Published February 27th, 2025 by Headline Humour, Suspense, Thriller, Cozy Mystery, Humourous Fiction
Welcome to my review for this darkly funny, inventive and suspenseful whodunnit. Thank you to Headline for sending me a copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.
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ABOUT THE BOOK:
A headmistress is dead. The circumstances are suspicious. And as every parent knows, being on the school group chat can be murder…
‘Deliciously funny’ MARTINA COLE ‘Pure fun in book form, a laugh out loud murder mystery with great characters and a page turning plot. It’s a book you won’t be able to put down!’ C L MILLER ‘Brilliantly witty and suspenseful…a delightful blend of humour and mystery that kept me guessing until the end’ JOANNA WALLACE
As educators go, Claudia Stitchwell makes Miss Hannigan look like Miss Honey. But when the reviled headteacher drops dead in the school hall, a group of sceptical parents suspect the nut allergy explanation doesn’t add up – they believe someone wanted to teach Miss Stitchwell a lesson.
Only four people could have killed Stitchwell: Hattie, the adored school cook; Kiera, the hard-working teaching assistant; Clive, the loathed school bursar and Ben, the popular deputy head. All of them are liars… but only one is the murderer.
Piecing together evidence from the daily drama and drudgery of the parents’ group chat, local press, police reports, school newsletters, and good, old-fashioned gossip, the determined detective parents are doing their homework to crack the case.
Will you spot the clues? Can you deduce whodunnit? And for the love of all things holy, does anyone have this week’s spellings?
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MY REVIEW:
When Claudia Stitchwell, the reviled headmistress of St Nonnatus, drops dead in the school hall, there are four possible suspects: Hattie, the adored school cook who has been around forever, Ben, the popular deputy headteacher all the parents love, Kiera, one of the parents who also works as a teaching assistant, and Clive, the unpopular school bursar. In the Y6 parents group chat they discuss each of the suspects and their possible motives. Can they piece together the clues and uncover Claudia’s killer?
Darkly funny, quirky and inventive, That’ll Teach Her is a gripping whodunnit that I consumed in just a few hours. Skillfully written and cleverly plotted, Maz Evans has crafted a suspenseful and pacy mystery that keeps you guessing. Told by multiple narrators in mixed media, Evans uses the parents’ group chat, police witness statements, local press articles and school newsletters alongside traditional narration to tell the story, and I found myself trying to solve the clues alongside the parents. The book is filled with the familiar playground politics, parents trying to figure out homework and juggle their busy lives. It’s been quite a few years since my kids were at primary school and there was no group chat back then, but the story still took me back to the days where gossip spreads like wildfire and I loved the idea of using it as a tool to help amateur sleuths to solve a murder.
There’s a large cast of characters, with some playing a larger role than others, but all of them leap from the pages and pull you into the story. The group chat was filled with all of the different kinds of parents we all recognise such as the pushy parent, the parent who seems to have everything together, the chilled parent, the disorganised parent, etc, and their chats felt like they could have actually been lifted from a real parents WhatApp group chat. The staff working at the school also felt familiar and I enjoyed trying to figure out which one of them could have killed Claudia.
Entertaining, witty, original and heartfelt, this is a murder mystery that will make you laugh while keeping you on the edge of your seat. Highly recommended.
Rating: ✮✮✮✮✰
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Maz Evans is a bestselling, award-winning author – she just doesn’t do either terribly often. She is the proud creator of the WHO LET THE GODS OUT?, VI SPY and SCARLETT FIFEseries for children, and OVER MY DEAD BODY and THAT’LL TEACH HER for adults, which have collectively travelled to 24 countries. OVER MY DEAD BODY was shortlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger and won the Capital Crime Fingerprint Award for her self-narrated audiobook. Her work for children has garnered over 50 nominations, including the Carnegie Medal, Branford Boase, Books Are My Bag, Waterstone’s Children’s Book of the Year, Indie Children’s Book of the Year and CrimeFest Best Children’s Book. She hardly won any. Maz narrates the audiobooks for her series and her acclaimed live events have regularly featured at Hay, Imagine, Edinburgh, Bath, Cheltenham, Bestival, Wilderness, CarFest and countless literary festivals around the UK.
Not content with being a mediocre author, Maz has also committed to mediocrity as a scriptwriter and lyricist and is proud to be bringing both average skills to the stage adaptation of WHO LET THE GODS OUT? which will be produced by Polka Theatre, London in 2026. She has previously had shows produced at the Union Theatre, London, The Actor’s Church, Covent Garden and the Southend Palace Theatre. They weren’t bad either.
Maz has contributed to RETURN TO WONDERLAND, THE BOOK OF HOPES and SWALLOWED BY A WHALE and her children’s poetry has been published in Caterpillar magazine. Her writing career began in national journalism and she still regularly broadcasts her views on anything from politics to parenthood on BBC Radio 2 and the bus.
Maz believes passionately in the power of words, the importance of stories and the necessity of kindness. She doesn’t believe in horoscopes, teeth-whitening toothpaste or anyone who relies on the word “literally”.
Welcome to my most anticipated February releases. There’s some exciting new authors releasing their debut novels and some favourite authors releasing their latest stories.
Black Woods, Blue Sky by Eowyn Ivey
Published February 4th by Tinder Press Literary Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Where there is wonder, there is love – an unforgettable story of the beauty and savagery of the Alaskan wilderness, from the author of the million-copy international bestseller, The Snow Child.
‘I read with my heart in my mouth, filled with wonder’ Rachel Joyce, author of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry ‘An enthralling novel about the endurance of love, the power of forgiveness and the savage, irresistible allure of wild places’ Paula Hawkins, author of The Girl on the Train Birdie’s keeping it together, of course she is. So she’s a little hungover on her shifts, and has to bring her daughter to the lodge while she waits never tables, but it’s a tough town to be a single mother, and Birdie just needs to get by. And then Birdie meets Arthur, who is quieter than most men, but makes her want to listen; who is gentle with Emaleen, and understands Birdie’s fascination with the mountains in whose shadow they live. When Arthur asks Birdie and Emaleen to leave the lodge and make a home, just the three of them, in his off-grid cabin, Birdie’s answer, in a heartbeat, is yes. Out in the wilderness Birdie’s days are harsher and richer than she ever imagined possible. Here she will feel truly at one with nature. Here she, and Emaleen, will learn the whole, fearful truth about Arthur.
Published February 4th by Boldwood Books Contemporary Romance, Magical Realism, Coming-of-Age Story
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Suddenly Maddy is right there… in her very own future. And it’s all wrong, yet again.
It happens to her every time. When the kisses lead to the bedroom, just when she thinks she might have found the one… Just for a split second, Maddy disappears, and she finds that she’s living her own life. But ten years into the future.
She’s only there for a little while. But each time, it’s long enough to know that she doesn’t want to be any of those future versions of Maddy. Because every man she falls for seems to lead her to a future that is just… wrong.
Until she meets Oliver. And the vision of their future is happy. Beautiful even. A little girl runs around, her braids flying behind her, giggling about how she wants sausages for dinner. She has eyes just like Oliver’s.
There’s just one catch. If Maddy wants the family she’s seeing in her future with Oliver, she realizes she has to break his heart now…
Would you destroy your present if there’s a chance that it could give you the perfect future?
Perfect for fans of David Nicholls, Matt Haig, and The Husbands by Holly Gramazio. The most unmissable ‘what if?’ love story of the year!
Published February 4th by Sphere Romance Novel, New Adult Ficiton, Contemporary Romance
BOOK DESCRIPTION: A competitive diver and an ace swimmer jump into forbidden waters in this steamy college romance from the Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling author of The Love Hypothesis.
Scarlett Vandermeer is swimming upstream. A junior at Stanford and a student athlete who specializes in platform diving, Scarlett prefers to keep her head down, concentrating on getting into med school and on recovering from the injury that almost ended her career. She has no time for relationships – at least, that’s what she tells herself.
Swim captain, world champion, all-around aquatics golden boy Lukas Blomqvist thrives on discipline. It’s how he wins gold medals and breaks records: complete focus with every stroke. On the surface, Lukas and Scarlett have nothing in common. Until a well-guarded secret slips out, and everything changes.
So they start an arrangement. And as the pressure leading to the Olympics heats up, so does their relationship. It was supposed to be just a temporary, mutually satisfying fling. But when staying away from Lukas becomes impossible, Scarlett realizes that her heart might be treading into dangerous water…
Published February 6th by Harvill Secker Historical Fiction, Fairy Tale, Mythology
BOOK DESCRIPTION: ‘Brilliant and meticulously researched… I loved it.’ Santa Montefiore
Sister. Rival. Protector.
Quiet and reserved, Clemmie is happy in the background. Although her parents may overlook her talents, her ability to read hieroglyphs makes her invaluable at the Egyptian relic parties which have made her father the toast of Victorian society.
But at one such party, the words Clemmie interprets from an unusual amulet strike fear into her heart. The beautiful and dangerous glyphs she holds in her hands will change her life forever.
Five years later, Clemmie arrives in Egypt on a mission to save what remains of her family. The childhood game she used to play about the immortal sisters, Isis and Nephthys, has taken on a devastating resonance and it is only by following Nephthys’ story that she can undo the mistakes of the past.
On her journey up the Nile she will meet unexpected allies and enemies and, along with long-buried secrets and betrayals, Clemmie will be forced to step into the light.
Published February 6th by Manilla Press Gothic Fiction, Horror Fiction, Historical Fiction, Historical Fantasy, Thriller, Vampire Literature, Lesbian Literature
BOOK DESCRIPTION: THE FIERCEST, MOST POWERFUL RETELLING OF 2025: A STORY OF AMBITION, FEMALE OPPRESSION AND UNSTOPPABLE HUNGER . . .
FOR WHAT DO YOU HUNGER . . . ?
Lenore is the wife of steel magnate Henry, but ten years into their marriage the relationship has soured, and no child has arrived to fill the distance growing between them. Henry’s ambitions take them from London to the Peak District, to the remote, imposing Nethershaw estate, where he plans to host a hunting party. Lenore must work to restore the crumbling house and ready it for Henry’s guests – their future depends on it.
But as the couple travel through the bleak countryside, a shocking carriage accident brings the mysterious Carmilla into Lenore’s life. Carmilla, who is weak and pale during the day but vibrant at night, Carmilla who stirs up something deep within Lenore. And before long, girls from the local villages fall sick, consumed by a terrible hunger . . .
As the day of the hunt draws closer, Lenore begins to unravel, questioning the role she has been playing all these years. Torn between regaining her husband’s affection and the cravings Carmilla has awakened, soon Lenore will uncover a darkness in her household that will place her at terrible risk . . .
Set against the violent wilderness of the Peaks and the uncontrolled appetite of the Industrial Revolution, HUNGERSTONE is a compulsive sapphic reworking of CARMILLA, the book that inspired DRACULA: a captivating story of appetite and desire.
Published February 6th by Michael Joseph Historical Fiction, Fantasy Ficiton, Fairy Tale, Mythology
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Perfect for fans of Elodie Harper’s The Wolf Den, Rosie Hewlett’s Medea and Costanza Casati’s Clytemnestra
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RULER. MOTHER. GODDESS. WARRIOR.
They called me The Morrigan. I was magnificent. I was multitudes. They twisted my story, stripped me away. But I will tell it now in my own voice. It begins, as all the best stories do, in darkness.
From an ancient, storm-tossed sea, a tribe of gods reach the rocky shores of Ireland.
Among them, a strange, hungry, red-haired girl. A girl who can change shape, from bird to beast to goddess. A girl who dreams of battle, of blood, of death and power.
She does not know yet that a woman who seeks to rule will always be in danger – or that there are far more treacherous figures in this land than the gods who raised her.
She does not know that one day love will burn so deep in her heart that its scars will never heal. That she will know pain so raw and pure it will almost tear her apart.
She does not know that her journey will take a thousand years. That her name will be remembered for a thousand more.
She is The Morrigan, and she is waiting: a girl with rage coiled in her chest. Beautiful, powerful, ravenous rage. A rage that will live forever.
An electric debut retelling of Ireland’s mythic goddess of war, from a bold and powerful new voice.
Published February 6th by Hamish Hamilton Literary Fiction, Translated Ficiton
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Like a long winter’s dream, this haunting and visionary new novel from 2024 Nobel Prize winner Han Kang takes us on a journey from contemporary South Korea into its painful history
‘One of the most profound and skilled writers working on the contemporary world stage’ Deborah Levy
Beginning one morning in December, We Do Not Part traces the path of Kyungha as she travels from the city of Seoul into the forests of Jeju Island, to the home of her old friend Inseon. Hospitalized following an accident, Inseon has begged Kyungha to hasten there to feed her beloved pet bird, who will otherwise die.
Kyungha takes the first plane to Jeju, but a snowstorm hits the island the moment she arrives, plunging her into a world of white. Beset by icy wind and snow squalls, she wonders if she will arrive in time to save the bird – or even survive the terrible cold which envelops her with every step. As night falls, she struggles her way to Inseon’s house, unaware as yet of the descent into darkness which awaits her.
There, the long-buried story of Inseon’s family surges into light, in dreams and memories passed from mother to daughter, and in a painstakingly assembled archive documenting a terrible massacre on the island seventy years before.
We Do Not Part is a hymn to friendship, a eulogy to the imagination and above all an indictment against forgetting.
Published February 6th by Fleet Literary Fiction, Suspense
BOOK DESCRIPTION: ‘From the very first page, Emma Van Straaten had me by the Hail Marys. Obsessive, delusional, disastrous – but so intricately woven with heart, warmth and empathy. An impeccable debut from a rising talent‘ ALICE SLATER ‘An addictive deep-dive into the dark, throbbing heart of obsessive desire. Baby Reindeer meets Convenience Store Woman‘ KIRSTY LOGAN, author of Now She Is Witch
Alice has been cleaning Tom’s flat every Wednesday for a year. With every smudge wiped from his coffee cup, every crease smoothed out in his bed, every multivitamin counted from the jar, Alice spirals deeper into infatuation. But as Alice prepares for the moment when they will finally meet face-to-face, she discovers that love might not be the cure she thought it was. . .
This Immaculate Body is a story of obsession, of the way women view the world and the ways that the world views them. As Alice frantically tries to cling to an imagined future with Tom, the line between fantasy and reality become ever more blurred, putting everything she has dreamed of at risk.
Published February 6th by Hodder & Stoughton Romance Fiction, Domestic Fiction, Urban Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: The greatest adventure is coming back home.
Lila Metcalfe is a trainee journalist in Derby and she’s very used to being given the stories that no one else wants. So, when her editor tells her that the city’s Cossington Park development is being held up by a solitary resident on Hope Street who is refusing to leave, she knows she is going to be the one sent to find out more. And that’s how she meets Connor.
Twenty-something Connor is the sole resident of Hope Street and he is not at all what Lila is expecting. And he has a very clear reason not to move: he is waiting for his mum to come home.
The uplifting and heartfelt new novel from the author of A Song of Me and You.
Published February 6th by Orion Suspense, Thriller, Crime Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: They said a mother knows best and I believed them. Was I wrong?
It is supposed to be a dream. James and I have been trying for years. But now it is starting to feel like a nightmare.
Doctors don’t ask questions, or care about how you’re feeling. They just tell you what to do. They never listen.
Mam and James don’t understand either. James thinks I’m being anxious and Mam says it’ll pass. It always does. That’s what she did when Dad died.
I’ve never felt more alone. Or scared.
Then I joined an online group for mothers. A sisterhood, really. They might be on a screen, but sometimes it feels like they know me better than James. They listen, they care. It’s all I could have asked for.
Until the worst happens and I see them for who they are. But if I leave, what if they come for me next?
Published February 6th by Tor Contemporary Fantasy, Paranormal Fantasy, Romance, Science Fiction, Gay Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: An action-packed supernatural road trip featuring an extraordinary young girl and her two unlikely protectors. The Bones Beneath My Skin is a gripping, heartfelt story that explores what it means to be human – by bestselling author of The House in the Cerulean Sea, TJ Klune.
He lost everything. Then he found himself . . .
In the spring of 1995, Nate Cartwright is at a loose end: his parents are dead, his older brother has disowned him, and he’s been fired from his job. Looking for a sense of direction, he returns to his family’s summer cabin in Oregon.
The cabin should be empty – but it’s not. Inside is a man named Alex, and an extraordinary little girl who calls herself Artemis Darth Vader. There’s far more to Art than meets the eye. But as Alex and Nate bond over just how special she truly is, they discover that powerful forces are closing in – forces that want nothing more than to control her.
As danger draws near, Nate decide whether to drown in the memories of his past, or fight for Art and a future he never thought possible.
With his uplifting tales of hope and redemption, there is a TJ Klune book for every reader.
Published February 6th by Atom Domestic Fiction, Religious Ficiton
BOOK DESCRIPTION: It was said that if you write to the Bridegroom’s Oak, the love of your life will answer back. Now, the tree is giving up its secrets at last.
In 1940s Germany, Sophie is excited to discover a message waiting for her in the Bridegroom’s Oak from a mysterious suitor. Meanwhile, her best friend, Hanna, is sending messages too-but not to find love. As World War II unfolds in their small town of Kleinwald, the oak may hold the key to resistance against the Nazis.
In 1980s West Germany, American teen transplant Jenny feels suffocated by her strict parents and is struggling to fit in. Until she finds herself falling for Lena, a punk-rock girl hell-bent on tearing down the wall separating West Germany from East Germany, and meeting Frau Hermann, a kind old lady with secrets of her own.
In Spring 2020, New York City, best friends Miles and Chloe are in the first weeks of COVID lockdown and hating Zoom school, when an unexpected package from Chloe’s grandmother leads them to investigate a cold case about two unidentified teenagers who went missing under the Bridegroom’s Oak eighty years ago.
Published February 6th by Michael Joseph Historical Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: A family full of secrets. A chance to set them all free.
When Ebby Freeman travels to France to take a three-month hiatus from her complicated home life, the last person she expects to find is her ex-fiancé Henry, with his new girlfriend in tow.
Nearly twenty years earlier, the Freemans were the only African American family living in a wealthy coastal enclave in Connecticut when armed robbers invaded their home and tragedy changed their lives forever.
Then, just as Ebby thought she had a new chance at happiness, her storybook romance with Henry fell apart.
Now, this unexpected encounter with Henry will force Ebby to reckon with her past and to think on the other loss her family suffered that day – the destruction of a beloved stoneware jar crafted by an enslaved ancestor and passed down through the generations.
A piece that might hold not only her family history, but also the key to reclaiming her future.
Published February 6th by Fig Tree Thriller, Horror Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: The most mesmerising, unsettling novel of 2025, perfect for fans of David Mitchell, Julia Armfield, and Margaret Atwood.
The woman never goes by the same name. She never stays in the same place too long. She never ages. She never dies. But those around her do.
When two grieving strangers meet by chance in Osaka airport they uncover a disturbing connection. Jake’s best friend and Mariko’s twin brother each died, 6,000 miles apart, in brutal and unfathomable circumstances.
Each encountered a mesmerising, dark-haired woman in the days before their deaths. A woman who came looking for Mariko – and then disappeared.
Jake, who has carried his loss and guilt for a decade, finds himself compelled to follow the trail set by Mariko’s revelations. It’s a trail that weaves across continents and centuries, leading back to the many who have died – in strange and terrifying and eerily similar ways – and those they left behind: bewildered, disbelieved, yet resolutely sure of what they saw.
And, at the centre of it all, there is the same beguiling woman. Her name may have changed, but her purpose has never wavered, and as Jake races to discover who, or what she is, she has already made her next choice.
But will knowing her secret be enough to stop her?
Published February 6th by Macmillan Thriller, Suspense, Psychological Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: BEAUTY IS PAIN . . . Exploring themes of ambition, authenticity and empowerment, this taut, politically charged feminist thriller delivers a scathing take-down of the wellness industry, perfect for fans of The Drop Out and Yellowface.
It’s a woman’s world, isn’t it?
Rhoda West has the world at her feet.
