From award winner Telgemeier ( Smile, 2010), a pitch-perfect graphic novel portrayal of a middle school musical, adroitly capturing the drama both on and offstage. In contrast to this extreme behaviour we also become involved in the lives of the delightful, very down-to-earth McTavish family. How does their story of everyday life become entangled with the extreme violence confronting Police Scotland? And amongst these strands is the perennial question: will Ava and Luc finally become a couple? ‘One for Sorrow’ is perhaps the best in the series, so far …!

One For Sorrow: A British Murder Mystery (The Wild Fens

When it becomes clear that with every tip-off they are walking into a trap designed to kill them too, Ava and Luc know that finding the truth could mean paying the ultimate price. The most popular form of this poem is seven lines long. These lines are quite short, mostly only three words, or forwards, long. The seventh line of the song is the longest, stretching to eight words. The lines rhyme: ABCBDEE.

DCI Ava Turner is our protagonist. She is feisty and dedicated, and when a serial bomber turns their attention to those close to her, she is determined to bring the culprit to justice. Written across two timelines the stories are absorbing and compelling, and when they come together they are excellent. The twists and turns are so well written, and the ending superb. Usually I have at least an inkling of the outcome, but not in this case, brilliant! All loose ends came together, but we were still left on a cliffhanger. I have read and loved all of the Luc and Ava series so far. I think its quite hard for a writer of a series to keep up the suspense and thrill for so long, but Helen Fields has managed it and each book gets better. Monday’s Child ’–one of several well-loved fortune-telling poems. It was first recorded in A.E. Bray’s Traditions of Devonshire published in 1838. This is a stand-alone novel that features some characters who have been central in previous books Fields has written. To determine who, if anyone, will continue to a new book, or whether the series will continue in a different form or not, the reader will simply have to wait for the next book to be released.

One for Sorrow by Mary Downing Hahn | Goodreads

When a report is received of a pregnant woman hanging from a bridge, the emergency services attend and try to cut her down, only to find that they have walked into a trap. Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic. Said murderer is organised, meticulous, a master manipulator, highly intelligent – and way ahead of the Major Investigations Team.Ava is grieving the loss of a dear colleague and friend, who was murdered at work in a particularly horrible way, when the team are called to another major incident, which ends very badly for the emergency services. A bomber is wreaking havoc on the city and is always one step ahead of the police. How do they connect to an earnest young woman embarking on her first relationship? One For Sorrow is the seventh book in what is referred to as the DI Luc Callanach series set in Edinburgh, but the main protagonist here is DCI Ava Turner with Luc in a supporting role. I’ve read the last couple but they all work fine as stand-alones. I moved this up my ARC queue because every time I saw the title on my reading list, I’d get the poppy song of the same name by British 90s band Steps in my head and it’s been driving me crazy. I had forgotten how dark and twisted this author’s books are, or I might’ve delayed it, and this one was equally grim yet compelling, with a high body count.