Late Night Shopping by Carmen Reid Set to be one of the BIGGEST hits of the summer! Review to follow.... Out June 2008!

The Fabulous Mum’s Handbook by Grace Saunders Published by Arrow, Feb 2008. We’re on the “Raising Children” bookshelf this week, starting with a new mother’s guide designed to help those “in need of simple, practical and attainable advice on being a (reasonably) good mum without losing our sense of self, our groove, humour or passion.” So does it live up to the hype? Put down the packet of Pampers, raise your hands and shout Hallelujah! For mums who are navigating the maze of babydom while sleep deprived and wearing clothes with unidentified stains on the front, this is like having a new best friend who’s seen it all, done it all and lived to reclaim her sleep, her stilettos and her sex-life.

Motherland by Maria Beaumont Published by Hodder & Stoughton Fran definitely isn’t having the time of her life – she’s about to turn 37, motherhood and terror have put her career on ice, her self-esteem has rigor mortis, she pities the woman she sees in the mirror every morning and she’s slowly, surely sinking into her own personal, drunken hell. So it’s not the best time to find a receipt that proves her husband isn’t always where he says he is. Will she survive? Fran is about to discover that in Motherland, friends are the fourth emergency service.

Mummy Said The F-Word by Fiona Gibson Published Hodder & Stoughton What’s the perfect job for a harassed mother of three who has just found out her husband has been allowing the after-sales girl from the water cooler company to service more than his drinking fountain? Nope, agony aunt on “Britain’s weekly parenting bible” wouldn’t be the obvious choice. But for Caitlin Brown her new role brings money, focus and an illusive new admirer who might just solve her own problems. Wickedly entertaining, this hilariously accurate portrayal of the chaos of motherhood is the perfect read for a chilly February afternoon… just as long as you can get the kids to give you an hour’s peace.

The Point Of Rescue by Sophie Hannah Published by Hodder. Sally is having a bad day. Someone has tried to shove under a bus and a few hours later, while watching the news, she discovers that Geraldine and Lucy Bretherick, a mother and daughter who live near her are dead. The tragedy is of more than a casual interest – because Sally had an affair with Mark Bretherick, the husband and father of the dead pair. Or did she?  Hannah’s gift for creating very real, three-dimensional characters and placing them in extraordinary situations results in a thriller so entertaining that you might consider sharing it with everyone you know… but instead you’ll keep it to yourself and read it again and again.

Shatter by Michael Robotham Published by Sphere. The police enlist clinical psychologist Joseph O’Loughlin’s help to try to talk down a jumper: a mutilated woman who is standing naked on the edge of the Clifton Suspension Bridge speaking into a mobile phone while on the precipice of ending her life. She jumps. And in that moment, while O’Loughlin rages at his failing to manipulate a human mind for purposes of good, a killer congratulates himself on twisting a human mind for evil. Michael Robotham’s outstanding debut The Suspect was so inventive and raw that it caused a tremor of excitement among thriller fans. Now, three books in and this powerful new chillfest proves that Robotham is becoming a master at making the earth move.

Hollywood Girls Club by Maggie Marr Published by Random House Life’s tough in Hollywood. A-list Celeste Solange’s husband of less than a year is sleeping with a teenage starlet. Writer Mary Anne Meyers is about to succumb to failure and skulk back home to Minnesota. Agent Jessica Caulfield is pampering her stable of superstars while constantly looking over her shoulder. And producer Lydia Albright’s squeaky-voiced, evil arch-enemy has just become her boss. But when the going gets tough, the tough get… Actually, they pop out to the Ivy for lunch, do a bit of shoe shopping and then join together to conquer Tinsel Town in this fabulously bitchy, insider account of movie industry girl power.

The Wag’s Handbook by Alison Kervin Published by Avon Tracie Martin, wife of the Luton Town captain reigns supreme in Wag-land, a poodle eat poodle world where you’re no one unless your fake tan is a deep shade of Bisto. But her place in the Wag hierarchy goes downhill quicker than Victoria Beckham on a toboggan when Dean loses his captaincy and Tracie almost kills Gerri Halliwell’s dog with a packet of bacon. Can her unintentionally hilarious new column preaching the rules of Wagdom help her climb back up that mountain of fake bosoms to reclaim her rightful place?  Tracie Martin, listen up: Coleen, Alex, Vicky B and Cheryl couldn’t lace your Versace, thigh-high, pink PVC boots! We hereby crown you the Wagtastic, utterly adorable star of the funniest book of 2007.

