August 29th, 2024 by Bedford Square Publishers Mystery, Thriller, Political Fiction
Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for this cosy and mysterious debut. Thank you to Anne at Random Things Tours for the invitation to take part and to Bedford Squard Publishers for sending me a copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.
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ABOUT THE BOOK:
‘Beautifully written, told with empathy and a razor-sharp wit. I couldn’t put it down’. Seth Insua, author ofHuman, Animal
Anna Deerin moves to a remote Cotswold cottage to become a gardener, trying to strip away everything she’s spent all her life as a woman striving for, craving the anonymity and privacy her new off-grid life provides.
But when she clears the last vegetable bed and digs up not twigs but bones, the outside world is readmitted.
With it comes Detective Inspector Hitesh Mistry, who has his own reasons for a new start in the village of Upper Magna.
Drawn in spite of herself to this unknown woman from another time, Anna is determined to uncover her identity and gain recognition for her, if not justice.
As threats to Anna and her new life grow closer, she and DI Mistry will find that this murder is inextricably bound up with issues of gender, family, community, race and British identity itself – all as relevant in decades past as they are to Anna today.
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MY REVIEW:
I love a good country house mystery so I was excited to read this book. Set in the fictional village of Upper Magna in the Cotswolds, I Died At Fallow Hall follows Anna Deerin, who has recently moved to a remote cottage in the village to become the gardener at Fallow Hall. But one day she digs up more than she anticipated in the vegetable beds: the bones of a young woman that have been hidden there for years. Detective Inspector Hitesh Mistry is sent to investigate, but it seems no one has missed this woman and there are few clues. Anna can’t shake her thoughts of the unknown woman and is determined to give her back her identity and find out what happened, so she begins to make her own enquiries, getting closer to DI Mistry in the process. But it seems there is someone who doesn’t want this mystery to be solved, and Anna and Hitest soon find that their own lives are in danger…
Mysterious, tender, pensive and compelling, this is a wonderful debut. Layered, intricately woven, cleverly plotted and full of surprising twists, Bonnie Burke-Patel crafted an intriguing mystery that kept me guessing up until the final page. The story moves seamlessly between the dual timelines and I really enjoyed the added mystery and tension that arose from the past narrative as we get to know the lady of Fallow Hall and search for clues to her identity and fate as she tells her story. The dual timelines are also used to explore themes such as identity, prejudice, sexism, family, community, and starting again.
But what shined brightest for me in this book were its characters. Richly drawn and acutely observed, I really cared about them and was invested in their lives. I loved the dynamic between Anna and Hitesh and how they related to each other on so many different levels. I admit that I’d expected a more Christie-esque large cast of characters, but I was pleasantly surprised by the smaller cast. I think this not only helped me feel like I was getting to know the characters better, but it also added to the small, quiet village atmosphere that I loved.
Gorgeous, alluring and full of heart, this cosy debut is perfect for reading on a cold autumn or winter night. Highly recommended.
Rating: ✮✮✮✮✰
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Born and raised in South Gloucestershire, Bonnie Burke-Patel studied History at Oxford. After working for half a decade in politics, she changed careers and became a preschool teacher. She lives with her husband, son, and needy cat in southeast London. Her debut novel I Died atFallow Hall will be published by Bedford Square in 2024.
August is almost upon us and it’s chock full of exciting new releases. So, here’s the ones I’m most excited for.
Costanza by Rachel Blackmore
Published August 1st by Renegade Books Historical Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Rome, 1636. History calls her a Muse. Temptress. Fallen woman. This is her story.
In the scorched city of Rome, the cobbled streets hum with gossip and sin. Costanza Piccolomini is a respectable young wife – until she meets Gianlorenzo Bernini, the famed sculptor and star of Roman society, whose jet-black gaze matches his dark temper. From the second they set eyes upon each other, a fatal attraction is born.
Their secret love burns with a passion that consumes them. But with every stolen kiss and illicit tryst, Costanza’s reputation is at stake. Meanwhile, Bernini has a dangerous desire: he wants to make Costanza immortal. He vows to possess her not just in body and soul, but also in marble.
When Bernini unveils his sculpture of Costanza, she is exposed as his lover, marking the undoing of their affair – and the beginning of a scandal which will rock Roman society. For Bernini would rather destroy Costanza than let her go.
Betrayed. Abandoned. Banished. This was meant to be the end of Costanza’s story. But Costanza is no ordinary woman: from the ashes, she will rise…
Based on a true story, Costanza is a dizzying and sensual historical novel that brings to life a feminist icon who has been written out of history. This utterly addictive tale of desire and betrayal is perfect for fans of The Marriage Portrait and The Miniaturist.
Published August 1st by Fig Tree Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Listen. My one-time friend Maria did tell me once: “Make your own paradise, Tibb, since this world is no sweet place for people like us.”
Born a vagabond, Tibb Ingleby has never had a roof of her own. But her mother has taught her that if you’re not too bound by the Big Man’s rules, there are many ways a woman can find shelter in this world. Now her ma is dead in a trick gone wrong and young Tibb is orphaned and alone.
As she wends her way across the fields and forests of medieval England, Tibb will discover there are people who will care for her, as well as those who mean her harm. And there are a great many others who are prepared to believe just about anything.
And so, when the opportunity presents itself to escape the shackles society has placed on them, Tibb and her new friends conjure an audacious plan: her greatest trickerie yet. But before they know it, their hoax takes on a life of its own, drawing crowds – and vengeful enemies – to their door…
A Little Trickerie is blazingly original, disarmingly funny and deeply moving. Portraying a side of Tudor England rarely seen, it’s a tale of belief and superstition, kinship and courage, with a ragtag cast of characters and an unforgettable and distinctly unangelic heroine.
Published August 1st by Bloomsbury Literary Fiction, Contemporary Fiction, Humorous Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: A crackling, comical, tender, and highly original novel about mental health, the certainties of medicine, buried trauma, love, death and time lost in the crushing – and comical – hopes of modern life
Vita Woods is on the brink. She has a good job and a successful doctor boyfriend, Max, with whom the sex is great and the chat sufficient; a vivacious and charming sister Gracie, her verbal sparring partner and best friend for life; and she’s even got a goldfish called Whitney Houston, who brightens her days by showing her she’s not the only one going round in circles.
Because it’s the days that are Vita’s problem. Vita is not leaving the house. In fact, Vita rarely exits the basement apartment where she lives, since Vita is in “The Pit” – a place of deep exhaustion and semi-consciousness where she spends much of her time, dead to the world and to herself. She has been sick for months, with an illness that no doctor, not even Max, can medically diagnose.
One day an unexpected courier delivery forces Vita upstairs, into the light – and into a chance encounter with her neighbours upstairs. Suddenly, Vita finds herself faced with an even trickier dilemma. She likes her new friends; she’ll even sneak upstairs to see them while Max is out, against all medical advice but something about her “condition” is nagging at the borders of her mind. After all, what is a house-bound girl to do when she can’t keep the light, her new friendships, or – worst of all – her memories out? The problem might be Vita herself but as far as anyone can prove… there’s nothing wrong with her.
Published August 1st by Headline Dark Academia, Gothic Fiction, Fairy Tale, Contemporary Horror, Coming-of-Age Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: These waters became wild centuries before this university was dreamed of. Leysham has always been a dangerous place for women . . .
Serena arrives on campus reeling from the injury that destroyed her champion swimming career. She is lost until she meets Jane, an enigmatic tutor obsessed with the historic witch trials that took place in Leysham’s freezing waters.
When several young women are assaulted, the university’s shadowy legacy becomes inescapable. Those in power turn a blind eye, but Jane urges Serena and her friends to rise up. As their anger builds into an inferno of female rage, Serena takes matters into her own hands.
Leysham has reawakened something within her, a dark, impossible power. In the waters, she can see what must be done – and the sacrifice it will demand.
From the author of Heatstroke, an intoxicatingly atmospheric new novel about competition, obsession and influence – for readers of The Things We Do to Our Friends, Weyward and Promising Young Woman.
Published August 1st by Jonathan Cape Literary Fiction, Contemporary Fiction, Psychological Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Max didn’t believe in an afterlife. Until he died.
‘A book that will stay with you forever’ OBSERVER ‘Sharp prose weaving intergenerational trauma and a ghost story’ SINÉAD GLEESON ‘It takes brilliance to leap into the darkness’ ANNE ENRIGHT ‘My favourite Wyld novel’ PAULA HAWKINS
As a reluctant ghost trying to work out why he remains, Max watches his girlfriend Hannah lost in grief in the flat they shared and begins to realise how much of her life was invisible to him. In the weeks and months before Max’s death, Hannah is haunted by the secrets she left Australia to escape.
A relationship with Max seems to offer the potential of a different story, but the past refuses to stay hidden. It finds expression in the untold stories of the people she grew up with, the details of their lives she never knew and the events that broke her family apart and led her to Max.
Both a celebration and autopsy of a relationship, The Echoes is a novel about stories and who has the right to tell them, asking what of our past can we shrug off and what is fixed forever.
Published August 1st by Pan Macmillan Romance Novel, Contemporary Romance, Erotic Literature, New Adult Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: THE UNMISSABLE DEBUT ROMANCE NOVEL FROM CAMERON CAPELLO, TIKTOK AND INSTAGRAM’S @CHAMBEROFSECRETBOOKS, COMING SUMMER 2024. For fans who loved all the angst and tension of Magnolia Parks with the sun-kissed vibes of The Summer I Turned Pretty.
I’ll Look for You, Everywhereis an intoxicating love story for the ages following Theo and Magdalen, childhood neighbours, as they are reunited for the first time in seven years to celebrate a family wedding in the sleepy Italian village they grew up in. Confronted with the ghosts of their pasts, Theo and Magdalen must face both the burning tension between them and the long-buried secrets that threaten to tear their worlds apart – and could possibly separate them forever. . .
Fire and Bones (Temperance Brennan Book 23) by Kathy Reiches
Published August 1st by Simon & Schuster UK Thriller, Mystery, Suspense, Crime Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: #1 New York Times bestselling author Kathy Reichs returns with a new twisty, unputdownable thriller featuring forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan.
It’s never easy working fire scenes.
Called to Washington, DC to analyse the victims of a mysterious arson attack, Tempe quickly finds her misgivings justified. The fire site is in Foggy Bottom, a neighbourhood with a colourful history, and as the pieces start falling into place, the property’s ownership becomes more and more suspicious.
Sensing a good story, Tempe teams up with a new ally, telejournalist Ivy Doyle. Delving into the past, the duo learns that back in the Thirties and Forties the home was the hangout of a group of bootleggers and racketeers known as the Foggy Bottom Gang. Though interesting, this fact seems irrelevant – until the son of one of the gang members is shot dead at his farm in Virginia.
When another Foggy Bottom Gang-linked property burns to the ground, claiming one more victim, what might have been coincidence starts to look more like targeted attacks. As she and Ivy dig deeper, Tempe’s instincts point towards the obvious: somehow, her every move since coming to Washington has been anticipated in advance. And every path forward brings with it a lethal threat.
Published August 1st by The Borough Press Literary Fiction, Lesbian Literature
BOOK DESCRIPTION: A stylish, searing drama about the complicated love between mothers and daughters, the indelible impact of estrangement – and one woman fiercely coming into her own.
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‘When my mother washed my hair she crooned, mamele, mamele, into my ear. Little mother, meaning little daughter, meaning you’re a good girl, Edie.’
Edie lives in a crumbling country house in Broadstairs with her partner Joanna. They have spent over a decade together since the death of Harry, the third member of their polyamorous marriage. It’s a quiet, comfortable existence – but conversations about the mother who abandoned her have recently awoken in Edie feelings she long thought buried.
As Edie’s memories unspool – childhood days among the gossiping housewives of the mansion block, intense adolescent love affairs, clandestine nights in London clubs – she is forced to confront her ghosts and piece together the various parts of herself, as a queer woman and the daughter of a Jewish émigré. Now in her early fifties, she wonders whether there is still time to become the woman she once yearned to be.
In Mamele, Gemma Reeves writes with extraordinary deftness about unconventional families, cultural inheritance and separation, loneliness and aching desire.
Published August 1st by Head of Zeus Historical Fiction, Mystery, Historical Mystery, Historical Thriller
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Sleuth and illusionist Joseph Spector investigates his most complex case yet in this gripping new locked-room murder mystery from Tom Mead, set in an English country house just before the Second World War.
Hampshire, 1938. Victor Silvius is confined in a private sanatorium after attacking prominent judge Sir Giles Drury. When Sir Giles starts receiving sinister threatening letters, his wife suspects Silvius. Meanwhile, Silvius’ sister Caroline is convinced her brother is about to be murdered… by none other than his old nemesis Sir Giles.
Caroline seeks the advice of Scotland Yard’s Inspector Flint, while the Drurys, eager to avoid a scandal, turn to Joseph Spector. Spector, renowned magician turned sleuth, has an uncanny knack for solving complicated crimes – but this case will test his powers of deduction to their limits.
At a snowbound English country house, a body is found is impossible circumstances, and a killer’s bullet is fired through a locked window without breaking the glass. Spector and Flint’s investigations soon collide as they find themselves trapped by the snowstorm where anyone could be the next victim – or the killer…
Published August 6th by Atom Historical Fiction, Adventure Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: ‘A stunning debut. Weaving together a cast of loveable rogues, a richly detailed historical setting, and a cinematic thrill ride of a story, Medici Heist knocked us flat!’ The Duffer Brothers, creators of Netflix’s STRANGER THINGS
Welcome to Florence, 1517, a world of intrigue and opulence, murder and betrayal. Sharp-witted conwoman Rosa Cellini arrives in the city the same day that the Medici Pope, Leo X, returns to take up the reins of power. This is not a coincidence. The new Pope is extorting a mountain of indulgence money from the people of Florence to bolster his power and standing, and Rosa has a plan to take it back.
To pull off the Renaissance’s greatest robbery, she’ll recruit a team of highly skilled misfits: Sarra the tinkerer, Khalid the fighter, and Giacomo, the irrepressible master of disguise. But as the authorities draw closer and the Medici’s noose pulls tighter around the land, old secrets resurface and tensions in the group start to flare. What began as a robbery could be the key to saving the city itself – if Rosa and company don’t destroy each other first.
Get ready for an absolute swashbuckling riot, beginning with a ‘mud’ pie to the Pope’s face, and ending with a climactic heist that would give Danny Ocean a run for his money. Bursting with action, Medici Heist is your next un-put-downable obsession.
Published August 8th by Mantle Literary Fiction, Lesbian Literature
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Set in the world of London academia, both past and present, Wife by Charlotte Mendelson is heart-breaking and funny, profound and gripping, as it takes the reader from the end of a relationship to its beginning, and back again.
When Zoe moves in with Penny, their relationship looks perfect; after all, everyone wants a wife. But this is the story of how love can become a disaster . . .
Zoe Stamper, junior researcher in Ancient Greek Tragedy, meets fellow academic Dr Penny Cartwright at a faculty flute recital. Dr Cartwright seems impossibly glamorous to Zoe, who is, after all, several rungs down the academic pecking order – and a nervous ingénue as far as Penny’s sophisticated circle is concerned. But Penny leaves Zoe a cryptic note, and a passionate affair ensues.
Once Penny confesses all to her live-in lover, Justine, their happiness seems assured. But there is something else Penny needs as badly in her life as Zoe’s adoration, and thus the beginning of their affair might also have signalled its end.
Published August 8th by Viking Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction, Psychological Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: The breathtaking new novel from the Booker-shortlisted, bestselling author of The Island of Missing Trees and 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World – available for pre-order now
*****
This is the story of one lost poem, two great rivers, and three remarkable lives – all connected by a single drop of water.
In the ruins of Nineveh, that ancient city of Mesopotamia, there lies hidden in the sand fragments of a long-forgotten poem, the Epic of Gilgamesh.
In Victorian London, an extraordinary child is born at the edge of the dirt-black Thames. Arthur’s only chance of escaping poverty is his brilliant memory. When his gift earns him a spot as an apprentice at a printing press, Arthur’s world opens up far beyond the slums, with one book soon sending him across the seas: Nineveh and Its Remains.
In 2014 Turkey, Narin, a Yazidi girl living by the River Tigris, waits to be baptised with water brought from the holy sit of Lalish in Iraq. The ceremony is cruelly interrupted, and soon Narin and her grandmother must journey across war-torn lands in the hope of reaching the sacred valley of their people.
In 2018 London, broken-hearted Zaleekhah, a hydrologist, moves to a houseboat on the Thames to escape the wreckage of her marriage. Zaleekhah foresees a life drained of all love and meaning – until an unexpected connection to her homeland changes everything.
A dazzling feat of storytelling from one of the greatest writers of our time, Elif Shafak’s There are Rivers in the Sky is a rich, sweeping novel that spans centuries, continents and cultures, entwined by rivers, rains, and waterdrops: ‘Water remembers. It is humans who forget.’
