2 Interesting Books Set in England

by Susan Roberts

Summer is a time for travel and relaxation. Sometimes we don't get to travel very far but that's the great thing about books - you can travel through time and space in the pages of a book. Today, I have two books set in England. The first book will also have you traveling back to the 1800s. Even if you don't have a trip planned, you can grab some relaxation time with these two novels.

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The Lamplighter’s Bookshop by Sophie Austin

June 2025; HarperCollins; 978-0008664121
audio, ebook, print (368 pages); historical fiction

Every book tells a story. Every heart hides a secret.

I don't read much historical fiction that takes place in the 1800's but this was a book about books and I couldn't resist it.  This is a romance, not just a romance between two people, but it's also a romance with books and bookstores.

Evelyn and her mother are living in a large manor house in Yorkshire when the bailiffs come and tell them that they must move out immediately and can only take personal belongings.  Evelyn's father is a gambler and has lost ownership of their manor home and has spent all of his money.  They have no other close family and decide that their only choice is to move to York to live with an elderly aunt.  It's apparent at their first meeting that the aunt doesn't want them there and continues to mention their disgrace.  Evelyn realizes that it's up to her to make some money to help her family.  Her mother thinks that women working is disgraceful, so Evelyn has to hide the fact that she has gotten a job at a bookstore.  It's a dusty old bookstore that is disorganized and kind of shabby.  Just as Evelyn starts enjoying her job and helping to get things organized, the owner's nephew, William, shows up in need of a job.  He is a writer who is trying to write a book and has told everyone that he HAS written a book but has some serious writer's block and just can't get the book written.  He knows that his uncle will hire him and is very unhappy to find out that Evelyn already has the job that he wanted.  So now we have two people, both desperately needing this job to survive, but the bookstore can only support one of them.  William and Evelyn decide to have a competition over who can sell the most books, and the winner will get the job in the bookstore as their reward.  The more time they spend together at the bookshop, the more they become interested in each other.  Can they break through their distrust of each other?  Can Evelyn become the muse for the book that William has been trying to write?  Will they have a happily ever after?

This book was well written and interesting.  I enjoyed both of the main characters and was hoping that they would learn to trust each other.   This was a debut novel for this author, and I look forward to her future books.

Buy The Lamplighter's Bookshop at Amazon

The Black Highway by Simon Toyne

June 2025; William Morrow; 978-0062329851
audio, ebook, print (368 pages); psychological thriller

Laughton Rees is back in the latest novel from the bestselling author of the Sanctus trilogy—this time, with a case that hits uncomfortably close to home and threatens the thing Laughton values most: her daughter.

This is the third book in a new-to-me series about Laughton Rees, a forensic specialist working with the London police department.  The title is explained very early in the book -- it's not really a highway but the River Thames. 

"The River Thames that snakes through the heart of London...has also provided an effective and convenient mode of body disposal for murderers from pre-Roman times to the present.  Even today. An average of one body a week is pulled from the surprisingly cold and fast-flowing river. " (p1) 

The novel gets exciting from the first page when a body with no head or hands is pulled from the river.  Detective Chief Inspector Tannahill Khan is the lead person on the case.  He is also in a romance with Laughton.  She's had a very checkered past and worked very hard to become the person that she is today. The most important part of her life is her 15-year-old daughter Gracie,   who is starting to ask questions about who her father is, and Laughton reluctantly tells her about her father - how and where they met, their quick relationship they had, and the fact that he is now in jail.  Shelby Facer is in prison for his part in an international drug ring, and Laughton hasn't seen or spoken to him since she got pregnant.  She's surprised when he shows up at her door -- he is newly out of prison and has some information for her on the murder case she's working on, and is able to identify the man that was pulled out of the river with no head or hands.  It turns out that the victim was part of the drug-smuggling ring that Laughton's father was investigating when he died.  As Laughton goes back and starts going through her father's files, the case gets even more complicated for her.  While she is working the case and trying to work out her relationship with Tannahill, her life is even more complicated by her spoiled teenage daughter.  Will she be able to work through her life issues and find the clues to solve the crime?

This was an interesting police procedural, and the setting in London makes it even more intriguing.  I thought that it was a bit long, but any negatives that I felt about the story were erased with the surprise ending that I never saw coming.  I enjoyed it so much that I just ordered the first two books in the series.

NOTE:  This is the third book in the Laughton Rees series, but can be read as a standalone with no confusion.

Buy The Black Highway at Amazon

Susan Roberts grew up in Michigan but loves the laid-back life at her home in the Piedmont area of North Carolina where she is three hours from the beach to the east and the mountains in the west.  She reads almost anything but her favorite genres are Southern Fiction and Historical Fiction.   

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