Published May 23rd, 2024 by Orenda Literary Fiction, Mystery, Humour, Translated Fiction
Today is my stop on the blog tour for Toxic, the atmsohperic and unsettling new novel from Helga Flatland. Thank you to Anne at Random Things Tours for the invitation to take part and to Orenda for the gifted proof in exchange for an honest review.
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ABOUT THE BOOK:
Shamed schoolteacher, Mathilde, moves to a dairy farm in the Norwegian countryside for an ‘easier life’, but she’s soon up to her old tricks … upending and unsettling the lives of two reclusive farmers. Exquisitely written, razor-sharp and simmering with an unexpected tension, Toxic marks the return of one of Norway’s finest writers…
‘Flatland has the gift that I most often covet in the work of other writers: the ability to make everyday events compelling … how the quietest existence can brim with urgency and drama’ Ann Morgan
‘Helga Flatland writes with elegance and subtle humour’ Daily Express
‘The author has been dubbed the Norwegian Anne Tyler and for good reason’ Good Housekeeping
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When Mathilde is forced to leave her teaching job in Oslo after her relationship with eighteen-year-old Jacob is exposed, she flees to the countryside for a more authentic life.
Her new home is a quiet cottage on the outskirts of a dairy farm run by Andres and Johs, whose hobbies include playing the fiddle and telling folktales – many of them about female rebellion and disobedience, and seeking justice, whatever it takes.
But beneath the apparently friendly and peaceful pastoral surface of life on the farm, something darker and more sinister starts to vibrate and, with Mathilde’s arrival, cracks start appearing … everywhere.
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MY REVIEW:
Atmospheric, intense, surprising and seductive, I flew through this book in just a few hours. Exquisitely and elegantly told, Helga Flatland merges folklore of female rebellion and defiance with a story of obsession and toxic love to create a novel that feels both relatable and original. Set at the start of Covid, Flatland transports us to that time of uncertainty and fear. A time where we cleaned packages, scrubbed surfaces, and saw every other person as a potential threat from the invisible peril that loomed. It was the ideal setting for this story, adding to its surreal and dreamlike vibe that drifted alongside the fizzing tension and frenzied longing.
The story is told by Mathilde and Johs, two very different people who are strangers when the story begins. Both are emotionally scarred, flawed and compelling, but it is Mathilde whose story gripped me most to start with. Mathilde is a secondary school teacher in Oslo when she begins a passionate relationship with 18-year-old Jakub, who is one of her students. It is never clear if she is a reliable narrator and there are signs she may live in a fantasy world from the start as she tells us Jakub was the one to pursue her and she was powerless to resist. We soon see signs of obsession as she is consumed by him then refuses to let go after he abruptly ends their affair. She’s so far gone that she sees nothing wrong with the power imbalance between them even after her boss points it out and is filled with indignation when she’s dismissed from her job.
I wanted to shake her! But, we’ve all had relationships where the other person is like heroin to us and we can’t get enough, so, inappropriate as it was, I wondered if maybe that is what this was.
Now in disgrace, Mathilde decides she needs a fresh start and rents a cottage on a dairy farm run by Johs and his brother, Andres. At first, it was the flashbacks to Johs family history that gripped me most in his thread, slowly unveiling how their strange and damaged dynamic was created by restrictive traditions and tales of folklore. But, we soon discover how troubled Johs really is as he develops his own unhealthy fixation. Meanwhile, Mathilde has her sights set on another inappropriate paramour. A noxious storm was brewing and I was transfixed as I tried to predict how this would end. But you could have bet me millions of pounds and I would have never guessed. Ms. Flatland plays a blinder, ending with an unexpected, strange, and ambiguous twist that left me with a deep sense of unease.
A beautiful but unsettling novel that lingers long after reading, Toxic has put Helga Flatland firmly on my autobuy list. Highly recommended.
Rating: ✮✮✮✮✰
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MEET THE AUTHOR:
Helga Flatland is one of Norway’s most awarded and widely read authors. Born in Telemark, Norway, in 1984, she made her literary debut in 2010 with the novel Stay If You Can, Leave If You Must, for which she was awarded the Tarjei Vesaas’ First Book Prize. She has written four novels and a children’s book and has won several other literary awards. Her fifth novel, A Modern Family, was published to wide acclaim in Norway in August 2017, and was a number-one bestseller. The rights have subsequently been sold across Europe and the novel has sold more than 100,000 copies. A Modern Family marked Helga’s first English publication when it was released in 2019, achieving exceptional critical acclaim and sales, and leading to Helga being dubbed the ‘Norwegian Anne Tyler’. One Last Time is her second book to be translated into English (by Rosie Hedger), and published in 2021.
Matt Bagguley grew up in the UK Midlands before moving to Oslo in 2001. Originally a musician and designer, he now works as a full-time translator of Norwegian to English and has translated a range of titles within publishing and film, including Joachim Trier’s Oscar-nominated comedy-drama The Worst Person in the World, Simon Stranger’s historical novel Keep Saying Their Names, and Nora Dåsnes’s graphic novel Cross My Heart and Never Lie, which recently won the Stonewall Book Award.