Published August 13th by Del Rey Historical Fiction, Fantasy Fiction, Historical Fiction, Romantic Fantasy
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Fair is foul and foul is fair.
From the Sunday Times bestselling author of A STUDY IN DROWNING comes a reimagining of Lady Macbeth, Shakespeare’s most famous villainess, giving her a voice, a past, and a power that transforms the story men have written for her.
The Lady knows the stories: that her eyes induce madness in men.
The Lady knows she will be wed to the Scottish brute, who does not leave his warrior ways behind when he comes to the marriage bed.
The Lady knows his hostile, suspicious court will be a game of survival, requiring all of her wiles and hidden witchcraft to survive.
But the Lady does not know her husband has occult secrets of his own. She does not know that prophecy girds him like armour. She does not know that her magic is greater, and more dangerous, and that it will threaten the order of the world.
Published August 13th by St Martin’s Press Hitorical Fiction, Romance Novel
BOOK DESCRIPTION: “This BEAUTIFULLY-WRITTEN HISTORICAL is a SUMPTUOUS, PAGE-TURNING DELIGHT filled with an enticing mix of FORBIDDEN ROMANCE and buried secrets.” –Ellen Marie Wiseman, New York Times bestselling author of The Lost Girls of Willowbrook
Duty, desire, and deception reside under one roof.
Standing in the remote windswept moors of Northern England, Coldwell Hall is the perfect place to hide. For the past five years, Kate Furniss has maintained her professional mask so carefully that she almost believes she is the character she has created: Coldwell’s respectable housekeeper.
It is the summer of 1911 that brings new faces above and below the stairs of Coldwell Hall–including the handsome and mysterious new footman, Jem Arden. Just as the house’s shuttered rooms open, so does Kate’s guarded heart to a love affair that is as intense as it is forbidden. But Kate can feel her control slipping as Jem harbors secrets of his own.
Told in alternating timelines from the last sun-drenched summer of the Edwardian Age to the mud-filled trenches of WWI, The Housekeeper’s Secret opens its door to a world of romance, the truths we hold onto, and the past we must let go.
Published August 13th by Gollancz Fantasy Fiction, Romance Novel, Romantic Fantasy
SYNOPSIS: As head phoenix keeper at a world-renowned zoo for magical creatures, Aila’s childhood dream of conserving critically endangered firebirds seems closer than ever. There’s just one glaring caveat: her zoo’s breeding program hasn’t functioned for a decade. When a tragic phoenix heist sabotages the flagship initiative at a neighbouring zoo, Aila must prove her derelict facilities are fit to take the reins.
But saving an entire species from extinction requires more than stellar animal handling skills. Carnivorous water horses, tempestuous thunderhawks, mischievous dragons… Aila has no problem wrangling beasts. Inspiring zoo patrons? That’s another story. Mustering the courage to ask for help from the hotshot griffin keeper at the zoo’s most popular exhibit? Virtually impossible.
Especially when that hotshot griffin keeper happens to be her arch-rival from college: Luciana, an annoyingly brooding and insufferable know-it-all with the grace of a basilisk and the face of a goddess who’s convinced that Aila’s beloved phoenix would serve their cause better as an active performer rather than as a passive conservation exhibit.
With the world watching and the threat of poachers looming, Aila’s success is no longer merely a matter of keeping her job… She is the keeper of the phoenix, and the future of a species now rests on her shoulders. There’s just one thing she has to remember: she is also not alone. Against an epic fantasy backdrop teeming with all your favourite mythical beasts from dragons and unicorns to kelpies and krakens, The Phoenix Keeper combines the cozy fantasy stakes of TJ Klune and Travis Baldree with the heartwarming contemporary romance of Alice Oseman and Casey McQuiston.
Published August 15th by HQ Gothic Fiction, Historical Fiction, Mystery, Historical Mystery, Romance Novel
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Can she unlock the secrets of The House of Fever?
1935, Hedoné House, a luxurious sanatorium for the creative elite dedicated to the groundbreaking treatment of tuberculosis. As the doctor’s new wife, Agnes Templeton has pledged her life to a house of fever.
But Hedoné is no ordinary hospital. High society rubs shoulders with artists, poets and musicians. No expense is spared on the comfort of the guests, and champagne flows freely. It’s a world away from everything Agnes knows.
Her husband’s methods are unusual. There are whisperings about past patients and even a cure. Hedoné’s secrets draw Agnes in, revealing truths she could never anticipate, and soon she is caught between a past she is desperate to escape and a future she may forever regret.
Published August 15th by Sphere Historical Fiction, Fairy Tale, Thriller, Political Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR COMES A NEW SPELLBINDING RETELLING SET AT THE DAWN OF THE ROMAN WORLD ________
Aeneas, the son of Venus, is destined for greatness, prophesised to father a people who will one day rule the world.
But behind every great man are the women the prophecies forget. Creusa, Dido and Lavinia will never meet, yet they are united by the ambitions of one man whose life is pre-ordained to collide irreparably with theirs.
But if their destiny remains unwritten, can they determine the future for themselves?
This is the story of Rome’s origins as it’s never been told before, through the eyes of three women whose choices changed history.
Published August 15th by Zaffre Mystery, Thriller, Crime Fiction, Travel Literature
BOOK DESCRIPTION: The debut linguistic mystery novel from Countdown‘s resident lexicographer, Susie Dent.
‘A TANTALISING MYSTERY FOR WORD SLEUTHS AND CRIME FANS ALIKE’ JANICE HALLETT
She’d known there would be ghosts in Oxford. Martha wasn’t afraid of any headless horsemen, or nuns haunting the local ruins; it was Charlie, always Charlie she was afraid would find her.
When an anonymous letter is delivered to the Clarendon English Dictionary, it is rapidly clear that this is not the usual lexicographical enquiry. Instead, the letter hints at secrets and lies linked to a particular year.
For Martha Thornhill, the new senior editor, the date can mean only one thing: the summer her brilliant older sister Charlie went missing.
After a decade abroad, Martha has returned home to the city whose ancient institutions have long defined her family. Have the ghosts she left behind her been waiting for her return?
When more letters arrive, and Martha and her team pull apart the complex clues within them, the mystery becomes ever more insistent and troubling. It seems Charlie had been keeping a powerful secret, and someone is trying to lead the lexicographers towards the truth. But other forces are no less desperate to keep it well and truly buried.
Published August 15th by Bantam Mystery, Psychological Thriller, Suspense
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Three women. One Killer. Talking to strangers has never been more dangerous…
When the body of forty-four-year-old Karen Simmons is found abandoned in remote woodland, journalist Kiki Nunn is determined this will be the big break she so desperately needs.
Because she has a head start on all the other reporters. Just a week before Karen was killed, Kiki interviewed her about the highs and lows of mid-life romance. Karen told her all about kissing strangers on the beach under the stars, expensive meals, roses. About the scammers and the creeps…
While the police appear to be focusing on local suspects, Kiki sets out to write the definitive piece on one woman’s fatal search for love. But she will soon learn that the search for truth can be just as deadly…
Published August 15th by xx Crime Fiction, Mystery, Thriller, Psychological Thriller
BOOK DESCRIPTION: I thought I saw her today. Down by the water. It was her hair I noticed. Do you ever see her, Lex? Does she haunt you too?
I haven’t been back to Eos since I first met my step-sister, Lex. It’s been twenty-five years since that summer. Since we went from strangers to sisters. Since Abigail went missing. Since we told the first lie.
Now we’re back together on the island. So much has changed since we were teenagers. We’ve both tried to move on from the past – from each other. But the island won’t let us escape our secrets.
Only me and Lex know the truth about Abigail. We’ve been living a lie for so long. And if the truth comes out – neither of us will survive it…
Eddie Winston is Looking For Love by Marianne Cronin
Published August 15th by Doubleday UK Romance Novel, Literary Fiction, Humorous Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Funny, feelgood, heartlifting story about the power of intergenerational friendship and finding love in unexpected places – perfect for fans of The One Hundred Year-Old Man Who Climbed Through the Windowand The Rosie Project
‘Marianne Cronin creates such complete and lovable characters, and these pages are brimming over with kindness and hope. Sublimely enjoyable’ Hazel Prior, author of Away with the Penguins
Eddie Winston is ninety years old. He has lived and he has loved, but he has never been kissed.
A true gentleman and incurable romantic, Eddie spends his days volunteering at a charity shop, where he sorts through the donations of the living and the dead, preserving letters and tokens of love along the way. It is here that he meets Bella, a troubled young woman who, aged twenty-four, has just lost the love of her life.
When Bella learns that Eddie is yet to have his first kiss, she resolves to help him finally find love, sparking an adventure that will take them to unexpected places and, they hope, bring Eddie to the moment he has waited for all his life.
As Bella helps Eddie and Eddie helps, well, everyone, a soul-stirring story of friendship and kindness unfolds as we see how those we love are never forgotten and it is never too late to try again.
Published August 15th by HQ Romance Novel, Contemporary Romance, Coming-of-Age Story
BOOK DESCRIPTION: If Maggie is living her best life, why doesn’t it feel like she’s in the right place?
From the outside, Maggie Lemon has a perfect life. But she and her husband have been trying for a baby for five years and she’s exhausted. She’s seen countless fertility experts and followed dozens of diets and homeopathic recommendations, and even gave up her dream restaurant in London when doctors suggested the stress might be too much. And now her estranged aunt has died, leaving her hotel in Provence to Maggie.
It’s been years since Maggie visited Le Figuier. There’s a lot of work to be done and she knows she should sell it. But when a disgraced Hollywood actor hiding out at the hotel lends a hand, the load feels a lot lighter. Is it just the chemistry with this handsome stranger, or is it starting to feel like Maggie might finally be in the right place?
‘I’m a huge fan of all of Sophia’s books but this is my new favourite…it helped me remember that the sun will come again. Summer holiday read simply doesn’t do it justice!’ Cleo Watson, author of Whips
Published August 15th by The Borough Press Historical Fiction, Fairy Tale, Mythology, LGBT Literature
BOOK DESCRIPTION: ‘A brilliant and luminous writer’ MADELINE MILLER, author of THE SONG OF ACHILLES and CIRCE
Theirs was a love that defied the gods…
Young, headstrong Psyche has captured the eye of every suitor with her beauty – but also, unfortunately, the jealous gaze of the goddess Aphrodite. As punishment, Psyche is tied to a rock to be sacrificed to a ‘monstrous husband’. And yet, no monster arrives: instead, she is spirited away by Aphrodite’s daughter Eros.
Eros, goddess of desire, can change gender at will. And in her hidden palace, she visits her bride under the cloak of darkness: Psyche is forbidden to gaze upon the face of her lover. But as they explore each other’s bodies and discover new pleasures, Psyche is tempted to break her vow… even if it brings down the wrath of the gods.
A gloriously anarchic and seductive retelling of the myth of Psyche and Eros, groundbreaking, gender-fluid and hugely enjoyable, this is a masterpiece from Caro De Robertis, a writer described by Madeline Miller as ‘brilliant and luminous’.
Published August 15th by Electric Monkey Fantasy Romance, Historical Mystery, Mythology, LGBT Literature, YA Novel
BOOK DESCRIPTION: A fantasy romance, by dazzling new talent Sarah Underwood, inspired by Greek mythology and the tale of Eros and Psyche.
On the island of Zakynthos, nothing is more powerful than Desire―love itself, bottled and sold to the highest bidder by Leandros, a power-hungry descendent of the god Eros.
Eirene and her beloved twin sister, Phoebe, have always managed to escape Desire’s thrall. Until Leandros’ wife dies mysteriously and he sets his sights on Phoebe. Determined to keep her sister safe, Eirene strikes a bargain with Leandros: if she can complete the four elaborate tasks he sets her, he will find another bride. But it soon becomes clear that the tasks are part of something bigger; something related to Desire and Lamia, the strange, neglected daughter Leandros keeps locked away.
Lamia knows her father hides her for her own protection, though as she and Eirene grow closer, she finds herself longing for the outside world. But the price of freedom is high, and with something deadly―something hungry―stalking the night, that price must be paid in blood . . .
Published August 15th by Canelo Thriller, Suspense, Psychological Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: A woman murdered. But was I the real target?
When Esmé Foster left the Boston suburbs to become a professional ballerina, the future shimmered with promise. Eleven years later, her career has been derailed by an injury, and Esmé knows it’s time to come back to Graybridge to help her brother care for their ailing father. But her return coincides with an unthinkable crime. Kara Cunningham, one of Esmé’s high school friends, is found dead in the woods behind the Fosters’ house.
Esmé is shocked and grieving, but also uneasy. In her dreams, she still sees the man who showed up at the scene of the car accident that killed her mother―and told Esmé he was going to kill her too. Family and friends insisted the figure was a product of Esmé’s imagination, that she was concussed after the crash. But she and Kara looked alike, sharing the same petite build, the same hair color. Could Kara’s murder have been a case of mistaken identity?
Detective Rita Myers is familiar with closeknit communities like Graybridge, where, beneath the friendliness, there are whispers and secrets. The town has seen other tragedies too, including the long-ago drowning of a young girl in a pond, deep in the woods. Even within the once-close circle of friends that included Kara and Esmé, Rita discerns a ripple of mistrust.
Day by day, Esmé discovers more about the place she left behind―and the friends and family she thought she knew. Soon, shining a light into the darkness to learn what really happened the night Kara died is the only way she can bring the nightmare to an end …
A dark new thriller perfect for fans of Claire Douglas and Shari Lapena
Published August 22nd by Hamish Hamilton Historical Fiction, Mythology, Fairy Tale, War Story
BOOK DESCRIPTION: The exhilarating follow-up to Pat Barker’s The Women of Troy and The Silence of the Girls
After ten blood-filled years, the war is over. Troy lies in smoking ruins as the victorious Greeks fill their ships with the spoils of battle.
Alongside the treasures looted are the many Trojan women captured by the Greeks – among them the legendary prophetess Cassandra, and her watchful maid, Ritsa. Enslaved as concubine – war-wife – to King Agamemnon, Cassandra is plagued by visions of his death – and her own – while Ritsa is forced to bear witness to both Cassandra’s frenzies and the horrors to come.
Meanwhile, awaiting the fleet’s return is Queen Clytemnestra, vengeful wife of Agamemnon. Heart-shattered by her husband’s choice to sacrifice their eldest daughter to the gods in exchange for a fair wind to Troy, she has spent this long decade plotting retribution, in a palace haunted by child-ghosts.
As one wife journeys toward the other, united by the vision of Agamemnon’s death, one thing is certain: this long-awaited homecoming will change everyone’s fates forever.
Agnes Sharp and the Trip of a Lifetime by Leonie Swann
Published August 22nd by Allison & Busby Mystery, Women Sleuths, Dark Comedy
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Sunset Hall doyenne Agnes Sharp is only too pleased when her housemate Edwina wins a trip to a spa hotel in Cornwall – heaven knows the group of elderly sleuths could do with a change of scenery. But it quickly becomes apparent that the hotel is no paradise, despite the romantic package and five-course menu.
As soon as they’ve made themselves comfortable, Agnes thinks she’s witnessed a murder on the cliffs. And it soon becomes clear that the perpetrator is among them. Will Agnes and her friends survive their holiday?
Published August 22nd by Michael Joseph Mystery, Thriller, Suspense, Crime Fiction, Police Procedural
BOOK DESCRIPTION: One Murder. Five Suspects. Step into Death At The Sanatorium . . .
‘Is this the best crime writer in the world today?’ THE TIMES
‘An automatic must-read for me’ LEE CHILD
‘Master of the Icelandic thriller’ NEW YORK POST
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An old sanatorium. A terrifying murder. Six suspects and a case that never closed . . .
Akureyri, Northern Iceland, 1983.
High up in the most northern part of Iceland stands The Akureyri Sanatorium. Once a hospital dedicated to treating tuberculosis, it now sits haunted by the ghosts of its past.
One wing of the hospital remains open and houses six employees: the caretaker, two doctors, two nurses and a young research assistant.
Despite the wards closing decades ago they remain at the hospital to conduct research. But the cold corridors, draughty windows and echoey halls are constant reminders of the building’s dark history.
When one of the nurses, Yrsa, is found brutally murdered, they discover that death has never left this place – and neither did its secrets. None can escape this terrifying legacy.
Despite just five suspects the case is never solved and remains open for two decades. Until a young criminologist named Helgi Reykdal attempts to finally lay the ghosts of the hospital’s past to rest . . .
Published August 22nd by Picador Literary Fiction, Psychological Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: A searing novel about being a wife, a mother, and an artist, and how marriage makes liars of us all.
‘An unflinchingly true and honest depiction of a marriage turning from gold to dust ― the resentments and disappointments that can rot the heart’ – Miranda Cowley Heller, author of The Paper Palace
A white-hot dissection of the power imbalances in a marriage, and as gripping as you want fiction to be. Any spouse that has ever argued about money, time, work and childcare should read it’ – Nick Hornby, author of High Fidelity, Fever Pitch and About a Boy
A nuclear family can destroy a woman artist. I’d always known that. But I’d never suspected how easily I’d fall into one anyway.