As the luminously charismatic CEO of Radical, a fast-growing start-up, Rhoda has built a wellness company whose core mission is the betterment of women’s lives. Showcasing her cult products and her perfect life through her social media, Rhoda is the ultimate ‘Radigal’, encouraging her followers to be #bebetter, whilst driving her business to attain the billion-dollar unicorn status that she craves.
But just as Radical announces the latest fundraising round that will take it over the top, an anonymous twitter account begins revealing the company’s secrets and starts questioning its beliefs and approach, and Rhoda herself.
Is Rhoda really the nurturing leader that she presents to the world, or a fraud on a mission to exploit the women she claims to want to help? As tensions rise and enemies present themselves, the only questions are how far will Rhoda go to fulfil her legacy and how far will her enemies go to destroy it. . .
Published February 11th by Michael Joseph Romance Novel, Domestic Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: The #1 Sunday Times bestselling author, whose books so many love, brings us a fresh, contemporary story of a woman and her unruly blended family
‘The best book she has ever written’ Marian Keyes
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Welcome to the Kennedy household:
Lila wrote a bestseller about keeping your marriage alive, before discovering her ex was playing happy families with another woman. A woman she sees everyday at school pick-up.
Bill, her stepdad, moved in after Lila’s mum died. He’s kind, old-fashioned and driving her absolutely nuts.
Celie, Lila’s eldest, hates school. Hates it so much she’s stopped going. Her mother’s fine with that – because she doesn’t know yet.
Violet is nine and sings age-inappropriate rap songs, laughs at fart jokes and Lila dearly hopes she’ll never, ever change.
And Truant the dog, who has just bitten the American actor who’s suddenly landed on the Kennedys’ doorstep.
This is Gene – Lila’s estranged father, and no one’s idea of a role model. He walked out on Lila and her mum years ago – and wherever he goes domestic discord follows.
Because Gene’s presence changes things in unexpected ways. Soon the girls discover a kindred spirit in a man always chasing life’s joy. Bill even loosens up. And Lila finds herself, astonishingly, dating.
Something is happening to the Kennedy household – but what is it? And will it break, or save, their family?
Published February 13th by The Borough Press Historical Fiction, Fairy Tale, Nautical Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Sisters separated by centuries.
Voices that can’t be drowned out.
Lucy is running from what she’s done – and what someone did to her.
There’s only one person who might understand: her sister Jess. But when Lucy arrives at her sister’s desolate cliff-top house, Jess is gone.
Lucy is now alone, in a strange town steeped in rumour. Stories of men disappearing without a trace. A foundling discovered in a sea-swept cave. And women’s voices murmuring on the waves…
As Lucy searches for her sister, those voices get ever louder. They tell of two sisters, two centuries ago, bound and transported across the world. A world where men always get their way. A world that is at once distant, and achingly familiar.
Are these voices luring Lucy closer to her sister? Or will the secrets of the past pull them both under?
Published February 13th by Fourth Estate Gothic Ficiton, Horror Fiction, Suspense, Dark Comedy, Satire
BOOK DESCRIPTION: NOW BEING ADAPTED FOR A MAJOR FILM STARRING MARGARET QUALLEY
‘Simmering with rage, propulsive and laugh-out-loud funny’ CATRIONA WARD
‘Weird and wonderful’ LUCY MANGAN, GUARDIAN
Winifred Notty arrives at Ensor House prepared to play the perfect Victorian governess. She’ll dutifully tutor her charges, Drusilla and Andrew, tell them bedtime stories, and only joke about eating children. But the longer Winifred spends within the estate’s dreary confines and the more she learns of the perversions and pathetic preoccupations of the Pounds family, the more trouble she has sticking to her plan.
Whether creeping across the moonlit lawns in her undergarments or gently tormenting the house staff, Winifred struggles at every turn to stifle the horrid compulsions of her past until her chillingly dark imagination breaches the feeble boundary of reality on Christmas morning. Wielding her signature sardonic wit and a penchant for the gorgeously macabre, Virginia Feito returns with a vengeance in Victorian Psycho.
Published February 13th by Bantam Press Mystery, Suspense, Psychological Thriller
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Six thriller authors. One writing retreat. You’d die to be on the guest list . . .
The Host Legendary mystery author J. R. Alastor’s books are sold all over the world, but no one knows his real name. After years hiding in the shadows, he has sent out six invitations to an exclusive murder mystery retreat on his private island.
The Assistant Mila del Angél has been hired to ensure the week runs smoothly. She has yearned for revenge on a ghost from her past for years – and this could be her chance to get it.
The Players The six bestselling thriller writers accept their invitations without question – it’s an opportunity any author would kill for.
The Game What should have been a week of trope-filled games takes a sinister turn when one guest is found dead, and the others find themselves in the midst of a nightmare drawn from Alastor’s dark imagination. They may have written thrillers – but now they and Mila must survive one…
Publshed February 13th by Quercus Mystery, Thriller, Crime Fiction, Suspense, Fantasy Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: SOME MURDERS CAN’T BE SOLVED IN JUST ONE LIFETIME.
‘A five-star start to a dazzling new series . . . Smart, original and utterly masterful’ Janice Hallett
Ali Dawson and her cold case team investigate crimes so old, they’re frozen – or so their inside joke goes. Most people don’t know that they travel back in time to complete their research.
The latest assignment sees Ali venture back farther than they have dared before: to 1850s London in order to clear the name of Cain Templeton, the eccentric great-grandfather of MP Isaac Templeton. Rumour has it that Cain was part of a sinister group called The Collectors; to become a member, you had to kill a woman…
Fearing for her safety in the middle of a freezing Victorian winter, Ali finds herself stuck in time, unable to make her way back to her life, her beloved colleagues, and her son, Finn, who suddenly finds himself in legal trouble in the present day.
Could the two cases be connected?
Set your clocks to February 2025 and get ready for an original, transportive and characterful new crime novel from no. 1 bestselling author Elly Griffiths. Perfect for those missing the Dr Ruth Galloway series and for any crime and historical fiction fans.
Published February 13th by Baskerville Mystery, Thriller, Suspense, Crime Fiction, Hardboiled
BOOK DESCRIPTION: RAMONA CHANG
An investigative journalist turned private detective, Ramona’s final scoop left her with a target on her back. Now in hiding, she is living in a run-down flat in east London. But when her latest case looking into an upmarket escort agency takes a dark turn, she needs information only accessible to those in power . . .
DETECTIVE SERGEANT MADELEINE FARROW
A high-flying operative at a government agency, it’s the day of her fiftieth birthday when Madeleine finds out that she has been given the lead on an investigation into corruption on a global scale. But when she finds her case mysteriously blocked from the inside, she needs someone on the outside, capable of moving undetected . . .
As Ramona’s and Madeleine’s cases collide, can the unlikely allies find justice for multiple victims within the capital’s hotbed of lies and deception?
A gripping thrill-ride set against the gloss and grit of contemporary London, DIRTY MONEY introduces an unforgettable new detective duo created by critically acclaimed writer Charlotte Philby.
Published February 13th by Headline Mystery, Thriller, Suspense, Crime Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Robyn ‘Avril’ Managa was twelve when she witnessed her controlling and abusive father murder her mother. Put into care while her well-connected was father given a new identity in Witness Protection, Robyn has lived with the trauma of that day ever since.
Now in her twenties, Robyn has decided she wants a family reunion – so is killing people connected to her father’s case, leaving on their bodies the note: GIVE HIM TO ME.
Dr Kez Lanyon is called onto the case. But can Kez get into Robyn’s mind before she kills again? Or is she about to become Avril’s latest victim?
Profiler and therapist Kez Lanyon returns in a gripping new stand-alone novel from Sunday Times bestselling author Dorothy Koomson.
Published February 13th by Riverrun Literary Ficiton, Psychological Fiction, Coming-of-Age Story
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Perfect for fans of Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine and Remarkably Bright Creatures, this is a charming, witty and moving novel about what it feels like to grow up neurodivergent.
‘Climb up here, Little Alien. Sit next to me. I will tell you about life on this planet. I will tell you how it goes’
From her first words to her first day at school, Little Alien can’t help but get things wrong. She doesn’t understand the world the way others seem to, and the world doesn’t seem to understand her either. Her anxious mum and meticulous dad, while well-intentioned, are of little help.
But when Little Alien sees a documentary about the Voynich Manuscript – a mediaeval codex written in an unknown language and script – she begins to suspect that there are other people who feel just like her. Convinced that translating this manuscript will offer the answers she needs, she sets out on a journey that will show her a delicious taste of freedom.
So begins this charming, witty, and profoundly moving novel about the power of language, the wonder of libraries – and how to find a path that fits, when you yourself do not.
Published February 13th by Aria Historical Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: A heart-wrenching and unforgettable story of courage, friendship and resistance, inspired by the incredible true story of a Jewish ballroom dancer in Paris during WWII, perfect for fans of The Paris Library.
Paris, 1938. Annie Mayer arrives in France with dreams of becoming a ballerina. But when the war reaches Paris, she’s forced to keep her Jewish heritage a secret. Then a fellow dancer offers her a lifeline: a ballroom partnership that gives her a new identity. Together, Annie and her partner captivate audiences across occupied Europe, using her newfound fame and alias to aid the Resistance.
New York, 2012. Miriam, haunted by her past, travels from London to New York to settle her great-aunt Esther’s estate. Among Esther’s belongings, she discovers notebooks detailing a secret family history and the story of a brave dancer who risked everything to help Jewish families during the war.
As Miriam uncovers Esther’s life in Europe, she realises the story has been left for her to finish. Grappling with loss and the possibility of new love, Miriam must find the strength to reconcile her past and embrace her future.
Published February 13th by Viking Romance Novel, Contemporary Romance
BOOK DESCRIPTION: ONE STORY. TWO EXES. CAN THEY CHANGE THEIR ENDING?
‘Such a fun, romantic read’ Beth O’Leary ‘This book melted my stone cold heart’ Jendella Benson
Temi and Wale meet in London. They flirt, date, meet each other’s friends. Then they break up. And Wale goes on a reality dating show.
Instead of giving in to heartbreak, Temi throws herself into her dream: writing. She’s within touching distance of a book deal that would solve all her problems. But publishers keep passing on her novel and bills still have to be paid. So, when the opportunity to ghost-write a celebrity autobiography arises, Temi accepts.
And, of course, the celebrity turns out to be Wale…
Will Temi and Wale repeat the patterns of their past? Or can they write a whole new story?
Published February 13th by Century Romance Novel, Contemporary Romance, Urban Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: A beautiful Chelsea town house. A chance to fulfil her dreams. A life adventure awaits… __________
It’s 1968 and it’s cold when Felicity arrives in London to stay with her mother, improve her English, do a secretarial course – and meet a suitable man.
She is already missing her home in Provence and her father and his new wife and their extended family. But it’s only for a year she tells herself – and then she can go back to France and do what she really wants and become a painter.
And then she bumps into Oliver who is quite the most interesting young man she has ever met. He lives on a barge for one thing and has a collection of jobs, but his passion is looking for hidden treasures along the shores of the river Thames.
In a word, he’s a mudlarker – and before long Felicity is mudlarking too. She is also pursuing her dreams and painting scenery for Oliver’s actor friends.
But is Oliver a Suitable Man of whom her mother will approve? Felicity knows she will not …
Love, tangled relationships, and a real life adventure lie at the heart of Katie Fforde’s heart-warming new novel.
Published February 13th by Chatto & Windus Domestic Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: The happily ever after is only part of the story…A funny, touching, hopeful gem about love, marriage and second chances
It’s the day before her daughter’s wedding and things are not going well for Gail Baines. First thing, she loses her job – or quits, depending who you ask. Then her ex-husband Max turns up at her door expecting to stay for the festivities. He doesn’t even have a suit. Instead, he’s brought memories, a shared sense of humour – and a cat looking for a new home.
Just as Gail is wondering what’s next, their daughter Debbie discovers her groom has been keeping a secret…
As the big day dawns, the exes just can’t agree on what’s best for Debbie. Gail is seriously worried, while Max seems more concerned with whether to opt for the salmon or prime rib at the reception, if they make it that far.
The day after the wedding, Gail and Max prepare to go their separate ways again. But all the questions about the future of the happy couple have stirred up the past for Gail. Because ‘happy’ takes many forms, and sometimes the younger generation has much to teach the older about secrets, acceptance and taking the rough with the smooth.
The Antique Hunter’s Death on the Red Sea by C. L. Miller
Published February 13th by Pan Macmillan Mystery, Crime Fiction, Cozy Mystery
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Join Freya and Aunt Carole for more sleuthing in the highly anticipated second instalment in your new favourite crime series, The Antique Hunters. The Antique Hunter’s: Death on the Red Sea is a cosy crime read for fans of the Antiques Roadshow.
When a painting vanishes from a maritime museum – and a dead body is found nearby – the newly established Lockwood Antique Hunter’s Agency, Freya Lockwood and her Aunt Carole, are called to investigate.
Following a lead that takes them aboard a glamorous antiques cruise sailing toward the Red Sea in Jordan, they quickly discover that the ship’s art gallery is filled with stolen antiquities. Each and every one of them is also listed in Freya’s late mentor’s journals detailing unsolved cases. In chasing a murderer with a stolen painting, they may have found something more sinister than they could’ve imagined . . .
Their hunt soon turns deadly when they learn that the enigmatic and dangerous art trafficker named The Collector could be on board. But on a ship full of antiques enthusiasts – plus some unexpected familiar faces – will Freya and Carole be able to discover The Collector’s identity and stop his murderous plans before the ship docks?
Published February 13th by Simon & Schuster UK Mystery, Cosy Mystery
BOOK DESCRIPTION: ONCE UPON A TIME LIKE YOU’VE NEVER READ IT BEFORE . . .
DI Lyla Rondell is on the case of a lifetime. Tasked with investigating a series of perplexing deaths, the only lead she has is that each appears to be based on a different classic fairy tale. Far from the stuff of bedtime stories, the press is having a field day with what they have named the Grimm Ripper Murders.
But as the bodies stack up, Lyla’s whole world is about to flip on its head. Because the killer’s bloody trail stretches deep into her own origin story, and when she discovers the truth, nothing will ever be the same again.
Faced with the fact that everything she knows is fiction, Lyla will have to take a little creative license of her own if she’s going to turn the final page on the killings . . .
Published February 13th by Electric Monkey Fantasy Fiction, Romantic Comedy, Hisotrical Romance, Young Adult Ficiton
BOOK DESCRIPTION: The Cruel Prince meets Bridgerton in this captivating fantasy brimming with heart-pounding romance, vicious competition and beautiful, cruel fae, from the New York Times bestselling author of The Witch Haven, Sasha Peyton Smith.
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Every citizen of England is granted one bargain from their immortal fae queen. High society girls are expected to bargain for qualities that will win them suitors: a rare talent for piano in exchange for one’s happiest childhood memory. A perfect smile for one’s ability to taste.
But Ivy Benton’s debut season arrives with a shocking twist: a competition to secure the heart of the Queen’s fae son, Prince Bram. A prize that could save Ivy’s family from ruin… and free her sister from the bargain that destroyed her.
Yet every glittering fae deal has a rotting heart, and at the centre of this contest is a dark plot that could destroy everything.
Sweepingly romantic and deceptively enchanting, this alternate history romantasy will enthrall readers of Lauren Roberts, Stephanie Garber, and Sarah J Maas.
Published February 13th by Harper Voyager Romantic Fantasy, Romance Novel, High Fantasy, Fairy Tale, Dark Fantasy, Fantasy Fiction, Adventure Ficiton, Supernatural Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: RETURN TO THE INTOXICATING WORLD OF THE FAE…
Betrayed by destiny.
Cursed by love.
Bound by hope.
Yeeran and Lettle are no longer prisoners to the fae court, but now they’re bound by the shackles of their hearts …
Yeeran was born for war but is unprepared for love. She has left her new lover, the Queen of the fae, to return to her homeland, only to find that her former lover now threatens war against the fae.
Left behind, her sister Lettle is determined to break the curse that binds the fae to their realm. When a stranger appears in the city, Lettle is convinced he’s the key. But the Fates that once spoke to her have fallen silent.
Can Lettle and Yeeran discover the secret behind the curse – and unite these two worlds before they destroy each other?
Return to the intoxicating world of the fae in the seductive sequel to the No. 1 Sunday Times bestselling Faebound.
Published February 20th by Sphere Historical Fiction, Psychological Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Paris, 1789. The Oberst Factory, which crafts exquisite wallpaper for the most fashionable French homes, is a place shrouded in mystery. Most enigmatic is the woman pictured in each of its prints, rumoured to be the late Mrs Oberst, who died in peculiar circumstances.
When sisters Lara and Sofi arrive there for work, they quickly form a friendship with Josef Oberst, the motherless heir to the factory. Whilst Sofi’s political fervour intensifies, Lara is disturbed by the uncanny way her life appears mirrored in the wallpaper. Meanwhile Hortense, Josef’s spoilt aristocratic wife, is similarly unnerved by the scenes that line the walls of her new home. With the mobs growing ever more violent, is she in danger of meeting the same untimely end as the last Mrs Oberst?
As revolution blazes across France, the lives of Sofi, Lara and Hortense are set to collide in unimaginable and irrevocable ways. Can they change what lies ahead, or are some patterns destined to be repeated?
Published February 20th by Pan Macmillan Romance Novel, Historical Ficiton, Historical Romance
BOOK DESCRIPTION: ‘An unforgettable voice within a breathtaking story about love, lineage, and the intergenerational effect of bravery in the face of misfortune’ – Jessica George, author of Diverse Book Awards winning My Name is Maame
Everything about Adeline Copplefield is a lie . . .
To the world Mrs Copplefield is the epitome of Victorian propriety: an exemplary society lady who writes a weekly column advising young ladies on how to be better wives.
Only Adeline has never been a good wife or mother; she has no claim to the Copplefield name, nor is she an English lady . . .
Now a black woman, born in Africa, who dared to pretend to be something she was not, is on trial in the English courts with all of London society baying for her blood. And she is ready to tell her story . . .
From the author of The Attic Child, Lola Jaye, comes a powerful dual narrative historical novel. The Manual for Good Wives is about love, generational trauma, second chances and hope.
Published February 20th by Chatto & Windus Literary Fiction, Coming-of-Age Story, LGBT Literature
BOOK DESCRIPTION: A gut-punch novel of girlhood in early noughties Yorkshire from a blazing new voice
Ask anyone non-Northern, they’ll only know Donny as punch line of a joke or place they changed trains once ont way to London.
But Doncaster’s also the home of Rach, Shaz and Kel, bezzies since childhood and Donny lasses through and through. They share everything, from blagging their way into nightclubs to trips to the Family Planning clinic when they are late. Never mind that Rach is skeptical of Shaz’s bolder plots; or that Shaz, who comes from a rougher end of town, feels left behind when the others begin charting a course to uni; or that Kel sometimes feels split in two trying to keep the peace ― their friendship is as indestructible as they are. But as they grow up and away from one another, a long-festering secret threatens to rip the trio apart.
We Pretty Pieces of Flesh takes you by the hand and leads you through Doncaster’s schoolyards, alleyways and nightclubs, laying bare the intimate treacheries of adolescence and the ways we betray ourselves when we don’t trust our friends. Like The Glorious Heresies and Shuggie Bain, it tracks hard-edged lives and makes them sing, turning one overlooked place into the very centre of the world.
Published February 27th by Simon & Schuster UK Historical Fiction, Saga
BOOK DESCRIPTION: In the chaos of that terrible night, her secret went down with the Titanic. But secrets have a way of floating to the surface…
Trapped in an unhappy aristocratic marriage, Elinor Coombes sees only lonely days ahead of her. So a present from her father – tickets for the maiden voyage of a huge, luxurious new ship called the Titanic – offers a welcome escape from the cold, controlling atmosphere of her husband’s ancestral home, and some precious time with her little son, Teddy.
When the ship goes down, Elinor realises the disaster has given her a chance to take Teddy and start a new life – but only if they can disappear completely, listed as among the dead. Penniless and using another woman’s name, she has to learn to survive in a world that couldn’t be more different from her own, and keep their secret safe.
An uplifting story about grabbing your chances with both hands, and being brave enough to find out who you really are.
Published February 27th by Quercus Historical Fiction, Mythology, Fairy Tale
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Born of the sun and moon, shaped by fire and malady, comes a young woman whose story has never been told . . .