June is almost upon us and it’s another month jam-packed full of exciting new releases from some of my favourite authors and debuts I can’t wait to read.
Here are the 50 books I’m most anticipating:
The Burial Plot by Elizabeth Macneal
Published June 6th by Picador Historical Fiction, Gothic Fiction, Thriller, Suspense, Historical Mystery, Historical Romance
BOOK DESCRIPTION: From Elizabeth Macneal, the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Doll Factory, The Burial Plot is a spellbinding Gothic thriller about murder and manipulation.
London, 1839. With the cemeteries full and money to be made in death, tricksters Crawford and Bonnie survive on wicked schemes and ill-gotten coin. But one blistering evening, their fortunes flip. A man lies in a pool of blood at Bonnie’s feet and now she needs to disappear.
Crawford secures her a position as lady’s maid in a grand house on the Thames. As Bonnie comes to understand the family – the eccentric Mr Moncrieff, obsessively drawing mausoleums for his dead wife, and their peculiar daughter Cissie, scribbling imaginary love letters to herself – she begins to question what secrets are lying behind the house’s paper-thin walls and whether her own presence here was planned from the beginning.
Because Crawford is watching, and perhaps he is plotting his greatest trick yet . . .
Published June 6th by Tinder Press Literary Fiction, Humorous Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: An Observer top ten best new novelist for 2024
‘A simmering debut, heady with the possibilities of language and the righteousness of female rage’ Kiran Millwood Hargrave, author of The Mercies ‘A modern-day Dionysian cult of women in the woods – haunting and exhilarating’ Jennifer Saint, author of Ariadne ______
They thought they knew everything about us. The kind of women we were.
It was a place for women. A remote farm tucked away in the Kent Downs. A safe space.
When Iris – newly single and living at home with her mother – meets the mysterious and beguiling Hazel, who lives in a women’s commune, she finds herself drawn into the possibility of a new start away from the world of men who have only let her down. Here, at Breach House, the women can be loud and dirty, live and eat abundantly, all while under the leadership of their gargantuan matriarch, Blythe.
But even among the women, there are power struggles, cruelty and transgressions that threaten their precarious way of life. When a group of men arrives on the farm, the commune’s existence is thrown into question, hurtling Iris and the other women towards an act of devastating violence.
Fierce and unapologetic, Spoilt Creatures is an intoxicating debut about transgression, sisterhood and the seductive nature of obsession. It pulls back the skin of patriarchal violence and examines the female rage that lurks beneath.
Published June 6th by Mantle Historical Fiction, Religious Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: The King’s Witches by Kate Foster is a compelling and beautiful historical novel that gives voices to the women at the heart of the real-life witch trials in sixteenth-century Scotland.
Women whisper secrets to each other; it is how we survive.
1589. Princess Anna of Denmark is betrothed to King James VI of Scotland. Before they can wed, Anna must pass the trial period: one year of marriage to prove herself worthy of being Scotland’s new Queen. Determined to fulfil her duties to King and country, Anna resolves to be the perfect royal bride. Until she meets Lord Henry . . .
By her side is Kirsten Sorenson, her loyal and pious lady-in-waiting. But, whilst tending to Anna’s every need, Kirsten has her own secret motives for the royal marriage to succeed . . .
Meanwhile, in North Berwick, young housemaid Jura practises the healing charms taught to her by her mother. When she realizes she is no longer safe, she escapes to Edinburgh, only to find herself caught up in the witchcraft mania that has gripped not just the capital, but the new queen …
Will Anna, Kirsten and Jura be able to save each other and, in doing so, save themselves?
Published June 6th by Harper Voyager Fantasy Fiction, Romantic Fantasy, Horror Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Contemporary Fantasy
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Anna survived the attempt to bind her magic, but Anna and her coven aren’t free from danger yet.
Haunted by her aunt’s death, living in fear of her curse, and fated to love the one man she can never have, the last thing Anna needs is a witch hunt. Now she must conceal her magic once more or risk losing everything.
But when deadly hysteria strikes across the capital, and in her own school, the coven are left dangerously exposed. Delving deeper into the magical underworld of London, Anna and her twin sister Effie must find a way to work together to protect the coven.
But as the witch hunt intensifies and the hysteria spirals out of control, can Effie and Anna truly trust each other?
Published June 6th by Canongate Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: In thirteenth-century Ireland, a woman with power is a woman to be feared.
When a young Alice Kyteler sees her mother wither under the constraints of family responsibilities, she vows that she won’t suffer the same fate. Soon Alice discovers she has a flair for making money, and builds a flourishing business. But as her wealth and stature grow, so too do the rumours about her private life. By the time she has moved on to her fourth husband, a blaze of local gossip and resentment culminates in an accusation that could prove fatal.
Inspired by the first recorded person in Ireland to have been condemned as a witch, Bright I Burn gives voice to a woman lost to history, who dared to carve her own space in a man’s world.