When Jane, an aspiring writer, meets filmmaker John Bridges, they both want the same things: to be in love, to live a successful, creative life, and to be happy. When they marry, Jane believes she has found everything she was looking for, including―a few years later―all the attendant joys and labors of motherhood. But it’s not long until Jane finds herself subsumed by John’s ambitions, whims, and ego; in short, she becomes a wife.
As Jane’s career flourishes, their marriage starts to falter. Throughout the upheavals of family life, Jane tries to hold it all together. That is, until John leaves her.
Sarah Manguso’s Liars is a tour de force of wit and rage, telling the blistering story of a marriage as it burns to the ground, and of a woman rising inexorably from its ashes.
Published August 22nd by Picador Literary Fiction, Time Travel Fiction, Translated Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: One photograph, one treasured memory, one chance to go back . . .
In a cosy photography studio in the mountains between this world and the next, someone is waking up as if from a dream. A kind man will hand them a hot cup of tea and gently explain that, having reached the end of their life, they have one final task.
There is a stack of photos on their lap, one for every day of their life, and now they must choose the pictures that capture their most treasured memories, which will be placed in a beautiful lantern. Once completed, it will be set spinning, and their cherished moments will flash before their eyes, guiding them to another world.
But, like our most thumbed-over photographs, our favourite memories become faded with age, so each visitor to the studio has the chance to choose one day to return to and photograph afresh. Each has a treasured story to tell, from the old woman rebuilding a community in Tokyo after a disaster, to the flawed Yakuza man who remembers a time when he was kind, and a strong child who is fighting to survive.
Extraordinarily moving and wise, The Lantern of Lost Memories is a beautiful Japanese tale about the people that make us and the moments that change us.
Published August 29th by Canongate Literary Fiction, Contemporary Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: What looks like magic is simply a part of life we don’t understand yet . . . When retired Maths teacher Grace is left a run-down house on a Mediterranean island by a long-lost friend, curiosity gets the better of her. She arrives in Ibiza with a one-way ticket, no guidebook and no plan. Among the rugged hills and golden beaches of the Balearics, Grace searches for answers about her friend’s life, and how it ended. What she uncovers is stranger than she could have dreamed. But to dive into this impossible truth, Grace must first come to terms with her past. Filled with wonder and wild adventure, this is a story of hope and the life-changing power of a new beginning.
Published August 29th by Viper Mystery, Thriller, Epistolary Novel, Crime Fiction, Cosy Mystery, Suspense
BOOK DESCRIPTION: ‘An absolute original’ – MICK HERRON ‘Hallett at her very best’ – ELLY GRIFFITHS ‘A slice of genius’ – LOUISE CANDLISH
Six Students. One Murder. Your Time Starts Now…
The mature students of Royal Hastings University’s new art course have been trouble from day one. From acclaimed artist Alyson who seems oddly overqualified, to hapless Patrick who can barely operate design software, and city boy Cameron who blusters his way through assignments. Not to mention Jem, who’s a gifted young sculptor… but cross her at your peril.
The year-long course is blighted by students setting fire to one another’s artwork, a rumoured extra-marital affair and a disastrous road trip. But finally they are given their last assignment: to build an art installation for a local manufacturer. With six students who have nothing in common except their clashing personal agendas, what could possibly go wrong?
The answer is: murder. When the external examiner arrives to assess the students’ coursework, he becomes convinced that a student was killed on the course and that the others covered it up. But is he right? Only a close examination of the evidence will reveal the truth. Your time starts now…
Published August 29th by Michael Joseph Mystery, Suspense, Thriller, Psychological Thriller
BOOK DESCRIPTION: What if the killer she’s hunting turns out to be the woman she’s falling for? A gripping debut thriller in a unique location, from a major new talent in Scottish crime – pre-order now to read before anyone else!
‘A significant crime debut. Authoritatively authentic, irresistibly pacey and nerve-shreddingly tense’ Chris Brookmyre —-
Just because the most dangerous criminals in society are caught and locked up, doesn’t mean they stop committing crime.
That’s where Kennedy Allardyce comes in – monitoring not just the prisoners, but also the staff.
And she’s just stumbled across her most dangerous foe yet – rumours of a corrupt guard with lethal influence. And what’s worst, it seems they’ve already realised Kennedy is on their tail.
At least one thing is giving her joy – a blossoming relationship with Molly, a beautiful, enigmatic new guard.
Wouldn’t it be awful if the killer she’s hunting turned out to be the woman she’s falling for?
Published August 29th by Gollancz Gothic Ficiton, Fantasy Fiction, Romantic Fantasy
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Be careful of the dark and those that call it friend.
Katherine Woodrow is fey, and all she wants is to graduate from the Institute of Magic. But when the prejudiced mortal council threaten her position at the institute, she is left with only one option: accept a Mage Partnership with the elusive Lord Blackthorn.
Emrys Blackthorn is a riddle Kat is fearful of solving. The mysterious, cursed war hero with his stormy eyes and unpredictable ways leaves Kat with more questions than answers. What she does know is that she is irresistibly drawn to him . . . no matter how forbidden it might be.
When a string of murders and fey disappearances herald the return of dark magic, Kat and Emrys are thrown into a world of ancient books that hide hideous monsters, dark fiends who play with nightmares and mortal men who wish nothing more than to see them both burn.
But what haunts them both are secrets even ghosts dare not whisper, while insidious shadows lick their teeth and sharpen their claws, waiting for the moment that all tales will come to light – even the monstrous ones.
Published August 29th by Bedford Square Publishers Thriller, Mystery, Crime Fiction, Political Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Anna Deerin moves to a remote Cotswold cottage to become a gardener, trying to strip away everything she’s spent all her life as a woman striving for, craving the anonymity and privacy her new off-grid life provides. But when she clears the last vegetable bed and digs up not twigs but bones, the outside world is readmitted. With it comes Detective Inspector Hitesh Mistry, who has his own reasons for a new start in the village of Upper Magna.
Drawn in spite of herself to this unknown woman from another time, Anna is determined to uncover her identity and gain recognition for her, if not justice. As threats to Anna and her new life grow closer, she and DI MIstry will find that this murder is inextricably bound up with issues of gender, family, community, race and British identity itself – all as relevant in decades past as they are to Anna today.
Published August 29th by The Borough Press Contemporary Fiction, Biographical Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: When it comes to children: a man leaves, a woman abandons
Ingrid Bergman, Muriel Spark, Maria Montessori, Joni Mitchell … what do these vastly different women have in common?
During the pandemic, trapped at home with young children and struggling to find creative space to write, journalist Begoña Gómez Urzaiz became fixated on artistic women who were able to overcome both society’s judgement and their own maternal instincts in order to leave their children. More than anything, she was fascinated by her own prejudice towards these women, so clearly tied up in a much wider cultural bias.
Using famous examples including Doris Lessing, fictional ones such as Anna Karenina, and interrogating modern trends like Momfluencers, Begoña reveals what our judgement of these women tells us about our judgement of all women.
‘The best book I’ve read on the implications of motherhood and its opposites after Sheila Heti’s Motherhood’ CLAUDIA DURASTANTI
Published August 29th by Harper Collins UK Romance Novel, Humorous Fiction, Domestic Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: The Lost Bookshop meets The Keeper of Stories in this utterly heart-warming story about friendship, hope and a mystery hidden in the language of flowers…
‘Another masterpiece by Sally Page! I read this in one sitting. It moved me, made me smile and stayed with me…’ Reader review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ____________
Follow the flowers and you will find your way home…
One year after her husband’s death Emma has become a wallflower, hiding among the brighter blooms in the florist where she works.
But when a colleague invites her to a talk on the Titanic, she begins a quest to uncover who arranged the flowers on board.
As Emma discovers the lost story of the girl and the great ship, she realises that flowers may unlock long buried secrets in her own life…
Will she be able to unlock the mystery of the Titanic and heal her heart too?
Escape into the world of Sally Page with the perfect summer read for a weekend away or cosying up in your favourite armchair! From the author of phenomenal bestsellers The Keeper of Stories and The Book of Beginnings comes another novel that will warm your heart.
Published August 29th by Brazen Contemporary Fiction, Literary Fiction, Fantasy Fiction, Translated Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: The Full Moon Coffee Shop is the big next read for fans of BEFORE THE COFFEE GETS COLD, DAYS AT THE MORISAKI BOOKSHOP and BUTTER.
IS THERE SUCH A THING AS DESTINY? AND HOW CAN YOU FIND YOURS?
Under a glittering full moon, a Kyoto coffee shop with no fixed location or opening hours appears only where and when it’s needed. Serving fragrant teas, the finest coffees and delicious desserts, it is entirely run by talking cats.
The coffee shop attracts customers who have lost their way in their life, from a down-on-her-luck screenwriter and a lovesick TV director to a misunderstood stylist and a failed video game developer. In the middle of the night, the coffee shop’s feline guides take them on an astrological journey which forces the characters to face up to the past, in order to discover their destiny. And as each of them uncovers their purpose, their paths all become somehow intertwined…
Heartwarming and magical, The Full Moon Coffee Shop will remind you that it’s never too late to discover your purpose.
Published August 29th by MacLehose Press Urban Fiction, Domestic Fiction, Literary Fiction, Translated Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: The Yeonnam-dong Smiley Laundromat is a place where the extraordinary stories of ordinary residents unfold. Situated at the heart of rapidly gentrifying district of Seoul, it’s a haven of peace and reflection for many locals.
And when a notebook is left behind there, it becomes a place that brings people together. One by one, customers start jotting down candid diary entries, opening their hearts and inviting acts of kindness from neighbours who were once just faces in the crowd.
But there is a darker story behind the notebook, and before long the laundromat’s regulars are teaming up to solve the mystery and put the world to rights.
Instantly capturing the hearts of Korean readers, this is a novel about the preciousness of human relationships and the power of solidarity in a world that is increasingly cold, fast-paced, and virtual.
Published May 2nd, 2024 by Hawthorn Wren Suspense, Dramatic Fiction
Today is my stop on the blog tour for this compelling and suspenseful saga. Thank you to Anne at Random Things Tours for the invitation to take part and to Hawthorn Wren for the copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
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ABOUT THE BOOK:
Anna has it all, or so it would seem. Fiercely protective of her daughter and husband, the secrets from her past and ten-year marriage remain hidden. But is that all about to change?
Basking in a tropical paradise, a con artist tires of easily seducing gullible females. He craves a challenge, and the greatest one presents itself. To descend on a quaint Greek fishing village and betray his ex-wife for a second time.
Meanwhile, the mistress of a mafia don gives birth to a daughter. But the baby isn’t his, and it forces a childless wife and her adulterous husband to flee with Elora. And so begins a deadly game of cat and mouse. With all trust in her marriage gone and longed for motherhood thrust upon her, can Dominique protect her new family? Or will her hate, fear and guilt seal their fate?
Hairline cracks are appearing in Anna’s idyllic Greek island life. Somebody is no longer willing to endure the happily-ever-after family façade. And when unwanted and unexpected visitors arrive on her doorstep it can mean only one thing. Anna’s carefully constructed world begins to crumble with devastating results.
Get ready for an emotional and explosive action-packed sequel. In Saving Elora, discover what sacrifices people are willing to make for love, the power of forgiveness and the possibility of second chances.
For fans of gripping suspense and powerful drama, Saving Elora is a must-read. Don’t miss out on this thrilling instalment in the Apokeri Bay series.
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MY REVIEW:
A con artist is tired of the easy seduction of gullible women and decides to head to Apokeri Bay for a bigger challenge: his ex wife who is living on the island with her husband and daughter. Meanwhile, a baby girl is born to the mistress of a Mafia boss and her secret lover. When he discovers her betrayal, her father is forced to go on the run with his wronged wife to save them all from his deadly wrath. They end up on Apokeri Bay, disrupting the island’s idyll and resulting in a thrilling series of events that will change lives forever.
Suspenseful, emotional and action-packed, Saving Elora is a compelling saga that transports you to the sunny climes of the Greek Island of Apokeri for a story of love, secrets, betrayal, vendettas and forgiveness. This book is a sequel but although I’d not read the first book it was easy to follow and is easily read as a standalone. Well-written, fast-paced and oozing tension, Jackie Watson quickly drew me into the fictional world she had created and I loved the sense of community that radiated from the pages. I was immersed in the lives of this eclectic cast of fascinating characters, rooting for baby Elora to be saved, for Javier to be redeemed, and for Anna to find happiness. Violent psychopath Francis, the Mafia boss, is a brilliantly written villain who made chills scissor up my spine. And on the other end of the scale, I had a real soft spot for young Evie and no-nonsense nonagenarian Kristina who both made me smile every time they were on the page.
Tense, twisty, moving and engaging, Saving Elora is perfect for anyone who wants their escapist read with a side of danger this summer.
Rating: ✮✮✮✮✰
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MEET THE AUTHOR:
ackie writes uplifting and thought-provoking fiction set on the Greek island of Lefkada. She is based in North East England and lives in the Tyne Valley with her partner and their extremely cute and characterful Miniature Schnauzer. If not working or writing you will find her striding around the countryside, pottering in their allotment, running or occasionally cycling. There have been many travelling adventures to far-flung destinations, touring the UK and Ireland in a motorhome or camping in the Lake District.
The Apokeri Bay trilogy was born from a recurring dream about a feisty female protagonist who unexpectedly falls in love with a quaint Greek seaside village. With a unique style, Jackie weaves into her storytelling what we all love about great fiction – the chance to step into the world of somebody else and share in their life. But she certainly doesn’t give her characters an easy life. They might discover life-changing friendships, love and hope but need to overcome family friction, dark secrets, guilt and betrayal. Ultimately, they must learn how to embrace and overcome everything life throws at them.
Published March 14th, 2024 by Headline Literary Fiction, Contemporary Fantasy, Contemporary Fiction
Today I’m sharing my review for the mesmerising Small Hours, which is one of this month’s SquadPod Featured Books. Thank you to Headline for sending me a proof in exchange for an honest review.
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SYNOPSIS:
‘Powerful’ JOANNA GLEN ‘Beautiful’ KATE SAWYER ‘A triumph’ JENNIE GODFREY The eagerly awaited new novel from Bobby Palmer, author of the critically acclaimed debut Isaac and the Egg.
If you stood before sunrise in this wild old place, looking through the trees into the garden, here’s what you’d see:
A father and son, a fox standing between them.
Jack, home for the first time in years, still determined to be the opposite of his father.
Gerry, who would rather talk to animals than the angry man back under his roof.
Everything that follows is because of the fox, and because Jack’s mother is missing. It spans generations of big dreams and lost time, unexpected connections and things falling apart, great wide worlds and the moments that define us.
If you met them in the small hours, you’d begin to piece together their story.
‘A magical, comforting read that touches on father-son relationships, male mental health and the healing power of nature’ GOOD HOUSEKEEPING
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MY REVIEW:
“Things aren’t set in stone. The smallest creatures undergo the greatest transformations. We are all of us, always, in flux.”
He’s done it again! Just like Bobby Palmer’s extraordinary debut, Isaac and the Egg, Small Hours is a literary masterpiece. Mesmerising and poignant, this book was like a balm for the soul that wrapped me up in a warm hug as I read. Told in lyrical, melodic prose, I was transfixed and lost myself in its pages. I never wanted it to end but also didn’t want to put it down.
Small Hours is a story about a father, a son, and a fox. A story about family, estrangement, loss, grief, mental health, disillusionment, and new beginnings. Through Jack and Gerry’s strained relationship Palmer explores the father/son relationship from both sides. These characters are like chalk and cheese, and while I loved reading them both, I will admit that it was Gerry I had the softest spot for. Gerry is struggling with a memory problem that is never identified, but seemed to me to be like dementia and it was heartbreaking to read as he tried to grasp at disappearing memories or wandered through the world with no idea where he was or what was going on. Palmer’s research is clear in Gerry’s behaviours and thoughts.
“Did other people find it easy? To ask things, to say things out loud? To grab the stalks of the thoughts in your head and to pull up their roots, to bring them out of the soil and into her sunlight?”
Seamlessly blending literary fiction with fantasy, Palmer has taken the world we know and sprinkled in a little magic in order to help us understand ourselves and those around us a little better. It is so well done that I never once questioned that there was a talking fox or that the story was set in reality. I loved how Jack found a friend and confidant in the fox, and reading their scenes were some of my favourite parts of the story. Palmer’s decision to write the inner monologues of the humans and the fox in disjointed, poetic verses that mirror the way our own thoughts take shape was a stroke of genius. It added to the feeling of authenticity and made me feel like I was really getting a glimpse into their thoughts.
Soulful, uplifting, moving, and original, Small Hours is one of the most beautiful stories I have ever read and it will stay with me long after turning the final page. This is one of those books that you have to experience for yourself and I can’t recommend it highly enough.
