The Spy Game

Georgina Harding (Bloomsbury, £7.99)

Anna’s mother goes off to work as usual one foggy morning in 1961. A spy case is on the television news that evening; and Anna is told that her mother is dead. Are the two events a coincidence?

This is all about Cold War events seen through the eyes of a child, as Anna and her brother construct a theory that their mother was really an undercover spy and might still be alive.

The Saffron Gate

Linda Holeman (Headline Review, £6.99)

Set in the 1930s, this tells the story of Sidonie O’Shea in upstate New York, struck with polio as a child. A terrible accident brings her into contact with Etienne, a doctor; they fall in love.

But then Etienne disappears. Sidonie travels to Morocco in search of him, and discovers her true self among the dangers and mysteries of Marrakech.

The Chapel at the Edge of the World

Kirsten McKenzie (John Murray, £7.99)

In 1942, more than 500 Italian prisoners of war captured in North Africa were brought to Orkney to help build the Churchill barriers. They used the scrap they found to convert an abandoned bunker into a chapel. McKenzie’s novel combines these facts with the love story of childhood sweethearts Emilio and Rosa, separated by the war and by distance.

The Stopping Place Helen Slavin (Simon & Schuster, £7.99)

An advantage of working in a library is that you can remain invisible behind the shelves. But it’s also a danger if you see too much, as Ruby discovers. With mystery and dark humour amidst the stacking shelves, this should make you look at the local library in a new light.