Exit Music by Ian Rankin Published by Orion. Yes, we knew this moment would come. Sob. DI Rebus: the final act. And with only 10 days left until he collects the gold watch, Rebus and Siobhan are in the business of tying up loose ends, when they’re called to the corpse of a Russian poet. A mugging? That would be too easy – and would deprive Rebus of a fitting swansong, taking on a Russian delegation, the Edinburgh business community and a spot of bother involving his old nemesis “Big Ger” Cafferty. As Rebus himself toasts in a moment of maudlin contemplation, “Here’s to the hard men”. How much do we have to bribe Rankin to bring this one back?

Operation Sunshine by Jenny Colgan Published by Sphere Working for two plastic surgeons isn’t all glamour. Actually, there’s no glamour at all. Receptionist Evie spends her days walking rat-like dogs for 90 year olds Botox victims and calming down hysterical women with cellulite. Until, that is, she gets the chance to accompany her bosses to a medical conference in Cannes. Armed with a slinky new frock, Evie hopes she’ll finally encounter that illusive glitterati glamour, but soon discovers that – like the twenty-something faces of her forty-something clients - nothing is quite what it seems.  With scalpel-sharp dialogue and witty one-liners, this will have you grinning from ear to ear. Unless of course, you’ve over-dosed on the Botox…

Dark Flight by Lin Anderson Published by Hodder & Staughton The house was a bloodbath – the younger woman brutally mutilated, the older woman dead at the hands of a killer she probably didn’t even see. In the blood was a footprint belonging to the crime’s only potential witness – a six-year-old boy who had vanished, leaving behind a macabre clue: bones tied in the shape of a diagonal cross. It’s a gut-wrenching kill that takes forensic scientist Dr. Rhona McLeod from the cold streets of Glasgow to the searing heat of Nigeria, in search of the demons that demand the ultimate sacrifice. Forget Las Vegas, forget Miami, this is CSI Dowanhill and it’ll keep your adrenalin pumping from the first terrifying page until the last.

Absolution by Caro Ramsay Published by Penguin Our weather may be rubbish, our football record poor, but when it comes to producing thriller writers, Scotland is definitely world class. Rankin, Jardine, McDermid, McBride, Welsh, Brookmyre and Mina are among our literary stars and now we can add three more names. First up is Caro Ramsay with a high octane, superbly crafted Glaswegian gritfest that opens in 1984 when PC Alan McAlpine, is assigned to guard a horrifically injured woman without a name. For twenty years that case is a scab that he tries not to pick, but when women start to die at the hands of the Crucifixion Killer, McAlpine’s memories from the past become an open wound.

Gold Diggers by Tasmina Perry Published by Harper Collins  Tasmin Perry’s fabulous debut Daddy’s Girl gave the promise of magnificent things to come - her new release Gold Diggers delivers. And how. Set in London, the eye of the storm is Adam Gold, an American billionaire who has the diamond-studded thongs of London’s beautiful set all aflutter. Entrepreneur Karin Cavendish is determined to forge a romantic merger, coke-snorting former model Molly sees him as her ticket to the life she deserves and sweet, naïve Summer is in danger of getting her manicured fingers seriously scalded. Its Jimmy Choos at dawn as glamour, sex, glitz, sex, secrets, sex, infidelity, er, more sex and a whole lot of tumultuous plot twists make this the most deliciously decadent bitchfest of the year.

Glamour by Louise Bagshawe Published by Headline, 2007. Louise Bagshawe is one of the darlings of the genre and for this outing she’s stuck to the formula that stretches all the way back to the heady days of Shirley Conran. Open with a dramatic cliffhangfer, then flashback to a group of females from different backgrounds (in this case rich American Sally, ugly duckling bookwarm Jane, and shy religious Helen) meeting at school and forming friendships that are then ripped apart by unforeseen drama (bankruptcy, suicide, arranged marriage) only for the girls to battle against adversity, tragedy and each other. Glamour may not glisten quite as brightly as last year’s hit Sparkles, but it’s still worth a weekend-long rendezvous with the sofa.