Rating: ✮✮✮✮.5
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MEET THE AUTHOR:
BOBBY PALMER is an author and journalist whose writing has appeared in GQ, Esquire, Men’s Health, Cosmopolitan and more. He is co-host of the literary podcast BOOK CHAT with Pandora Sykes.
His debut novel, ISAAC AND THE EGG, was an instant Saturday Times bestseller, selling 50,000 copies in its first year of publication. A Prima and Woman & Home ‘Best Book of 2022’, the novel appeared on BBC Radio 4’s Open Book, featured as Guardian ‘Audiobook of the Week’, and was chosen by Dawn O’Porter as part of her ‘Dawn Loves’ book club with WHSmith.
Bobby’s second novel, SMALL HOURS, will publish in March 2024.
Today I’m featuring something a little different. I was recently contacted by Bulldog Film Distribution inviting me to a screening of their new documentary, Hello Bookstore. I was due to go to a screening last weekend, but unfortunately chronic illness took over and I couldn’t make it. But luckily, the film is now available in selected cinemas and online, so keep an eye out for my review coming soon. Meanwhile, here’s more information about the documentary.
SYNOPSIS:
In the shadow of the pandemic, a small town rallies to protect a beloved local bookstore. A landmark in Lenox, Massachusetts, The Bookstore is a magical, beatnik gem thanks to its owner Matt Tannenbaum, whose passion for stories runs deep. This intimate portrait of The Bookstore and the family at its heart offers a journey through good times, hard times, and the stories hidden on the shelves.
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT:
I have always felt at home in a bookstore. By that living, breathing sense of connection to stories and voices, old and new. For me, that sensation has never been stronger than inside The Bookstore in Lenox, Massachusetts. After spending many blissful hours listening to Matt Tannenbaum’s tales and watching him hold court at The Bookstore, I was struck by a vision to capture its essence: this person, this place and the community that it serves. When I started filming in the autumn of 2019, I never could have predicted what story would present itself in March 2020. I only knew that it was my responsibility not to shy away from the surreal, extraordinary events unfolding around us. What emerged in the hardship of the pandemic, more viscerally than I ever could have imagined, was the symbiosis between a community and a bookstore. That a bookstore isn’t merely a whimsical place to pick out a book, it’s vital to our well-being. And that we need stories now more than ever. – A.B. Zax
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Obviously, this sounds right up my street and I’m very excited to watch this weekend.
Historical and gothic fiction is, for me, a joint favourite genre with thrillers. So I’m very excited about the books on today’s list. What do you think of my choices?
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A Marriage of Fortune by Anne O’Brien
SYNOPSIS: England. 1469.
A fortunate marriage will change history. A scandal could destroy everything…
Margaret Paston, matriarch of the Paston family, knows that a favourable match for one of her unruly daughters is the only way to survive the loss of their recently acquired Caister Castle. But as the War of the Roses rages on, dangerous enemies will threaten even her best laid plans.
Margery Paston, her eldest daughter, has always strived to uphold the Paston name and do her mother proud. But when she loses her heart to a man below her station, she must make a terrible choice: will she betray her family and risk everything for a chance at true love?
Anne Haute, first cousin to the Queen, is embroiled in a longstanding betrothal to Sir John Paston, the eldest son and heir to the Paston seat. But despite his promises, Anne can’t help but doubt that he will ever keep his word and make her his wife…
In the midst of civil war, each of these women must decide: Head or heart? Love or duty? Reputation- or scandal?
SYNOPSIS: Be careful what you wish for… it may just come true.
At The Mercury Theatre in London’s West End, rumours are circulating of a curse.
It is said that the lead actress Lilith has made a pact with Melpomene, the tragic muse of Greek mythology, to become the greatest actress to ever grace the stage. Suspicious of Lilith, the jealous wife of the theatre owner sends dresser Jenny to spy on her, and desperate for the money to help her family, Jenny agrees.
What Jenny finds is a woman as astonishing in her performance as she is provocative in nature. On stage, it’s as though Lilith is possessed by the characters she plays, yet off stage she is as tragic as the Muse who inspires her, and Jenny, sorry for her, befriends the troubled actress. But when strange events begin to take place around the theatre, Jenny wonders if the rumours are true, and fears that when the Muse comes calling for payment, the cost will be too high.
SYNOPSIS: Lena has her life mapped out. While her sister obsesses about fortune-telling gypsies and marriage, Lena studies the way the heart works. She isn’t going to let being a girl stop her from becoming one of Poland’s first female doctors. But the world has other plans for Lena. Instead of university she finds herself a reluctant army wife, lonely and unmoored by the emotions of motherhood. And as she tries to accept a different future from the one she wanted, the threat of global war becomes reality. Lena must face just how unpredictable life can be.
Deemed Enemies of State by the invading Soviets, she and her family are exiled from their Polish village to a work camp in the freezing hell of Siberia. It’s here, despite the hunger and back-breaking work, Lena learns something remarkable; it is possible to fall in love even at the edge of life. And for that love, Lena must make a decision, the consequences of which will haunt her for ever.
Tender, brutal and passionate, The Snow Hare is about living with impossible choices and our incredible ability to cultivate hope in the darkest places.
Published February 2nd by John Murray Press Pre-order here*
A Gift of Poison by Bella Ellis (The Bronte Mysteries 4)
SYNOPSIS: Haworth 1847 – Anne and Emily Brontë have had their books accepted for publication, while Charlotte’s has been rejected everywhere, creating a strained atmosphere at the parsonage.
At the same time, a shocking court case has recently concluded, acquitting a workhouse master of murdering his wife by poison. Everyone thinks this famously odious and abusive man is guilty. However, he insists he is many bad things but not a murderer. When an attempt is made on his life, he believes it to be the same person who killed his wife and applies to the detecting sisters for their help.
Despite reservations, they decide that perhaps, as before, it is only they who can get to the truth and prove him innocent – or guilty – without a shadow of doubt.
Published February 9th by Hodder & Stoughton Pre-order here*
The Shadow of Perseus by Claire Heywood
SYNOPSIS: The myth of Perseus, told through the story of the three women who knew him best – his mother Danae, his wife Andromeda, and his victim, Medusa.
History remembers him as a hero. But the women who knew him best remember a different man…
Perseus grows up wanting to be a hero, but he cannot become one if his mother Danae still sees him as a boy. When his stepfather Polydektes casts him away on a voyage across the sea, Perseus is determined to fulfil the great destiny of the son of a god and the grandson of a king. But the line between heroism and monstrosity is thin, and when Perseus attempts to seduce first gentle Medusa and then beautiful Andromeda, before finally reuniting with Danae, they each learn of the dangers of resisting a boy prepared to risk it all for greatness . . .
Published February 21st by Hodder & Stoughton Pre-order here
The Book of Eve by Meg Clothier
SYNOPSIS: In the name of the Father, not a word of this. Her letters are forbidden.
Beatrice is the convent’s librarian. For years, she has shunned the company of her sisters, finding solace only with her manuscripts.
Then, one carnival night, two women, bleeding and stricken, are abandoned outside the convent’s walls. Moments from death, one of them presses something into Beatrice’s hands: a bewitching book whose pages have a dangerous life of their own.
But men of the faith want the book destroyed, and a zealous preacher has tracked it to her door. Her sisters’ lives – or her obsession. Beatrice must decide.
The book’s voice is growing stronger. An ancient power uncoils. Will she dare to listen?
SYNOPSIS: From the author of the intoxicating bestseller The Lost Apothecary comes an entrancing exploration of the blurred lines between truth and illusion and the grave risks women take to avenge the ones they love.
May mercy be upon the man who finds himself the enemy of a vengeful medium…
1873. At an abandoned château on the outskirts of Paris, a dark séance is about to take place, led by acclaimed spiritualist Vaudeline D’Allaire. Known worldwide for her talent in conjuring the spirits of murder victims to ascertain the identities of the people who killed them, she is highly sought after by widows and investigators alike.
Lenna Wickes has come to Paris to find answers about her sister’s death, but to do so, she must embrace the unknown and overcome her own logic-driven bias against the occult. When Vaudeline is beckoned to England to solve a high-profile murder, Lenna accompanies her as an understudy. But as the women team up with the powerful men of London’s exclusive Séance Society to solve the mystery, they begin to suspect that they are not merely out to solve a crime, but perhaps entangled in one themselves…
Published March 21st by Legend Press Pre-order here*
The Lodger by Helen Scarlett
SYNOPSIS: This second novel from the author of The Deception of Harriet Fleet takes us back to the aftermath of the Great War in another haunting, atmospheric Gothic tale.
London in 1919 was a city of ghosts and absences, haunted by the men who marched away but never came back from ‘the war to end all wars.’
Grace Armstrong believes that she has come to terms with her own loss, the death of her fiancé, the brilliant and dazzling best friend of her brother. He was declared Missing in Action during the Battle of the Somme, but he starts to reappear both in her waking life and dreams.
Grace is appalled when a body, dragged from the Thames, is identified as Elizabeth Smith, who has lodged with Grace and her family for the last eight years before suddenly disappearing.
Elizabeth had been more than a lodger; she had become a close friend to Grace, who feels compelled to find out what happened. In doing so she is drawn reluctantly into the sordid and dangerous underbelly of London and a scandal that rocked Edwardian society. Soon Grace finds herself under threat, and the only person prepared to listen is the brooding Tom Monaghan. But Tom has dark shadows of his own to navigate before being able to put his past behind him to help Grace in her quest for the truth.
SYNOPSIS: From SUNDAY TIMES bestselling author Kate Heartfield comes a glorious, lyrical retelling of one of Norse mythology’s greatest epics
Brynhild is a Valkyrie: shieldmaiden of the Allfather, chooser of the slain. But now she too has fallen, flightless in her exile.
Gudrun is a princess of Burgundy, a daughter of the Rhine, a prize for an invading king – a king whose brother Attila has other plans, and a dragon to call upon.
And in the songs to be sung, there is another hero: Sigurd, a warrior with a sword sharper than the new moon.
As the legends tell, these names are destined to be lovers, fated as enemies. But here on Midgard, legends can be lies…
For not all heroes are heroic, nor all monsters monstrous. And a shieldmaiden may yet find that love is the greatest weapon of all.
Kate Heartfield’s book ‘The Embroidered Book’ was a Sunday Times bestseller w/c 14-02-2022.
Published March 30th by HarperVoyager Pre-order here*
The House of Whispers by Anna Mazzola
SYNOPSIS: A creepy, chilling story – another Anna Mazzola triumph!’ JENNIFER SAINT
Sometimes the secrets of the past are more dangerous than the present…
Rome, 1938.
As the world teeters on the brink of war, talented pianist Eva Valenti enters the house of widower Dante Cavallera to become his new wife.
On the outside, the forces of Fascism are accelerating, but in her new home, Eva fears that something else is at work, whispering in the walls and leaving mysterious marks on Dante’s young daughter.
Soon she starts to wonder whether the house itself is trying to give up the secrets of its mysterious past – secrets that Dante seems so determined to keep hidden.
However, Eva must also conceal the truth of her own identity, for if she is discovered, she will be in greater danger than she could ever have imagined…
SYNOPSIS: The mesmerising story of the only female Argonaut, told by Jennifer Saint, the bestselling author of ELEKTRAand ARIADNE .
When a daughter is born to the King of Arcadia, she brings only disappointment.
Left exposed on a mountainside, the defenceless infant Atalanta is left to the mercy of a passing mother bear and raised alongside the cubs under the protective eye of the goddess Artemis.
Swearing that she will prove her worth alongside the famed heroes of Greece, Atalanta leaves her forest to join Jason’s band of Argonauts. But can she carve out her own place in the legends in a world made for men?
SYNOPSIS: From the bestselling author of The Clockmaker’s Daughter, Kate Morton, comes a breathtaking mystery of love, lies and a cold case come back to life, told with her trademark intricacy and beauty.
Adelaide Hills, Christmas Eve, 1959.
At the end of a scorching hot day, beside a creek in the grounds of a grand and mysterious mansion, a local delivery man makes a terrible discovery. A police investigation is called and the small town of Tumbilla becomes embroiled in one of the most shocking and perplexing murder cases in the history of South Australia.
Sixty years later, Jess is a journalist in search of a story. Having lived and worked in London for almost twenty years, she now finds herself laid off from her full-time job and struggling to make ends meet. A phone call out of nowhere summons her back to Sydney, where her beloved grandmother, Nora, who raised Jess when her mother could not, has suffered a fall and been raced to the hospital.
At a loose end in Nora’s house, Jess does some digging into her past. In Nora’s bedroom, she discovers a true crime book, chronicling the police investigation into a long-buried tragedy: the Turner Family Tragedy of Christmas Eve, 1959. It is only when Jess skims through the book that she finds a shocking connection between her own family and this once-infamous crime – a crime that has never been truly solved. And for a journalist without a story, a cold case might be the best distraction she can find . . .
An epic novel that spans generations, Homecoming asks what we would do for those we love, and how we protect the lies we tell. It explores the power of motherhood, the corrosive effects of tightly held secrets, and the healing nature of truth.
SYNOPSIS: The gripping and unforgettable new novel from Caroline Lea, based on one of history’s most shocking but largely untold scandals
‘Gorgeous. Prize Women . . . took my breath away. I haven’t stopped thinking about it’ JENNIFER SAINT, bestselling author of ARIADNE
Masterful. Caroline Lea is a superb storyteller, and Prize Women deserves a huge readership. So good, I had to pull myself away’ ELIZABETH MACNEAL, bestselling author of THE DOLL FACTORY ___________
Toronto, Canada, 1926
Best friends Lily di Marco and Mae Thebault were once inseparable. They lived under the same roof and cared for each other’s children. But with mouths to feeds and demanding husbands to keep happy, both women are forced into terrible decisions as the Great Depression tightens its grip.
When lawyer Charles Vance Miller’s will promises a handsome sum of money to the woman who can produce the most babies in the next ten years, it is initially dismissed as a vanity project. But as the Great Depression worsens, and times get increasingly tough across the world, for the most desperate in society this contest known as The Great Stork Derby suddenly seems like a way out.
Ten years later, Lily and Mae couldn’t be further apart. And as The Great Stork Derby continues to make headlines, for all the wrong reasons, both these women must face up to their part in it, and the consequences…
Published April 27th by Michael Joseph Pre-order here*
The Woman on the Bridge by Sheila O’Flanagan
SYNOPSIS: A stunning historical novel from multi-million-copy bestselling author Sheila O’Flanagan Dublin. The 1920s. As war tears Ireland apart, two young people are caught up in events that will bring love, tragedy – and the hardest of choices.
In a country fighting for freedom, it’s hard to live a normal life. Winnie O’Leary supports the cause, but she doesn’t go looking for trouble. Then rebel Joseph Burke steps into her workplace. Winnie is furious with him about a broken window. She’s not interested in romance. But love comes when you least expect it.
Joseph’s family shelter fugitives and transport weapons. Joseph would never ask Winnie to join the fight; but his mother and sisters demand commitment. Will Winnie choose Joseph, and put her own loved ones in deadly danger? Or wait for a time of peace that may never come?
Ireland’s tumultuous independence struggle is the backdrop for an unforgettable story of courage and heartbreak, in which heroes are made of ordinary people. Inspired by the story of Sheila O’Flanagan’s grandmother, The Woman on the Bridge is the unmissable, compulsive new novel from a bestselling author.
Published April 27th by Headline Review Pre-order here*
A Lady’s Guide to Scandal by Sophie Irwin
SYNOPSIS: The captivating new historical novel from the author of the Sunday Times bestseller A Lady’s Guide to Fortune-Hunting
Pre-order the most delightful, escapist historical of the year from the Sunday Times bestselling author!
Recently widowed from her marriage of convenience, Eliza, now Dowager Countess of Somerset, is bequeathed a fortune, hers to keep as long as she can steer clear of scandal.
It should be simple – Eliza has spent a lifetime following the rules – but now that she is rich, titled and independent, misbehaviour is much more tempting…
Published May 11th by Harper Collins Pre-order here*
The Ghost Theatre by Mat Osman
SYNOPSIS: TO LOVE IS TO FALL . . .
On a rooftop in Elizabethan London two worlds collide. Shay is a messenger-girl and trainer of hawks who sees the future in the patterns of birds. Nonesuch is the dark star of the city’s fabled child theatre scene, as famous as royalty yet lowly as a beggar.
Together they create The Ghost Theatre: a troupe staging magical plays in London’s hidden corners. As their hallucinatory performances incite rebellion among the city’s outcasts, the pair’s relationship sparks and burns against a backdrop of the plague and a London in flames. Their growing fame sweeps them up into the black web of the Elizabethan court, where Shay and Nonesuch discover that if they fly too high, a fall is sure to come.
Fantastical and captivating, The Ghost Theatre charts the rise and dramatic destruction of a dream born from love and torn apart by betrayal.