Published June 6th by HarperCollins UK Mystery, Thriller, Suspense, Psychological Thriller, Crime Fiction, Fairy Tale, Coming-of-Age Story
BOOK DESCRIPTION: WELCOME TO THE MANOR
THE PARTY’S ON FIRE
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**Book your place at the table … The brand new murder mystery thriller from the No.1 bestseller**
Midsummer, the Dorset coast
In the shadows of an ancient wood, guests gather for the opening weekend of The Manor: a beautiful new countryside retreat.
But under the burning midsummer sun, darkness stirs. Old friends and enemies circulate among the guests. And the candles have barely been lit for a solstice supper when the body is found.
It all began with a secret, fifteen years ago. Now the past has crashed the party. And it’ll end in murder at…
Published June 6th by Hodder & Stoughton Suspense, Thriller, Psychological Thriller
BOOK DESCRIPTION: The master of intense suspense, Will Dean, is back! THE CHAMBER follows the success of Richard & Judy Book Club pick THE LAST PASSENGER.
HIGH PRESSURE OUTSIDE On a boat heading out into the North Sea, Ellen Brooke steels herself to spend almost a month locked inside a hyperbaric chamber with five other divers. They are all being paid handsomely for this work – to be lowered each day inside a diving bell to the sea bed, taking it in turns to dive down and repair oil pipes that lie in the dark waters. It is a close knit team and it has to be: any error or loss of trust could be catastrophic.
EXTREME PRESSURE INSIDE All is going to plan until one of the divers is found unresponsive in his bunk. He hadn’t left the chamber. It will take four more days of decompression, locked away together, before the hatch can be opened. Four more days of bare steel, intrusive thoughts, and the constant struggle not to give way to panic. Mind games, exhaustion, suspicion, and, most of all, pressure. And if someone does unlock the door, everyone dies…
And Then There Were None meets The Last Breath in this tense and suspenseful locked-room thriller from the author of the “astonishing” (Ian Rankin) The Last Passenger.
How To Solve Your Own Murder (Violet Hamilton Book 2) by Hannah Dolby
Published June 6th by Aria Historical Fiction, Historical Romance, Woemen Sleuths
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Violet Hamilton is no ordinary lady.
She is a Lady Detective, who spends her time solving mysteries and unveiling scandals in the bustling seaside town of Hastings and St Leonards, a popular spot for the Victorian middle classes.
But when the body of a local woman is found on the beach, Violet’s efforts to investigate are blocked at every turn.
Is that because, as a woman, she can’t possibly be allowed to think or act for herself? Or is it because someone sinister has Violet in their sights?
Jane Austen meets Sherlock Holmes in this delightful mystery of manners that will steal your heart, and transport you to a world of seaside scandal and moonlit balls; dubious doctors and duplicitous crooked lords; adventurous escapades and stolen kisses.
Published June 6th by Aria Literary Fiction, Contemporary Romance, Family Saga
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Bestselling Irish writer, Faith Hogan, has created another gripping saga of friendship, betrayal and secrets in this story of a widow in search of answers to a shocking confession by her dying husband.
Joy Blackwood has no idea why her French art dealer husband has left a valuable painting to a woman called Robyn Tessier in Ballycove, a small town on the west coast of Ireland, but she is determined to find out.
She arrives in Ballycove to find that Robyn runs a rather chaotic and unprofitable bookshop. She is shy, suffering from unrequited love for dashing Kian, and badly in need of advice on how to make the bookshop successful.
As Joy becomes entangled in the daily dramas of Ballycove, uncovering the secrets behind her husband’s painting grows increasingly challenging. When she finally musters the courage to confront the truth, her revelation sends shockwaves through the tight-knit community she’s grown to love.
Published June 6th by Michael Joseph Romance Novel, Contemporary Romance, Domestic Fiction, Coming-of-Age Story
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Jade Shaw has lost control of her life.
Pushed around by her warring family, and taken for granted by a boyfriend who’s more interested in his “brand” than their relationship, she knows that somewhere along the path to being an adult she’s lost her way.
The last place she expects to find answers is on the floor outside her flat. But there it is: a script. Containing her name, and her boyfriend’s, and showing yet another excruciating argument in which he calls all the shots. The weird thing is: this argument hasn’t happened yet.
The row becomes reality. Jade feels more frustrated than ever. Then more scripts appear; infuriating scenes in which Jade’s boss, mum, and bridezilla sister walk all over her.
The future is painfully familiar. But it’s not a future Jade likes.
Published June 6th by Chatto & Windus Romance Novel, Medical Romance, Contemporary Fiction, Humorous Fiction,
BOOK DESCRIPTION: ‘A magical novel, so uplifting, heartwarming, funny … Feels as if it was written specifically to give comfort’ MARIAN KEYES
Sail to the tropical paradise where secrets don’t stay hidden for long …
Zoologist Charlotte Walker has taken up a fellowship on the tiny, remote island of Tuga de Oro to study the endangered gold coin tortoises in the jungle interior. She can claim the best of reasons for this year in paradise – what better motivation than to save a species? – but the reality is more complex. For Charlotte has a secret that connects her to the island and has finally determined to solve the mystery …
A complete and vivid world to escape to, Welcome to Glorious Tuga celebrates a fictional island, and the warm-hearted families who live there. Enchanting, uplifting and very funny, this is a captivating novel about love, belonging, and what it really means to come home.