They call her Sycorax. Seer. Sage. Sorceress.
Outcast by society and all alone in the world, Sycorax must find a way to understand her true nature. But as her powers begin to grow, so too do the suspicions of the local townspeople. For knowledge can be dangerous, and a woman’s knowledge is the most dangerous of all . . .
With a great storm brewing on the horizon, Sycorax finds herself in increasing peril – but will her powers save her, or will they spell the end for them all?
A beautifully written and deeply moving imagining of what came before Shakespeare’s The Tempest from the author of A Girl Made of Air.
Publsihed February 27th by Orenda Books Gothic Fiction, Suspense, Crime Fiction, Psychological Thriller, Horror Fiction, Noir Ficiton, Supernatural Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Suspected of murdering their parents, sisters Lily and Della flee to a strange, unnamed island in Scotland, and their arrival puts in motion a horrifying series of events… Literary suspense meets folk horror in 2025’s most original, mesmerising modern gothic masterpiece…
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Evil runs through this cursed island And these wicked sisters are about to make it burn…
When sisters Lily and Della Pedley are persecuted for the shocking murder of their parents, they flee from their home in Cornwall to a remote and unnamed island in Scotland – an island known for its strange happenings, but far away from the whispers and prying eyes of strangers.
Lily is terrified of what her sister will might do next, and she soon realises that they have arrived at a place where nothing is as it seems. A bitterness runs through the land like poison, and the stories told by the islanders seem to be far more than folklore.
Della settles in too easily, the island folk drawn to her strangeness, but Lily is plagued by odd and unsettling dreams, and as an annual festival draws nigh, she discovers that she has far more to fear than she could ever have imagined. Or does she…?
Chilling, atmospheric and utterly hypnotic, Small Fires is a contemporary gothic novel that examines possession, generational trauma, female rage, and the perilous bonds of family – an unsettling reminder that the stories we tell can be deadly…
Midsommar meets Midnight Mass in a folk horror, modern gothic masterpiece.
Publsiehd February 27th by Headline Thriller, Suspense, Humorous Fiction, Literary Fiction, Contemporary Fiction, Cozy Mystery
BOOK DESCRIPTION: A headmistress is dead. The circumstances are suspicious. And as every parent knows, being on the school group chat can be murder…
As educators go, Claudia Stitchwell makes Miss Hannigan look like Miss Honey. But when the reviled headteacher drops dead in the school hall, a group of sceptical parents suspect the nut allergy explanation doesn’t add up – they believe someone wanted to teach Miss Stitchwell a lesson.
Only four people could have killed Stitchwell: Hattie, the adored school cook; Kiera, the hard-working teaching assistant; Clive, the loathed school bursar and Ben, the popular deputy head. All of them are liars… but only one is the murderer.
Piecing together evidence from the daily drama and drudgery of the parents’ group chat, local press, police reports, school newsletters, and good, old-fashioned gossip, the determined detective parents are doing their homework to crack the case.
Will you spot the clues? Can you deduce whodunnit? And for the love of all things holy, does anyone have this week’s spellings?
Published February 27th by Sphere Thriller, Mystery, Suspense, Crime Ficiton, Psychological Thriller, Police Procedural
BOOK DESCRIPTION: The stunning new thriller from the author who brought you the jaw-dropping twist of I Let You Go, the gasp-out-loud ending of Let Me Lie, and the loveable, unpredictable Ffion Morgan in The Last Party and A Game of Lies.
Even on the most desirable street, there’s a dark side . . .
The Hill is the kind of place everyone wants to live: luxurious, exclusive and safe. But now someone is breaking and entering these Cheshire homes one by one, and DS Leo Brady suspects the burglar is looking for something, or someone, in particular.
Over the border in Wales, DC Ffion Morgan recovers the body of an estate agent from the lake. There’s no love lost between Ffion and estate agents, but who hated this one enough to want her dead – and why?
As their cases collide, Ffion and Leo discover people will pay a high price to keep their secrets behind closed doors . . .
Published February 27th by Bantam Mystery, Thriller, Crime Fiction, Historical Mystery
BOOK DESCRIPTION: From the exceptionally original mind of CWA Gold Dagger Award winner and Booker-longlisted author Belinda Bauer, a sweeping tale of obsession, greed, ambition, and a crime that has remained unsolved for a hundred years.
It was the greatest mystery never told . . .
1926. On the towering cliffs of Yorkshire, men are lowered on ropes to steal the eggs of the sea birds who nest there. The most beautiful are sold for large sums. But when small and hungry Celie Sheppard finds an ‘impossible’ red egg, it will forever alter the course of her life – and the lives of others.
100 years later in a remote cottage in Wales, Patrick Fort discovers his friend, Nick, and his mother tied up and robbed. The only thing missing: a carved case containing an incredible scarlet egg. Doggedly attempting to retrieve it, Patrick and Nick discover the cruel world of egg trafficking, and soon find themselves on the trail of a priceless collection of eggs lost to history. Until now.
A taut, wonderfully imagined novel brimming with skulduggery at every turn, The Impossible Thing is a blazing testament to Belinda Bauer’s status as one of our greatest living crime writers.
Published February 27th by Doubleday Historical Fiction, Gothic Fiction, Horror Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: A powerful and spine-tingling gothic tale exploring mother-daughter relationships, sexuality, and class.
‘Bold, blazing, absolutely unforgettable’ Elizabeth Macneal, bestselling author of The Doll Factory
There are some facts about the world that only your mother can teach you. Marguerite had been confined for the sake of her wellbeing. That’s what her mother had said.
Marguerite Périgord is locked in the attic of her family home, a towering Chelsea house overlooking the stinking Thames.
For company she has a sewing machine, Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management and a carrion crow who has come to nest in the rafters. Restless, she spends her waning energies on the fascinations of her own body, memorising Mrs Beeton’s advice and longing for her life outside.
Cécile Périgord has confined her daughter Marguerite for her own good.
Cécile is concerned that Marguerite’s engagement to a much older, near-penniless solicitor, will drag the family name – her husband’s name, that is – into disrepute. And for Cécile, who has worked hard at her own betterment, this simply won’t do.
Cécile’s life has taught her that no matter how high a woman climbs she can just as readily fall.
Of course, both have their secrets, intentions and histories to hide. As Marguerite’s patience turns into rage, the boundaries of her mind and body start to fray.
And neither woman can recognise what the other is becoming.
Published February 27th by Bloomsbury Publishing Historical Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: All that is hidden will soon be revealed . . .
One morning in 1890, a painting wrapped in brown paper appears on the steps of the National Gallery and causes a sensation. It’s clearly by Timothy Ponden-Hall, whose paintings were celebrated and debated not just for their beauty, but for the rumours behind them: they were believed to immortalise the souls of their subjects. But Ponden-Hall has been thought dead for the last 50 years. . .
In a bid to quiet the gossip and rumours that swirl around the streets of London, the gallery brings in renowned and reluctant art historian Solomon Oak to investigate. Oak is assisted by an unlikely aide: his daughter Alice. A passionate but sheltered student, Alice has worldly desires which eclipse the life she’s expected to lead. Together they discover that exposing Ponden-Hall’s legacy will prove more controversial than they could ever have imagined for their family, and for Victorian society.
Set between London and Oxford, The Portrait Artist is a twisting debut exploring race, fame and long-kept secrets.
Published February 27th by Simon & Schuster UK Romance Novel, Contemporary Romance
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Welcome to Spring Hill, home to a square of independent shops and cafes, a thriving local community and nearby the newest venture, Ray’s Diner. Here a group of women meet once a week over a cup of something warming.
Amanda is primary carer to her elderly mother and one of the only women in a male-dominated company. Used to being second-best all her life, is this her time to finally break ranks and shine?
Sky works at the repair shop, patching up old teddy bears, and their owners’ hearts. But her heart beats for the one man who is strictly off-limits.
Mel has been a loyal and loving wife to Steve for thirty years. Then when he goes to his old school reunion, life as she knows it will never be the same again.
Erin is trying to get over a traumatic loss where her guilt weighs more than her grief. Can she find the first step to healing lies in sharing an hour with strangers once a week?
Astrid is feeling in need of a change and a challenge. But when a fantastic opportunity presents itself, who is around to convince her she is worthy enough to take the risk?
Can these women find the answers to their worries, acceptance, courage, support here? Join them at the same time next week to find out…
The Scorpion and the Night Blossom by Amelie We Zhao
Published Febuary 27th by Harper Voyager Fantasy Ficiton, Romantic Fantasy, High Fantasy, Romance Novel, Dark Fantasy
BOOK DESCRIPTION: The war between the Kingdom of Night and the Kingdom of Rivers tore the mortal realm apart. Now it is an increasingly dangerous place, falling into eternal night where ravenous demons roam and every day is a fight for survival…
The Immortality Trials offer a second chance in this brutal world and are open to any mortal willing to risk the journey to the immortal realm. The prize for completing them is eternal life…
However, first they must survive.
Àn’yīng knows the prize can heal her dying mother and that she’ll need all the help she can get if she’s to complete them.
But when a rival contestant, both powerful and handsome, promises protection and a chance of survival for both Àn’yīng and her mother, she will need to find out quickly whether she can truly trust the stranger she’s falling for or if he’s the most dangerous player of all … for herself and for all the realms.
Today I’m sharing my list of thrillers I’m most anticipating this year. There’s so many good ones that it was hard to narrow them down!
The Night We Lost Him by Laura Dave
BOOK DESCRIPTION: From the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller and Reese’s Book Club Pick The Last Thing He Told Me comes a riveting mystery wrapped in an epic love story . . . _________
One beautiful Californian evening, a wealthy businessman falls to his death from his secluded cliff-top house onto the rocks below.
A tragic accident? Or murder?
Nora and her half-brother Sam suspect it may be the latter, and team up to uncover the truth of what really happened that night.
But their relationship has never been easy, and it is about to be tested to the limit as they start to question how well either of them really knew their elusive father.
Unravelling his mysterious past takes them back to a world they knew nothing about, to a tangled love affair and a web of relationships that other people would far rather stay buried…
Filled with passion, intrigue, lies, and dark, dark family secrets, The Night We Lost Him is a page turning mystery you won’t ever want to put down.
A Serial Killer’s Guide To Marriage by Asia Mackay
BOOK DESCRIPTION: A couple that kills together stays together. DISCOVER THE ADDICTIVE THRILLER READERS CAN’T STOP TALKING ABOUT
Hazel and Fox are an ordinary married couple with a baby. Except for one small thing: they’re ex-serial killers.
They had it all. An enviable London lifestyle, five-star travels, and plenty of bad men to kill. Not many power couples know how to get away with murder.
Then Hazel fell pregnant and they gave it all up for life in the suburbs; dinner parties instead of body disposal.
But recently Hazel has started to feel that itch again. When she kills someone behind Fox’s back and brings the police to their door, she must do anything she can to protect her family.
This could save their marriage – unless it kills them first.
Published January 14th by Wildfire Pre-order here*
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The Last Days of Kira Mullan by Nicci French
BOOK DESCRIPTION: She thinks it was murder. But if she can’t trust herself, can anyone else?
Nancy North and her boyfriend Felix are making the move across London to Harlesden. A new flat, a new area, a new start. Because while Nancy is fine now, she wasn’t fine before. But settling into the new flat and meeting the new neighbours isn’t helped by Felix’s hovering concern. She is all right. She is sticking to her breathing exercises and doctor-prescribed help.
So, when their new neighbour Kira Mullan is found dead by suicide, Felix is understandably worried about Nancy’s frame of mind. But Nancy saw Kira the day before she died and she didn’t strike her as someone who was suicidal – she was upset and angry, yes, but was she upset and angry enough to take her own life?
Nancy is the only one convinced that there’s more to Kira’s death than has been discovered. But all the police and the neighbours see is a vulnerable woman who isn’t sure of what she saw, and might even be imagining things . . .
Is Nancy imagining things, or are there more questions that should be asked about the last days of Kira Mullan?
Published January 16th by Simon & Schuster UK Pre-order here*
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Death in the Arctic by Tom Hindle
BOOK DESCRIPTION: A frozen wilderness.
A killer in the skies.
When aspiring travel writer Chloé Campbell is invited aboard a luxury airship flying to the North Pole, she thinks she’s bagged the opportunity of a lifetime.
But she hasn’t had long to admire the dazzling icy views before a fellow passenger is found dead in their cabin.
Trapped at the top of the world, the group agrees a tragic accident has occurred. But as the hours tick by, fear turns to doubt.
It seems everyone’s a suspect.
And it isn’t long before the passengers begin to turn on each other . . .
BOOK DESCRIPTION: It’s not dust she’s looking for. It’s dirt.
Esmie is supposed to be invisible. Just a cleaner with a foreign accent that no one quite has time to place. Her uniform of leggings and a duster allows her to explore the homes of the wealthy, unseen; an outsider creeping around the edges of privilege.
But as she sweeps through the exclusive Woodlands gated neighbourhood, cleaning is the last thing on her mind. Treading silently over the polished wooden floorboards and cloud-soft carpets, Esmie gathers up the mess of broken marriages, quiet deceptions and careless failures. She tucks away their fragments, keeping them safe. For now.
Because one of the residents took from her the person she loves most. She’s not here to clean; she’s here for revenge – and she’ll get it using the weapons her employers unwittingly handed her along with the keys to their homes: their own secrets…
This beautifully sinister, propulsive page-turner that explores themes of identity and privilege is perfect for fans of Harriet Tyce and Lisa Jewell.
BOOK DESCRIPTION: A twisted Southern Gothic horror from Grady Hendrix, the New York Times bestselling author of How to Sell a Haunted House and The Final Girl Support Group.
‘I did an evil thing to be put in here, and I’m going to have to do an evil thing to get out.’
They call them wayward girls. Loose girls. Girls who grew up too fast. And they’re sent to the Wellwood House in St. Augustine, Florida, where unwed mothers are hidden by their families to have their babies in secret, give them up for adoption, and most important of all, to forget any of it ever happened.
Fifteen-year-old Fern arrives at the home in the sweltering summer of 1970, pregnant, terrified and alone. There, she meets a dozen other girls in the same predicament. Rose, a hippie who insists she’s going to keep her baby and escape to a commune. Zinnia, a budding musician who plans to marry her baby’s father. And Holly, barely fourteen, mute and pregnant by no-one-knows-who.
Every moment of their waking day is strictly controlled by adults who claim they know what’s best for them. Then Fern meets a librarian who gives her an occult book about witchcraft, and power is in the hands of the girls for the first time in their lives. But power can destroy as easily as it creates, and it’s never given freely. There’s always a price to be paid . . . and it’s usually paid in blood.
BOOK DESCRIPTION: In this mesmerising thriller from the bestselling author of Keep Her Secret, a family’s fresh start is just the beginning of their nightmare…
Ethan Dove’s family has moved to a new home in a safe community, and it’s exactly the fresh start they need. Not only is his marriage to Emma hanging by a thread, but his son, Dylan, and twelve-year-old daughter, Rose, deserve to have a happy childhood.
After Rose is bullied by the boys across the road, Ethan is relieved when the woman who lives next door steps in. Fiona Smith has come into their lives at just the right moment, and when she offers to look after Rose during the school holidays, Ethan and Emma can’t believe their luck.
Which is exactly what Fiona wants. Because, far from being the perfect neighbour, Fiona is the last person you should trust with your child. With a vicious plot for revenge, Fiona is happy to train Rose to be her accomplice, especially when she begins to suspect that Rose might not be as innocent as she appears…
The Psychopath Next Door is a gripping and twisted psychological suspense thriller set in the terrifying world of Mark Edwards’s bestselling The Magpies universe.
Published January 28th by Thomas & Mercer Pre-order here*
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Beautiful Ugly by Alice Feeney
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Author Grady Green is having the worst best day of his life.
Grady calls his wife as she’s driving home to share some exciting news. He hears Abby slam on the brakes, get out of the car, then nothing. When he eventually finds her car by a cliff edge, the headlights are on, the driver door is open, her phone is still there . . . but his wife has disappeared.
A year later, Grady is still overcome with grief and desperate to know what happened to Abby. He can’t sleep, and he can’t write, so he travels to a tiny Scottish island to try to get his life back on track. Then he sees the impossible: a woman who looks exactly like his missing wife.
Wives think their husbands will change, but they don’t. Husbands think their wives won’t change, but they do.
Published January 30th by Pan Macmillan Pre-order here*
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Famous Last Words by Gillian McAllister
BOOK DESCRIPTION: It’s Camilla’s first day back at work, her daughter’s first day at nursery. But husband Luke is nowhere to be seen. The only trace of him is an unfinished note. Camilla tries to put it out of her mind; there must be a rational explanation. At work, there are welcomes back, and too many distractions.
Then it starts.
Breaking news: there’s a hostage situation developing in London. The police arrive: Luke is caught up in it.
But he isn’t a hostage. Luke – doting father, successful writer, enthusiastic runner and eternal optimist – is the gunman.
What Camilla does next is crucial. Because only she knows what the note he left behind says, and the clues it might hold . . .
Published January 30th by Michael Joseph Pre-order here*
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I Bet You’d Look Good in a Coffin by Katy Brent
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Your favourite anti-heroine, Kitty Collins, is back! Expect more wit, sass, and, of course, murder…
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My name is Kitty Collins and I’m a serial killer.
I don’t want to kill. It’s just so hard to resist. Some men really, really deserve it.
Men like Blaze Bundy, an anonymous influencer spreading misogyny online. He’s making it very hard for me to control my murderous urges.
Meanwhile I’m in the South of France to watch my mother marry a man I’ve never met. I should be drinking cocktails and focusing on my tan, not plotting a murder.
But a woman’s work is never done. Surely one more teensy little kill wouldn’t hurt, would it?
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Robyn ‘Avril’ Managa was twelve when she witnessed her controlling and abusive father murder her mother. Put into care while her well-connected was father given a new identity in Witness Protection, Robyn has lived with the trauma of that day ever since.
Now in her twenties, Robyn has decided she wants a family reunion – so is killing people connected to her father’s case, leaving on their bodies the note: GIVE HIM TO ME.
Dr Kez Lanyon is called onto the case. But can Kez get into Robyn’s mind before she kills again? Or is she about to become Avril’s latest victim?
Profiler and therapist Kez Lanyon returns in a gripping new stand-alone novel from Sunday Times bestselling author Dorothy Koomson.
Published February 13th by Headline Pre-order here*
****
The Frozen People by Elly Griffiths
BOOK DESCRIPTION: SOME MURDERS CAN’T BE SOLVED IN JUST ONE LIFETIME.
Ali Dawson and her cold case team investigate crimes so old, they’re frozen – or so their inside joke goes. Most people don’t know that they travel back in time to complete their research.
The latest assignment sees Ali venture back farther than they have dared before: to 1850s London in order to clear the name of Cain Templeton, the eccentric great-grandfather of MP Isaac Templeton. Rumour has it that Cain was part of a sinister group called The Collectors; to become a member, you had to kill a woman…
Fearing for her safety in the middle of a freezing Victorian winter, Ali finds herself stuck in time, unable to make her way back to her life, her beloved colleagues, and her son, Finn, who suddenly finds himself in legal trouble in the present day.
Could the two cases be connected?
Set your clocks to February 2025 and get ready for an original, transportive and characterful new crime novel from no. 1 bestselling author Elly Griffiths. Perfect for those missing the Dr Ruth Galloway series and for any crime and historical fiction fans.
Published February 13th by Quercus Pre-order here*
****
Dirty Money by Charlotte Philby
BOOK DESCRIPTION: RAMONA CHANG
An investigative journalist turned private detective, Ramona’s final scoop left her with a target on her back. Now in hiding, she is living in a run-down flat in east London. But when her latest case looking into an upmarket escort agency takes a dark turn, she needs information only accessible to those in power . . .
DETECTIVE SERGEANT MADELEINE FARROW
A high-flying operative at a government agency, it’s the day of her fiftieth birthday when Madeleine finds out that she has been given the lead on an investigation into corruption on a global scale. But when she finds her case mysteriously blocked from the inside, she needs someone on the outside, capable of moving undetected . . .