SYNOPSIS: A gripping, gut-punch of a novel about a Cherokee child removed from her family and sent to a Christian boarding school in the 1950s—an ambitious, eye-opening reckoning of history and small-town prejudices from Pulitzer Prize finalist Margaret Verble.
Since her mother’s death, Kit Crockett has lived with her grief-stricken father, spending lonely days far out in the country tending the garden, fishing in a local stream, and reading Nancy Drew mysteries from the library bookmobile. One day when Kit discovers a mysterious and beautiful woman has moved in just down the road, she is intrigued.
Kit and her new neighbor Bella become fast friends. Both outsiders, they take comfort in each other’s company. But malice lurks near their quiet bayou and Kit suddenly finds herself at the center of tragic, fatal crime. Soon, Kit is ripped from her home and Cherokee family and sent to Ashley Lordard, a religious boarding school. Along with the other Native students, Kit is stripped of her heritage, force-fed Christian indoctrination, and is sexually abused by the director. But Kit, as strong-willed and shrewd as ever, secretly keeps a journal recounting what she remembers—and revealing just what she has forgotten. Over the course of Stealing, she slowly unravels the truth of how she ended up at the school—and plots a way out.
In swift, sharp, and stunning prose, Margaret Verble spins a powerful coming-of age tale and reaffirms her place as an indelible storyteller and chronicler of history.
Published May 11th by Harper Collins Pre-order here*
Vita and the Birds by Polly Crosby
SYNOPSIS: A haunting mystery for fans of Eve Chase, Kate Morton and Kate Mosse.
1938: Lady Vita Goldsborough lives in the shadow of her controlling older brother, Aubrey. Trapped and isolated on the East Anglian coast, Vita takes solace in watching the birds that fly over the marshes. But then she meets local artist Dodie Blakeney. The two women form a close bond, and Vita finally glimpses a chance to escape Aubrey’s grasp and be as free as the birds she loves.
1997: Decades later and in the wake of her mother’s death, Eve Blakeney returns to the coast where she spent childhood summers with her beloved grandmother, Dodie. Eve hopes the visit will help make sense of her grief. The last thing she expects to find is a bundle of letters that hint at the heart-breaking story of Dodie’s relationship with a woman named Vita.
Eve and Vita’s stories are linked by a shattering secret that echoes through the decades, and when Eve discovers the truth, it will overturn everything she thought she knew about her family – and change her life forever.
Mrs Porter Calling by AJ Pearce (The Emmy Lake Chronicles)
SYNOPSIS: The heartwarming, moving and uplifting new story of friendship, love and finding courage when all seems lost from AJ Pearce, TheSunday Times bestselling author of Dear Mrs Bird and Yours Cheerfully.
London, April 1943.
Emmy Lake is an agony aunt at Woman’s Friend magazine, doing all she can to help readers as they face the challenges of wartime life. With her column thriving and a team of women behind her, Emmy finally feels she is Doing Her Bit.
But when the glamourous new owner arrives, everything changes. Charming her way around editor Guy Collins, Emmy quickly realises the Honourable Mrs Cressida Porter plans to destroy everything readers love about the magazine.
With her best friends by her side, Emmy must work out how she can bring everyone together and save Woman’s Friend before it’s too late.
SYNOPSIS: A grand hotel, a famous opera star and a psychoanalyst with a hidden agenda. Kate Mascarenhas’s third novel offers her readers a glamorous, thrilling ride through murder, madness and the darkest recesses of the mind.
February, 1929. The Regent Hotel in Birmingham is a place of deception and glamour. Behind its six-storeyed façade, guests sip absinthe cocktails on velvet banquettes, while the hotel’s red-jacketed staff scurry through its lavish corridors to ensure the finest service is always at hand.
In the early evening, a psychoanalyst checks in under a pseudonym: Nora Dickinson. Nora is young, diligent and ambitious. Though she doesn’t see herself as a liar, she is travelling with an agenda. Having followed the famous opera singer, Berenice Oxbow, from Zurich to Birmingham, she’s determined not to let her out of her sight.
But when a terrible snow storm isolates the hotel – and its guests – from the outside world, the lines between nightmare and reality begin to blur…
SYNOPSIS: From the author of stunning historical fiction books comes a new story of crime, deceit, and murder, set in the early 1920s…
In the hot summer of 1914 a boy vanishes, never to be seen again.
Now, in 1920, the once esteemed Stilwell family of Darkacre Hall find their already troubled lives thrown into disarray when new evidence leads to the boy’s case being reopened – and this time they themselves are under police scrutiny.
As the dead return to haunt the living, old resentments resurface and loyalties are tested, while secrets risk being unearthed that could destroy them all.
SYNOPSIS: Exploring universal themes of love and loss, the power of redemption and what it means to be unique,The Fascination is an evocative,glittering and bewitching gothic novel that brings alive Victorian London and darkness and deception that lies beneath…
Victorian England. A world of rural fairgrounds and glamorous London theatres. A world of dark secrets and deadly obsessions…
Twin sisters Keziah and Tilly Lovell are identical in every way, except that Tilly hasn’t grown a single inch since she was five. Coerced into promoting their father’s quack elixir as they tour the country fairgrounds, at the age of fifteen the girls are sold to a mysterious Italian known as ‘Captain’.
Theo is an orphan, raised by his grandfather, Lord Seabrook, a man who has a dark interest in anatomical freaks and other curiosities … particularly the human kind. Resenting his grandson for his mother’s death in childbirth, when Seabrook remarries and a new heir is produced, Theo is forced to leave home without a penny to his name.
Unable to train to be a doctor as he’d hoped, Theo finds employment in Dr Summerwell’s Museum of Anatomy in London, and here he meets Captain and his theatrical ‘family’ of performers, freaks and outcasts.
But it is Theo’s fascination with Tilly and Keziah that will lead all of them into a web of dark deceits, exposing the darkest secrets and threatening everything they know…
Exploring universal themes of love and loss, the power of redemption and what it means to be unique, The Fascination is an evocative, glittering and bewitching gothic novel that brings alive Victorian London and darkness and deception that lies beneath…
Published June 22nd by Orenda Books Pre-order here*
The Square of Sevens by Laura Shepherd-Robinson
SYNOPSIS: ‘The queen of the historical crime novel’ – CJ Tudor
‘My father had spelt it out to me. Choice was a luxury I couldn’t afford. This is your story, Red. You must tell it well . . .’
A girl known only as Red, the daughter of a Cornish fortune-teller, travels with her father making a living predicting fortunes using the ancient method: the Square of Sevens. When her father suddenly dies, Red becomes the ward of a gentleman scholar.
Now raised as a lady amidst the Georgian splendour of Bath, her fortune-telling is a delight to high society, but she cannot ignore the questions that gnaw at her soul: who was her mother? How did she die? And who are the mysterious enemies her father was always terrified would find him?
The pursuit of these mysteries takes her from Cornwall and Bath to London and Devon, from the rough ribaldry of the Bartholemew Fair to the grand houses of two of the most powerful families in England. And while Red’s quest brings her the possibility of great reward, it also leads into her grave danger . . .
Laura Shepherd-Robinson’s The Square of Sevens is an epic and sweeping novel set in Georgian high society, a dazzling story offering up mystery, intrigue, heartbreak, and audacious twists.
SYNOPSIS: A mystery lies hidden within an old book… Unlock the secrets of The Birdcage Library.
‘Gothic, gorgeous and vividly atmospheric; an immersive literary page-turner to be swept up in’ Ellery Lloyd, New York Times bestselling author _________
A rich, beguiling story of long-buried secrets and dark obsession, The Birdcage Library is the dazzling new novel from Freya Berry, author of The Dictator’s Wife, as seen on BBC2 Between the Covers.
Dear Reader, the man I love is trying to kill me…
Emily Blackwood, adventuress and plant hunter, travels north for a curious new commission. A gentleman has written to request she catalogue his vast collection of taxidermied creatures before sale.
On arrival, Emily finds a ruined castle, its owner haunted by a woman who vanished years before. And when she discovers the ripped pages of a diary, crammed into the walls, she realises dark secrets lie here, waiting to entrap her too….
Discover a mystery within a mystery in The Birdcage Library, a novel that will hold you in its spell until the final page.
SYNOPSIS: At a time of extraordinary change, two women must harness their talents to take control of their own destiny . . .
Bristol, 1896. Used to scraping a living as the young assistant to an ageing con artist, Cecily Marsden’s life is turned upside down when her master suddenly dies. Believing herself to blame, could young Cec somehow have powers she little understands?
Meanwhile Eadie Carleton, a pioneering early film-maker, struggles for her talent to be taken seriously in a male-dominated world, and a brilliant young magician, George Perris, begins to see the potential in moving pictures. George believes that if he can harness this new technology, it will revolutionise the world of magic forever – but in order to achieve his dreams, he must first win over Miss Carleton . . .
As a group of illusionists prepare for a grand spectacle, Cec, Eadie and George’s worlds collide. But as Cec falls in love with the bustling realm of theatre and magic, she faces the fight of her life to save the performance from sabotage and harness the element of real magic held deep within her.
THE ILLUSIONS is the captivating new novel from the much-lauded author of THE GIFTS. Inspired by real-life illusionists and early film pioneers, this astonishing story of women and talent, magic and power, sweeps you into a world where anything is possible and nothing is quite as it seems . . .
Published June 22nd by Manilla Press Pre-order here*
73 Dove Street by Julie Owen Moylan
SYNOPSIS: When Edie Budd arrives at a shabby West London boarding house in October 1958, carrying nothing except a broken suitcase and an envelope full of cash, it’s clear she’s hiding a terrible secret. And she’s not the only one; the other women of 73 Dove Street have secrets of their own . . .
Tommie, who lives on the second floor, waits on the eccentric Mrs Vee by day. After dark, she harbours an addiction to seedy Soho nightlife – and a man she can’t quit.
Phyllis, 73 Dove Street’s formidable landlady, has set fire to her husband’s belongings after discovering a heart-breaking betrayal – yet her fierce bravado hides a past she doesn’t want to talk about.
At first, the three women keep to themselves. But as Edie’s past catches up with her, Tommie becomes caught in her web of lies – forcing her to make a decision that will change everything . . .
Published July 20th by Michael Joseph Pre-order here*
The Only One Left by Riley Sager
SYNOPSIS: Bestselling author Riley Sager returns with a Gothic chiller about a young caregiver assigned to work for a woman accused of a Lizzie Borden-like massacre decades earlier.
At seventeen, Lenora Hope Hung her sister with a rope
Now reduced to a schoolyard chant, the Hope family murders shocked the Maine coast one bloody night in 1929. While most people assume seventeen-year-old Lenora was responsible, the police were never able to prove it. Other than her denial after the killings, she has never spoken publicly about that night, nor has she set foot outside Hope’s End, the cliffside mansion where the massacre occurred.
Stabbed her father with a knife Took her mother’s happy life
It’s now 1983, and home-health aide Kit McDeere arrives at a decaying Hope’s End to care for Lenora after her previous nurse fled in the middle of the night. In her seventies and confined to a wheelchair, Lenora was rendered mute by a series of strokes and can only communicate with Kit by tapping out sentences on an old typewriter. One night, Lenora uses it to make a tantalizing offer–I want to tell you everything.
SYNOPSIS: BEFORE ROMEO LOVED JULIET, HE LOVED FAIR ROSALINE . . .
Was the greatest ever love story really a lie?
Romeo Montague is handsome and charming and the first time he sees young Rosaline Capulet, who has secretly snuck into his family’s masquerade summer ball, he falls instantly in love.
At first Rosaline is unsure of Romeo’s attentions but with her father determined that she join the nunnery, Romeo offers her the chance of a different life. Gradually he convinces her that only true love could make him feel this way, that he is enraptured by her beauty. Indeed, he cannot live without her!
And so begins the story of Romeo and Rosaline. These star-crossed lovers must keep everything hidden from Rosaline’s family, at least until they are wed. But when a destitute young girl appears, claiming to be carrying Romeo’s child, Rosaline starts to doubt all that she has been told. And as whispers of more girls reach her ears, what once felt like a courtship begins to feel more like a pursuit.
As Rosaline recognises Romeo for the villain he truly is, his gaze turns suddenly towards Rosaline’s adored and beautiful cousin, thirteen-year old Juliet.
Can Rosaline save Juliet from her Romeo? Or can this story only ever end one way . . ?
Hamnet meets My Dark Vanessa in this fierce, feminist, intensely gripping, unmissable novel; captivating and chillingly relevant, FAIR ROSALINE takes everything you thought you knew about Romeo and Juliet and turns it on its head . . .
Published August 3rd by Manilla Press Pre-order here*
House of Odysseus by Claire North
SYNOPSIS: ‘CLAIRE NORTH BRINGS A POWERFUL, FRESH AND UNFLINCHING VOICE TO ANCIENT MYTH’ Jennifer Saint, author of Sunday Times bestseller Ariadne
Following the critically acclaimed Ithaca comes House of Odysseus, the second novel in Claire North’s Songs of Penelope trilogy – anexquisite, gripping tale that breathes life into ancient myth. This is the story of Penelope of Ithaca, famed wife of Odysseus, as it has never been told before.
On the island of Ithaca, queen Penelope maintains a delicate balance of power. Many years ago, her husband Odysseus sailed to war with Troy and never returned. In his absence, Penelope uses all her cunning to keep the peace – but this is shattered with the arrival of Orestes, King of Mycenae.
Orestes, son of Agamemnon, is mad. Wracked with guilt for putting his own mother to death, he grows ever more unhinged. But a king cannot be seen to be weak. To keep him safe from the ambitious men of Mycenae, his sister Elektra brings him to Ithaca to recover under the protection of Penelope. But no sooner has Orestes arrived then his uncle Menelaus, the blood-soaked king of Sparta, comes looking for him. Menelaus hungers for Orestes’ throne – and if he can seize it, no one will be safe from his violent whims.
Caught between Sparta and Mycenae, Penelope must protect Ithaca from two mad kings on the edge of war. Her only allies are Elektra, desperate to protect her brother, and Helen of Troy, Menelaus’ wife. Each woman has a secret, and their secrets will shape the world . . .
SYNOPSIS: Inspired by the real-life diaries of Eliza Raine and Anne Lister – ‘the first modern lesbian,’ also known as Gentleman Jack – Donoghue’s mesmerising historical novel is a tour de force of rich characterisation and period detail.
Published August 24th by Pan Macmillan Pre-order here*
The Black Feathers by Rebecca Netley
SYNOPSIS: PRE ORDER THE NEXT CHILLING AND TWISTY GHOST STORY FROM THE AUTHOR OFTHE WHISTLING
Where ghosts tread, black feathers fall . . .
When Annie marries widower Edward Stonehouse and arrives at Guardbridge, his estate on the Yorkshire moors, she thinks she has finally put darkness behind her.
She is mistaken.
Edward’s sister, Iris, still lives in the family home. A taxidermist and medium, she urges Annie to watch out for black feathers – claiming that they mark the spot where a spirt has visited.
At first, Annie dismisses her warnings. But, before long, she begins to feel haunted.
What exactly happened to Edward’s first wife? Why is Iris so disturbed?
And should Annie really be watching for signs from the dead – or is she the one being watched?
SET ON THE YORKSHIRE MOORS IN THE 1800S, THE BLACK FEATHERS IS A GHOSTLY TALE OF MAGIC AND WICKEDNESS.
Published October 12th by Michael Joseph Pre-order here*
The Temple of Fortuna by Elodie Harper (The Wolf Den Triolgy 3)
SYNOPSIS: The final instalment in Elodie Harper’s Sunday Times bestselling Wolf Den Trilogy
‘Beautiful, moving, captivating.’ Jennifer Saint ‘Vivid, unsentimental and compelling.’ The Times
Amara’s journey has taken her far; from a slave in Pompeii’s wolf den to a high-powered courtesan in Rome… though her story is not over yet.
While Amara plays for power in Rome’s imperial palace, those dearest to her remain in Pompeii. But it is AD 79, and mighty Mount Vesuvius is about to make itself known…
Today I have another list of exciting 2023 releases for you. Thrillers are one of my favourite and most read genres so this was always going to be an extensive list. There are books here from much loved authors, auto-buy authors, favourite series, and authors I’m still yet to read.
********
I’ll Never Tell by Philippa East
SYNOPSIS: Gripping new suspense from the author of Little White Lies
Keep your family close, and your secrets closer…
To the outside world, the Goodlights are perfect.
Julia is a lawyer, Paul a stay-at-home dad who has dedicated his life to helping their daughter Chrissie achieve her dreams as a talented violinist.
But on the night of a prestigious music competition, which has the power to change everything for Chrissie and her family, Chrissie goes missing.
She puts on the performance of a lifetime, then completely disappears. Suddenly every single crack, every single secret that the family is hiding risks being exposed.
Because the Goodlights aren’t perfect. Not even close.
