Shifting between the 1930s, the 1950s and 2011, this novel tells a story of mysteries and secrets, theatre and thievery, murder and enduring love. It is written by the author of The House at Riverton, The Forgotten Garden and The Distant Hours.
Alessandra Emma Giagheddu Books






Monday Mourning
- 303 pages
- 11 hours of reading
Tempe Brennan arrives in Montreal from Charlotte in early December to testify as an expert witness. As a Forensic Anthropologist for Quebec, she should be reviewing her notes, but instead, she’s in a freezing pizza parlour basement, surrounded by rats and the skeletal remains of three young women. Homicide detective Luc Claudel, who has never been fond of Tempe, believes the bones are historic and not his concern, especially after the pizza parlour owner finds 19th-century buttons with the remains. However, Tempe suspects otherwise. She plans to conduct Carbon 14 testing to determine the bones' age and analyze the tooth enamel to trace the women's origins. If her suspicions are correct, Claudel could be facing three recent murders. Meanwhile, Detective Andrew Ryan's mysterious behavior raises questions. His private phone calls and sudden disappearances come just as Tempe begins to trust him, leaving her with her cat, Birdie, and more nights alone. As she delves into both her personal and professional challenges, Tempe becomes entangled in a sinister web, where women have vanished without a trace. With her own safety at risk, she realizes she may be the next target.
Nine-year-old Emily Anne Toussaint is shot dead on a Montreal street. A North Carolina teenager disappears from her home and parts of what may be her skeleton are found hundreds of miles away. For Dr. Temperance Brennan, a forensic anthropologist in both Montreal and North Carolina, the deaths kindle deep emotions that propel her on a harrowing journey into the world of outlaw motorcycle gangs. As a scientist, Tempe should remain dispassionate. As a caring individual, she yearns to take the killers off the streets. Emily Anne was cut down in a biker crossfire. The North Carolina victim, Savannah Osprey, was last seen hitching a ride with a transient biker. Tempe's nephew, Kit, is intrigued by motorcycles. Does he understand the difference between legitimate riders and gangs, or is he too mesmerized to comprehend that outlaw bikers are big trouble? With her boss Pierre LaManche in the hospital, and her friend Andrew Ryan disturbingly unavailable, Tempe begins a perilous investigation into a culture where evil often wears a mask
A plane crashes high in the mountains of North Carolina. But a severed foot is discovered a good distance from the crash site. Forensic anthropologist Dr Temperance Brennan is first on the scene. Her task is a sickening one, and her investigation seems to be raising more questions than answers. But when Tempe starts asking dangerous questions, her professional standing is threatened. Convinced that another corpse lies in the woods, Tempe pits herself against a conspiracy of silence - and uncovers a shocking tale of deceit and depravity.
Early thirtysomething Emma decides it�s time to have the baby - but it just doesn�t happen to order. Emma goes through a funny, touching and ultimately moving journey as she struggles to accept the reality that maybe it�s never going to happen. The Baby Trail is a novel rich in texture, light and dark, and humour with a biting undercurrent.
Cross bones
- 497 pages
- 18 hours of reading
'Death by self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head' is the on-scene assessment, but the victim's relatives are adamant in their rejection of suicide as an explanation. Discovered in a closet, a week after death, the body is barely recognisable. Extreme heat has accelerated decomposition, and Dr Temperance Brennan's forensic expertise is required.|PB
The Distant Hours
- 677 pages
- 24 hours of reading
Edie Burchill and her mother have never been close, but when a long lost letter arrives with the return address of Milderhurst Castle, Kent, printed on its envelope, Edie begins to suspect that her mother's emotional distance masks an old secret.
Grave Secrets
- 400 pages
- 14 hours of reading
Forensic anthropologist Dr. Temperance Brennan assists in the excavation of 20-year-old mass grave of massacre victims in a Guatemalan village. Now as she pieces together the past, Tempe becomes entangled in the cases of four privileged young women who suddenly vanish from Guatemala City.
The third volume in Gary Jennings' historical epic that began with Aztec and Aztec Autumn. In this colorful and exciting era of swords and cloaks, upheaval and revolution, a young beggar boy, in whose blood runs that of both Spanish and Aztec royalty must claim his birthright. From the torrid streets of the City of the Dead along the Veracruz Coast to the ageless glory of Seville in Old Spain, Cristo the Bastardo connives fights, and loves as he seeks the truth—without knowing that he will be the founder of a proud new people.As we follow the loves and adventures of Cristo and experience the colorful splendor and barbarism of the era, a vanished culture is brought back to life in all its magnificence.“This exotic, sensuous novel works on many levels. It is at once history, mystery, and a coming-of-age novel all permeated by the teeming world of seventeenth century Mexico as seen through the eyes of a teenage boy.” -- Library Journal
Far to go
- 352 pages
- 13 hours of reading
Includes supplement: "P.S. insights, interviews & more ..."--Cover.
Déjà Dead
- 560 pages
- 20 hours of reading
Dr. Temperance Brennan, the wry, impassioned director of forensic anthropology for the province of Quebec, is driven to unravel shocking acts of violence by reading the bones of the dead.
Il portico
- 153 pages
- 6 hours of reading
Sebastian Senecal è un professore di lettere e filosofia di quarantacinque anni: ha una moglie e due bambini, è appassionato del suo lavoro e dei suoi studi e sa apprezzare i piccoli piaceri della vita. All'avvicinarsi dell'estate, con l'esplosione dei suoi colori, dei suoi odori, dei suoi sapori, il professore decide di fare qualcosa di insolito e per lui entusiasmante: costruire un fantastico portico nel suo giardino, in cui passeggiare e ragionare di filosofia, di stoici ed epicurei, di gioie e di dolori...Il nuovo romanzo dell'autore de "La prima sorsata di birra". Una storia breve e delicata, intrisa di dolcezza e malinconia insieme.
Victorine
- 352 pages
- 13 hours of reading
Victorine is a dutiful housewife, respectable schoolteacher and mother in the Vendee in the 1900s, cooking the gigot for the family lunch, obeying her husband, walking the long beaches of the Atlantic with her children. But then an old childhood acquaintance turns up and her life is turned upside down forever. She falls passionately in love for the first time in her life. But her lover's work takes him back to Indochina, and Victorine abandons her life and her family to go with him. Everything is strange - the extraordinary voyage to get there, the life they lead in the sultry tropical heat, the glamour of colonial life - but life there is also a lie. Less than two years later, Victorine returns home and resumes her life: what happened?