Published June 6th by Doubleday Literary Fiction, Humorous Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Discover the joyful summer read from the bestselling author of WE ALL WANT IMPOSSIBLE THINGS, perfect for fans of Marian Keyes and Nora Ephron
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One week in Cape Cod. The perfect family holiday. What could possibly go wrong…?
For the past two decades, Rocky has looked forward to her family’s yearly escape to Cape Cod. Their rustic beach-town rental has been the site of sweet memories, its quirky furniture and mismatched pots and pans greeted like old friends.
Now, sandwiched between her children who are adult enough to be fun but still young enough to need her, and her parents who are alive and healthy, Rocky wants to preserve this golden moment forever. This one precious week when everything is in balance; everything is in flux.
But every family has its secrets and hers is no exception.
With her body in open revolt and surprises invading her peaceful haven, the perfectly balanced seesaw of Rocky’s life is tipping towards change…
Published June 6th by Fourth Estate Contemporary Romance, Romance Novel, Humorous Fiction, Lesbian Literature, Erotic Literature
BOOK DESCRIPTION: ‘Clever, sexy and joyful. I loved it’ BETH O’LEARY, AUTHOR OF THE FLATSHARE
‘A fizzing roller-coaster of a rom-com. The sexiest book you’ll read all year and the most heartening’ CAROLINE O’DONOGHUE, AUTHOR OF THE RACHEL INCIDENT
Bette loves Mei, but Bette and Mei are on a break, so Bette can catch-up on the decade of dating experiences she missed before she came out.
So Bette is (reluctantly) on a dating odyssey: a quest to have lots of casual sex with lots of hot women and come back to Mei more experienced and more certain about what she wants. And now she has new friend Ruth as her dating guide, she can’t possibly fail. It’s just three months, then she’ll be back with Mei.
Published June 6th by Sceptre Literary Fiction, Contemporary Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: ‘Meltingly warm’ OBSERVER, 10 BEST NEW NOVELISTS FOR 2024
Local boy Téo Erskine is back in the north London suburb of his youth, visiting his father – stubborn, selfish, complicated Vic. Things have changed for Téo: he’s got a steady job, a brand-new car and a London flat all concrete and glass, with a sliver of a river view.
Except, underneath the surface, not much has changed at all. He’s still the boy seeking his father’s approval; the young man playing late-night poker with his best friend, unreliable, infuriating Ben Mossam; the one still desperately in love with the enigmatic Lia Woods.
Lia’s life, on the other hand, has been transformed: now a single mum to two-year-old Joel, she doesn’t have time for anyone – not even herself.
When the unthinkable happens, Joel finds himself at the centre of an odd constellation of men – Téo, Vic, Ben – none of whom is fully equipped to look after him, but whose strange, tentative attempts at love might just be enough to offer him a new place to call home.
Published June 6th by Hodder & Stoughton Historical Fiction, Historical Mystery, Contemporary Romance
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Meet Dora Wildwood: runaway bride, book lover, and aspiring detective. Likes: solving crimes, peppermint creams, trousers and her own independence. Dislikes: cracked book spines, tyrannical behaviour, beetroot.
1935. Dora’son the first train to London, having smuggled herself out of the house in the middle of the night to escape her impending marriage. But unluckily for her, Dora’s fiance is more persistent than most and follows.
As Dora alights at Paddington station, she is immediately forced to run from the loathsome Charles Silk-Butters. She ducks into the London Library to hide and it is there, surrounded by books, where she should feel most safe, that Dora Wildwood stumbles across her first dead body.
Having been thrown into the middle of a murder scene, it’s now impossible to walk away. Indeed, Dora’s certain she will prove an invaluable help to the gruff Detective Inspector Fox who swiftly arrives on the scene. For as everyone knows, it’s the woman in the room who always sees more than anyone else: and no one more so than Dora herself…
D is for Death heralds the launch of a brilliant historical crime series that marries the quality of Dorothy L. Sayers with the ingenuity of Janice Hallett – and in Dora Wildwood introduces a character with the spark and gusto of Enola Holmes and the detective skill of Miss Marple. It is the debut crime novel from bestselling author Harriet Evans, writing as Harriet F. Townson.
Published June 6th by Manilla Press Suspense, Thriller, Literary Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Beautifully written and soaked with atmosphere, KNIFE RIVER is the debut novel of an exciting new voice in literary crime.
First, there were my mother’s bones . . .
A young woman returns home to the small, claustrophobic town of Knife River. When Jess was thirteen, her mother went for a walk and did not return – now, fifteen years later, bones have been discovered in the woods nearby.
Jess’s sister has remained in their childhood home – her life, their home and the town itself seemingly frozen in time. As days turn into weeks, Jess’s understanding of the past, her sister, and herself becomes more and more complicated – and the list of suspects responsible for her mother’s terrible fate more and more ominous . . .