As Ramona’s and Madeleine’s cases collide, can the unlikely allies find justice for multiple victims within the capital’s hotbed of lies and deception?
A gripping thrill-ride set against the gloss and grit of contemporary London, DIRTY MONEY introduces an unforgettable new detective duo created by critically acclaimed writer Charlotte Philby.
Published February 13th by Baskerville Pre-order here*
****
Other People’s Houses (DC Morgan, 3) by Clare Mackintosh
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Even on the most desirable street, there’s a dark side . . .
The Hill is the kind of place everyone wants to live: luxurious, exclusive and safe. But now someone is breaking and entering these Cheshire homes one by one, and DS Leo Brady suspects the burglar is looking for something, or someone, in particular.
Over the border in Wales, DC Ffion Morgan recovers the body of an estate agent from the lake. There’s no love lost between Ffion and estate agents, but who hated this one enough to want her dead – and why?
As their cases collide, Ffion and Leo discover people will pay a high price to keep their secrets behind closed doors . . .
BOOK DESCRIPTION: A headmistress is dead. The circumstances are suspicious. And as every parent knows, being on the school group chat can be murder…
As educators go, Claudia Stitchwell makes Miss Hannigan look like Miss Honey. But when the reviled headteacher drops dead in the school hall, a group of sceptical parents suspect the nut allergy explanation doesn’t add up – they believe someone wanted to teach Miss Stitchwell a lesson.
Only four people could have killed Stitchwell: Hattie, the adored school cook; Kiera, the hard-working teaching assistant; Clive, the loathed school bursar and Ben, the popular deputy head. All of them are liars… but only one is the murderer.
Piecing together evidence from the daily drama and drudgery of the parents’ group chat, local press, police reports, school newsletters, and good, old-fashioned gossip, the determined detective parents are doing their homework to crack the case.
Will you spot the clues? Can you deduce whodunnit? And for the love of all things holy, does anyone have this week’s spellings?
Published February 27th by Headline Pre-order here*
****
Small Fires by Ronnie Turner
BOOK DESCRIPTON: Suspected of murdering their parents, sisters Lily and Della flee to a strange, unnamed island in Scotland, and their arrival puts in motion a horrifying series of events… Literary suspense meets folk horror in 2025’s most original, mesmerising modern gothic masterpiece…
________________ Evil runs through this cursed island And these wicked sisters are about to make it burn…
When sisters Lily and Della Pedley are persecuted for the shocking murder of their parents, they flee from their home in Cornwall to a remote and unnamed island in Scotland – an island known for its strange happenings, but far away from the whispers and prying eyes of strangers.
Lily is terrified of what her sister will might do next, and she soon realises that they have arrived at a place where nothing is as it seems. A bitterness runs through the land like poison, and the stories told by the islanders seem to be far more than folklore.
Della settles in too easily, the island folk drawn to her strangeness, but Lily is plagued by odd and unsettling dreams, and as an annual festival draws nigh, she discovers that she has far more to fear than she could ever have imagined. Or does she…?
Chilling, atmospheric and utterly hypnotic, Small Fires is a contemporary gothic novel that examines possession, generational trauma, female rage, and the perilous bonds of family – an unsettling reminder that the stories we tell can be deadly…
Midsommar meets Midnight Mass in a folk horror, modern gothic masterpiece.
Published February 27th by Orenda Books Pre-order here
****
The Impossible Thing by Belinda Bauer
BOOK DESCRIPTION: From the exceptionally original mind of CWA Gold Dagger Award winner and Booker-longlisted author Belinda Bauer, a sweeping tale of obsession, greed, ambition, and a crime that has remained unsolved for a hundred years.
It was the greatest mystery never told . . .
1926. On the towering cliffs of Yorkshire, men are lowered on ropes to steal the eggs of the sea birds who nest there. The most beautiful are sold for large sums. But when small and hungry Celie Sheppard finds an ‘impossible’ red egg, it will forever alter the course of her life – and the lives of others.
100 years later in a remote cottage in Wales, Patrick Fort discovers his friend, Nick, and his mother tied up and robbed. The only thing missing: a carved case containing an incredible scarlet egg. Doggedly attempting to retrieve it, Patrick and Nick discover the cruel world of egg trafficking, and soon find themselves on the trail of a priceless collection of eggs lost to history. Until now.
A taut, wonderfully imagined novel brimming with skullduggery at every turn, The Impossible Thing is a blazing testament to Belinda Bauer’s status as one of our greatest living crime writers.
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Three women. Three smouldering secrets. Who will make it out alive?
It’s 5 November, and a woman awakens to a nightmare. Bound and gagged, she lies trapped in the heart of a towering bonfire. As the smoke thickens, panic sets in – she’s moments away from being engulfed in flames. How did it come to this?
Rewind eleven months: Margot, a faded TV star, and her long-suffering friend Anna watch as glamorous Liv and her flawless family move into their street. The three women soon fabricate the perfect pretence of friendship, but each harbours her own deadly secret – and newcomer Liv senses something is terribly wrong beneath the polished exteriors.
As cracks widen in the veneer of perfection and lies escalate out of control, tension ignites. Bonfire Night is approaching and someone is set to burn…But who will it be?
Published March 4th by Thomas & Mercer Pre-order here*
****
A Trial in Three Acts by Guy Morpuss
BOOK DESCRIPTION: A trial is rather like a play. We wear our costumes. We perform to the audience. And on a good day no-one gets murdered.
Six nights a week the cast of the smash-hit play Daughter of the Revolution performs to a sold-out audience. A thrilling story of forbidden marriage and a secret love child, the critics say it’ll run for years. That is until one night the third act ends not in applause but in death, when leading lady Alexandra Dyce is beheaded live on stage.
Every cast member has a motive, but it is the dead woman’s co-star – and ex-husband – Hollywood legend Leo Lusk who is charged with the crime. When defence barrister Charles Konig is brought in last minute, he knows this ought to be the case of a lifetime. But Charles would rather be on his holiday trekking up K2, and he isn’t interested in celebrities, especially ones that seem to be mysteriously trying to derail their own defence. But as he and his co-counsel New York lawyer Yara Ortiz sift through the evidence, it becomes clear that clues may lie in the play itself. And that Charles’s only chance of victory is to identify the real murderer…
A delightfully clever legal mystery with as many layers as an onion. Perfect for readers of Janice Hallett, Tom Hindle, Rob Rinder and Richard Osman.
BOOK DESCRIPTION: If you hurt me, I’ll hurt you. Not right away of course, because where’s the fun in that?
When an empty passenger plane mysteriously crashes in the Lake District, journalist Carly Atherton is determined to get to the truth of what happened – the love of her life was one of the two pilots on board.
But when she contacts the family of the other pilot, the conflicting memories of his wife and his sister draw her into a story far darker than she could possibly have imagined.
As Carly delves into the dynamics of a seemingly ordinary family, she realises that the bonds that shape us can also tear us apart – and that sometimes there are monsters living among us, hiding in plain sight…
Son (Kari Voss Mysteries Volume 1) by Johana Gustawasson and Thomas Enger
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Psychologist and expert on body language and memory, Kari Voss investigates the murder of two teenaged girls in the small Norwegian town of Son, as suspicion is cast on multiple suspects. A mesmerisingly dark, twisty start to a nerve-shattering new series by two of the world’s finest crime writers…
_________________
Everyone here is lying…
Expert on body language and memory, and consultant to the Oslo Police, psychologist Kari Voss sleepwalks through her days, and, by night, continues the devastating search for her young son, who disappeared on his birthday, seven years earlier.
Still grieving for her dead husband, and trying to pull together the pieces of her life, she is thrust into a shocking local investigation, when two teenage girls are violently murdered in a family summer home in the nearby village of Son.
When a friend of the victims is charged with the barbaric killings, it seems the case is closed, but Kari is not convinced. Using her skills and working on instinct, she conducts her own enquiries, leading her to multiple suspects, including people who knew the dead girls well…
With the help of Chief Constable Ramona Norum, she discovers that no one – including the victims – are what they seem. And that there is a dark secret at the heart of Son village that could have implications not just for her own son’s disappearance, but Kari’s own life, too…
Published March 13th by Orenda Books Pre-order here
****
Murder at Gull’s Nest (Nora Breen Investigates, Book 1) by Jess Kidd
BOOK DESCRIPTION: The first in a sparkling new 1950s seaside mystery series, featuring sharp-eyed former nun Nora Breen.
In a house like Gulls Nest, curiosity might prove fatal . . .
After thirty years in a convent, Nora Breen has thrown off her habit and set her sights on the seaside town of Gore-on-Sea. Her fellow sister Frieda has gone missing and it’s up to Nora to find her.
Nora’s only clue is that Frieda was last seen at Gulls Nest boarding House. So she travels down, takes a room and settles in to watch and listen. Over dubious – and sometimes downright inedible – dinners, Nora gathers evidence about the other lodgers and what they knew about Frieda.
At long last, Nora has found the perfect outlet for her powers of observation and, well, nosiness. When one of the lodgers is found dead, Nora decides she must find the murderer. Not least because she suspects the victim knew Frieda. Could solving this mystery help her to understand what has happened to her friend?
Published March 13th by Faber & Faber Pre-order here*
****
Everyone in the Group Chat Dies by L. M. Chilton
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Don’t miss the new laugh-out-loud thriller from L.M. Chilton, Everyone in the Group Chat Dies – a murder mystery that fuses the flatmate comedy of Friends with the serial-killer thrills of I Know What You Did Last Summer.
Kirby Cornell needs a break from everything: – Her crumbling flat in the sleepy town of Crowhurst (famous for its award-winning sausage rolls and a second-rate serial killer from the 90s). – Her dead-end job. – Her sleazy landlord. – Her slobbish housemates. – And, most of all, the terrible thing they all did.
Luckily, that hasn’t caught up with her just yet. Until a new message on their old group chat pops up:
Everyone in the group chat will die.
It’s the first text her ex-flatmate and social-media sleuth Esme has sent for ages, but that’s not the really weird thing.
The really weird thing is, Esme died twelve months ago.
Publihsed March 13th by Bloomsbury Publishing Pre-order here*
****
The Summer Guests (The Martini Club 2) by Tess Gerritsen
BOOK DESCRIPTION: INCLUDES A BONUS SHORT STORY BY LEE CHILD AND TESS GERRITSEN, STARRING JACK REACHER AND THE ENIGMATIC MAGGIE BIRD. . .
The Summer Guests is the exhilarating and gripping new thriller from Sunday Times bestselling author of The Spy Coast.
‘I love this new series . . . The Summer Guests is a cracker of a mystery! I couldn’t put it down.’ SHARI LAPENA
THE MARTINI CLUB ISN’T OPEN TO EVERYONE . . .
Maggie Bird’s ‘book group’ is an unusual one – a group of retired spies living an anonymous life in the seaside town of Purity. And this summer they plan little more than ‘reading’ (whilst sipping martinis), and some gentle birdwatching.
But trouble is just around the corner as the summer guests arrive.
For acting Police Chief Jo Thibodeau, summer brings its own problems – packed streets, bar brawls, petty theft. And now, a missing teenager down by the lake.
When their good friend becomes a prime suspect in the girl’s disappearance, Maggie and her Martini Club must put down their binoculars and roll up their sleeves. Leaving Jo to deal with not only a powerful family desperate for answers, but a meddlesome group of retirees.
Can Jo and the Martini Club find a way to work together, as they uncover one of the deadliest scandals their small town has ever seen?
How To Seal Your Own Fate (The Castle Knoll Files, 2) by Kristen Perrin
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Annie thought the murders were over. She was wrong.
It is autumn in Castle Knoll and Annie Adams is busy settling into her new home. She doesn’t find Gravesdown Hall particularly cosy, especially since she found two dead bodies there over the summer. What’s more, ever since she arrived in the village, Annie has had the creeping sense she’s being watched.
Lonely, and desperate for some company, Annie starts talking to a stranger she meets in the grounds of the estate. The striking old woman introduces herself as Peony Lane, the fortune-teller who predicted Great Aunt Frances’ murder all those years ago. And now she has a fortune to tell Annie.
Desperate not to fall into the same trap as Frances, Annie flees Peony Lane, refusing to hear any of her grim predictions. But she can’t outrun Peony for long, as hours later she finds her, dead on the floor of Gravesdown Hall, a ruby-hilted dagger plunged into her back.
But who killed the mysterious fortune teller and why? And can Frances’ library of evidence help Annie solve the case?
A Fortune Most Fatal (Miss Austen Investigates Book 2) by Jessica Bull
BOOK DESCRIPTION: ‘Exceptional – the Austen whodunnit I feel like I’ve been waiting my whole life for! I loved it’ SOPHIE IRWIN
“Who are you, Miss Austen, but a young lady of little experience and no consequence?”
Welcome to Kent, 1797. Following many years apart, Jane Austen is set to spend the summer with her estranged brother, Neddy. As heir to wealthy widow Mrs Knight’s fortune, it is imperative that Neddy stays in his benefactor’s good graces. The financial security of Jane’s entire family depend on him.
But upon arrival at Godmersham Park, Jane quickly realises Neddy is in dire need of her help. For a mysterious young woman currently resides with Mrs Knight – a stranger who threatens to swindle the inheritance for herself.
Jane must uncover who this imposter is, to protect the fortunes – and fate – of her family. But when her investigation takes a dark and dangerous turn, can she solve the mystery – and save herself?
Published March 27th by Michael Joseph Pre-order here*
****
The Death of Us by Abigail Dean
BOOK DESCRIPTION: It’s the story everyone wants to hear.
That spring night in South London, when Isabel and Edward’s lives were torn apart.
The night Isabel learned that the worst things wait, just outside the door.
The night Edward learned that he was powerless to stop them.
The night they never talk about.
When their attacker is caught, it’s finally time to tell the story of that night.
Not to the world. Or to the man who did it. But to each other.
This is a story of murder. This is a story of survival. But most of all, this is a story of love.
Published March 27th by Harper Fiction Pre-order here*
****
The Vipers by Katy Hays
BOOK DESCRIPTION: From the bestselling author of The Cloisters comes this electrifying thriller about an affluent family whose annual retreat to Italy is shattered when a decades-old murder resurfaces . . . think The Talented Mr Ripley meets Succession meets The White Lotus . . .
On the glittering island of Capri, anything can be a mirage. But one thing is true: there’s nothing deadlier than a family with everything to lose . . .
The world was shocked by playwright Sarah Lingate’s death thirty years ago at an opulent, white-washed villa on the island of Capri. Absolved of the crime, the Lingate family maintains that what happened that night was a tragic accident. And every July they return to Capri to prove it’s true.
This time, Helen Lingate – sole heir to the family fortune – has a plan. Tightly controlled by her father, she enlists the help of the family assistant, Lorna Moreno, to free herself from her family’s stranglehold on her life. And yet, behind closed doors, the legendary Lingate family unity is at breaking point. Upon arrival at the villa in Capri, an anonymous gift awaits them: the necklace Sarah was wearing the night she died.
In the aftermath, the paranoid, insular Lingates begin to unravel. As the investigation into her mother’s death is reopened, Helen begins to lose trust in everyone around her: her controlling father Richard, drug-addled aunt Naomi, aloof uncle Marcus, and even Lorna, whose past she realizes is frustratingly opaque. And as the family fractures, the long-hidden truth about that night and the secrets they’ve kept from one another boil to the surface – and they might not leave the island alive.
BOOK DESCRIPTION: The chance discovery of an injection that wards off age-related disease is hijacked by ruthless men who hunger for immortality, with catastrophic consequences. Two women race against time to stop them, before it’s too late … a chilling, prescient, high-stakes speculative thriller by the bestselling author of One. –––––
Living forever can be lethal…
Ruth is a law-abiding elder, working out her national service, but she has secrets.
Her tireless research into the disease that killed her young daughter had an unexpected outcome: the discovery of a vaccine against old age. Just one jab a year wards off age-related diseases, guaranteeing long, healthy life.
But Ruth’s cure was hijacked by her colleague, Erik Grundleger, and his elderly billionaire backer, who hunger for immortality, and SuperJuve – a premium upgrade – was created, driving human lifespan to a new high. The wealthy elite who take it are the Supers, and the population begins to rocket.
Then, a perilous side-effect of SuperJuve emerges, with catastrophic consequences, and as the planet is threatened, the population rebels, and laws are passed to restore order: life ends at 120. Supers are tracked down by Omnicide investigators like Mara, and executed.
Mara has her own reasons for hunting Supers, and she forms an unlikely alliance with Ruth to find Grundleger.
But Grundleger has been working on something even more radical and is one step ahead, with a deadly surprise in store for both of them…
Published April 10th by Orenda Books Pre-order here
****
The Maid’s Secret (Molly the Maid, 3) by Nita Prose
BOOK DESCRIPTION: A hidden treasure. A hotel heist. Only THE MAID can solve the mystery…
*THE SPARKLING NEW MYSTERY FROM THE NO.1 BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE MAID*
–––––
Molly the maid is no stranger to secrets…
She sees everything behind closed doors at the Regency Grand hotel: wiping away the dust and grime of guests passing through.
But one secret lies much closer to home.
An old trinket – a faux Fabergé egg – is revealed to be a precious antique during an appraisal at the hotel, making Molly a rags-to-riches sensation. But no sooner has the egg shown its value than it’s stolen: vanishing without a trace.
Determined to crack the case of the missing Fabergé, Molly begins dusting for clues – uncovering a mystery that stretches deep into the past.
For in the pages of a long-forgotten diary, written by her late gran, lie the secrets that could unlock all others – and only Molly holds the key…
Published April 10th by Harper Fiction Pre-order here*
****
The Liar by Louise Jensen
BOOK DESCRIPTION: The nail-biting new thriller from Louise Jensen that’s impossible to put down…
The Abbotts’ new lodger Luke hasn’t told them much about himself, but they can’t expect to know everything about a stranger who’s just moved in.
But Luke keeps asking about their family photos and looking through their things. Why does he want to know everything about them? And why does daughter Jen think someone is watching her?
Then, suddenly, Mum Mel texts the family to say she needs a break. But Mel has never gone away alone before. And now it’s been days, and no one has heard from her.
BOOK DESCRIPTION: ‘There is nothing like it. The way the world gets real quiet when a gator’s nearby…And then the water, suddenly boiling as that black head surfaces and the ancient reptile erupts into the air hissing like a devil…The way the crack of the rifle seems to come from deep inside Cutter. The way she feels it in her throat; she knows she’s a good killer – and yet. She is stalling…’
The Labasques aren’t like other families. Living in a shack out in the swamps, they scrape a living hunting down alligators and other animals just to get by. To the good people of Jacknife, Louisiana, they are trouble-makers, outcasts, the kind of people you wouldn’t want living on your doorstep. So when Cutter Labasque is found face down in the muddy swamp, no one seems to care, not even her two rough-cut brothers. The only person who questions the official verdict of suicide is Cutter’s childhood friend, Loyal May, who has just returned home to care for her ageing mother. Loyal left town at the age of 18, having betrayed Cutter. Now there may be no way to find forgiveness, but there may be restitution…
BOOK DESCRIPTION: From the author of In the Blink of an Eye, the Sunday Times bestseller, winner of the CWA ILP John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger and Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year.
DCS Kat Frank and AIDE Lock are back in a cutting-edge new thriller.
The truth will always come out, but at what cost?
Fresh from successfully closing their first live case, the Future Policing Unit are called in to investigate when a headless, handless body is found on a Warwickshire farm. But as they work to identify the victim and their killer, the discovery of a second body begins to spark fears that The Aston Strangler is back. And as the stakes rise for the team, so do the tensions brewing within it.
When DCS Kat Frank is accused of putting the wrong man behind bars all those years ago, AIDE Lock – the world’s first AI Detective – pursues the truth about what happened with relentless logic. But Kat is determined to keep the past buried, and when she becomes the target of a shadowy figure looking for revenge, Lock is torn between his evidence-based algorithms and the judgement of his partner, with explosive results.
When everything hangs in the balance, it will all come down to just how much an AI machine can learn, and what happens when they do . . .
Publsihed April 24th by Simon & Schuster UK Pre-order here*
****
The Sunshine Man by Emma Stonex
BOOK DESCRIPTION: ‘The week I shot a man clean through the head began like any other . . .’
