whose feckless fourth husband, Hugo, has just died. Temporarily in a wheelchair after a recent knee op, Diana - retired TV fitness icon and dancer - will need looking after, so will have to move in. Still, Abbie tells herself - gritting her teeth - it won't be for more than a few weeks...However, Abbie hasn't figured on the sudden arrival of Hugo's 20 years' estranged son. A suave TV Weatherman, Gabriel Ash not only owns the deeds to what they thought was Hugo's house, but also has plans of his own...

SEXY SHORTS FOR THE BEACH ~ A true 'feel good' and 'do good' book - each copy sold will raise GBP 1 for Cancer Research UK. "Sexy Shorts for the Beach" is the perfect summer read. Aimed at the mainstream women's fiction market, the book will attract readers familiar with the top name contributors and followers of contemporary short fiction. This will be the sixth book in the bestselling charity range, which have featured in "The Bookseller" Top Ten charts. From the Publisher
Full list of contributors to Sexy Shorts for the Beach:- Shelia Alcock, Lynne Barrett-Lee, Kelly Rose Bradford, Maureen Branigan, Tina Brown, Catrin Collier, Christine Emberson, Elaine Everest, Penny Feeny, Kelly Florentia, Della Galton, Zoë Griffin, Rosie Harris, Sue Houghton, Karen Howeld, Dawn Judd, Jeannie Johnson, Jan Jones, Ruth Joseph, Bernardine Kennedy, Sophie King, Maggie Knutson, Heather Lister, Mo McAuley, Collette McCormick, Lauren McCrossan, Linda Mitchelmore, Linda Povey, Sally Quilford, Brenda Robb, Rosemarie Rose, Gerry Savill, Jill Steeples, Jill Stitson, Ginny Swart, Fran Tracey, Phil Trenfield, Nina Tucknott, Jane Wenham Jones, Ann West, Dee Williams, Dawn Wingfield, Jackie Winter, Lorraine Winter, Jan Wright

Books Monthly (formerly Gateway Monthly) is published by Paul Edmund Norman on the first day of each month. You can contact me via e-mail at: editor@booksmonthly.co.uk. If you'd like to get a story published in Books Monthly just e-mail it to me and I'll consider it - no payment though, I'm afraid!