‘A twisting, engrossing and beautiful mystery. Thrilling, yet also deeply moving, layered and powerful’ CHRIS WHITAKER
‘A delicious smoke curl of a novel: atmospheric, sharp, and skilled at twisting the reader’s guesses in unimaginable ways’ JODI PICOULT
Published June 6th by Viper Books Mystery, Suspense, Thriller, Psychological Thriller
BOOK DESCRIPTION: It’s always the husband… Isn’t it?
Astrid Webb is missing. The police have found her car crashed near the woods, the driver’s door open, the seat spotted with blood. But there’s no sign of Astrid herself, a sick woman who rarely left her house, who surely couldn’t have left the scene of the accident without help.
Her husband Bryan is sure that she’s alive – after all, this isn’t the first time she’s vanished, only to reappear without explanation. But as the days pass, Bryan starts to look like a suspect in his wife’s disappearance, perhaps in her murder. Because Bryan isn’t telling the police the whole truth. Not about Astrid’s stalker, their broken-in back door, or the threatening messages she received. And it seems as if both Astrid and Bryan have something to hide.
Then a woman’s body is found in the woods, her face terribly disfigured. By staying silent, is Bryan protecting Astrid, or protecting himself?
From the bestselling author of The Regret and The Box, this heart-pounding thriller is perfect for readers of Harlan Coben, Mark Billingham and Alex North.
Published June 6th by The Borough Press Suspense, Literary Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: A razor-sharp novel that skewers the life of the uber-rich in the vein of The White Lotus, with shades of The Talented Mr Ripley and The Graduate
Conor is a recent graduate from a law school no one has heard of. Without any job prospects and needing to support his chronically ill mother, he takes a summer job teaching tennis at the affluent gated community of Cutters Neck, Massachusetts. One of his first students is Catherine, a magnetic divorcée keen to hire him for more than advice on her serve. What begins as a transactional arrangement soon develops into an intoxicating sexual relationship.
Things become even more complicated when Conor encounters Emily, with whom he has his first taste of real intimacy. Against his better judgment, he soon finds himself living a double life that inevitably leads to disaster.
Conor knows how hard it is to win against those with money and power. In his fight for survival, he has to put emotion aside and play with only his wits – after all, in tennis, love means nothing.
I Want To Die But I Still Want To Eat Tteokbokki by Baek Sehee
Published June 6th by Bloomsbury Publishing Self-Help Book, Mental Health Biographies
BOOK DESCRIPTION: The sequel to the SundayTimes and international-bestselling South Korean therapy memoir, translated by International Booker Prize-shortlisted Anton Hur
When Baek Sehee started recording her sessions with her psychiatrist, her hope was to create a reference for herself. She never imagined she would reach so many people, especially young people, with her reflections. I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki became a runaway bestseller in South Korea, Indonesia, and the U.S., and reached a community of readers who appreciated depression and anxiety being discussed with such intimacy.
Baek’s struggle with dysthymia continues in I Want to Die but I Still Want to Eat Tteokbokki. And healing is a difficult process; the inner conflict she experiences in treatment becomes more complex, more challenging. With this second book, Baek Sehee reaches out to hold the hands of all those for whom grappling with everyday despair is part of a lifelong project, part of the journey.
Published June 11th by Fourth Estate Psychological Fiction, Literary Fiction, Romantic Comedy, Lesbian Literature
BOOK DESCRIPTION: From the bestselling author of Our Wives Under the Sea, a haunting novel of three sisters navigating queer love and faith at the end of the world.
There’s no way to bury a body in earth which is flooded
It is a fact consigned to history along with almost everything else
It’s been raining for a long time now, for so long that the lands have reshaped themselves. Old places have been lost. Arcane rituals and religions have crept back into practice.
Sisters Isla, Irene and Agnes have not spoken in some time when their estranged father dies. A famous architect revered for making the new world navigable, he had long cut himself off from public life. They find themselves uncertain of how to grieve his passing when everything around them seems to be ending anyway.
As the sisters come together to clear the grand glass house that is the pinnacle of his legacy, they begin to sense that the magnetic influence of their father lives on through it. Something sinister seems to be unfolding, something related to their mother’s long-ago disappearance and the strangers who have always been unusually interested in their lives. Soon, it becomes clear that the sisters have been chosen for a very particular purpose, one with shattering implications for their family and their imperilled world.
Published June 11th by Sphere Romance Novel, Contemporary Romance, Humorous Fiction, Urban Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTIONS: A forbidden, secret affair proves that all’s fair in love and science – from Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling author Ali Hazelwood.
Rue Siebert might not have it all, but she has enough: a few friends she can always count on; the financial stability she yearned for as a kid; and a successful career as a biotech engineer at Kline, one of the most promising start-ups in the field of food science. Her world is stable, pleasant, and hard-fought. Until a hostile takeover and its offensively attractive front man threatens to bring it all crumbling down.