SYNOPSIS: Old bones sink – but secrets always rise to the surface. ‘A commanding, consuming and outright thrilling mystery. Chris Hammer’s first-class series goes from strength to strength.’ – Chris Whitaker, bestselling author of We Begin at the End
Newly-minted homicide detective Nell Buchanan returns to her hometown, annoyed at being assigned a decades-old murder – a ‘file and forget’.
But this is no ordinary cold case, her arrival provoking an unwelcome and threatening response from the small-town community. As more bodies are discovered, and she begins to question how well she truly knows those closest to her, Nell realises that finding the truth could prove more difficult – and dangerous – than she’d ever expected.
The nearer Nell comes to uncovering the secrets of the past, the more treacherous her path becomes. Can she survive to root out the truth, and what price will she have to pay for it?
Gripping and atmospheric, Dead Man’s Creek is a stunning multi-layered thriller from Chris Hammer, the award-winning author of Sunday Times Crime Book of the Year Scrublands (2019) and Times Crime Book of the Month Opal Country (January 2022).
The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels by Janice Hallett
SYNOPSIS: *** THE NEW MYSTERY PHENOMENON FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE APPEAL AND THE TWYFORD CODE ***
Open the safe deposit box. Inside you will find research material for a true crime book. You must read the documents, then make a decision. Will you destroy them? Or will you take them to the police?
Everyone knows the sad story of the Alperton Angels: the cult who brainwashed a teenage girl and convinced her that her newborn baby was the anti-Christ. Believing they had a divine mission to kill the infant, they were only stopped when the girl came to her senses and called the police. The Angels committed suicide rather than stand trial, while mother and baby disappeared into the care system.
Nearly two decades later, true-crime author Amanda Bailey is writing a book on the Angels. The Alperton baby has turned eighteen and can finally be interviewed; if Amanda can find them, it will be the true-crime scoop of the year, and will save her flagging career. But rival author Oliver Menzies is just as smart, better connected, and is also on the baby’s trail.
As Amanda and Oliver are forced to collaborate, they realise that what everyone thinks they know about the Angels is wrong. The truth is something much darker and stranger than they’d ever imagined. And the story of the Alperton Angels is far from over..
SYNOPSIS: From the bestselling author of The One, now an eight-part Netflix series. Set in the same world as The One, The Marriage Act is a dark, high-concept thriller.
‘One of the most exciting original thriller writers’ Simon Kernick
What if marriage was the law? Dare you disobey?
Britain. The near-future. A right-wing government believes it has the answer to society’s ills – the Sanctity of Marriage Act, which actively encourages marriage as the norm, punishing those who choose to remain single.
But four couples are about to discover just how impossible relationships can be when the government is monitoring every aspect of our personal lives, monitoring every word, every minor disagreement . . . and will use every tool in its arsenal to ensure everyone will love, honour and obey.
Black Mirror meets thriller with a dash of Naomi Alderman’s The Power.
Published January 19th by Pan Macmillan. Buy here*
The Drift by C.J. Tudor
SYNOPSIS: Survival can be murder . . .
During a deadly snowstorm, Hannah awakens to carnage, all mangled metal and shattered glass. Evacuated from a secluded boarding school, her coach careered off the road, trapping her with a handful of survivors.
Meg awakens to a gentle rocking. She’s in a cable car stranded high above snowy mountains, with five strangers and no memory of how they got on board.
Carter is gazing out of the window of an isolated ski chalet that he and his companions call home. As their generator begins to waver in the storm, the threat of something lurking in the chalet’s depths looms larger.
Outside, the storm rages. Inside one group, a killer lurks.
But which one?
And who will make it out alive?
Published January 19th by Michael Joseph. Buy here*
Those People Next Door by Kia Abdullah
SYNOPSIS: You can choose your house. Not your neighbours.
WELCOME TO YOUR DREAM HOME… Salma Khatun is extremely hopeful about Blenheim, the safe suburban development to which she, her husband and their son have just moved. Their family is in desperate need of a fresh start, and Blenheim feels like the place to make that happen.
MEET YOUR NEW NEIGHBOURS… Not long after they move in, Salma spots her neighbour, Tom Hutton, ripping out the anti-racist banner her son put in their front garden. She chooses not to confront Tom because she wants to fit in. It’s a small thing, really. No need to make a fuss. So Salma takes the banner inside and puts it in her window instead. But the next morning she wakes up to find her window smeared with paint.
AND PREPARE FOR THE NIGHTMARE TO BEGIN… This time she does confront Tom, and the battle lines between the two families are drawn. As things begin to escalate and the stakes become higher, it’s clear that a reckoning is coming… And someone is going to get hurt.
A gripping thriller about nightmare neighbours, Those People Next Door explores the loss of innocence and how far we’re prepared to go to defend ourselves and the people we love.
SYNOPSIS: There’s the obvious story. And then there’s the truth.
Alex lives a comfortable life with his wife Beth in the leafy suburb of Silver Vale. Fine, so he’s not the most outgoing guy on the street, he prefers to keep himself to himself, but he’s a good husband and an easy-going neighbour.
That’s until Beth announces the creation of a nature trail on a local site that’s been disused for decades and suddenly Alex is a changed man. Now he’s always watching. Questioning. Struggling to hide his dread . . .
As the landscapers get to work, a secret threatens to surface from years ago, back in Alex’s twenties when he got entangled with a seductive young woman called Marina, who threw both their lives into turmoil.
And who sparked a police hunt for a murder suspect that was never quite what it seemed.
And it still isn’t.
Published February 2nd by Simon & Schuster Pre-order here*
The Murder Gameby Tom Hindle
SYNOPSIS: One house. Nine guests. Endless motives for murder…
In the seaside town of Hamlet Wick, nine guests assemble for a New Year’s Eve party to remember.
The owner of Hamlet Hall has organised a murder mystery evening with a 1920s twist, and everyone has their own part to play.
But the game has barely begun when one guest is found dead – killed by a fatal injury to the head.
With no phone signal and no way out of the house, the others are trapped with a killer in their midst.
Someone is playing by their own rules. And in a close-knit community, old rivalries run deep…
SYNOPSIS: They think as one. They act as one. They kill as one.
The residents of Garrett Island are part of a visionary experiment. Their cars have been sent to the mainland and for one month, they’ve got self-driving vehicles called Arrivals. With just a voice command, an Arrival will take you where you want to go, and as the cars are all aware of each other, road accidents should be a thing of the past.
As the world’s press arrives for a glimpse of this driverless future, islander and single mom Sandra Montrose preps for the huge media event. She’s ready for this new world. Her husband died when he fell asleep at the wheel, and she’s relieved her two teens, Archie and Katie, may never need driver’s licenses.
But as the day gets underway, there are signs all is not well. A member of the press has vanished. There are rumours of industrial sabotage.
Before long, the sleek driverless cars are no longer taking orders. They’re starting to organize. They’re starting to hunt. And they’ve got the residents of Garrett Island in their sights.
SYNOPSIS: A mother disappears from a busy festival on a warm spring night.
Her baby lies alone in the pram, her mother’s possessions surrounding her, waiting for a return which never comes.
A year later, Kim Gillespie’s absence still casts a long shadow as her friends and loved ones gather to welcome a new addition to the family.
Joining the celebrations on a rare break from work is federal investigator Aaron Falk, who begins to suspect that all is not as it seems.
As he looks into Kim’s case, long-held secrets and resentments begin to come to the fore, secrets that show that her community is not as close as it appears.
Falk will have to tread carefully if he is to expose the dark fractures at its heart, but sometimes it takes an outsider to get to the truth…
An outstanding novel, a brilliant mystery and a heart-pounding read from the author of The Dry, Force of Nature, The Lost Man and The Survivors.
Published February 2nd by Pan Macmillan Pre-order here*
What July Knew by Emily Koch
SYNOPSIS: A moving mystery about family secrets, grief and growing up
Summer, 1995.
July Hooper knows eighteen things about her mother.
Like number thirteen: she loved dancing on the kitchen table. And number eight: she was covered in freckles.
And then there’s number two: she died after being hit by a car when July was small.
She keeps this list hidden in a drawer away from her father. Because they’re not allowed to talk about her mother. Ever.
But an anonymous note slipped into July’s bag on her tenth birthday is about to change everything she thinks she knows about her mum.
Determined to discover what really happened to her, July begins to investigate, cycling around the neighbourhood where her family used to live. There she meets someone who might finally have the answers.
July wants her family to stop lying to her, but will the truth be harder to face?
Published February 9th by Harvill Secker Pre-order here*
Make Me Clean by Tina Baker
SYNOPSIS: She will leave your surfaces sparkling. But she may well leave you dead…
Maria is a good woman and a good cleaner. She cleans for Elsie, the funny old bird who’s losing her marbles, with the terrible husband. She cleans for Brian, the sweet man with the terrible boss. She cleans for the mysterious Mr Balogan, with the terrible neighbours.
If you’re thinking of hiring her, you should probably know that Maria might have killed the terrible husband, the terrible boss and the terrible neighbours. She may also have murdered the man she loved.
She didn’t set out to kill anyone, of course, but her clients have hired her to clean up their lives, and she takes her job seriously – not to mention how much happier they all are now. The trouble is, murder can’t be washed out. You can only sweep it under the carpet, and pray no one looks too closely…
Darkly funny and completely gripping from the first page to the last, Make Me Clean is one thriller you won’t be able to scrub from your mind. Perfect for fans of Harriet Tyce, Fiona Cummins and My Sister the Serial Killer.
SYNOPSIS: Over a hundred years ago, the citizens of F- did something rather bad. And local school teacher Catherine Evans has made writing the definitive account of what happened when Ilsbeth Clark drowned in the well her life’s work.
The town’s people may not want their past raked up, but Catherine is determined to shine a light upon that shameful event. For Ilsbeth was an innocent, after all. She was shunned and ostracised by rumour-mongers and ill-wishers and someone has to speak up for her. And who better than Catherine, who has herself felt the sting and hurt of such whisperings?
But then a childhood friend returns to F -. Elena is a successful author whose book, The Whispers Inside: A Reawakening of the Soul, has earned her a certain celebrity. In search of a new subject, she takes an interest in the story of Ilsbeth Clark and announces her intention to write a book about the long-dead woman, focusing on the natural magic she believes she possessed.
And Elena has everything Catherine has not, like a platform and connections and no one seems to care that Elena’s book will be pure speculation, tainting Ilsbeth’s memory rather than preserving it. Catherine is determined that something must be done and plots to blunt her rival’s pen. However she had not allowed for the fact that the past might not be so dead after all – that something is reaching out from the well, disturbing her reality.
Before summer’s over, one woman will be dead, the other accused of murder . . . but is she really guilty, or are there other forces at work? And who was Ilsbeth Clark, really? An innocent? A witch? Or something else entirely?
Published February 23rd by Michael Joseph. Buy here*
Never Never by Colleen Hoover and Tarryn Fisher
SYNOPSIS: Forgetting is terrifying. Remembering is worse…
Charlie Wynwood and Silas Nash have been best friends since they could walk. They’ve been in love since the age of fourteen. But as of this morning… they are complete strangers. Their first kiss, their first fight, the moment they fell in love… every memory has vanished.
Now Charlie and Silas must work together to uncover the truth about what happened to them and why. But the more they learn about the couple they used to be… the more they question why they were ever together to begin with.
Forgetting is terrifying, but remembering may be worse.
The Number One Sunday Times bestselling author of It Ends with Us joins forces with the New York Times bestselling author of The Wives for a gripping, twisty, romantic mystery unlike any other.
Published February 28th by HQ Pre-order here*
The Institution by Helen Fields
SYNOPSIS: They’re locked up for your safety. Now, you’re locked in with them.
Dr Connie Woolwine has five days to catch a killer.
On a locked ward in the world’s highest-security prison hospital, a scream shatters the night. The next morning, a nurse’s body is found and her daughter has been taken. A ransom must be paid, and the clock is ticking.
Forensic profiler Dr Connie Woolwine is renowned for her ability to get inside the mind of a murderer. Now, she must go deep undercover among the most deranged and dangerous men on earth and use her unique skills to find the girl – before it’s too late.
But as the walls close in around her, can Connie get the killer before The Institution gets her?
A claustrophobic, haunting crime thriller that will keep you up at night, perfect for those who couldn’t put down The Sanatorium and Amy McCulloch’s Breathless.
SYNOPSIS: From the Number 1 bestselling author of Our Little Cruelties and Skin Deep
Sally Diamond cannot understand why what she did was so strange. She was only doing what her father told her to do, to put him out with the rubbish when he died.
Now Sally is the centre of attention, not only from the hungry media and police detectives, but also a sinister voice from a past she cannot remember. As she begins to discover the horrors of her childhood, Sally steps into the world for the first time, making new friends and big decisions, and learning that people don’t always mean what they say.
But who is the man observing Sally from the other side of the world? And why does her neighbour seem to be obsessed with her? Sally’s trust issues are about to be severely challenged . . .
SYNOPSIS: ON THE TOUGHEST REALITY SHOW ON TELEVISION A KILLER IS HIDING OUT OF SHOT
Frozen Out is set to be a TV sensation. On a small ship off the coast of Greenland, eight contestants will push themselves to breaking point for a £100,000 prize.
The show is Tori Matsuka’s baby. After years working her way up the ladder, she’s finally launching her own production company with Frozen Out, and the late nights, the debts, the strain on her relationship will all be worthwhile. Everything is riding on the next twelve days. For camerawoman Dee, it’s a chance to start again after the tragedy that tanked her undercover journalism career. Not even Tori, her oldest friend, knows the full truth of why Dee left her previous job, and she plans to keep it that way.
But as errors and mishaps mount on set, tempers among the cast and crew start to fray. And when one of the contestants is found dead, only Dee realises the death wasn’t natural – and from what she’s seen from behind the camera, it won’t be the last. As the Arctic ice closes in around them and all chance of escape is cut off, it becomes clear that although the world outside wants them dead, it’s the secrets inside the ship that might cost them their lives.
Packed with suspense from the first page to the last, Freeze is a must-read for fans of Shiver, The Sanatorium and One By One. This thriller isn’t just chilling: it’s sub-zero.
Her father, Sir Peter Lange, says she is a danger to herself and has been admitted to a private mental health clinic.
Her ex-husband, Finn, and best friend, Nell, say she has been kidnapped.
The media will say whichever gets them the most views.
But whose side are you on? #SaveMelanie #HelpPeter
Told via interviews, transcripts and diary entries, The Ugly Truth is a shocking and addictive thriller about fame, power and the truth behind the headlines.
‘#FreeBritney meets The Appeal in this addictively unique thriller. Get ready to be utterly hooked’ Jack Jordan, author of DO NO HARM
Published March 16th by Bantam Press Pre-order here*
End of Story by Louise Swanson
SYNOPSIS: Too much imagination can be a dangerous thing
It has been five years since writing fiction was banned by the government.
Fern Dostoy is a criminal. Officially, she has retrained in a new job outside of the arts but she still scrawls in a secret notepad in an effort to capture what her life has become: her work on a banned phone line, reading bedtime stories to sleep-starved children; Hunter, the young boy who calls her and has captured her heart; and the dreaded visits from government officials.
But as Fern begins to learn more about Hunter, doubts begin to surface. What are they both hiding?
And who can be trusted?
Published March 23rd by Hodder & Stoughton Pre-order here*
The Half Burnt House by Alex North
SYNOPSIS: ARE YOU READY TO ENTER THE HALF BURNT HOUSE?
The spine-tingling new thriller from the internationally bestselling author of THE WHISPER MAN, a Richard and Judy pick.
*****
Katie always looked after her beloved younger brother Chris – until she left him alone for one selfish afternoon, and their picture-perfect family fell apart. Although Chris survived the attack, the scars ran deeper than the ones left across his face. Now they’re adults, and they haven’t spoken in years. Then she gets a call, from Detective Laurence Page.
Page is facing an unusually disturbing crime scene. Alan Hobbes, a distinguished and wealthy philosophy professor, has been brutally murdered. Hobbes was living in a sprawling mansion – but one that remains half-ruined by a decades-old fire, wind and rain howling through the gaping, creaking roof.
Page only has one suspect: Chris, caught on CCTV at the house. But he has plenty of questions. What could cause a man as wealthy as Hobbes not to repair his home? Why did he seem to know his death was coming, yet do nothing to stop it? And why was he obsessed with a legendary local serial killer?
But Katie only has one thing on her mind. She knows this is her last, best chance to finally save her brother, and make up for her negligence all those years ago. But she can’t possibly imagine just how much danger he’s in…
Published March 30th by Michael Joseph Pre-order here*
The Favour by Nicci French
SYNOPSIS: A good deed Can turn deadly…
When Liam unexpectedly turns up in Jude’s life after ten years of no contact, asking her for a favour, she just can’t say no. He was her first love, and even though she is now a successful doctor and about to get married, he will always be someone special to her. But after she does the favour, she is contacted by the police, informing her that Liam has been found dead, and suddenly she is caught up in a murder investigation.
