On a slightly smaller scale, successful British author Peter James has carved out such a loyal, devoted niche following for his series of thrillers and murder mysteries written around his protagonist Roy Grace, of which there are a dozen or so published and well-sold books. So it comes as something of a surprise to see the author has recently dared to step outside the confines of Grace’s world and leave him behind altogether; his new novel is a stand alone work featuring new characters, called Perfect People.

But it is the Roy Strong series that attracts most attention, and it is easy to see why. Each novel uses the seaside town of Brighton and its surroundings as the stage where the characters and plots are set.

This perhaps adds a realistic, believable air to the author’s stories, which often start with the domestic mundane, allowing readers to identify and get to know the cast, before plunging them into a spiralling script of drama and intrigue.  For example, the novel ‘Dead Tomorrow’ starts with the female protagonist reading the local newspaper looking for flats to rent in Brighton … and ends with her daughter’s life in peril as she fights for her life on a kidney dialysis machine.

There is a gruesome twist as dead bodies with missing internal organs that are washed up on the Brighton beach are linked with sinister Eastern European drug and organ trafficking crime syndicates.  Through his detective hero Strong, Peter James explores the lengths a devoted mother will go to in order to rescue her daughter’s life, even if it means breaking the law and dashing her morals against the rocks on Brighton beach.

‘Caribbean Holiday’ is a novel that sets the senses alive.  Featuring main protagonist and impossibly named Sextus Durkin, the plot is a complicated and highly imaginative weave of spy action, James Bond-style action, natural history, political intrigue, natural history and the tropical world, sci-fi and just plain dastardly deeds – a good old fashioned tale of good versus evil with plenty of humour thrown in.

Sextus is employed to find his half-brother Augustus whom has been kidnapped by thwarted Middle Eastern despots searching for his expertise in uranium for their own very naughty missile-making devious purposes.

Augustus just happens to be the proprietor of a world-class uranium mine which the envious Arabs want to get their hands on. Accompanying Sextus on his whirlwind adventure across the globe are animals that have been implanted with microchips in a laboratory using a pioneering and untested new technique. Will they help or hinder the desperate search to find Augustus?

There are some great nail-biting passages set on board a yacht, a submarine and on various Caribbean islands – the enticing pictures that the author paints of these tropical paradises which appear beautiful and serene but are filled with intrigue and secret events should help promote the excitement of holidays to Barbados.

Following the 007 blueprint, gorgeous but diverting ladies pop up regularly throughout the narrative to titillate our hero … but can he and should he trust them?

A case in point is the female-friendly fiction of Joanna Trollope whose books are critically acclaimed and sell very well, yet usually to be found lurking in the bargain bin of a dingy supermarket or high street discount book retailer at a very cheap price.

Her novel ‘The Best of Friends’ is a good example of the ‘assumed to be trashy’ pulp fiction judging purely by the dismal non-descript photo and design of the cover.

But on closer inspection this novel is beautifully written and the plot stretches the reader’s imagination and thoughts as it is in no way predictable or mundane.

A pair of middle-aged, middle-class couple experience marital difficulties and the fallout of that and the effect on their teenage offspring provides the plot for this thoughtful novel about love, faith and commitment set against the daily struggles of life and long periods of time.

Trollope weaves an intriguing tale of events, fleshing out her characters with believable, confused emotions echoing the tumultuous happenings in their marriages. Her writing is always fresh and elegantly done, with flowing grammar, top notch punctuation and flowing imagery.

Accused of being far too smugly middle-class, which is (as it is true) unable to be refuted, at least the author makes a great job of understanding, deciphering and penning her tales of middle-class woes.

This book is an engrossing light novel to read on a plane, on holiday or in the bath which will not disappoint with its quality and integrity.

One author who has successfully captured this sector is Joanna Trollope, a well-known and widely published novel writer. Her work is not specifically aimed at women, but it is fair to say most of her characters are females and the topics she deals with are likely to be resonant with women readers than men.

A good example of this is the simply-entitled ‘Friday Nights’ which tells the story of a group of women, of vastly different backgrounds, circumstances and characters, who form a casual but eventually close friendship via a Friday night social evening.