In January 1989, Birdie wakes to the news she’s been waiting eighteen years to hear. Jimmy Maguire, the man who killed her sister, has been freed from jail.
Birdie leaves for London with a gun and a plan: to find him and make him pay. But this is a story with two sides. For Birdie knew Jimmy a long time ago, in a life she’d sooner forget. Theirs is a past of broken bonds and friendships burned, and a terrible secret kept hidden in the shadows. Did Jimmy kill Birdie’s sister, or is he the only one she can really trust?
As Jimmy travels south to face his past he can sense that something is hunting him. Birdie lingers there in the darkness, watching, as the past and present hurtle toward each other . . .
Full of edge-of-your-seat suspense, The Sunshine Man by Emma Stonex is a breathtaking mystery about love and revenge, the many shades of justice and what it means to be free.
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Don’t miss the new novel from Eleni Kyriacou, author of BBC Between the Covers pick The Unspeakable Acts of Zina Pavlou.
PLAY THEIR GAME Hollywood, 1953. Young actress Ginny Watkins is turning heads. Even the legendary – and married – actor Max Whitman can’t resist the allure of the hottest new starlet. He promises Ginny the world, in return for the right favour.
DO WHAT THEY SAY London, 1954. Stella Hope, once the most famous actress in Hollywood, has been ousted to Ealing Studios after her divorce from the powerful Max. Just as she accepts her fate, she receives a letter, blackmailing her for a mistake she made many years ago.
OR THEY’LL BURY YOU Two women on either side of stardom find themselves in the orbit of the same beguiling man. And one night, in the shadows of a glamorous Oscars afterparty, their lives are changed forever.
A Beautiful Way to Die delves into the decadence and depravity of the early film industry from Hollywood to London. Perfect for fans of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, and films like Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and Babylon.
BOOK DESCRIPTION: ‘Why hadn’t she said to her daughter I love you beyond reason and none of this matters at all and every day that you breathe is a gift?’
Rafaela Acuña y Daubón remembers everything that matters: her beautiful childhood in San Juan, her marriage to Peter, uprooting their children, Ruth and Benny, to the American Midwest, and losing all sense of her place in the world. So she tells no one when her memory begins to slip.
Her daughter, in New York with a family of her own, wishes she could forget her muddy feelings about where she comes from – the same feelings which motivated her 22-year-old daughter Daisy to reconnect with their past.
Daisy, who has momentarily forgotten everything, hears the word critical in a hospital room in San Juan and remembers, all at once, the car that hurtled towards her, the terrible storm, and something else. What was it?
Now Ruth and Rafaela must return to the city where it all began, to gather by Daisy’s bedside and confront the twists of fate that have caused a growing rift in their family and led them to this moment.
Published May 13th by Tinder Press Pre-order here*
****
Let the Bad Times Roll by Alice Slater
BOOK DESCRIPTION: New Orleans: Then.
Alone in New Orleans, Selina is struggling to fit in. When a charismatic stranger invites her for a drink, she’s grateful for the company – but as their friendship grows, she can’t help but sense a darkness within her new friend. Who is Daniel, and what does he want from her?
London: Now.
Daniel is missing. No one has seen or heard from him in weeks. Beside herself with worry, his sister Caroline hosts an intimate gathering in her beautiful North London home so those closest to Daniel can come together and compare notes.
But all isn’t quite as it seems: Caroline has invited a stranger to the table, an accomplished psychic who claims to have met Daniel four thousand miles away in New Orleans.
As evening turns to night, the dark truth of what really happened in New Orleans begins to emerge…
Published May 15th by Hodder & Stoughton Pre-order here*
****
They Had It Coming by Nikki Smith
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Escape to Bali in this gripping new sunlounger thriller, for fans of Lucy Clarke and Ruth Ware.
‘THE NEW QUEEN OF THE GLAMOROUS DESTINATION THRILLER’ ELLERY LLOYD
Keep your friends close and your enemies closer . . .
Nate and Layla, Jude and Sophie. They’ve been a four for as long as they can remember: fancy dinners, dancing ’til dawn . . . Even living and working together.
So when Nate and Layla suddenly quit their lives and move to Bali, with its white sands and exotic beach clubs, Jude and Sophie are their first visitors. Anything to escape their life in London.
But as the two couples reunite, cracks begin to show.
Which is hardly surprising; they’ve been lying to each other for years.
BOOK DESCRIPTION: They can’t even agree on what to read, so how are they going to solve a murder?
Having recently moved from London to a small Cornish seaside village, Nova Davies started a book club at the local community center, but so far it’s a disaster. The five members disagree on everything, and to make matters worse, a significant sum of money is stolen during one of the meetings, putting the much-loved community center at risk.
Suspicion for the theft falls on book club member Michael, especially when he disappears and a dead body turns up at his house. But the book club has their own theories. Agatha Christie superfan Phyllis is determined to prove Michael’s been framed, while romance reader Arthur believes there’s a mystery woman involved, and teenage sci-fi fan Ash thinks dark forces are at play.
While trying to locate Michael, solve the murder and recover the stolen money, each of them has their own secrets to protect. But despite the danger closing in, they won’t rest until they’ve cracked the case and gotten everyone safe at home with a book, where they belong.
Published May 29th by Renegade Books Pre-order here*
****
A Sharp Scratch by Heather Darwent
BOOK DESCRIPTION: From the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Things We Do To Our Friends, comes a timely, gripping novel about the dark underbelly of wellness culture
‘DARWENT HAS A GREAT CAREER AS A THRILLER WRITER AHEAD OF HER’ SUNDAY TIMES
We can fix you.
It’s a promise that Betsy has heard far too many times. From the child psychologist, from her husband, and from the wellness trends that scream at her from her screen.
So far, it’s been a lie.
But this time, she believes it. Because Betsy has been offered a place at Carn – a luxurious, unorthodox retreat, where healing really is possible. At Carn, she discovers that her imperfections make her unique, not weak. She isn’t broken, just special.
BOOK DESCRIPTION: One dead wife is tragic. Two looks like murder… ________
The school gates have never been so dangerous…
When newly divorced Jude arrives in the small town of Lowbridge, she is soon drawn to the enigmatic Will, father to her young daughter’s best friend.
But Will’s devastating past holds questions that nobody knows the answer to – and after two tragedies tore his life apart in just a few short years, gossip and rumours abound about what really happened to the women he loved.
Because whilst one dead wife is tragic, two starts to look like murder…
BOOK DESCRIPTION: First comes gossip … then comes revenge
When single mum Lola Martinez’s son, Luca, starts school, she feels that she’ll never fit in with the yummy mummies in the playground. Confident, married to wealthy men, with ample free time, they are everything she isn’t.
However, Lola is invited into the inner circle, surrounded by seemingly friendly people, even if Lola’s silence about her child’s father puzzles them. Despite herself, Lola quickly becomes involved in playground politics, making as many enemies as friends.
But then Lola is brutally murdered, her death rocking the close-knit community. As the police investigate the case, they discover that Lola was hiding many secrets – as are the mums in her new social circle. But who had the most reason to kill her? And who else might unwittingly hold the answers to what happened that night?
An addictive psychological thriller with an end twist that will make you gasp, for fans of Lisa Jewell, T.M. Logan and Frieda McFadden. If you loved Big Little Lies, you’ll adore this.
BOOK DESCRIPTION: One train. No stops. A deadly game of survival and revenge.
In 1942, six people destroyed Anna Matheson’s family. Twelve years later, she’s ready for retribution.
Under false pretenses, Anna has lured those responsible for her family’s downfall onto a luxury train from Philadelphia to Chicago, an overnight journey of fourteen hours. Her goal? Confront the people who’ve wronged her, get them to confess their crimes, and deliver them into the hands of authorities waiting at the end of the line. Justice will at last be served.
But Anna’s plan is quickly derailed by the murder of one of the passengers. As the train barrels through the night, it becomes clear that someone else on board is enacting their own form of revenge-and that they won’t stop until everyone else is dead.
With time running out before the train reaches its destination, Anna is forced to hunt the killer in their midst while protecting the people she hates the most. In order to destroy her enemies, she must first save them-even though it means putting her own life at risk.
Published June 12th by Hodder & Stoughton Pre-order here*
****
Kill Them With Kindness by Will Carver
BOOK DESCRIPTION: The ‘most original writer in Britain’ (Daily Express) returns with a mind-blowing, high-concept new thriller.
‘Laying bare our 21st-century weaknesses and dilemmas, Carver has created a highly original state-of-the-nation novel’ Literary Review ________
The threat of nuclear war is no longer scary. This is much worse. It’s invisible. It works quickly.
And it’s coming.
The scourge has already infected and killed half the population in China and it is heading towards the UK. There is no time to escape. The British government sees no way out other than to distribute ‘Dignity Pills’ to its citizens: One last night with family or loved ones before going to sleep forever … together. Because the contagion will kill you and the horrifying news footage shows that it will be better to go quietly.
Dr Haruto Ikeda, a Japanese scientist working at a Chinese research facility, wants to save the world. He has discovered a way to mutate a virus. Instead of making people sick, instead of causing death, it’s going to make them… nice.
Instead of attacking the lungs, it will work into the brain and increase the host’s ability to feel and show compassion. It will make people kind.
But governments don’t want a population in agreement. They want conflict and outrage and fear. Reasonable people are harder to control.
Ikeda’s quest is thoughtful and noble, and it just might work. Maybe humanity can be saved. Maybe it doesn’t have to be the end.
But kindness may also be the biggest killer of all…
Published June 19th by Orenda Books Pre-order here
****
We Are All Guilty Here by Karin Slaughter
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Welcome to North Falls―a small town where everyone knows everyone. Or so they think.
Until the night of the fireworks. When two teenage girls vanish, and the town ignites.
For Officer Emmy Clifton, it’s personal. She turned away when her best friend’s daughter needed help―and now she must bring her home.
But as Emmy combs through the puzzle the girls left behind, she realizes she never really knew them. Nobody did.
Every teenage girl has secrets. But who would kill for them? And what else is the town hiding?
Published June 19th by Harper Fiction Pre-order here*
****
What Happens in the Dark by Kia Abdullah
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Don’t miss the brand-new gripping thriller and courtroom drama full of twists and turns that will keep you up at night!
* * * *
Lily and Safa were best friends growing up. Now, Lily is the nation’s favourite breakfast TV presenter and Safa, once a renowned journalist, is reeling from a recent fall from grace.
When news breaks about suspicious bruises on Lily’s body, Safa attempts to rekindle their old friendship. But Lily claims the bruises are nothing to worry about.
And then one night the police are called to Lily’s home. Lily is strangely calm – and a body lies dead at her feet.
Lily pleads not guilty, and then says nothing more. Driven by her desire to give a voice to all victims, Safa begins her own investigation into what happened that night.
But Safa is not prepared for what her quest for justice will uncover …
Into the Fire (Helen Grace Thriller, 13) by M. J. Arlidge
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Nowhere to hide. No-one to turn to. Nothing to lose.
Helen Grace is sure she made the right decision to quit the force. Until the day she looks out from her window to see a desperate young woman being beaten by two thugs.
Still a force to be reckoned with, Helen races into the night and strikes the men down. For a moment, it feels like she doesn’t need her badge to do good, but as she leads the girl to safety, she’s struck from behind, regaining consciousness just in time to see the victim being dragged into a white van.
Helen’s determined to find the woman and save her, but even begging her former colleagues to help gets her nowhere. It’s clear it’ll be up to her alone to make the rescue.
Taking matters into her own hands, Helen uncovers more women connected to the first who need her help. But fighting crime as a maverick is a dangerous game. One that could cost Helen her life, and the life of those she holds most dear…
BOOK DESCRIPTION: A stingingly brilliant new psychological thriller from the 5 million copy-bestselling author of Here to Stay and The Magpies
“I loved this brilliant, edgy, character driven thriller with a passion. So clever and fresh with a wild and incredibly satisfying twist at the end.” Lisa Jewell
******
Summer 1999. Will joins five other idealistic graduates working for an eccentric psychology professor. They’re going to launch a website to change online dating forever.
No-one expects it to end in tragedy.
Twenty-five years later, Will gets an invitation: a dinner party. A chance to see the old gang again.
But as soon as he arrives, something doesn’t seem right.
There’s an unexpected guest. The hosts are clearly keeping a secret. And on the way in, Will is sure he heard crying.
Everyone has something to hide about what really happened that summer.
But only one of them is willing to kill to find the truth…
Published July 17th by Michael Joseph Pre-order here*
****
Hidden Requests by Louise Candlish
BOOK DESCRIPTION: A gripping new thriller from the author of Our House, packed full of stunning twists!
One woman’s secret is another’s scandal…
It’s rare for a room in beautiful, iconic Columbia Mansions to be up for grabs and retiree Gwen is thrilled when its new occupant Pixie turns out to be the most delightful neighbour she could have wished for. Before long the two women have formed an unlikely age-gap friendship and Gwen is making herself useful to Pixie in all kinds of ways.
But when a crime comes to light Gwen’s protective instincts go into overdrive, igniting an appetite for revenge that none of the residents are prepared for.
The last thing they need in Columbia Mansions is a scandal.
BOOK DESCRIPTION: When Nina was just five years old, her family’s whole world was torn apart when her seventeen-year-old sister Tamara was found dead in the pool of their Cote d’Azur property. Nina’s evidence led to the conviction of their housekeeper’s daughter and occasional babysitter seventeen-year-old Josie for Tamara’s murder. But when new evidence emerges to suggest that Josie was innocent, Nina is forced to question the accuracy of her memories, her role in one of the most notorious cases of the past twenty years, and what actually happened to her sister on that hot summer day.
BOOK DESCRIPTION: It’s never too late to teach an old woman new murders…a razor-sharp, edge-of-your-seat new thriller from Sunday Times bestseller Samantha Downing, available to pre-order now!
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You’d never guess Lottie Jones had skeletons in her closet.
She’s lived in town for decades now. She’s getting older. She lives for the simple pleasures of weekly bingo games at church, and gossiping with her friends about their children’s love lives.
But when investigative journalist Plum Dixon shows up on her doorstep asking questions about Lottie’s past, and specifically about her connection to numerous unsolved murders, well, Lottie just can’t have that.
But getting away with murder is hard enough when you’re young. And when Lottie receives another annoying knock on the door, she realises this crime might just be the death of her…
Published August 28th by Michael Joseph Pre-order here*
****
The Watcher by Helen Fields
BOOK DESCRIPTION: A face in the crowd. A killer in the shadows…
________
On the dark streets of Edinburgh, a killer is waiting.
When a body is found, it is only the beginning. Soon there will be seven more.
In the city’s hospital, renowned surgeon Beth Waterfall is grieving.
Her beloved only daughter fell prey to a vicious stalker a year previously – and now he’s coming for her too.
Edinburgh’s police are desperate.
After one body comes another, and then another. The brutal deaths are all seemingly unconnected, and yet DS Lively and forensic profiler Dr Connie Woolwine know they are dealing with a serial killer – they just need to prove it.
But time is running out, and The Watcher is already set on making Beth Waterfall his next victim…
The million-copy international bestseller returns with a gripping serial killer thriller that will have you hooked from the first page to the very last.
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Get ready for the sudden-death round…
Mal and Sue Eastwood were once the kindly landlords of a local village pub, The Case is Altered. They ran a weekly pub quiz and were well liked by their customers and colleagues alike, always happy to lend a helping hand. But now The Case stands empty, its windows boarded up. What could have happened to Mal and Sue?
Did The Case close because it was failing? Was it because of the body pulled from the nearby river? Or perhaps it had something to do with the quiz? It had always been a quiet affair, five teams of locals battling it out for a small prize pot. Until one day a mysterious new team of outsiders arrived, and started winning every round…
Only by sifting through the quiz sheets, the WhatsApps, and Mal and Sue’s hidden past may the truth be revealed. Someone’s not playing fair, so get the drinks in and see if you can get a perfect score.
BOOK DESCRIPTION: ‘I love an Erin Kelly book! The worlds she creates are so rich and alive’ JANE FALLON
St Cordula’s Convent, 1487. Sister Matilda is pregnant and has been banished from the convent: the only home she has ever known. Outside, the snow is swirling. She knows she will not survive a night on the Yorkshire moors. In despair, she climbs to the top of the Abbey and writes the words GOD FORGIVE ME in chalk on the wall, then throws herself down the stairs.
In 2024, life within St Cordula’s Boarding School is changing. The oldest convent school in England is about to merge with a local boys’ school and a new deputy head, Fiona Fox, has arrived. The only constant seems to be the building itself, the iconic school uniform – nun-like navy blue hooded capes – and the words GOD FORGIVE ME, re-painted every year first by nuns and then by schoolgirls who believe that the spirit of Sister Matilda will keep the school safe as long as her words are never allowed to fade from the wall.
Only once in the school’s history have the words disappeared, and when they did, students were afflicted by violent attacks of vertigo. Only three people know the full truth of what happened and the scandal that was hushed up.
Fiona has one week left to keep the news of the merger under wraps and then the deal is done – until another outbreak of vertigo drags the past into the light. Old superstitions rear their ugly heads, and the girls take it upon themselves to investigate the previous outbreak, putting the school – and themselves – in terrible danger …
Published September 4th by Hodder & Stoughton Pre-order here*
****
59 Minutes by Holly Seddon
BOOK DESCRIPTION: If you knew you had fifty-nine minutes until everything and everyone you love would be lost forever, what would you do with that time?
It’s an ordinary evening. People are coming home from work, cooking dinner for their children, cuddling on sofas with their lovers. And then the message arrives, shattering everyone’s worlds:
Missiles are set to destroy England in fifty-nine minutes. Everyone should seek immediate shelter.
59 minutes follows the journey of three women trying to make it home to and protect their families. The journeys should be simple, but with a lost schoolchild seeking help, a teenage daughter suddenly going missing, and dangerous criminals on the prowl, there is peril at every corner.
59 Minutes is a gripping, thought-provoking and gut-wrenching thriller perfect for fans of WRONG PLACE, WRONG TIME, THE CHAIN and Lisa Jewell.
2023 has been an amazing year for reading. I’ve read a total of 113 books and there were so many that stood out that it was difficult to get my list down to just thirty.
So, here’s my 30 favourite books I’ve read this year. You can find links to my reviews by clicking on the title. Read to the end to find out my overall favourite of the year.
This gothic thriller was a fantastic way to start out my reading year. Teddy Colne arrives in the small town of Rye hoping to leave his past behind him but discovers the past will always catch up to you in this dark, hypnotic and unnerving debut. Published January 19th, 2023 by Orenda Books. Buy here.
C. J. Tudor is back with another unmissable heart-pounding thriller. A group of students find themselves stranded in a snowstorm while a killer rages. The start of my review perfectly sums it up: “C. J. Tudor has done it again. Chilling, tense and twisty, this is one f****d-up rollercoaster ride that packs a punch from the first page.” Published January 19th, 2023 by Michael Joseph. Buy here*
Almost a year after reading, just thinking about this book makes me smile. It follows 43-year-old Ted who is happily married to his husband of twenty years, Giles. Or so he thinks until the day Giles announces he’s leaving him and shatters his whole world. Forced to reflect on not only his relationship, but his whole life, Ted decides that maybe now is the time to finally become who he was always meant to me. Joyful, heartwarming and uplifting, this fabulous story reminds us it is never too late to follow our dreams. Published January 19th, 2023 by Headline. Buy here*
Sassy and spirited, this feels like Jane Austen with a modern flare, following Kitty Talbot as she searches for a husband with a fortune to save her family. Perfect for fans of historical fiction and romance, this is a glorious debut. Published May 12th, 2022 by Harper Collins UK. Buy here*
Tokyo, many years in the future, and 17-year-old John, a tech prodigy, meets Neotina at a cafe late one night. The sparks are instant but both are hiding a secret that they are terrified of being discovered. Mesmerising, dreamlike and unforgettable, this is a masterpiece story for all of those who have never fit in. Published March 16th, 2023 by Orenda Books. Buy here.