And she realises this one decision could cost her everything – even her life…
Published March 30th by Simon & Schuster Pre-order here*
Every Happy Family by Sarah Stovell
SYNOPSIS: The closer you are, the more damage they do.
Minnie and Bert are over the moon to have their three grown-up children home for the first time in a decade. But having Lizzie, Jess, Owen and the grandchildren under one roof isn’t without its dramas.
Lizzie is off the alcohol (although emergency gin doesn’t count), Jess is juggling a toddler and a newborn, but it’s Owen who has the power to throw a grenade into everything.
It all stems from an incident that happened years ago. And it involves Nora Skelly – a name you don’t mention in front of Minnie.
With Nora also back in town, the past is about to come crashing into the present. And what better time to revisit old secrets and resentments than around the family dinner table?
SYNOPSIS: Novelist J.B. Blackwood is on a cruise with her husband, Patrick, to celebrate their wedding anniversary. Her former professor, Patrick is much older than J.B.. But when they met, he seemed somehow ageless, as all new gods appear in the eyes of those who worship them. He is a film director. A cult figure. But now his success is starting to wane and J.B. is on the cusp of winning a major literary prize. Her art has been forever overseen by him, now it may overshadow his. For days they sail in the sun. They lie about drinking, reading, sleeping, having sex. There is nothing but dark water all around them. Then a storm hits and Patrick falls off the ship. J.B. is left alone, as the search for what happened to Patrick – and the truth about their marriage – begins.
A Truth For A Truth by Carol Wyer (Detective Kate Young 4)
SYNOPSIS: DI Kate Young’s team is hunting for a killer. What they don’t know…is that the killer is her.
DI Kate Young has known for years that her boss, Superintendent John Dickson, is a violent and evil man. But when she finally confronts him and accidentally shoots and kills him, she’s forced to cover her tracks before anyone can pin his death on her. With revelations about his corruption soon to become public knowledge, Kate sets up a trail of evidence to make it seem that Dickson has conveniently vanished…
But Kate knows the corruption doesn’t end with Dickson. As she heads up the team investigating his supposed disappearance, she also pursues other loose ends. Stanka, the sex worker who supplied the evidence against Dickson, leads her to crucial information on another corrupt officer, DI Harriet Khatri, and her dubious involvement with sex traffickers.
As the noose starts to tighten on Kate, she finds herself targeted by traffickers, the bent cops on her force and even her own team of detectives. Can she stay one step ahead of them all and bring Harriet to justice? Can she trust anyone around her? And can she possibly get away with murder?
Published April 4th by Thomas & Mercer Pre-oder here*
Her Sweet Revenge by Sarah Bonner
SYNOPSIS: THE SENSATIONAL NEW THRILLER FROM SARAH BONNER – REVENGE IS BEST SERVED SWEET.
Secrets and lies ruin lives
Two women receive an anonymous note.For one it’s a threat.For the other it’s an invitation for revenge.Helena is beautiful, successful, and living in married bliss in Exeter. But she’s hiding a secret that could tear her perfect life apart. When the notes begin to arrive, she realises someone else must know her secret. But what might her husband and his overbearing family do if they find out the truth?Thea is reeling from her best friend Helena’s death. But when she starts digging into the circumstances, she receives a threatening note warning her to stop. She knows her friend’s death wasn’t an accident. This was murder. And she is determined to get revenge . . .
Published April 6th by Hodder & Stoughton Pre-order here*
Looking Glass Sound by Catriona Ward
SYNOPISIS: The new dark thriller from the bestselling author of The Last House on Needless Street
In a windswept cottage overlooking the sea, Wilder Harlow begins the last book he will ever write. It is the story of his childhood companions and the killer that stalked their small New England town. Of the body they found, the horror of that discovery echoing down the decades. And of Sky, Wilder’s one-time friend, who stole his unfinished memoir and turned it into a lurid bestselling novel, The Sound and the Dagger.
This book will be Wilder’s revenge on Sky, a man who betrayed his trust and died without ever telling him why. But as he writes, Wilder begins to find notes written in Sky’s signature green ink and events in his manuscript start to chime eerily with the present. Is Sky haunting him? Did Wilder have more to do with Sky’s death than he admits? And who is the woman drowning in the cove, whom no-one else can see?
No longer able to trust his own eyes, Wilder begins to wonder: is he writing the book, or is the book writing him?
Published April 20th by Viper Pre-order here*
The Fall by Louise Jensen
SYNOPSIS: She promised she wouldn’t tell. They made sure she couldn’t…
At her surprise 40th birthday party, Kate Granger feels like the luckiest woman in the world but just hours later her fifteen-year-old daughter, Caily, is found unconscious underneath a bridge when she should have been at school.
Now, Caily lies comatose in her hospital bed, and the police don’t believe it was an accident. As the investigation progresses, it soon becomes clear that not everyone in the family was where they claimed to be at the time of her fall.
Caily should be safe in hospital but not everyone wants her to wake up. Someone is desperate to protect the truth and it isn’t just Caily’s life that is in danger.
SYNOPSIS: HE TRUSTS HIS LAWYER WITH HIS LIFE . . . HE SHOULDN’T
Wade Darling stands accused of killing his wife and teenage children as they slept and burning their house to the ground.
When the case lands on barrister Neve Harper’s desk, she knows it could make her career.
A matter of days before the case, as Neve is travelling home for the night, she is approached by a man. He tells her she must throw the case or the secret about her husband’s disappearance will be revealed. Failing that, he will kill everyone she cares about, until she does as she is told.
Neve must make a choice – go against every principle she has ever had, or the people she loves will die.
For fans of Steve Cavanagh, Linwood Barclay and Gillian McAllister, this is the latest novel from the master of the moral dilemma, Jack Jordan.
Published June 22nd by Simon & Schuster Pre-order here*
Just Another Missing Person by Gillian McAllister
SYNOPSIS: OLIVIA: 22 years old. No history of running away. Last seen on CCTV, entering a dead-end alley. And not coming back out again. Missing for one day and counting . . .
Julia is the detective heading up the case.
She knows what to expect. A desperate family, a ticking clock, and long hours away from her daughter.
But Julia has no idea how close to home it’s going to get.
Because her family’s safety depends on one thing: Julia must NOT find out what happened to Olivia – and must frame somebody else for her murder . . .
What would you do?
Published May 11th by Michael Joseph Pre-order here*
The Last Passenger by Will Dean
SYNOPSIS: The electrifying new stand-alone thriller from the author of THE LAST THING TO BURN and FIRST BORN.
My phone has no reception, something we’ve been told to expect from time to time out here, and my stomach feels uneasy. Maybe it’s the motion of the waves or maybe it’s the fact that Pete didn’t leave a note or a text. He usually leaves a note with a heart. I pull on jeans and a jumper and scrunch my hair on top of my head and take my key card and step out into the corridor. Thirty seconds later it hits me. All the other cabin doors are wedged open. Every single one is unoccupied and unlocked. My heart starts beating harder. I break out into a run. At the end of the long corridor I take a lift down to the Ocean Lobby. There’s nobody here. My mouth is dry. It’s like I’m trapped on a runaway train. No, this is worse. The RMS Atlantica is steaming out into the ocean and I am the only person on board.
This was supposed to be the holiday of a lifetime for Cas. Now she just needs to survive.
With the drama of The Woman in Cabin 10 and the tension of And Then There Were None , The Last Passenger is a psychological thriller set aboard a cruise ship about a woman whose seemingly ordinary life is suddenly thrown dramatically off course. Will Dean is The Master of Intense Suspense and this novel is full of his trademark twists and turns.
Published May 11th by Hodder & Stoughton Pre-order here*
The Final Party by A. A. Chaudhuri
SYNOPSIS: SIX FRIENDS.
In a luxury villa set high in the hills above the glamorous town of Sorrento, southern Italy, three couples gather for the perfect 40th birthday celebration.
ONE BODY.
Before the week is out, one of them is dead.
COUNTLESS LIES.
Their perfect reunion quickly becomes the holiday from hell when one of the group starts receiving anonymous messages, threatening to expose a dark secret from their university days.
As old friendships are tested to the limit, it’s clear that what happens in the dark past won’t stay buried…
A heart-racing psychological thriller that will hook you from the very first page, with twist after twist that will make your jaw drop. Fans of B.A. Paris, My Husband’s Killer and Lucy Foley won’t be able to put this down. If you were hooked by The White Lotus or The Watcher, you’ll love this.
SYNOPSIS: One of TIME’s most anticipated books of 2023
Athena Liu is a literary darling. Juniper Hayward is literally nobody.
White lies When Athena dies in a freak accident, Juniper steals her unpublished manuscript and publishes it as her own under the ambiguous name June Song.
Dark humour But as evidence threatens Juniper’s stolen success, she will discover exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.
Deadly consequences… What happens next is entirely everyone else’s fault.
Published May 25th by The Borough Press Pre-order here*
Now You See Us by Balli Kaur Jaswal
SYNOPSIS: We are invisible: we clean your houses, we look after your children, we know your secrets. But now you know one of ours…
Rules for being a maid: • No smoking • No boyfriends • No visitors • And most importantly: be invisible…
Corazon, Angel and Donita have all come to Singapore to work for a living. The thing that unites them? Their labour must remain unseen.
But when a friend is accused of murdering her employer, everything changes. The accused could be any of them; they all know the stories of women who were scapegoated or even executed for crimes they didn’t commit.
Each woman has secrets to keep, yet they must gather every ounce of bravery, fearlessness and complete audacity to clear the name of one of their own.
After all, no-one knows the secrets of Singapore’s elite quite like the women who work in their homes…
Published May 25th by Harper Collins Pre-order here*
Keep Her Secret by Mark Edwards
No synopsis available
Published May 30th by Thomas & Mercer Pre-order here*
The Other Mothers by Katherine Faulkner
SYNOPSIS: The outstanding new thriller from the author of international bestseller and Waterstones Thriller of the Month pick, Greenwich Park
Ex journalist Tash has been searching for a story to launch her freelance career. But she has also been searching for something else. New friends to help her navigate motherhood.
She sees them at her son’s new playgroup. The other mothers. The sleek, the sophisticated, the successful mothers. The women she wants to be.
And then one day they welcome her into their circle and Tash discovers the kind of life she has always dreamt of; their elegant London townhouses a far cry from her cramped basement flat and endless bills.
These families seem to have everything. But they also have their secrets.
And it’s soon clear that not everyone at the playgroup can be trusted.
SYNOPSIS: The Woman Inside is a breathless page-turner from international master of suspense M. T. Edvardsson. Three suspects, two deaths and the truth that binds them together.
Three Suspects.
Bill, a widowed single dad, has urgent bills to pay when he rents out a room in his apartment to Karla.
Karla left home to study law and, in need of cash, begins working as a cleaner for a doctor and his wife. But inside their palatial house it’s clear that something is wrong with the wife who never leaves her bedroom.
Jennica is single and career-less when she meets her perfect match on Tinder. But just as she thinks her luck is changing, she finds out that he is hiding secrets of his own . . .
Two murders.
In a few short weeks, the doctor and his wife will be found dead in their home and the questions will begin . . .
One truth.
Ordinary people will do things they never thought possible when faced with extraordinary circumstances, and the woman inside the house will hold the key to it all . . .
Published June 15th by Pan Macmillan Pre-order here*
Midnight by Amy McCulloch
SYNOPSIS: When she’s gifted a once-in-a-lifetime Antarctic cruise, Olivia has never been anywhere so spectacular.
Huge cliffs of ice loom up to the sky. The sun never sets over the sparkling sea. And there’s a killer on board…
Unable to sleep in the endless eerie daylight, Olivia has no idea who she can trust. And if she can’t figure it out soon, she won’t make it back alive…
Publsihed June 22nd by Michael Joseph Pre-order here*
Night Will Find You by Julia Heaberlin
SYNOPSIS: Vivvy Bouchet saved a boy’s life when she was a child, after a premonition. That boy is now a Texas police officer, who has always believed Vivvy is psychic.
He convinces her to help him solve a high-profile cold case: three-year-old Lizzie Solomon disappeared in broad daylight from her home. A body was never found, but the child’s mother, Nicolette, is in prison for the disappearance, loudly proclaiming her innocence.
When a popular podcaster hears of Vivvy’s involvement in the case, his conspiracy theories about the missing child, and Vivvy too, have an army of fans hanging on every dangerous word.
But when it becomes clear there may be a kidnapper – or killer – still on the loose, Vivvy knows there’s more to lose than her reputation.
Because the difference between the truth and a lie can mean life or death . . .
Night Will Find You is a sharply observed psychological thriller exploring the dangerous meeting of conspiracy theories and our need to believe.
Published June 22nd by Michael Joseph Pre-order here*
The Launch Party by Lauren Forry
SYNOPSIS: Agatha Christie meets Andy Weir in the ultimate locked room mystery set in the first hotel on the moon. Perfect for fans of Lucy Foley, Anthony Horowitz and Hanna Jameson.
FEATURED IN THE EVENING STANDARD‘S BOOKS TO WATCH IN 2023
THE TRIP OF A LIFETIME. YOU’D DIE TO BE THERE.
Ten lucky people have won a place at the most exclusive launch event of the century: the grand opening of the Hotel Artemis, the first hotel on the moon. It’s an invitation to die for. As their transport departs for its return to Earth and the doors seal shut behind them, the guests take the next leap for mankind.
However, they soon discover that all is not as it seems. The champagne may be flowing, but there is no one to pour it. Room service is available, but there is no one to deliver it. Besides the ten of them, they are completely alone.
When one of the guests is found murdered, fear spreads through the group. But that death is only the beginning. Being three days’ journey from home and with no way to contact the outside, can any of the guests survive their stay?
SYNOPSIS: Six friends. The holiday of their dreams. One night that changed it all . . .
1989: The tunes are loud and the clothes are louder when a group of friends arrives in Mallorca for a post-graduation holiday of decadence and debauchery at a luxury villa.
A beach party marks the pinnacle of their fun, until it isn’t fun any longer. Because amidst the wild partying – sand flying from dancing feet and revellers leaping from yachts – an accident happens. Suddenly, the night of a lifetime becomes a living nightmare.
Now: The truth about that summer has been collectively buried. But someone knows what happened that night.
And they want the friends to pay for what they did.
SYNOPSIS: Welcome to Stanhope – a safe neighbourhood. A place for families.
William Wooler is a family man, on the surface. But he’s been having an affair, an affair that ended horribly this afternoon at a motel up the road. So when he returns to his house, devastated and angry, to find his difficult nine-year-old daughter Avery unexpectedly home from school, William loses his temper.
Hours later, Avery’s family declare her missing.
Suddenly Stanhope doesn’t feel so safe. And William isn’t the only one on his street who’s hiding a lie. As witnesses come forward with information that may or may not be true, Avery’s neighbours become increasingly unhinged.
Who took Avery Wooler?
Nothing will prepare you for the truth.
Published July 6th by Bantam Press Pre-order here*
None of This Is True by Lisa Jewell
SYNOPSIS: Celebrating her 45th birthday at her local pub, podcaster Alix Summers crosses paths with an unassuming woman called Josie Fair. Josie is also celebrating her 45th birthday. They are, in fact birthday twins.
A few days later, Alix and Josie bump into each other again, this time outside Alix’s children’s school. Josie has been listening to Alix’s podcasts and thinks she might be an interesting subject for Alix’s series. She is, she tells Alix, on the cusp of great changes in her life.
Alix agrees to a trial interview. Josie’s life appears to be strange and complicated, and although Alix finds her unsettling, she can’t quite resist the temptation to keep digging.
Slowly Alix starts to realise that Josie has been hiding some very dark secrets, and before she knows it Josie has inveigled her way into Alix’s life – and into her home.
Soon she begins to wonder who is Josie Fair? And what has she done?
SYNOPSIS: The second novel from the author of THE PUSH, 2021’s most explosive Sunday Times bestseller!
‘Utterly addictive’ Paula Hawkins on The Push
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One morning on Harlow Lane, four families’ lives are changed forever.
Whitney Loverly can only sit by her son’s hospital bed after he falls from his bedroom window in the middle of the night. She refuses to speak to anyone.
Back at home, the Loverlys’ neighbours must reckon with their own roles in the tragedy – their selfless best friends who live across the street, the ambitious Goldsteins who desperately want a family of their own, and the quiet elderly couple who spend their days people watching on the front porch.
But what happens next, when over the course of a week, the hidden and explosive truths that connect these families must come out?
Exploring envy, motherhood and the intuitions that we silence, this is a novel that asks what happens when good people make bad choices.
Perfect for fans of Celeste Ng’s Little Fires Everywhere and Liane Moriarty’s Big Little Lies.
