Top Ten Tuesday: Debut Novels I Enjoyed

Published on by Margaret

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish and now hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. For the rules see her blog.

This week’s topic is Debut Novels I enjoyed.

Here they are:

Sometimes I Lie by Alice Feeney – a thriller.  I read it in just two sittings and when I got to the end I immediately had to turn back to the beginning and start reading it again.

Saving Missy by Beth Morrey. This really is a special book, full of wonderful characters, ordinary people drawn from life, about everyday events, pleasures and difficulties. 

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford. This is a bitter sweet story of commitment and enduring hope and one that I loved.

Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonson. A beautiful book about family relationships, about the importance of communication, of talking and sharing experiences and feelings and about friendships. And it’s a love story.

The Legacy of Elizabeth Pringle by Kirstie Wark. A gentle and leisurely paced book, packed with events, some of them dramatic and devastating in their effect on the characters’ lives.

Blacklands by Belinda Bauer, about Arnold, a serial killer and a twelve year old boy, Stephen. This is a dark and chilling story that took me inside Stephen’s mind and the notorious serial killer Arnold .

The Doll Factory by Elizabeth Macneal, set in the 1850s historical fiction, art history, and a love story as well as a dark tale of obsession, pulsing with drama, intrigue and suspense. It’s full of atmosphere, dark and gothic towards the end.

In the Woods by Tana French. It’s set in Ireland mainly around an archaeological dig of a site prior to the construction of a motorway. A little girl’s body is discovered on the site. Is her death connected to the disappearance of two twelve year-olds 20 years earlier?

After You’d Gone by Maggie O’Farrell. Alice is in a coma after being in road accident, which may or may not have been a suicide attempt. She has been grieving the death of her husband, John. What was it that Alice saw at Edinburgh station that shocked her so much?

Sacrifice by Sharon Bolton A bone chilling, spellbinding novel set on a remote Shetland island where surgeon Tora Hamilton makes the gruesome discovery, deep in peat soil, of the body of a young woman, her heart brutally torn out.

16 thoughts on “Top Ten Tuesday: Debut Novels I Enjoyed”

  1. Delighted to see Maggie O’Farrell on your list – my first experience with her was The Disappearing Act of Esme Lennox which is still one of my favourites by her.

    How fun to see a Welsh author mentioned. Bauer lives locally and gave tremendous support when we were fighting to save our library

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    1. I have had a copy of The Disappearing Act of Esme Lennox for four years and still haven’t read it! It’s encouraging that it’s one of your favourites by her.

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  3. This is a fine list, Margaret. I very much enjoyed In The Woods and Blacklands. They struck me as very accomplished for debuts. The others look great too; a few are already on my wish list!

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    1. I’ve seen criticism about the way the book ends, but I didn’t find that disappointing , in fact I think that is the only credible way that it could end.

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  10. Hi Margaret, just to let you know, I’ve just found your email sitting in my Yahoo mail spam box. So sorry about that, can’t think why they do that occasionally, it’s very annoying! I will of course reply soon.

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