This atmospheric Victorian gothic mystery was our March Squadpod Book Club pick. It follows newly widowed Margaret Lennox as she takes up her new position as governess at Hartwood Hall and discovers a place filled with dark secrets. A phenomenal debut by an author to watch. Published March 30th, 2023 by Michael Joseph. Buy here*
Catriona Ward did it again, scaring me silly and leaving my jaw on the floor. Best read blind, this is another original, terrifying and surprising thriller from one of the most unique voices in fiction. Published April 20th, 2023 by Viper Books. Buy here*
Jennifer Saint tells the heroic story of the only female Argonaut in this lush, atmospheric and enthralling novel, telling us the famous story of Jason and the Argonauts from a new persepective. Unmissable. Published April 13th, 2023 by Wildfire. Buy here*
The Squadpod Book Club pick for April was another deliciously dark debut. Death of a Bookseller tells the story of Roach, a bookseller, loner and true crime obsessive who becomes obsessed with social butterfly Laura when she starts working at the bookshop. Quirky, sinister and addictive, this grabbed me by the throat and didn’t let go until the last page. Utterly brilliant. Published April 27th, 2023 by Hodder & Stoughton. Buy here*
Polly Crosby shows why she’s one of my favourite authors with this mesmerising historical thriller. Vita and the Birds tells the story of two women whose lives are inextricably linked by decades-old secrets. Hauntingly atmoshpheric, luminous and unsettling, this story consumed me and was a contender for my book of the year. Published May 25th, 2023 by HQ. Buy here*
A deliciously dark slice of Victiorian gothic, this is a story about life’s outsiders and oddities. Filled with an eclectic cast of memorable characters, it tugged at my heart strings, made me rage and gave me hope. A gorgeous story that all historical fiction fans need to read. Published June 22nd, 2023 by Orenda Books. Buy here.
Jack Jordan is one of the best modern thriller writers and Conviction shows us why. Another unbearably tense and addictive thriller, it follows Barrister Neve Harper as she’s faced with an impossible choice: put an innocent man behind bars or everyone she loves will be killed. A nerve-shredding moral dilemma thriller, this is the kind of book you cancel plans to stay home reading. Published June 22nd, 2023 by Simon & Schuster UK. Buy here*
Set in a future where a catastophic climate emergency has left our world in chaos and the UK is now run by the Nazi-esque ONE Party. Everything is heavily monitored, there are consumption quotas in place. Kai Houghton, one of the ‘baby reapers’ in charge of enforcing the ONE Partie’s one child policy, recieves an alert that turns her world upside down and forces her to choose between her family and the policies she believes in. Thought-provoking, gripping and uncompromising, this is one of the best thrillers I’ve read this year. Published July 20th, 2023 by Orenda Books. Buy here.
I was lucky to be one of the first bloggers to read The Actor, a riveting thriller with a bigger Oscar night controversy than Will Smith and Chris Rock. This is going to be a huge hit when it’s released in 2024. Published January 18th, 2024 by Michael Joseph. Pre-order here*
Antoher Squadpod Book Club hit, The Good Daughter is the second novel from Laure van Rensburg and there’s no sign of sophmore syndrome in sight in this sensational thriller. It’s a story of cuts, indoctrination, dark secrets and trauma that sinks its claws into you at the start and doesn’t let go until it’s jaw-dropping finale. An absolute must-read. Published August 3rd, 2023 by Michael Joseph. Buy here*
This is one of the funniest books I’ve read in a long time. Sassy and unputdownable, it follows Dr. Miriam Price as she tries to solve her own murder from beyond the grave. It’s one of those books I knew I’d love from the first page and reading it was like a big warm hug. I can’t wait to read more from Maz Evans. Published August 3rd, 2023 by Headline. Buy here*
I read this with the Historical Fiction Book Club and what a joy it was. Endurance Proudfoot is an unusual girl with an unusual dream: she wants to be a bonesetter. But that isn’t a job for girls and Durie faces an uphill struggle to prove herself in a man’s world. Thank you Frances Quinn for introducing the world to this original and wonderful heroine. Published July 21st, 2022 by Simon & Schuster UK. Buy here*
This has been a great year for darkly funny books and amazing anti-heros. You’d Look Better As A Ghost is a deliciously unhinged and hilarious thriller about a hammer-wielding murderess who was the best serial killer I’ve read since Rhiannon from the Sweetpea sereis. One of my favourite books this year. Published September 21st, 2023 by Viper Books, Buy here*
Gorgeously gothic and eerie, this was my favourite Squadpod Book Club pick of the year. Emily Blackwood arrives at Castle Parras to begin a new comission cataloguing a collection of creatures for sale. The remote house is inhabited by a perculiar nonagerianan and haunted by the disappearance of a woman fifty years earlier. After she finds a hidden diary, Emily sets out to solve the mystery in its pages. Can she find out the truth before the darkness entraps her? A twisty puzzle that was also a contender for book of the year, this is a must for any gothic lover. Published June 22nd, 2023 by Michael Joseph. Buy here*
I was so mad at myself for letting this book languish on my shelves for so long. A unsettling and sinister story from the modern queen of gothic mysteries, I listened to this on audiobook and was completely enthralled as the lines between what is real, imaginary and supernatural were experly blurred. One of Ms. Purcell’s best books yet. Published September 19th, 2019 by Raven Books. Buy here*
This was book I wish I’d read sooner. Shamefully, it was my first time reading a book by Johana Gustawsson and I am an instant fan. She lives up to her title of ‘Queen of French Noir’ with this cunningly crafted gothic thirller. I can’t recommend it highly enough. Published September 15th, 2022 by Orenda Books. Buy here.
It’s been the year for gorgeous gothic fiction, and Fyneshade was the most huanting and disquieting of all. A story of betrayal, temptation and dark secrets, this is a story where the monsters not only lurk in the shadows, but inside your own mind. Marta is a wonderful protagonist who was nothing like I expected and everything I could have wanted. Filled with mystery and suspense, this is a bewitching novel you won’t want to put down. Published May 18th, 2023 by Viper Books. Buy here*
A haunted house story with a dash of fantasy, Starling House was gorgeously dark sotry filled with magic, monsters and mystery. Dreamlike and bewitching, this is a book that lives up to the hype. Published October 31st, 2023 by Tor. Buy here*
Paul Cleave just keeps getting better. Menacing and mind-blowing, I couldn’t put this book down. I loved that Cleave never did what we expected, giving me book whiplash from the many twists and turns.A must read for any thriller-lover. Published November 9th, 2023 by Orenda Books. Buy here.
The Wolf Den Trilogy comes to a bittersweet end in one of my most anticipated books of the year. Will Amara and her friends survive the eruption of Versuvius? You’ll have to read to find out. Published November 9th, 2023 by Head of Zeus. Buy here*
Will Carver delivers another original and deliciously diabolical thriller in this prequel to The Beresford. Just read it. You’ll thank me. Published November 9th, 2023 by Orenda Books. Buy here.
I’m ashamed that it has taken me until I’m almost 45 to read this classic, but the advantage of that is I got to read it in a buddy read with author Polly Crosby that was so much fun. I now get the hype. If you haven’t ever read this one, I suggest giving it a try. Published September 27th, 2018 by Chiltern Publishing. Buy here*
Anna O hasn’t opened her eyes since the night four years ago when her two best friends were found brutally murdered and she was discovered in a deep sleep. Anna is the only suspect but ever since the debate has raged: is she innocent or guilty? Doctor Benedict Prince is the man charged with waking her so the world can finally decide. This astonishing debut is best described as Sleeping Beauty meets The Silent Patient and is going to be the thriller everyone is talking about it 2024. This is one you don’t want to miss. Published February 1st, 2024 by Harper Collins UK. Pre-order here*
This heart-pounding thriller was my favourite audiobook this year. A gripping thriller filled with delicious anticipation and sucker-punch twists, it keeps you on your toes from start to finish. Just make sure you’ve got a lot of free time when you pick this up as you’ll not want to put it down until you’re finished. Published July 20th, 2023 by Century. Buy here*
It’s safe to say I’m a certified Johana Gustawsson fan after this year. A story of unsolved murder, dark secrets and Norse mythology, Yule Island is an addictive thriller with a jaw-dropping twist I’m still trying to recover from. A must read for fans of thrillers and gothic fiction, this was a sensational start to a new series. Published November 23rd, 2023 by Orenda Books. Buy here.
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So, what is my favourite book of 2023? Drumroll please….
It’s Fyneshade! This was a hard decision as so many books could have taken the title.
Have you read any of these books? What was your favourite read this year?
Published August 3rd, 2023 by Headline Thriller, Mystery, Suspense, Crime Fiction, Police Procedural, Literary Fiction
Thank you Headline for my proof copy of this book.
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SYNOPSIS:
‘Laugh-out-loud hilarious, moving and life affirming. How can one book be so many things? I couldn’t put this fabulous, first class, five star read down.’ JANICE HALLETT ‘Thoroughly wicked, compulsively page-turning, and funny as hell.’ S J BENNETT ‘Warm, wacky and witty. I loved it!’ SALLY PAGE
Hello? Can you hear me? Probably not. I’m Dr Miriam Price . . . and I’m dead. The local police, who couldn’t investigate their own nostrils, think I drank myself into an early grave. The nerve! I was murdered. I was just too plastered to know whodunnit, that’s all.
Unless I prove to my inquest this week that my death was no ‘misadventure’, I’m condemned to 50 years in Limbo. I have to find my killer – but I can’t communicate with any living human. Well, there’s one, but she barely qualifies . . . Winnie – my neighbour and nemesis. It seems the dying can interact with the dead, which is helpful news for me, if not stellar for Winnie. Oh well. She’ll live. Maybe.
Suspects? How long have you got? My saintly husband, who’d reached his limit? My best friend, who was anything but? My secret lover, or his wife? My disgruntled colleague? The mother who wrongly holds me responsible for her child’s death? Professor Plum? Your guess is as good as mine.
So Winnie – slap on your deerstalker and strap on your granny pants. Let’s catch a killer! Assuming we don’t kill each other first . . .
‘Sometimes a book comes along that reminds you why you fell in love with reading. Imaginative, witty and original…an absolute joy!’ WOMAN & HOME ‘Clever, wise and properly funny. An absolute triumph.’ LUCY MANGAN ‘Hilarious…a fab whodunnit with brilliant characters. A gleeful read!’ TINA BAKER
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MY REVIEW:
Dr. Miriam Price is dead. Murdered, to be precise. But her killer staged the scene so her death looks set to be ruled an overdose, leaving her just a few days to expose her killer so she isn’t left in Limbo for the next fifty years. Unfortunately, Miriam was too wasted to remember her killer’s identity, so she’s forced to beg for help from her arch-enemy and neighbour, Winnie. Can they put their rivalry aside and find her killer in time?
Over My Dead Body is the funniest book I’ve read in a long time. Laugh-out-loud funny, sassy, and unputdownable, reading this was like a big, warm hug. I picked it up for a rare mood read after it was highly recommended to me and it was exactly what I didn’t know I needed. It’s one of those books that you know you’re going to love from the first page and I devoured it, reading most of it in one sitting into the early hours. I’m thankful my husband is such a deep sleeper as there were many times I was worried my laughter would wake him.
Miriam is the anti-hero you’re going to love. Spunky, sarcastic, and scathing, she’s a trainwreck who would be a nightmare to know in real life, but was so much fun to read. I loved how she spoke directly to the reader throughout the book, drawing me in and making me feel like part of the story. Her curmudgeonly nemesis, Winnie, is feisty, caustic and outrageous. And she was a joy to read. I loved the tales of their long-standing feud, their witty banter, and how they found a way around the loathing they had for one another to try and find Miriam’s killer. Winnie stole many scenes and wouldn’t have been out of place in Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club. She’s the kind of old lady I’d love to be one day – if only I could have her energy.
Maz Evans is a master storyteller. This is a story that could have easily descended into the ridiculous but instead Evans has crafted a story that is comedy gold and full of heart. She makes you believe the most outlandish parts and had me rooting for the characters every step of the way. She pulled me in from the first page and I was on tenterhooks as I tried to solve the clues and predict the many twists and turns along the way.
Original, uplifting, and freaking hilarious, this Over My Dead Body is one of my favourite books this year. Everyone needs to read this book ASAP.
Rating: ✮✮✮✮✮
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MEET THE AUTHOR:
Still unsure how it happened, Maz Evans is apparently the author of the bestselling WHO LET THE GODS OUT?, VI SPY and SCARLETT FIFE series, which have collectively sold over half a million copies to 22 countries worldwide. They have received over 30 award nominations, including the Carnegie Medal, Branford Boase, Books Are My Bag, Waterstone’s Children’s Book of the Year, Indie Children’s Book of the Year and CrimeFest Best Children’s Book.
She narrates the audiobooks for the series and her acclaimed live events have featured at Hay, Imagine, Edinburgh, Bath, Cheltenham, Bestival, Wilderness, CarFest and countless literary festivals and primary schools around the UK.
As an author, she has won the hearts of thousands of children. As a nuclear physicist, she has frankly been completely rubbish.
Welcome to my August edition of Emma’s Anticipated Treasures. Once again there’s a multitude of exciting books being released and I’m sure there’s something for everyone in this list.
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The Hundred Loves of Juliet by Evelyn Skye
Published August 1st by Headline Fairy Tale, Romantic Fantasy, Magical Realism
SYNOPSIS: Epic. Legendary. Irrevocable. Romeo and Juliet as you have never seen them before.
‘For anyone who’s ever swooned over Romeo and Juliet: this novel cleverly imagines the epilogue the lovers didn’t get to have, and how curses can be blessings in disguise’ JODI PICOULT, #1 New York Times bestselling author ‘A rare and charming retelling that asks the question: what if Romeo and Juliet had another chance? What if they had a hundred? The Hundred Loves of Juliet is a celebration of life as it comes, and love as we find it’ ASHLEY POSTON, New York Times bestselling author
‘Beautifully spun and achingly romantic, a gorgeous reimagining that is every bit as hopeful as it is haunting. I have never loved Romeo and Juliet more’ M. A. KUZNIAR, Sunday Times bestselling author
The Hundred Loves of Juliet is a timeless romantasy: a story of love, loss and eternal hope. ………………………………………………
I may go by Sebastien now, but my name was originally Romeo. And hers was Juliet.
It’s a frosty fairytale of an evening when Helene and Sebastien meet for the first time. Except it isn’t the first time. You already know that story, though it didn’t happen quite as Shakespeare told it.
To Helene, Sebastien is the flesh-and-blood hero of the love stories she’s spent her life writing. But Sebastien knows better – Helene is his Juliet, and their story has always been the same. He is doomed to find brief happiness with her over and over, before she dies, and he is left to mourn.
Albrecht and Brigitta. Matteo and Amélie. Jack and Rachel. Marius and Cosmina. By any name, no matter where and when in time, the two of them are drawn together, and it always ends in tragedy.
This time, Helene is determined that things will be different. But can these star-cross’d lovers forge a new ending to the greatest love story of all time?
Published August 3rd by Manilla Press Historical Fiction, Romance Novel, Historical Romance, Thriller, Drama, Tudor Romance
SYNOPSIS: THE GREATEST EVER LOVE STORY WAS A LIE . . .
The first time Romeo Montague sees young Rosaline Capulet he falls instantly in love.
Rosaline, headstrong and independent, is unsure of Romeo’s attentions but with her father determined that she join a convent, this handsome and charming stranger offers her the chance of a different life.
Soon though, Rosaline begins to doubt all that Romeo has told her. She breaks off the match, only for Romeo’s gaze to turn towards her cousin, thirteen-year-old Juliet. Gradually Rosaline realises that it is not only Juliet’s reputation at stake, but her life.
With only hours remaining before she will be banished behind the nunnery walls, will Rosaline save Juliet from her Romeo? Or can this story only ever end one way?
A subversive, powerful untelling of Shakespeare’s best-known tale, narrated by a fierce, forgotten voice: this is Rosaline’s story.
Hamnet meets My Dark Vanessa in this fierce, feminist, intensely gripping novel; captivating and chillingly relevant, FAIR ROSALINE takes everything you thought you knew about Romeo and Juliet and turns it on its head . . .
‘Irresistible. An excellent spin on a timeless classic‘ Jennifer Saint
‘I have not been able to stop thinking about this book . . . Fair Rosaline is a gripping, spellbinding and wonderfully immersive book – and one that truly makes you think. I would be very surprised if everyone is not talking about it this summer’ Elodie Harper
Published August 3rd by Hodder & Stoughton Romance Novel, Contemporary Romance, Literary Fiction, Domestic Fiction, Medical Fiction
SYNOPSIS: ‘A delightful dream of a book’ LISA JEWELL ‘A book you will carry with you long after the last page’ MILLY JOHNSON ‘Up there alongside The Time Traveler’s Wife‘ CAROLE MATTHEWS From the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Memory Book, an unforgettable, beautiful novel about what it means to live to the fullest and to love forever, for fans of The Time Traveler’s Wife, Me Before You and Outlander.
He’s running out of time.
Ben Church has never done anything extraordinary in his life – until now. Now, he needs to fulfil as many of his dreams as possible while he still can.
Time is all she has.
Vita Ambrose’s life of parties and fabulous clothes looks wildly glamorous but in reality it has no meaning. She’s seen too much, lived too much and lost too much.
Together, can they make time stand still?
Ben and Vita’s connection is immediate, spontaneous and passionate. But the clock is ticking. Can they find a way to make their love live forever? Because every moment matters when it might be your last . . .
Published August 3rd by Michael Joseph Thriller, Mystery, Suspense, Psychological Thriller
SYNOPSIS: ‘There was a point during JUST ANOTHER MISSING PERSON where I sat up and shouted in shock. Gillian McAllister stunned me . . . and she will stun you too. I dare you to not ingest this in one sitting’ JODI PICOULT
‘Gillian McAllister knocks it out of the park yet again with this exquisitely plotted, seamlessly constructed police dramafilled withclever twist after clever twist, gasp out loud reveals and beautifully realised characters. Just tremendous’ LISA JEWELL
PRE-ORDER THE HEART-STOPPING NEW NOVEL FROM SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR
‘Another masterpiece from the queen of the emotional thriller. This book has one of the best twists I’ve ever come across’ Beth O’Leary ________
OLIVIA. 22 years old. 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 husband and daughter. But Julia has no idea how close to home it’s going to get.
Because there’s a man out there. And his weapon isn’t a gun, or a knife: it’s a secret. Her worst one.
He tells her that 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? ________
‘The new queen of the what-would-you-do crime thriller is back with a tightly-plotted and twist-packed tale which will send your head spinning’ ELLORY LLOYD
Published August 3rd by PanMacmillan Thriller, Psychological Thriller, Suspense, Gothic Romance
SYNOPSIS: Sometimes bad things happen to good people, so good people have to do bad things.
Twenty years after a baby is stolen from her push-chair, a woman is murdered in a care home. The two crimes are somehow linked, and a good bad girl may be the key to discovering the truth.
Edith may have been tricked into a nursing home, but at eighty-years-young, she’s planning her escape. Patience works there, cleaning up mess and bonding with Edith, a kindred spirit. But Patience is lying to Edith about almost everything.
Edith’s own daughter, Clio, won’t speak to her. And someone new is about to knock on Clio’s door . . . and their intentions aren’t good.
With every reason to distrust each other, the women must solve a mystery with three suspects, two murders, and one victim. If they do, they might just find out what happened to the baby who disappeared, the mother who lost her, and the connections that bind them.
The Queen of Twists, bestselling author of Daisy Darker and Rock Paper Scissors Alice Feeney, returns with another gripping mystery filled with drama and her trademark surprises in Good Bad Girl.