Eli Killgore and his business partners want Kline, period. Eli has his own reasons for pushing this deal through – and he’s a man who gets what he wants. With one burning exception: Rue. The woman he can’t stop thinking about. The woman who’s off-limits to him.
Torn between loyalty and an undeniable attraction, Rue and Eli throw caution out the lab and the boardroom windows. Their affair is secret, no-strings-attached, and has a built-in deadline: the day one of their companies will prevail. But the heart is risky business – one that plays for keeps.
Published June 13th by Hera Mystery, Psychological Thriller, Romance Novel, Contemporary Romance, Lesbian Literature
BOOK DESCRIPTIONS: It seems too good to be true…
When struggling writer Sebastian finds a room to let in a palatial Hampstead residence he cannot believe his luck. The rent is ridiculously cheap and he immediately feels a connection with his beautiful widowed landlady, Adriana.
It is.
Things take a dark turn when he finds out what happened to the last lodger. Could this be why the house is a fortress of security, and why Adriana seems so fragile? Adriana doesn’t want to talk about the death and sadness that seem to follow her wherever she goes and Sebastian has secrets of his own.
Now someone is watching their every move and there is nowhere to hide.
This house of light becomes a dark nightmare as the threat ramps up – what does the watcher want? And how far will they go to get it?
A gripping, twisty thriller perfect for fans of B.A. Paris, Shari Lapena and Lucy Foley. If you were hooked by Netflix series You or The Watcher then you will love this.
Published June 13th by Fig Tree Historical Fiction, Fairy Tales, Mythology
BOOK DESCRIPTION: ‘Elegant and decadent, vulgar and clever, enchanting and dark. The love child of Angela Carter and Anaïs Nin – the book I really really needed’ SARAH PERRY, author of The Essex Serpent
Why don’t they tell you it is the beautiful princess who becomes the evil queen; that they are just the same person at different points in their story?
Versailles, 1682: a city of the rich, a living fairy-tale, Louis XIV’s fever dream. It’s a place of opulence, beauty, and power. But strip back the lavish exterior of polite society, and you’ll find a dark undercurrent of sexual intrigue and vicious gossip. Nobody is safe here – no matter how highly born they are.
No one knows this better than Madame Marie d’Aulnoy. Each week, a rogue group of intellectuals gather at her Parisian home to debate, flirt and perform Contes de Fées – fairy tales – that challenge the status quo, at a salon that will change the course of literature forever. But while they weave tales of glass slippers, enchanted beasts and long-haired princesses, a wolf is lurking, who threatens to destroy the members of the salon one by one.
Brilliant and bawdy, romantic and provocative, The Modern Fairies is a dazzling novel inspired by real events, about the delights and dangers of storytelling in dark times.
Published June 13th by HarperVoyager Fantasy Fiction, Romantic Fantasy, Fairy Tale, High Fantasy, Romance Novel, Paranormal Fantasy
BOOK DESCRIPTION: ☽ MAGIC. DRAGONS. ROMANCE. THE FANTASY PHENOMENON OF THE YEAR ☽
’An absolutely stunning fantasy world’ Raven Kennedy, author of international bestseller, The Plated Prisoner Series
‘A wild ride that thrills as much as it enchants … An instant classic’ Thea Guanzon, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Hurricane Wars ___________
He’s fire and brimstone. I’m shattered ice … I’ll gladly burn beneath him until the world comes crumbling down.
As an assassin for the rebellion, Raeve’s job is to complete orders and never get caught. When a rival bounty hunter shatters her world, Raeve finds herself captured by the Guild of Nobles – a group of powerful fae.
Crushed by the loss of his great love, dragon rider Kaan Vaegor took the head of a king and donned his melted crown. Now on a tireless quest to quell the never-ebbing ache in his chest, a clue lures him into the capital’s high-security prison where he stumbles upon the imprisoned Raeve …
Together, they seek truths that threaten tounravel everything they knew about their world – and each other.
Bestselling sensation When the Moon Hatched will transport you into a world filled with magic, dragons and a love that blazes through the ages…
Published June 18th by Tor Historical Fantasy, Fantasy Fiction, Fairy Tale, Dark Fantasy, Thriller, Urban Fantasy
BOOK DESCRIPTION: An irresistibly dark, atmospheric reimagining of 1930s Shanghai filled with glamour, gods and gangsters. From Rosalie M. Lin, perfect for fans of S. A. Chakraborty and Fonda Lee.
‘I was utterly swept up . . . seductive, sprawling, full of malice’ – Kendare Blake, New York Times bestselling author of Three Dark Crowns
In Shanghai, danger wears many faces . . .
1932, Shanghai. By day, Jingwen delivers bones for her grandmother, the exclusive surgeon to the most formidable gang in the city. By night, she dances at the Paramount, a lavish cabaret club, competing ruthlessly to charm the wealthy patrons.
Then mysterious attackers start to target the club, stealing the faces of their victims – and selling them onto the powerful elite. Jingwen fears she could be next. To protect herself and her fellow performers, she has no choice but to delve deeper into the city’s glittering underworld.
