Tara Moore – RSVP (Orion, £6.99) *****

The Granville family has lived at Carrickross, a huge estate in Ireland, for generations and is blessed with untold wealth.

Honoria, the 85-year-old matriarch and a real dragon, rules her son and six grandchildren with a rod of iron.

They do her bidding without question, as she holds the purse strings. The family appears to be ultra-respectable, but each member has a guilty secret.

It is time for the annual midsummer ball and who would have expected murder?

The body of a young beauty queen is found floating in the fountain with a garrotte around her neck.

This book kept me reading until five in the morning.

Betty Williams, 81, retired, Bradford

Irfan Master – A Beautiful Lie (Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, £6.99) ***

This book highlights the enormous upheaval that took place on August 14, 1947, when the Islamic Republic of Pakistan came into being.

The partition of Hindus and Muslims resulted in a considerable loss of life, as families and friends were divided into opposite directions and the divisions still stand today.

Bilal was a boy whose father was slowly dying when tales of violence and unrest reached the village.

Bilal tried to protect his father from the momentous changes taking place by spinning a web of lies.

Margaret Jarvis, 78, retired, Wyke