Published July 20th by Michael Joseph Pre-order here*
All of Us Are Broken by Fiona Cummins
No synopsis available
Published July 20th by Pan Macmillan Pre-order here*
Three sisters find themselves lost in a storm at night, and seek safety at Moirthwaite Manor, where their mother once worked. They are shocked to find the isolated mansion that loomed so large through their troubled childhoods has long been abandoned. Drawing straws to decide who should get help, one sister heads back into the darkness. With the siblings separated, the deadly secrets hidden in the house finally make themselves known and we learn the unspeakable secret that binds the family together.
SYNOPSIS: From the bestselling author of My Lovely Wife comes a reckless, delicious thriller about a young couple that gives a whole new meaning to the dangers of modern dating.
Wes and Ivy are madly in love. They’ve never felt anything like it. It’s the kind of romance people write stories about.
But what kind of story?
Because when it’s good, it’s great. Flowers. Grand gestures. Deep meaningful conversations where the whole world disappears.
But their vicious cycle of catastrophic breakups and head-over-heels reconnections needs to end fast. Because suddenly, Wes and Ivy have a common enemy–and she’s a detective.
There’s something Wes and Ivy never talk about–in good times or bad. The night of their worst breakup, when one of them took things too far, and someone ended up dead.
If they can stick together, they can survive anything–even the tightening net of a police investigation.
Because one more breakup might just be their last…
Published August 3rd by Penguin Books UK Pre-order here*
DC Ffion Morgan Book 2 by Clare Mackintosh
SYNOPSIS: DC FFION MORGAN AND DS LEO BRADY RETURN IN THE THRILLING SEQUEL TO THE LAST PARTY
Published August 3rd by Sphere Pre-order here*
The Good Daughter by Laure van Rensburg
SYNOPSIS: Abigail is a proud member of the New America Baptist Church. Living miles away from the nearest town in South Carolina, she is safe from the depraved modern world.
She is a good daughter. A valued member of the community.
So when she is the sole survivor of a fire that burns her family’s home to the ground, it seems like a tragic accident.
Until a surprising discovery is made: before the fire, Abigail let a stranger in.
Who was the stranger? What started the fire? And was the outside world always the threat – or did danger lurk within the community’s walls?
Published August 3rd by Michael Joseph Pre-order here*
These Still Black Waters by Christina McDonald
SYNOPSIS: Two women struggle toward a dark truth as a killer avenges the sins of the past in a twisting novel of suspense by the USA Today bestselling author of Do No Harm, Behind Every Lie, and The Night Olivia Fell.
After a violent home invasion, Neve Maguire returns with her daughter to Black Lake, her childhood summer home, hoping for a fresh start. But when the body of a woman is found floating among the reeds in the lake behind her house, she fears she has made a horrible mistake.
Neve is hiding secrets, though. Detective Jess Lambert can tell. Recently back after her own personal tragedy, Jess knows what it’s like to live with skeletons in your closet, and she’s sure Neve has a few of her own.
When another woman’s body is found, Jess and Neve are forced to confront a horrible truth. Because one thing is clear: the darkness of the past is waiting. And the secrets of Black Lake are only just beginning to surface.
Published August 8th by Thomas & Mercer Pre-order here*
I’m Not Done With You Yet by Jesse Q. Sutanto
SYNOPSIS: Some friends–and friendships–are worth killing for in this dark, twisty suspense novel by national bestselling author Jesse Q. Sutanto.
Jane is unhappy.
A struggling midlist writer whose novels barely command four figures, she feels trapped in an underwhelming marriage, just scraping by to pay a crippling Bay Area mortgage for a house–a life–she’s never really wanted.
There’s only ever been one person she cared about, one person who truly understood her: Thalia. Jane’s best and only friend nearly a decade ago during their Creative Writing days at Oxford. It was the only good year of Jane’s life–cobblestones and books and damp English air, heady wine and sweet cider and Thalia, endless Thalia. But then one night ruined everything. The blood-soaked night that should have bound Thalia to Jane forever but instead made her lose her completely. Thalia disappeared without a trace, and Jane has been unable to find her since.
Until now.
Because there she is, her name at the top of the New York Times bestseller list: A Most Pleasant Death by Thalia Ashcroft. When she discovers a post from Thalia on her website about attending a book convention in New York City in a week–“Can’t wait to see you there!”–Jane can’t wait either.
She’ll go to New York City, too, credit card bill be damned. And this time, she will do things right. Jane won’t lose Thalia again.
Published August 17th by HQ Pre-order here*
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What do you think of my list? Are any of these on your TBR? Let me know in the comments below.
Published: August 4th, 2022 Publisher: Hot Key Books Genre: Fantasy Fiction, Greek Mythology, Roman Mythology, Format: Paperback, Kindle, Audiobook
Today is the last day of the blog tour for Daughter of Darkness and I’m thrilled to be sharing my review for this enthralling start to a new series. Thank you to Vic at Insta Book Tours for the invitation to take part and to Hot Key Books for the gifted copy of the book
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SYNOPSIS:
DISCOVER THE EPIC NEW FANTASY INSPIRED BY ANCIENT GREEK MYTH . . .
The Underworld awaits . . .
Deina is trapped. As one of the Soul Severers serving the god Hades on earth, her future is tied to the task of shepherding the dying on from the mortal world – unless she can earn or steal enough to buy her way out.
Then the tyrant ruler Orpheus offers both fortune and freedom to whoever can retrieve his dead wife, Eurydice, from the Underworld. Deina jumps at the chance. But to win, she must enter an uneasy alliance with a group of fellow Severers she neither likes nor trusts.
So begins their perilous journey into the realm of Hades. . . The prize of freedom is before her – but what will it take to reach it?
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MY REVIEW:
“All you have to do is succeed and survive.”
Deina, one of the Soul Severers of Hades, is trapped and desperate to escape. But it’s years before she can buy her freedom and there are many Soul Severers who don’t live long enough to be free, losing their minds as a result of what it takes for them to escort souls from the mortal world and into the next.
Then Orpheus comes to town. The tyrant ruler offers Soul Severers who volunteer to take part in a special crusade the chance of both fortune and freedom. It is an opportunity too good for Deina to resist and she becomes one of a group of severers chosen to embark on the quest. But can they survive long enough to gain their freedom?
A fantasy series inspired by Greek Mythology with a breathtakingly beautiful cover is a book I was always going to read and I couldn’t wait to start this book. Imbued with mythology, suspense and beauty, this spellbinding tale had me hooked from the first pages. Beautifully written, the world building is magnificent and the authors’ vivid imagery makes it feel like you are watching a movie in brilliant technicolour. It is a complex world with an intricate and layered plot full of serpentine twists you won’t see coming. Overflowing with tension, the creepy notes began to play in earnest as the group of Soul Severers stepped into the underworld. There is danger in every step and a savage fight to survive that is alluring.
I listened to the story on audiobook as I was unwell in the time leading up to my stop on the blog tour and while I know I’d have still enjoyed the book however I read it, I am glad I experienced the audiobook. The narrator was superb, capturing the atmosphere and every emotion perfectly, transporting me from my sickbed into the world the author had created. I didn’t just listen to this story, I lived it, my heart actually pounding and the terror creeping through my bones.
The book is filled with a fantastic cast of characters, some of whom will be familiar because of the myths. But our narrator, Deina, and the Soul Servers she journeys with, are creations of the authors’ imaginations. Deina is a fierce young woman, full of fire and determination. She and the other Soul Severers band together for the quest but it is forced and they are still filled with the competitiveness and distrust that’s been bred in them for years. This makes their journey through the underworld all the more perilous and I enjoyed trying to guess who Deina could trust and what might happen next. Spoiler: I was usually wrong.
Atmospheric, enthralling and utterly breathtaking, Daughter of Darkness is a magnificent start to a new series that you will get lost in. I was on the edge of my seat for most of the book and can’t wait for book two so I can find out what happens next.
Rating: ✮✮✮✮.5
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MEET THE AUTHORS:
From their website: We are sisters and best friends (try writing a book with someone else and you’ll see why that last bit is kind of important). After spending our childhood in Essex, we now live ten minutes away from each other in Surrey. We both studied history at university and went to work in London for a bit. When we both decided to write novels – on account of fictional people being much easier to deal with than real ones – it was obvious we should do it together.
We are authors of The Witch’s Kiss Trilogy (HarperCollins) and the Solanum Duology (Hot Key Books), including A Throne Of Swans (which topped the Amazon chart as the best seller in fantasy romance for young adults) and A Crown Of Talons. Our new duology is House Of Shadows, also with Hot Key. Book 1 (Daughter of Darkness) will be out in August 2022 and book 2 in August 2023.
Stuff Katharine likes: playing instruments badly; dead languages; LOTR; loud pop concerts; Jane Austen; Neil Gaiman; Loki; the Surrey Hills. Killing off characters.
Stuff Elizabeth likes: sketching, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, cinema, long baths, kitchen discos, Terry Pratchett, Thor, London. Saving characters.
Stuff we both like: YA / non-YA fantasy and science fiction, Star Wars, Star Trek, each other (most of the time).
Welcome to my review of this superbly sinister novel. Thank you to Sandstone Press for the copy of the book, which is the Squadpod Book Club September pick.
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SYNOPSIS:
The public think Ava’s a monster. Ava thinks she’s blameless.
In prison, they called her Butcher Bird – but Ava’s not in prison any more. Released after 25 years to a new identity and a new home, Ava finally has the quiet life she’s always wanted.
But someone knows who she is. The lies she’s told are about to unravel.
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MY REVIEW:
“He thinks he knows me, that he’s got it all figured out. But really he’s only seeing the tip of what lies above the surface. The rest is hidden, and it will always stay that way.”
Ava is trying to adjust to life again after spending twenty-five years in prison. But that isn’t all that’s new, she also has a new identity to protect her from the public who see her as a monster. Ava thinks they’ve got her wrong and what happens wasn’t her fault. But there’s someone who’s sure it was and they want to see her pay. Is her new life about to fall apart?
Dark, harrowing and haunting, this twisted tale is an intimate look inside a fractured mind. There is an immediate sense of unease and an eerie atmosphere that lingers over the pages. Ava’s long sentence and ominous nickname – Butcher Bird – hint at a terrible crime but she believes herself to be blameless. A mere victim of happenstance and other people’s actions. But her subconscious seems to know what she can’t admit to herself and she is haunted by the spectre of those she’s accused of harming. It is exquisitely written, each word infused with heartache, grief and trauma that pulls at your heartstrings even when you doubt that you should be feeling any kind of empathy for Ava. The author drops small breadcrumbs that help the reader piece the puzzle together, slowly revealing the full, awful truth of Ava and her crime. It sent chills down my spine as things built to a shocking and unexpected climax.
Ava is one of the most chilling and unsettling characters I’ve read. Spectacularly written, she is unlikeable and unreliable yet utterly compelling, and there is something about her that makes it impossible not to feel some sympathy for her. She also seems pretty harmless and pathetic, if not a bit arrogant, and I found myself wondering if she wasn’t as bad as everyone seems to think, yet there was that little voice just stopping me from believing what she said. As time goes on we begin to see Ava come apart; she is increasingly paranoid and her inner monologue reveals the true darkness harbouring within her that she tries to hide.
Superbly sinister and tantalisingly twisty, Caged Little Birds is an unnerving thriller that you won’t be able to put down.
Rating: ✮✮✮✮✰
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MEET THE AUTHOR:
Originally from Hertfordshire, Lucy Banks moved to Devon, where she promptly fell in love with the landscape and lifestyle. Author of the Dr Ribero’s Agency of the Supernatural series, and winner of several literary awards and competitions, she lives with her husband, two children, and extremely boisterous cat.
Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for this mesmerising and magical tale. Thank you to Tracy at Compulsive Readers Tours for the invitation to take part and Manilla Press for the gifted ARC.
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SYNOPSIS:
‘Haunting, thrilling, wonderful. I loved it’ Stacey Halls
The luminous debut adult novel from the Waterstones Prize Winner, perfect for fans of The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock, The Essex Serpent and The Doll Factory
In an age defined by men, it will take something extraordinary to show four women who they truly are . . .
October 1840. A young woman staggers alone through a forest in Shropshire as a huge pair of impossible wings rip themselves from her shoulders.
Meanwhile, when rumours of a ‘fallen angel’ cause a frenzy across London, a surgeon desperate for fame and fortune finds himself in the grip of a dangerous obsession, one that will place the women he seeks in the most terrible danger . . .
THE GIFTS is the astonishing debut adult novel from the lauded author of BEARMOUTH. A gripping and ambitious book told through five different perspectives and set against the luminous backdrop of nineteenth century London, it explores science, nature and religion, enlightenment, the role of women in society and the dark danger of ambition.
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MY REVIEW:
In an age defined by men, it will take something extraordinary to show four women who they truly are…
October, 1840. A scared young woman is fleeing from an unknown assailant, running for her life in a dark forest when the impossible happens: a huge pair of wings rip from her shoulders and she transforms into something extraordinary and impossible; she becomes an angel. A man finds the corpse of a woman in the Thames. But she is no ordinary woman, wings sprouting from her shoulders like an angel. The man seizes the opportunity and sells her to an ambitious surgeon who swears him to secrecy. But rumours are soon rife about ‘the Angel of the Thames’, spreading through the city like wildfire, though most dismiss it as folly. As tales of more impossible beings spread through the city, the surgeon seeks out these extraordinary women to add to his collection, seeing an opportunity to make his fortune and live in infamy. But he isn’t the only one on their trail, a would-be journalist is also seeking out these women, determined to find out the truth behind these rumours and further her writing career.
“It is an extraordinary story, he thinks, utterly fantastical and yet… could it really be that there is something to it?”
The Gifts is an enthralling gothic fairy tale. A story about girl power, self-belief and finding out who you really are set against a backdrop of the Victorian era with a little bit of magical realism woven into the narrative. Liz Hyder has crafted a novel that combines great storytelling, vivid imagery, compelling characters and authenticsocial history that lured me in from the first page and kept me guessing right until the last. The short, punchy chapters give the story fluidity and the five narrators: Etta, Annie, Mary, Natalya and Edward, add their own unique voices to the story as it explores themes of patriarchy, religion, science, power and social class.
“It is her first day with wings. It is also her first day as a prisoner.”
Told from multiple points of view, the varied cast of characters are richly drawn and entertaining. The four female narrators are each in a dark place and feeling marginalised when we meet them and we follow as they try to find out who they are and what their place is in a patriarchal society that doesn’t want their voices to be heard. It is a journey that will see these four strangers come together in the most unexpected of ways and I loved reading every one of them. Even in their darkest hours they are quietly determined, fierce and strong, showing a resilience that carries them through. Etta and Mary were women who pushed the envelope, going beyond what society tells them is acceptable for a woman to live the life they want, although they do this in very different ways. Natalya has a heartbreaking story but her strength still shines through as she refuses to give up time and time again. Annie is a woman who has given up her dreams for herself to be a wife and then found herself infertile, longing for a child she seems unable to have. My heart broke for her as I know that pain; though I did laugh at the idea that reading causes blood to drain from the uterus and therefore stops a woman getting pregnant. Though there were times I’d wish the author would allow them to push social boundaries and not rely on men even more, I did enjoy how each of these women were written. I particularly enjoyed watching Etta harnessing her rage into a power and using her intelligence to outwit the men who would try to hold her back or keep her captive.
“He smiles to himself as his lips run over the words. It will be outstanding, he thinks, and is greatly pleased – even overwhelmed – by his own magnificence.”
Though this is ultimately a story about women, it is Edward who is at the centre of the story. He is a truly fantastic villain, so brilliantly written that he made me incandescent with rage. I despised him. Edward is a man possessed by ambition, religious fanaticism and delusion; a dangerous combination that sets him on a path that merges with the four women with catastrophic consequences. After watching him mercilessly kill an animal early in the book I wasn’t surprised when he later showed no compassion towards ‘his angels’. He sees these women as merely tools to aid his ascension to greatness, possessions given to him to use in any way he desires and gives no thought for them as human beings with autonomy or feelings. He also sees his wife as an extension of himself, only there to further him socially, treating her with increasing disdain. It was disturbing to watch as his mania grew and he became more paranoid, unable to be reasoned with and only caring about his notoriety and God’s so-called plan. I was itching for him to meet his downfall.
“And perhaps the world is not ready for women such as us. Not yet.”
The Gifts is a mesmerising piece of historical and gothic fiction that will delight, enthral and enrage you. The author weaves an illuminating tale that builds to a dramatic climax as the women finally discover their power. I would recommend this book and can’t wait to read more by Ms. Hyder.
Rating: ✮✮✮✮✰
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MEET THE AUTHOR:
Liz Hyder is a writer, creative workshop leader and arts PR Consultant. Bearmouth, her debut for Young Adults, won the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize for Older Readers, the Branford Boase Award and was named Children’s Book of the Year in The Times. The Gifts, her debut book for grown-ups, is out in February 2022.
Emma's Biblio Treasures 