In the remote central Asian city of Kashgar in the  1920's a group of English women missionaries come under house arrest after an act of mercy.  In 21^st century London, Frieda returns from her travels, meets a homeless refugee from Yemen and discovers she has inherited the contents of an apartment of a  deceased stranger. These alternating stories keep will keep you reading  until the end.

Here Suzanne Joinson tells how she came to write  her first novel, A Lady Cyclist’s Guide to Kashgar.

The Hand that First Held Mine by Maggie O'Farrell.

Parallel stories of two young women living in London, separated by fifty years, whose lives come together at the end. Lexie arrives in London in the 1950s, becomes a reporter and is entangled in complex relationships. Elina, an artist in the 1990s, faces motherhood for the first time;  after a difficult birth, she and her husband are disorientated, plagued by memory lapses, nightmares and uncertainties. The stories take time to get established, but most loose ends are resolved in the final chapters. In this short interesting video the author talks about writing her novel.

Love medieval noir? A life of mystery and intrigue in the world of medieval London is the setting of my staff pick. Veil of Lies by  Jeri Westerson is a classic murder mystery, mixed in with twists and turns - knights and peasants. Crispin Guest is a disgraced knight who turns investigator, helping solve crimes to get by in the slums of London streets. If you enjoy these books as much as I did, Westerson wrote two following sequels: Serpent in the Thorns and The Demon's Parchment.