In this treacherous realm of cut-throat businessmen, silver-limbed gangsters and vengeful gods, Jingwen soon learns that she must become something far stranger and more dangerous than she ever imagined, if she hopes to survive . . .
Published June 20th by Simon & Schuster UK Thriller, Mystery, Suspense, Psychological Thriller, Crime Fiction, Domestic Fiction, Gay Fiction, Adventure Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: THE LATEST PULSE-POUNDING THRILLER FROM THE MASTER OF THE MORAL DILEMMA AND SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER, JACK JORDAN.
Aaron Alexander has just been released from jail after serving eleven years for causing the death of Joshua Moore in a hit-and-run. Now a free man, all he wants to do is stay on the straight and narrow and leave his troubled past behind him. But for Joshua’s mother Evelyn, eleven years in jail isn’t nearly enough. Consumed by grief and rage, she has been waiting for Aaron’s release, counting down the days until she can exact the revenge he deserves. And now that time has come. But as Evelyn and her husband Tobias embark on a road trip to track Aaron down, they find themselves caught on two different sides of a gripping game of cat-and-mouse. Because Tobias knows what Evelyn is planning, and he will do anything to save her from herself. Even if it means protecting the man who killed their son.
Locked in a collision course set in motion eleven years ago, Aaron, Evelyn and Tobias are about to find out whether the road they have chosen leads to redemption . . . or to retribution.
This Is Why We Lied (Will Trent Book 12) by Karin Slaughter
Published June 20th by Harper Collins UK Thriller, Mystery, Suspense, Crime Fiction, Police Procedural, Psychological Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: The incredible new thriller featuring Will Trent and Sara Linton from the No.1 Sunday Times bestselling author!
One toxic family. Eight suspicious guests. Everyone is guilty. But who is a killer?
Welcome to the McAlpine Lodge: a secluded mountain getaway, it’s the height of escapist luxury living.
Except that everyone here is lying. Lying about their past. Lying to their family. Lying to themselves.
Then one night, Mercy McAlpine – until now the good daughter – threatens to expose everybody’s secrets. Just hours later, Mercy is dead.
In an area this remote, it’s easy to get away with murder. But Will Trent and Sara Linton – investigator and medical examiner for the GBI – are here on their honeymoon.
And now, with the killer poised to strike again, the holiday of a lifetime becomes a race against the clock…
Published June 20th by Sphere Suspense, Psychololgical Thriller, Legal Thriller, Political Thriller
BOOK DESCRIPTION: The remarkable debut novel by prominent young mixed-race barrister Alexandra Wilson is a moving, twisty legal thriller for the 21st century.
SHE SAW IT ALL BUT SHE CAN NEVER TELL
A young black man is arrested for murder. The case against him is strong – a mum and a teacher saw him standing over a body in a park, a knife still in hand.
But his up-and-coming barrister Rosa knows how people prejudge, but most of all, she suspects something is amiss. This boy comes from her neighbourhood. From a good family. So she begins to dig…
As Rosa discovers secret upon terrible secret, she moves closer to finding a testimony that could win the case – or bring the whole establishment down on her.
The Witness is a frightening thriller about how we judge guilt, about the strength of a young woman, and is the start of a groundbreaking new series.
Published June 20th by Harper Collins UK Humorous Fiction, Literary Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: From the Sunday Times bestselling author of SAVING MISSY, comes a fierce, joyful and uplifting novel about putting life on pause, pleasing yourself, and getting your own back. Whatever it takes.
CAN SHE SAY F*CK IT, JUST FOR ONE DAY?
After a morning that starts with a terrible migraine, an accidentally strong concoction of painkillers, and a bump on the head, Clover Hendry is not quite herself.
And as she walks out of work at 9.47am, for once Clover isn’t worrying about anything. She is taking some much-deserved me-time, and everyone else had better get out of her way.
As she crashes from once incident (a deliciously illicit swim) to the next (art theft), Clover is on a one-woman mission to do exactly as she pleases – consequences are for tomorrow!
It’s a day of joyful recklessness, but behind the chaos, a plan is afoot. Will her new-found freedom uncover long-buried secrets?
A euphoric, raging, galvanizing story about putting life on pause, pleasing yourself, and getting your own back – whatever it takes.
Published June 20th by Bantam Press Humorous Fiction, Domestic Fiction, Urban Fiction, Literary Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Uplifting, heartwarming and joyful. Restored my faith in humankind‘ – Ruth Jones
When age makes you invisible, secrets are easier to hide
Daphne knows that age is just a number. She also knows that society no longer pays her any attention – something she’s happy to exploit to help her hide a somewhat chequered past.
But finding herself alone on her 70th birthday, with only her plants to talk to and neighbours to stalk online, she decides she needs some friends. Joining a Senior Citizen’s Social Club she’s horrified at the expectation she’ll spend her time enduring gentle crafting activities. Thankfully, the other members – including a failed actor addicted to shoplifting and a prolific yarn-bomber – agree.