After five years of meetings and getting to really know each other, their cosy circle is subtly but surely broken up by the arrival of what you could describe as an ‘alpha male’ on the scene, whom causes friction between the women and sets certain thoughts, feelings and actions in motion.

By using the device of the six different female protagonists, Trollope explores such eternal themes as love, attraction, jealousy and heart-break, but also the more unusual topic of the struggle for work-life balance for modern working women, both with and without families. This theme is explored in some depth and the author’s style is not a lecturing one, but a carefully crafted tale which encompasses all view points and allows for, ultimately, personal choice and freedom of decisions.

This may be available to purchase as a cheap paperback but it is beautifully composed, and it does not attempt to pull any cheap shots with its thought-provoking style and content.

Often lengthy and confusing, the extensive rules for what can and can’t be done in the UK are difficult to read, interpret and remember. So any sort of builder considering any type of building, whether it’s an extension to an existing property, a renovation of an old one or the installation of a garden home office, needs a reliable guide to the building regulations.

Author Ray Tricker (MSc IEng FIET FCIM FIQA FIRSE) is a man who can help. Noticeable by his wealth of experience and qualifications as a building surveyor, he has turned this to advantage by putting together several books aimed at professionals in the construction industry.

A recent publication entitled ‘Building Regulations in Brief’ does exactly what it says on the tin – it is a concise distillation of all those confusing and long-winded  laws that govern a builder’s workday hours.

Not only does the author explain the ins and outs of the building regulations, he outlines ways in which to conform to them in a cost-effective way, thus potentially saving users quite a lot of money when undertaking their projects. In the current economic climate which has proved particularly severe for the construction industry, this aspect of this book should make it a best-seller.

As well as being a good reference guide to the rules, Tricker goes into a little bit of detail about the evolution of them all and why they exist. This makes the whole subject easier for the reader to understand, ingest and remember and is a useful addition to the normal guidebook style. He writes about how councils and local authorities view certain issues in order that the reader can appreciate and take into account the opposing viewpoint and the official stance they will be dealing with.

The programme itself was something of a slow burner, starting out as a low-budget daytime fodder which steadily gained larger and larger audiences mainly due to its ‘fly-on-the-wall’ voyeuristic nature, the genuinely amusing voice-over quips and comments from the excellent Dave Lamb and of course the completely bizarre and entertaining way the members of the public who take part in each episode behave.

As the audience watches, they can all identify with the characters living it up in their own and each other’s homes and showing what they’re really like once the forced initial formality has worn off and the wine kicks in.

Taking a slice of the action is David Sayer’s book ‘Come Dine with Me – Special Occasions’. This colourful and well-illustrated foodie book is much more than just a collection of recipes though, as there is advice about holding your own CDWM week with your friends (this craze to copy the programme is now sweeping the nation and its easy to see why) plus comments from people who have appeared on the show and cooked some of the dishes that are featured.

The recipes are tailored towards a dinner party as well as special events such as Christmas and Valentines Day and range from simple to complicate so readers can have a choice of dish to match their gastronomic ability.

Seasonality of ingredients is taken into account too, with some nice suggestions for ways with fresh summer produce.  Most of the cuisines of the world are represented on some level, with Italian pasta dishes and stir fries being very popular amongst the contestants of the TV show.

Jodi Picoult’s recent novel ‘Keeping Faith’ is her 12th successful novel and is set in New Hampshire. The story revolves around seven year old Faith and her mother Mariah, whose marriage to Faith’s father breaks down when he has an affair and leaves the family home.

This event triggers a series of unusual and remarkable events starting with Mariah noticing that Faith is talking to an imaginary friend. Beginning to worry that the stress of the family division has taken its toll on the young girl, Mariah takes her daughter to see some specialists…but the picture that emerges about this invisible friend gets more confusing as religious aspects creep into the scenario.

This is confusing to Mariah who has no beliefs herself nor has she raised her daughter with any religious schooling or indoctrination. Then a ‘miracle’ appears to occur as Faith seemingly raises her grandmother, Mariah’s mother, from the dead after she suffers a massive cardiac arrest.

This attracts national publicity and then as a consequence, the interest of assorted religious figures, groups and individual pilgrims desperate to benefit from the new young ‘prophet’s’ healing touch.