Published August 3rd by Michael Joseph Psychological Thriller, Suspense
SYNOPSIS: ‘A stark, stunning and deeply affecting thriller. The Good Daughter takes a tender, chilling look at family and fear, the illusion of safety and the power of inner-resolve. I loved it’ CHRIS WHITAKER
‘A powerful Southern Gothic thriller about the dangers of blind faith, the strength of women, and the deceptive nature of memory’ ANNA BAILEY
‘Laure Van Rensurg has established herself as a master of the literary thriller. An eerie, chilling, gorgeously written novel that is unafraid to challenge and question its subject matter’ LAURIE ELIZABETH FLYNN
***** 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 Headline Suspense, Mystery, Thriller, Crime Fiction
SYNOPSIS: ‘Laugh-out-loud hilarious, moving and life affirming. How can one book be so many things? I couldn’t put this fabulous, first class, five star read down.’ JANICE HALLETT
‘Warm, wacky and witty. I loved it!’ SALLY PAGE
****** Hello? Can you hear me? Probably not. I’m Dr Miriam Price . . . and I’m dead. The local police, who couldn’t investigate their own nostrils, think I drank myself into an early grave. The nerve! I was murdered. I was just too plastered to know whodunnit, that’s all.
Unless I prove to my inquest this week that my death was no ‘misadventure’, I’m condemned to 50 years in Limbo. I have to find my killer – but I can’t communicate with any living human. Well, there’s one, but she barely qualifies . . . Winnie – my neighbour and nemesis. It seems the dying can interact with the dead, which is helpful news for me, if not stellar for Winnie. Oh well. She’ll live. Maybe.
Suspects? How long have you got? My saintly husband, who’d reached his limit? My best friend, who was anything but? My secret lover, or his wife? My disgruntled colleague? The mother who wrongly holds me responsible for her child’s death? Professor Plum? Your guess is as good as mine.
So Winnie – slap on your deerstalker and strap on your granny pants. Let’s catch a killer! Assuming we don’t kill each other first . . .
‘Hilarious…a fab whodunnit with brilliant characters. A gleeful read!’ TINA BAKER
Published August 3rd by Aria Books Contemporary Fiction, Domestic Fiction
SYNOPSIS: ‘These two feisty and funny women stole my heart… Perfect for bookclubs.’ Faith Hogan
Two women. A community under threat. Can they save their home?
In the peaceful Worcestershire village of Stonecastle, Matilda Reynolds lives a quiet, contented life with her animals for company. Then a fall lands her in hospital, and she must rely on her strange young neighbour, Connie, for help looking after her home.
Connie is coming to terms with her own trauma, and she doesn’t trust easily. But just as the two women embark on an unlikely friendship, the community that brought them together comes under threat.
As they fight to save their beloved estate from a greedy developer, Connie and Matilda discover they have more in common than they thought…
‘An uplifting novel about the power of community and the human spirit.’ Clare Swatman
Published August 3rd by Apollo Historical Fiction, Historical Thriller, Romance Novel
SYNOPSIS: Bringing 1950s Morocco vividly to life, Jane Johnson’s masterful new novel, The Black Crescent, is a gripping story of murder, magic and divided loyalties…
Hamou Badi is born in a mountain village with the magical signs of the zouhry on his hands. In Morocco, the zouhry is a figure of legend, a child of both humans and djinns, capable of finding all manner of treasure: lost objects, hidden water.
But instead, Hamou finds a body.
This unsolved murder instils in Hamou a deep desire for order and justice: he trains as an officer of the law, working for the French in Casablanca. But the city is trapped in the turmoil of the nationalist uprising, and soon he will be forced to choose between all he knows and all he loves…
Published August 3rd by Quercus Thriller, Suuspense, Mystery, Psychological Thriller
SYNOPSIS: They say he’s a murderer. But how could he be? Berlin, 2017: several young girls have been disappearing for the past fourteen years. Red ribbons show the police the way to their bodies, but there’s no trace of the killer.
One evening, internationally renowned philosophy professor and anthropologist Walter Lesniak is arrested on the suspicion of the murders in the presence of his daughter, Ann.
‘Professor Death’ becomes the headline of the tabloid press and Lesniak himself refuses to cooperate with the police. Ann is certain this is all some kind of mistake. And she will prove it. Yet, with the arrest of her father, she begins a journey into the unknown . . .
Published August 3rd by Penguin UK Thriller, Mystery, Suspense, Crime Fiction, Literary Fiction
SYNOPSIS: THE PLANNING TOOK MONTHS. THE MURDER JUST MOMENTS . . .
‘Seductive and twisted. Highly recommended!’ SHARI LAPENA’ A dazzling and dark ‘locked room’ murder mystery. A searing and compulsive mystery with deliciously dark twists’ 5***** READER REVIEW ‘Wow. Once started I could not put this book down. It had me gripped from the first to last page. Secrets, lies, twists. A great summer read’ 5***** READER REVIEW __________
Nadine Walsh’s party started with excitement. But it ended in murder . . .
In the day, she frets over the final details. She’s determined to make this the event of the year. A chance for everyone to forget the past.
In the evening, she’s distracted. Her husband and two grown children are consumed with their own concerns. The neighbours are getting on her nerves. But it’s Nadine’s own secrets that threaten the party.
By the end of the night, she will be standing over a dead body . . .
But which of her guests will she have murdered? And why?
Pre-order here*
The Bone Hacker (Temperance Brennan Series) by Kathy Reichs
Published August 3rd by Simon & Schuster UK Thriller, Suspense, Mystery, Medical Thriller
SYNOPSIS: EVEN ON AN ISLAND PARADISE, DANGER STILL LURKS.
Called in to examine what is left of a body struck by lightning, Tempe traces an unusual tattoo to its source and is soon embroiled in a much larger case. Young men – tourists – have been disappearing on the islands of Turks and Caicos for years. Seven years ago, the first victim was found with both hands cut off; the other visitors vanished without a trace. But recently, tantalizing leads have emerged and only Tempe can unravel them.
Maddeningly, the victims seem to have nothing in common – other than the unusual locations where their bodies are eventually found, and the fact that the young men all seem to be the least likely to be involved in foul play. Do these attacks have something to do with the islands’ seething culture of gang violence? Tempe isn’t so sure. And then she turns up disturbing clues that what’s at stake may actually have global significance.
It isn’t long before the sound of a ticking clock grows menacingly loud, and then Tempe herself becomes a target.
Published August 3rd by Orion Thriller, Mystery, Psychological Thriller
SYNOPSIS: “Filled with buried secrets and jaw-dropping deception, Sarah Pekkanen’s GONE TONIGHT is a page-turning thriller about a mother-daughter you won’t soon forget.” Harlan Coben
Catherine Sterling thinks she knows her mother. Ruth Sterling is quiet, hardworking, and lives for her daughter. All her life, it’s been just the two of them against the world. But now, Catherine is ready to spread her wings, move from home, and begin a new career. And Ruth Sterling will do anything to prevent that from happening.
Ruth Sterling thinks she knows her daughter. Catherine would never rebel, would never question anything about her mother’s past or background. But when Ruth’s desperate quest to keep her daughter by her side begins to reveal cracks in Ruth’s carefully-constructed world, both mother and daughter begin a dance of deception.
No one can know Ruth’s history. There is a reason why Ruth kept them moving every few years, and why she was ready–in a moment’s notice–to be gone in the night.
But danger is closing in. Is it coming from the outside, from Ruth’s past? Is Ruth reaching a breaking point? Or is the danger coming from the darkness that may live in Catherine, herself?
Published August 3rd by Bedford Square Publishers Thriller, Suspense, Psychological Thriller, Historical Fiction
SYNOPSIS: With gorgeous prose, European glamour, and an expansive wanderlust, Christine Mangan’s The Continental Affair is a fast-paced, Agatha Christie-esque caper packed full of romance and suspense.
Meet Henri and Louise.
Two strangers, travelling alone, on the train from Belgrade to Istanbul.
Except this isn’t the first time they have met.
It’s the 1960s, and Louise is running.
From her past in England, from the owners of the money she has stolen―and from Henri, the person who has been sent to collect it.
Across the Continent―from Granada to Paris, from Belgrade to Istanbul―Henri follows.
He’s desperate to leave behind his own troubles and the memories of his past life as a gendarme in Algeria.
But Henri soon realises that Louise is no ordinary traveller.
As the train hurtles toward its final destination, Henri and Louise must decide what the future will hold―and whether it involves one another.
Stylish and atmospheric, The Continental Affair takes you on an unforgettable journey through the twisty, glamorous world of 1960s Europe.
Farewell to the Little Coffee Shop of Kabul by Deborah Rodriguez
Published August 3rd by Sphere Contemporary Fiction, War Story Fiction
SYNOPSIS: THE LONG-AWAITED SEQUEL TO THE LITTLE COFFEE SHOP OF KABUL, THE BESTSELLER THAT CAPTURED THE HEARTS OF MILLIONS WORLDWIDE
Kabul, August 2021
Sunny Tedder is back in her beloved coffee shop. After eight years away, she’s thrilled to reunite with her Kabul ‘family’:
Yazmina now runs a pair of women’s shelters from the old cafe, and dreams of a bright future for her two young daughters.
Her sister Layla has become an outspoken women’s rights activist and, thanks to social media, is quite the celebrity.
Kat, Sunny’s friend from America, is wrapping up her year-long stay in the land of her birth, but is facing some unfinished business.
And finally there’s elderly den mother Halajan, whose secret new hobby is itself an act of rebellion.
Then the US troops begin to withdraw – and the women watch in horror as the Taliban advance on the capital at ferocious speed…
Set against the terrifying fall of Kabul in 2021, Deborah Rodriguez concludes her bestselling Little Coffee Shop trilogy with a heart-stopping story of resilience, courage and, most importantly, hope.
Published August 4th by Boldwood Books Romance Novel, Contemporary Romnace, Domestic Fiction, LGBT Literarture, Mashup Novel
SYNOPSIS: The list he left had just one item on it. Or, at least, it did at first…
Mabel Beaumont’s husband Arthur loved lists. He’d leave them for her everywhere. ‘Remember: eggs, butter, sugar’. ‘I love you: today, tomorrow, always’.
But now Arthur is gone. He died: softly, gently, not making a fuss. But he’s still left her a list. This one has just one item on it though: ‘Find D’.
Mabel feels sure she knows what it means. She must track down her best friend Dot, who she hasn’t seen since the fateful day she left more than sixty years ago.
It seems impossible. She doesn’t even know if Dot’s still alive. Also, every person Mabel talks to seems to need help first, with missing husbands, daughters, parents. Mabel finds her list is just getting longer, and she’s still no closer to finding Dot.
What she doesn’t know is that her list isn’t just about finding her old friend. And that if she can admit the secrets of the past, maybe she could even find happiness again…
A completely heartbreaking, beautiful, uplifting story, guaranteed to make you smile but also make you cry. Perfect for fans of My Name is Ove, Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, and The Keeper of Stories.
What You Are Looking For is in the Library by Michiko Aoyama
Published August 10th by Doubleday UK Literary Fiction, Humorous Fiction
SYNOPSIS: THE JAPANESE BESTSELLING NOVEL SHORTLISTED FOR THE JAPAN BOOKSELLERS’ AWARD
‘I definitely want to visit this library. I feel kinder after this book‘ 5***** Reader review ‘It made me laugh and cry. It made me feel comforted and warm inside’ 5***** Reader review ‘Wonderful. It made me look for connection in my life’ 5***** Reader review
For fans of The Midnight Library and Before the Coffee Gets Cold, this soul-stirring Japanese novel shows how the perfect book recommendation can help us fulfil our dreams.
_________________ What are you looking for?
So asks Tokyo’s most enigmatic librarian to the visitors in her library. For Sayuri Komachi is no ordinary librarian. Sensing exactly what someone is searching for in life, she provides just the book recommendation to help them find it.
We meet five visitors at a different crossroads: the restless retail assistant eager to pick up new skills, the mother faced with a demotion at work after maternity leave, the conscientious accountant who yearns to open an antique store, the gifted young manga artist in search of motivation, and a recently retired salaryman on a quest for newfound purpose.
After reading Komachi’s unique book recommendation, they will soon discover what they need to achieve their dreams.
What You Are Looking For is in the Library is about the magic of community libraries and the discovery of connection. Already loved by thousands of readers all over the world, this heart-bursting, inspirational tale shows how, by listening to our hearts, seizing opportunity and reaching out, we too can fulfil our long-held dreams.
Published August 10th by Canongate Literary Fiction, Contemporary Fiction, Fantasy
SYNOPSIS: The Marte women are preparing for a gathering that will change their lives forever
Flor has a gift: she can predict, to the day, when someone will die. So when she decides to host her own living wake – bringing together her family and community to celebrate her long life – her sisters Matilde, Pastora and Camila are concerned. What has she foreseen?
But Flor isn’t the only one with a secret. Matilde has tried to hide the extent of her husband’s infidelity for years, and now must confront the true state of her marriage. Pastora – always on a mission to solve her sisters’ problems – needs to come to terms with her past. And Camila, the youngest sibling, has decided she no longer wants to be taken for granted. Alongside their struggles, the next generation of Marte women face their own tumult of family obligations, infertility, and heartache.
Spanning the three days prior to the wake, Family Lore traces the intertwining stories of these sisters and cousins, mothers and daughters, aunts and nieces, to ask the ultimate question: what does it take to live a good life, for yourself and those you love?
Published August 10th by Faber & Faber Mystery, Psychological Thriller
SYNOPSIS: ‘One of the best crime novelists writing today.’ PAULA HAWKINS ‘Lippmann is fast creating a new genre-busting category full of remarkable writing and dazzling plot lines.’ Daily Mail
FROM THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLING AUTHOR ‘When I was seventeen, I gave birth to a baby in a hotel bathroom while attending the prom.’
Two decades ago, Amber Glass’s life changed forever. No-one had even known she was pregnant – including Joe, her date.
Afterwards, she left town for good – and hasn’t seen Joe since. But she knows he hasn’t left, that he’s working for his father’s real estate company, married to a cosmetic surgeon. Child free.
Now Amber is back, and as the two of them tentatively start to renew their once unlikely relationship, will their secrets and motivations finally destroy everyone around them?
Inspired by a true story, this guessing game of a novel explodes with feeling and menace.
Published August 17th by Michael Joseph Suspense, Psychological Thriller
SYNOPSIS: The bestselling author of My Lovely Wife returns with an addictive new psychological thriller, now available for pre-order!
NOTHING IS DEADLIER THAN TRUE LOVE…
Wes and Ivy are madly in love. It’s the kind of romance people write stories about. But what kind of story?
Because when it’s good, it’s very very good. But when it’s bad, it’s bad.
But their breakneck cycle of catastrophic vengeful break-ups and head-over-heels reconnections needs to end fast. Because suddenly, Wes and Ivy have a common enemy – and she’s a detective.
One wrong move will be fatal – so if Wes and Ivy can’t stick together, this break-up might just be their last.
Published August 17th by HQ Historical Fiction, Historical Mystery, Thriller, Suspense, Psychological Fiction, War Story
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 summer of 1914 a boy vanishes, never to be seen again.
Now, in 1920, the once esteemed Stilwell family of Darkacre Hall find themselves struggling with the legacy of the First World War. Leonard bears the physical scars, while his brother Maurice has endured more than his mind can take. Maurice’s wife Ida yearns for the lost days of privilege and pleasure and family friend Victor seems unwilling to move on.
But their lives are thrown into further disarray when the missing boy’s case is 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.
Published August 17th by Viper Books Suspense, Thriller, Psychological Fiction, Horror Fiction
SYNOPSIS: ‘The feminist update to Rosemary’s Baby we all needed’ – ANDREA BARTZ ‘A timely, terrifying, heartfelt thriller’ – CHRIS WHITAKER
I wanted this baby so badly. But she may be the death of me…
Anna Alcott is desperate to have a family. But as she tries to balance her increasingly public life as an indie actress with a gruelling IVF regime, she starts to suspect that someone is going to great lengths to make sure that never happens. Crucial medicines are lost. Appointments are moved without her knowledge. She’s sure she’s being followed. And when she finally does get pregnant, someone breaks into her house and steals the ultrasound photograph of her baby. But despite everything she’s gone through, not even her husband is willing to believe that someone is playing twisted games with her.
Then her doctors tell her she’s lost the baby. Despite her grief, Anna ignores the grave-faced men lecturing her – because she can still feel the baby moving, can see the toll it’s taking on her weakened body. Isolated in a remote snowbound town, Anna is sure that whoever has been following her is closing in on her and her unborn child. And as her symptoms become more terrifying, she can’t help but wonder what exactly is growing inside her… and why no-one will listen when she says that something is horribly wrong.
Exploring visceral themes of loss, medical misogyny and female power, The Push meets Behind Her Eyes in this spellbindingly dark thriller.
Published August 17th by Tor Fantasy Fiction, Contemporary Fantasy, Paranormal Fantasy
SYNOPSIS: From the internationally bestselling author of The Atlas Six, Masters of Death by Olivie Blake is a gripping, page-turning fantasy.
‘Olivie Blake is a mind-blowing talent’ – Chloe Gong, author of These Violent Delights
This book is about an estate agent. Only she’s a vampire, the house on sale is haunted, and its ghost was murdered.
When Viola Marek hires Fox D’Mora to deal with her ghost-infested mansion, she expects a competent medium. But unbeknownst to Viola, Fox is a fraud – despite being the godson of Death.
As the mystery unfolds, Viola and Fox are drawn into a quest that neither wants nor expects. And they’ll need the help of a demonic personal trainer, a sharp-voiced angel and a love-stricken reaper. And it transpires that the difference between a mysterious lost love and a dead body isn’t nearly as distinct as you’d hope.
Published August 17th by Orenda Books Saga, Suspense, Psychological Fiction, Coming-of-Age Story, Religious Fiction
SYNOPSIS: A young Pakistani woman is the victim of an unthinkable act of vengeance, when she defies tradition … facing seemingly insurmountable challenges and danger when she attempts to rebuild her life.
Multan, Pakistan. A conservative city where an unmarried woman over the age of twenty-five is considered a curse by her family.
Ayesha is twenty-seven. Independent and happily single, she has evaded an arranged marriage because of her family’s reduced circumstances. When she catches the eye of powerful, wealthy Raza, it seems like the answer to her parents’ prayers. But Ayesha is in love with someone else, and when she refuses to give up on him, Raza resorts to unthinkable revenge…
Ayesha travels to London to rebuild her life and there she meets Kamil, an emotionally damaged man who has demons of his own. They embark on a friendship that could mean salvation for both of them, but danger stalks Ayesha in London, too. With her life thrown into turmoil, she is forced to make a decision that could change her and everyone she loves forever.
Exquisitely written, populated by unforgettable characters and rich with poignant, powerful themes, Someone Like Her is a story of love and family, of corruption and calamity, of courage and hope … and one woman’s determination to thwart convention and find peace, at whatever cost…
Published August 17th by HQ Thriller, Mystery, Suspense, Psychological Fiction
SYNOPSIS: An unmissable thriller of 2023 from the Sunday Times Number One bestselling author of One Last Secret and Both Of You…
Lost. Missing. Murdered? And both her husbands are suspects…
Kylie Gillingham’s disappearance has gripped the nation: the woman with a shocking secret – married to two men at the same time – is missing, presumed dead. And both her husbands are suspects.
DC Clements knows the dark side of human nature and that love can make people do treacherous things; you can’t presume anything when it comes to crimes of the heart. While Kylie’s two husbands remain prime suspects, her sons won’t accept that she is dead. Until a body is found, this scandalous and sad case remains wide open.
Stacie Jones lives a quiet life in a small village, nursed by her father as she recovers from illness, shielded from any disquieting news of the outside world. But their reclusive life is about to be shattered.
How are these families linked, and can any of them ever rebuild their lives in the wake of tragedy?
This explosive thriller from Number One bestseller Adele Parks examines what it is to be a family and the dangerous lengths that people will go to for those they love.
Reykjavik by Ragnar Jonasson & Katrin Jakobsdottir
Published August 17th by Michael Joseph Mystery, Thriller, Historical Thriller, Nordic Noir
SYNOPSIS: ‘Nordic noir at its most authoritative’ FINANCIAL TIMES _________
What happened to Lara Marteinsdóttir?
Iceland, 1956. Fifteen-year-old Lára spends the summer working for a couple on the small island of Videy, just off the coast of Reykjavík.
In early August, the girl disappears without a trace.
The mystery becomes Iceland’s greatest unsolved case. What happened to the young girl? Is she still alive? Did she leave the island, or did something happen to her there?
