2 September 2008: This week's book reviews, by Carol Livingstone, as submitted for publication in the Tofield Mercury.

THE KILLING CIRCLE, by Andrew Pyper

A journalist and failed writer joins a creative writing circle where, in the reading of their own dark, unsettling tales, he finds fantasy and reality becoming blurred. Is the killer striking at random in their city in fact a character from a story? And then is own son is snatched.

JUST BREATHE, by Susan Wiggs

Unexpected change can be like a breath of fresh air ­ a little brisk at first, but magic for heart and soul… An illuminating story straight from the heart about a woman’s shattered dreams ­ and newfound hopes.

THE NIGHT VILLA: A Novel, by Carol Goodman

Beneath layers of volcanic ash from the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79 lie the Night Villa, and a cache of antique documents too tantalizing for classics professor Sophie Chase to resist. But she soon realizes that whatever shocking events transpired in the past, darker machinations laden with unseen menace are drawing her into their vortex.

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