As Mariah tries to protect her daughter, she gets caught in a downward spiral of a national religious fervour and her belief in the truth of her daughter’s words and actions make her question her own beliefs and ethics.

Whilst in this turmoil with the press and several dozen fanatics camped on her driveway, her ex-husband decides she has become an unfit mother and attempts to sue for custody.

Picoult’s story telling progresses with sufficient pace to keep the reader intrigued and she uses the plot and its protagonists to analyse all aspects of faith, not shrinking from the controversial and doing so with a tremendous insight into people’s lives, thoughts and feelings.

A current best-seller is ‘One Step Ahead: Essays and Dissertations’ by Chris Mounsey. The author is a highly experienced academic and teacher, having taught English at the prestigious Winchester College for more than ten years and has also penned two other learning-related books aimed at assisting students with writing essays.

This guide is written in a clear and easy to ingest manner – as would be expected from an English teacher of such repute – and contains much useful information plus hints and tips, and some example essays.

Many students find that composing an essay is the hardest part as they get lost in the narrative process; this book takes the guesswork out and holds the budding author’s hand step by step. Essay writing can easily be learnt and is not a divine art.

As a teacher working at a college and not purely an academic, Mounsey has the inside scoop on what essays marked by teachers should conform to, i.e., what the education establishment is expecting.

There is also some relevant advice regarding the initial research stages; in today’s technology-led learning environments this aspect is very much altered from the situation a generation ago when the only source of information was a library with actual books. But its not all plain sailing with online resources and Mounsey steers the reader through the potential pitfalls.

Twelve year old Blessing and her older brother Ezekiel live a relatively pampered life in the well-to-do suburbs of Lagos. Ezekiel is often sick, however, and has many allergies which makes his mother overprotective.

Their father is a loud man, whom the children worship…but later in the story his bullying and violence towards his wife is revealed. After Blessing’s mother catches him with another woman, he leaves his family and they are forced to vacate the expensive flat and move back to the family home in the Warri delta.

The shock for the children is immense at first, catapulted suddenly from a comfortable flat into a remote farmhouse with no electricity, no running water and no bathrooms.  Blessing’s grandparents are also poor, having no regular income and have converted to Islam.

Most readers can certainly empathize with Blessing’s shock at this change in her lifestyle and the struggles the family all go through to fit into this new world with its new traditions and values.

The novel’s characters are all engaging and one quickly feels connected to Blessing as she comes of age, losing her rose-tinted view of her father and taking over the mothering role for her brother Ezekiel as her mother finds salvation in the arms of a white man employed by the hated Western Oil Company.

Environmental, social and political themes are explored from the small family’s point of view, and there are moments of humour and humility as well as trauma and tragedy. Blessing’s relationship with her grandmother grows as she teaches her the skills of a traditional midwife, and Blessing finds her direction and comes to love her life in the countryside.

But Tori Spelling’s book “celebraTORI” [pun intended] is surprisingly readable and full of useful stuff. Covering everything from the theme, the food, to decorations and etiquette, and what to do when things go awry and guests behave unexpectedly, the book is a handy blueprint to all things related to parties or entertaining on any level.  With her glamorous background, at least the reader can trust Spelling’s advice on the subject, as one can assume she’s attended a party or two in her time and knows enough to tell it like it is.

Spelling guides the enthusiastic potential host or hostess through the initial stages of planning, and delivers plenty of inspiration on probably the most important aspect of any do – the theme. She has a plethora of suggestions up her sleeve and seems especially keen on upscale ‘Hollywood’ black-tie bashes and murder mystery weekends.

Indeed, there is much detail about a rather retro ‘Cluedo’ theme – based on the popular board game – where guests have to take part in the twisted plot in order to unravel the mystery of the pretend dead body found behind the blinds in the conservatory!

Other occasions are not neglected and there is content relating to events tailored to the time of year, such as Christmas, New Year and Easter. Children’s parties are briefly described and the author’s experience as a mother gives rise to a chapter about getting your children involved in the process and also throwing a successful children’s party.

This practical guide full of arty photos and personal touches from Spelling is recommended reading for a keen event organiser and should inspire absolutely anyone to hold an original and successful party.