Thirty years later in August, 1986, as the city of Reykjavík celebrates its 200th anniversary, journalist Valur Robertsson begins his own investigation into Lara’s case. But as he draws closer to discovering the secret, and with the eyes of Reykjavík upon him, it soon becomes clear that Lara’s disappearance is a mystery that someone will stop at nothing to keep unsolved . . .
Published August 17th by HQ Suspense, Thriller, Mystery, Crime Fiction, Psychological Fiction, Gothic Ficiton
SYNOPSIS: Four of them went to the hotel
Four students travel to Ravencliffe, an eerie abandoned hotel perched on steep cliffs on the Welsh coast. After a series of unexplained accidents, only three of them leave. The fourth, Leo, disappears, and is never seen again.
Only three of them came back
A decade on, the friends have lost contact. Oscar is fame-hungry, making public appearances and selling his story. Richard sank into alcoholism and is only just recovering. Bex just wants to forget – until one last opportunity to go back offers the chance to find out what really happened to Leo.
Ten years later, they return one last time
But as soon as they get to the hotel things start going wrong again. Objects mysteriously disappear and reappear. Accidents happen. And Bex realises that her former friends know far more than they are letting on about the true events at Ravencliffe that night…
Published August 17th by Manilla Press Literary Fiction, Contemporary Fiction
SYNOPSIS: This morning, I met the man who started the fire. He did something terrible, but then, so have I. I left him. I left him and now he may be dead.
Once upon a time there was a beautiful village that held a million stories of love and loss and peace and war, and it was swallowed up by a fire that blazed up to the sky. The fire ran all the way down to the sea where it met with its reflection.
A family from two nations, England and Greece, live a simple life in a tiny Greek village: Irini, Tasso and their daughter, lovely, sweet Chara, whose name means joy. Their life goes up in flames in a single day when one man starts a fire out of greed and indifference. Many are killed, homes are destroyed, and the region’s natural beauty wiped out.
In the wake of the fire, Chara bears deep scars across her back and arms. Tasso is frozen in trauma, devastated that he wasn’t there when his family most needed him. And Irini is crippled by guilt at her part in the fate of the man who started the fire.
But this family has survived, and slowly green shoots of hope and renewal will grow from the smouldering ruins of devastation.
Once again, Christy Lefteri has crafted a novel which is intimate and epic, sweeping and delicate. The Book of Fire explores not only the damage wrought by human folly, and the costs of survival in our changing world, but also – and ultimately – our powers of redemption and renewal.
Published August 17th by Little Brown Book Group Contemporary Horror, Ghost Story, Horror Fantasy, Magical Realism
SYNOPSIS: In South Korea, a 105-year-old woman receives a letter. Ten days later, she has been thrust into the afterlife, fighting to head off a curse that will otherwise devastate generations to come.
Hak Jeonga has always shouldered the burden of upholding the family name. When she sent her daughter-in-law to America to cover up an illegitimate birth, she was simply doing what was needed to preserve the reputations of her loved ones. How could she have known that decades later, this decision would return to haunt her-threatening to tear apart her bond with her beloved son, her relationship with her infuriatingly insolent sisters, and the future of the family she has worked so hard to protect?
Part ghost story and part family epic, The Apology is an incisive tale of sisterhood and diaspora, reaching back to the days of Japanese colonialism and the Korean War, and told through the singular voice of a defiant, funny, and unforgettable centenarian.
Published August 17th by Aria Romance Novel, Romantic Comedy, Humorous Fiction
SYNOPSIS: Can you ever have a second chance at first love?
When Ronnie Percy’s gorgeous on-off lover Blair is forced to deep-freeze their affair for the sake of his sick wife, she’s delighted to be distracted by charismatic neighbour, Kit Donne, and – more surprisingly – finds herself drawn into a fight for the future of the village. But then the return of someone from her distant past threatens to expose long-buried secrets.
Meanwhile daughter Pax – already besieged by her controlling estranged husband – has started to suspect that new beau ‘the horsemaker’ Luca still loves somebody else. The last shoulder on earth she should cry on is Bay Austen’s, but his marriage is crumbling and he’s lost none of his dangerous charm. Moreover, Bay knows the way to her heart is through her horses…
Old friendships, new loves, jealousies, gossip and beautiful horses – these are the classic ingredients for Fiona Walker’s latest gripping, sexy novel, set in the Cotswold village of Compton Magna and laced with her trademark humour.
Published August 24th by Doubleday UK Literary Fiction, Myths, Fairy Tales, Short Stories
SYNOPSIS: The first story collection from Kate Atkinson in twenty years, Normal Rules Don’t Apply is a dazzling array of eleven interconnected tales from the bestselling author of Shrines of Gaiety and Life After Life
In this first full collection since Not the End of the World, we meet a queen who makes a bargain she cannot keep; a secretary who watches over the life she has just left; a man whose luck changes when a horse speaks to him.
With clockwork intricacy, inventiveness and sharp social observation, Kate Atkinson conjures a feast for the imagination, a constantly changing multiverse in which nothing is quite as it seems.
Published August 24th by Picador Historical Fiction, Romance Novel, Lesbian Literature
SYNOPSIS: Adding to the already moving, richly told and gripping collection of historical fiction from Emma Donoghue, Learned By Heart is the breathtaking story of two young girls on the margins of life, forging a connection that will last forever.
Eliza and Lister have never been this wide-awake in their lives, and the Slope, with its curtains drawn wide, is bright with starlight. They talk in whispers, not to disturb the maids who lie sleeping on the other side of the box room. The question Eliza’s been needing to ask swells like a great berry in her mouth, and all at once she’s not scared to let it out, not scared at all, not scared of anything . . .
In 1805 fourteen-year-old Eliza Raine is a school girl at the Manor School for Young Ladies in York. The daughter of an Indian mother and a British father, Eliza was banished to this unfamiliar country as a little girl. When she first stepped off the King George in Kent, Eliza was accompanied by her older sister, Jane, but now she boards alone at the Manor, with no one left to claim her. She spends her days avoiding the attention of her fellow pupils until, one day, a fearless and charismatic new student arrives at the school. The two girls are immediately thrown together and soon Eliza’s life is turned inside out by this strange and curious young woman.
Learned by Heart, Emma Donoghue’s mesmerising new novel, tells the heartbreaking story of the tangled lives of two women whose intense, and unlikely, relationship will change them for ever.
House of Odysseus (The Songs of Penelope 2) by Claire North
Published August 24th by Orbit Historical Fiction, Historical Fantasy, Fairy Tale, Greek Mythology, Literary Fiction
SYNOPSIS: ‘CLAIRE NORTH BRINGS A POWERFUL, FRESH AND UNFLINCHING VOICE TO ANCIENT MYTH’ Jennifer Saint, author of Sunday Times bestseller Ariadne
From the author of the critically acclaimed Ithaca – A Sunday Times Historical Fiction Book of the Year – comes an exquisite and gripping new 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 isle of Ithaca, Queen Penelope maintains a delicate balance of power. Many years ago, her husband, Odysseus, sailed to war with Troy and never came home. In his absence, Penelope uses all her cunning to keep the peace – but this is shattered by the arrival of Orestes, king of Mycenae, and his sister Elektra.
Orestes’s hands are stained with his mother’s blood. Not so long ago, the son of Agamemnon took Queen Clytemnestra’s life on Ithaca’s sands. Now, racked with guilt, he is slowly losing his mind.
Penelope knows destruction will follow in his wake as surely as the Furies circle him. His uncle, Menelaus, the battle-hungry king of Sparta, longs for Orestes’s throne – and if he can seize it, no one will be safe from his violent whims.
Trapped between two mad kings, Penelope fights to keep war from Ithaca’s shores. Her only allies are Elektra and Helen of Troy, Menelaus’s enigmatic wife. And watching over them all is the goddess Aphrodite, who has plans of her own.
Each woman has a secret. And their secrets will shape the world.
Published August 24th by Mantle Historical Fiction, Historical Fantasy, Fantasy Fiction, Fairy Tale, Alternate Hitory, Myths & Legends
SYNOPSIS: He Who Drowned the World is the sequel to the Sunday Times bestseller She Who Became the Sun.
What would you give to win the world?
Zhu Yuanzhang, the Radiant King, is riding high after her victory – one that tore southern China from its Mongol masters. Now she burns with a new desire: to seize the throne and crown herself emperor.
However, Zhu isn’t the only one with imperial aspirations. Courtesan Madam Zhang plots to steal the throne for her husband. But scorned scholar Wang Baoxiang is even closer to the throne. He’s maneuverered his way to the capital, where his courtly games threaten to bring the empire to its knees. For Baoxiang also desires revenge: to become the most degenerate Great Khan in history. In the process, he’d make a mockery of the warrior values his Mongol family loved more than him.
To stay in the game, Zhu must gamble everything on one bold move. A risky alliance with an old enemy: Ouyang, the brilliant but unstable eunuch general. All contenders will do whatever it takes to win. But when desire has no end, and ambition no limits, could the price be too high for even the most ruthless heart to bear?
The Girl in the Eagle’s Talons (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo 7) by Karin Smirnoff
Published August 29th by MacLehose Press Mystery, Suspense, Book Series
SYNOPSIS: A chilling new DRAGON TATTOO thriller
“Lisbeth Salander is back – and maybe better than ever . . . Remarkable” LEE CHILD
“Fresh, fearless, faithful and original . . . I loved it” CHRIS WHITAKER
“An absolute incident-packed thrill-ride from start to finish” JO SPAIN
“Smirnoff’s writing is wonderfully vivid” ANNA BAILEY
The untapped natural resources of Sweden’s far north are sparking a gold rush, with the criminal underworld leading the charge. But it’s not the prospect of riches that brings Lisbeth Salander to the small town of Gasskas. Her niece’s mother is the latest woman in the region to have vanished without trace. Two things soon become clear: Svala is a remarkably gifted teenager — and she’s being watched.
Journalist Mikael Blomkvist is also heading north. He has seen better days. Millennium magazine is in its final print issue, and relations with his daughter are strained. Worse still, there are troubling rumours surrounding the man she’s about to marry. When the truth behind the whispers explodes into violence, Salander emerges as Blomkvist’s last hope.
The new thriller from Swedish bestselling author Karin Smirnoff will submerge you in a world of conspiracy and betrayal, old enemies and new friends, snow-bound wilderness and corporate greed. Lisbeth Salander is BACK.
Published August 29th by Hodderscape Fantasu Fiction, Young Adult Fiction
SYNOPSIS: From the New York Times bestselling author of Six Crimson Cranes comes a tale of two sisters – one as beautiful as the other is monstrous – who must fight to save each other when a betrothal contest gone wrong unleashes an evil that could sever their bond forever.
One must fall for the other to rise.
Channi was not born a monster. But when her own father offers her in sacrifice to the Demon Witch, she is forever changed. Cursed with a serpent’s face, Channi is the exact opposite of her beautiful sister, Vanna-the only person in the village who looks at Channi and doesn’t see a monster. The only person she loves and trusts.
Now seventeen, Vanna is to be married off in a vulgar contest that will enrich the coffers of the village leaders. Only Channi, who’s had to rely on her strength and cunning all these years, can defend her sister against the cruelest of the suitors. But in doing so, she becomes the target of his wrath – launching a grisly battle royale, a quest over land and sea, a romance between sworn enemies, and a choice that will strain Channi’s heart to its breaking point.
Weaving together elements of The Selection and Ember in the Ashes with classic tales like Beauty and the Beast, Helen of Troy, and Asian folklore, Elizabeth Lim is at the absolute top of her game in this thrilling yet heart-wrenching fantasy that explores the dark side of beauty and the deepest bonds of sisterhood.
Published August 31st by Harper Collins UK Historical Fiction, Historical Romance, Regency Romance, Romantic Comedy,Humorous Fiction, Coming-of-Age Story
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 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 August 31st by HQ Fairy Tale, Greek Mythology, Hunorous Fiction, LGBT Literature
SYNOPSIS: This should be the story of Hercules: his twelve labours, his endless adventures…everyone’s favourite hero, right?
Well, it’s not.
This is the story of everyone else:
Alcmene: Herc’s mother (She has knives everywhere)
Hylas: Herc’s first friend (They were more than friends)
Megara: Herc’s wife (She’ll tell you about their marriage)
Eurystheus: Oversaw Herc’s labours (He never asked for the job)
His friends, his enemies, his wives, his children, his lovers, his rivals, his gods, his victims.
It’s time to hear their stories.
Told with humour and heart, Herc gives voice to the silenced characters, in this feminist, queer (and sometimes shocking) retelling of classic Hercules myth.
Perfect for fans of Madeline Miller and Joanne M. Harris
Published August 31st by Michael Joseph Contemporary Fiction, Psychological Thriller
SYNOPSIS: ‘Thrilling, chilling, heart-stopping . . . impossible to put down’ CHRIS WHITAKER ‘Terrifying, dark and original with a brilliantly shocking ending – loved this book’ CATHERINE COOPER
WELCOME TO THE CONFESSION ROOM. An online forum for admitting your sins.
Some people confess to affairs, others to stealing. Some admit deep, dark wishes. And former police officer Emilia Haines, reading strangers’ secrets is the perfect distraction from the past.
But one day, Emilia stumbles on the darkest confession yet:
MURDER.
At first, it seems like a hoax. But when a body is found, then another victim is named, Emilia can’t look away.
How are the victims linked? Who is confessing to murder to publicly?
And how do you catch a serial killer who is hiding in plain sight?
Published August 31st by Quercus Mystery, Thriller, Psychological Fiction
SYNOPSIS: ‘Fantastically addictive’ JOHN MARRS ‘Tantalising’ ROBERT SCRAGG A rich masterpiece’ JAMES DELARGY
What REALLY happened at Turtle Lake? You think you know. Think again.
California, 2003 A thirteen-year-old girl disappears from a party at Carlsbad’s Turtle Lake. Discovered on the trunk of a nearby cottonwood tree is the word ‘LIAR’ graffitied in blood.
What you know . . . Three teenagers went to the lake that night but only two came back. Later, they confess to murdering their friend.
. . . is only part of the story But did they really kill her? And if not, why say they did?
Told across two timelines and tapping into a horrific crime, All the Little Liars is a novel about sisterly love and toxic friendship that asks: how much would you sacrifice to belong?
Published August 31st by Wildfire Literary Fiction, Contemporary Fiction, Humorous Fiction
SYNOPSIS: ‘Razor-sharp . . . Biting and compulsive’ GRAZIA I clean the offices and bathrooms and lobby five nights a week, but my actual job is to take care of everyone. They need so much help.
At night, in a corporate office block in an unnamed metropolitan city, a cleaner begins her shift.
As she cleans Sad Intern’s desk, she throws away some of her more alarming health supplements, and leaves her healthy snacks instead. Mr Buff’s desk is immaculate, but he seems to have a secret smoking habit – not conducive to his fitness journey – which she’s going to help him kick. She confiscates the knitted coaster that attractive, sensitive Yarn Guy has given to Cola Woman – someone who clips her nails in the office doesn’t deserve his gifts.
But tonight, while scrolling through your emails, she’ll discover the secret you’ve been hiding – the one that will threaten her job, and the jobs of everyone she takes care of. And you’re about to find out that, sometimes, your most powerful enemy is the one you don’t even see.
Published August 31st by Jonathan Cape Saga, Coming-of-Age Story, Literary Fiction
SYNOPSIS: Carmel had been alone all her life. The baby knew this. They looked at each other, and all of time was there. The baby knew how vast her mother’s loneliness had been.
A contemporary novel of daughterhood and motherhood, from the Booker Prize-winning Irish author
‘Might just be her best yet’ LOUISE KENNEDY, author of TRESPASSES ‘One of our greatest living novelists’ THE TIMES
Nell – funny, brave and so much loved – is a young woman with adventure on her mind. As she sets out into the world, she finds her family history hard to escape. For her mother, Carmel, Nell’s leaving home opens a space in her heart, where the turmoil of a lifetime begins to churn. And across the generations falls the long shadow of Carmel’s famous father, an Irish poet of beautiful words and brutal actions.
This is a meditation on love: spiritual, romantic, darkly sexual or genetic. A multigenerational novel that traces the inheritance not just of trauma but also of wonder, it is a testament to the glorious resilience of women in the face of promises false and true. Above all, it is an exploration of the love between mother and daughter – sometimes fierce, often painful, but always transcendent.
Published August 31st by Simon & Schuster UK Mystery, Historical Fiction, Crime Fiction, Urban Fiction, Adventure Fiction
SYNOPSIS: Stuart Turton meets The Magpie Murders in this immersive and unique story for fans of clever crime fiction.
Imagine you’re holding a book in your hands. It’s not just any book though. It’s a tête-bêche novel, beloved of nineteenth-century bookmakers. It’s a book that is two books: two intertwined stories printed back-to-back. Open the book and the first novella begins. It ends at the middle of the book. Then flip the book over, head to tail, and read the second story in the opposite direction. Both covers are front covers; and it can be read in either direction, or in both directions at once, alternating chapters, to fully immerse the reader in it.
1880s England. On the bleak island of Ray, off the Essex coast, an idealistic young doctor, Simeon Lee, is called from London to treat his cousin, Parson Oliver Hawes, who is dying. Parson Hawes, who lives in the only house on the island – Turnglass House – believes he is being poisoned. And he points the finger at his sister-in-law, Florence. Florence was declared insane after killing Oliver’s brother in a jealous rage and is now kept in a glass-walled apartment in Oliver’s library. And the secret to how she came to be there is found in Oliver’s tête-bêche journal, where one side tells a very different story from the other.
1930s California. Celebrated author Oliver Tooke, the son of the state governor, is found dead in his writing hut off the coast of the family residence, Turnglass House. His friend Ken Kourian doesn’t believe that Oliver would take his own life. His investigations lead him to the mysterious kidnapping of Oliver’s brother when they were children, and the subsequent secret incarceration of his mother, Florence, in an asylum. But to discover the truth, Ken must decipher clues hidden in Oliver’s final book, a tête-bêche novel – which is about a young doctor called Simeon Lee . . .
Published August 31st by HQ Mystery, Suspense, Thriller, Cozy Mystery, Crime Fiction, Police Procedural
SYNOPSIS: One sister is a cop.
The other is a con artist.
Both are suspects.
’I especially loved the strident, salty, can’t-live-with-can’t-live-without relationship between the two sisters’ J.M. Hall
’I was gripped’ Louise Jensen
’An ending I never saw coming’ Faith Martin
DI Tess Fox’s first murder scene has two big problems. One, the victim was thrown from the balcony of a flat locked from the inside. Two, Tess knows him.
But the biggest problem of all is Tess’s half-sister, Sarah. She has links to the deceased and has the skills and criminal background to mastermind a locked-room murder. But she’s a con-artist, not a killer.
When two more bodies turn up, Tess now has three locked room mysteries to solve and even more reason to be suspicious of Sarah. Can she trust someone who breaks the law for a living, even if she is family?
A Day of Fire: A Novel of Pompeii by Kate Quinn, Stephanie Dray, Ben Kane, Eliza Knight, Sophie Perinot, Vicky Alvear
Published August 31st by WM Morrow Hisrorical Fiction, Romance Novel, Fiction Anthology
SYNOPSIS: From six bestselling authors, including New York Times bestseller Kate Quinn, comes a vividly imagined novel following the lives of those in ancient Pompeii on the fateful day Mount Vesuvius erupts.
Pompeii was a lively resort flourishing in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius at the height of the Roman Empire. When Vesuvius erupted in an explosion of flame and ash, the entire town would be destroyed. Some of its citizens died in the chaos, some escaped the mountain’s wrath . . . and these are their stories:
A boy loses his innocence in Pompeii’s flourishing streets.
An heiress dreads her wedding day, not knowing it will be swallowed by fire.
An ex-legionary stakes his entire future on a gladiator bout destined never to be finished.
A crippled senator welcomes death, until a tomboy on horseback comes to his rescue.
A young mother faces an impossible choice for her unborn child as the ash falls.
A priestess and a prostitute seek redemption and resurrection as the town is buried.
Six authors bring to life overlapping stories of patricians and slaves, warriors and politicians, villains and heroes who cross each other’s paths during Pompeii’s fiery end. But who will escape, and who will be buried for eternity?
Emma's Biblio Treasures 