After a tragic accident, the local council threaten to close the club – but they have underestimated the wrong group of pensioners…and with the help of a teenage dad and a geriatric, orphaned dog, the incongruous gang set out to prove it.
As long as their pasts don’t catch up with them first…
I Love You, I Love You, I Love You by Laura Dockrill
Published June 20th by HQ Romance Novel, Contemporary Romance, Coming-of-Age Story
BOOK DESCRIPTION: An epic story of love, loss and pining for fans of One Day.
It’s the year 2000. I’m fourteen. I’m trying really hard to be a grunger right now in a Foo Fighters t-shirt and a spiked choker. There were rumours that the world was going to end. It hadn’t as of yet but I still had reasons to believe that was true.
❤ ❤ ❤
Ella and Lowe are teenagers when they first meet in summer 2000. For her, it’s love at first sight. But it’s safest to love from afar, where the friendship zone is her safety net and she can’t get hurt.
Certain that the most beautiful boy she’s ever seen couldn’t possibly feel the same, Ella counts herself lucky to have him as her best friend. Over the next fifteen years they share everything: bottles of cider and cigarettes in the rain, gossip and laughter, grief and fear.
But every time Lowe kisses another girl, Ella feels her heart break just that little bit more. She’ll have to choose whether it’s enough to be just friends with the love of her life, or if she’s prepared to let the terrifying, beautiful, all-consuming truth come to light.
From a unique new voice in adult fiction, I Love You, I Love You, I Love You is a glorious nostalgia trip for anyone who has ever known the exquisite pain and pleasure of first love.
Published June 20th by The Borough Press Contemporary Romance, Domestic Fiction, Coming-of-Age Story
BOOK DESCRIPTION: From the Costa-shortlisted author of THE OTHER HALF OF AUGUSTA HOPE and ALL MY MOTHERS
The story of two people who have no idea how to fall in love…
On the tiny island of Rokesby, Addie helps her mother run a women’s retreat. Dreaming daily of escape, she consoles herself by swimming in the ocean that surrounds them.
On the neighbouring island, joined to Rokesby by a bridge at low tide, Sol has sought refuge at a wind-swept prayer house, grieving both his mother’s death and his father’s devastating betrayal. Alone and anxious, he takes comfort in birdwatching, books and the sounds of the sea.
Introverts with turbulent pasts and wary hearts, Sol and Addie are both drawn to nature far more than to people – until they catch sight of one another in the wild. Can they break free from past lessons in love to risk a better future together?
From the Costa-shortlisted author of THE OTHER HALF OF AUGUSTA HOPE and ALL MY MOTHERS, this is a beautifully observed and life-affirming novel about finding yourself, and then allowing someone else to find you.
The Final Act of Juliette Willoughbyby Ellery Lloyd
Published June 20th by Pan Macmillan Thriller, Suspense, Mystery, Crime Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Some women can’t be erased from history . . .
A story of love and madness, of obsession and revenge.
Paris, 1938: Runaway heiress Juliette Willoughby perishes, with her married lover, in an accidental studio fire alongside her Surrealist masterpiece, Self-Portrait as Sphinx.
Cambridge, 1991: Two art history students stumble across proof something sinister was at play in Juliette’s death, threatening to expose the long-buried secrets of the artist’s aristocratic family.
Dubai, now: An art dealer is accused of the brutal murder of his oldest friend – the last surviving member of the Willoughby dynasty.
Three suspicious deaths over the course of a century.
Is the key to unlocking them all hidden in Juliette Willoughby’s lost painting?
The Wrong Hands (Dectective Miller Book 2) by Mark Billingham
Published June 20th by Sphere Mystery, Thriller, Suspense, Crime Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: ‘Had me laughing out loud one minute and emotional the next. I’m excited to have found a new favourite detective’ — CLAIRE DOUGLAS
This is one case Miller won’t want to open . . .
Unconventional Detective Declan Miller has a problem. Still desperate to solve the murder of his wife, a young man has just appeared on his doorstep with a briefcase . . . containing a pair of severed hands.
Miller knows this case is proof of a contract killing commissioned by local ne’er do well Wayne Cutler – a man he suspects might also be responsible for his wife’s death. Now Miller has leverage, but unfortunately he also has something that both Cutler and a villainous fast-food kingpin are desperate to get hold of.
Chuck in a Midsomer Murders-obsessed hitman, a psychotic welder and a woman driven over the edge by a wayward Crème Egg, and Miller is in a mess that even he might not be able to dance his way out of.
Published June 20th by Black & White Publishing Mystery, Thriller, Historical Mystery, Historical Thriller, Women Sleuths
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Edinburgh, 1791. Isobel Duguid and her friend Clessidro are the stars of the Edinburgh Musical Society. Clessidro sings opera and Isobel sings famously dark Scottish ballads, despite her cavalier attitude to holding a tune. They roam the streets of Edinburgh, enjoying an opulent lifestyle.
One night a note arrives from the mysterious Mrs Abercorn, asking if Isobel’s most notorious song, The Fiddler’s Wrath, might be included in a book. It’s the tale of a prima donna who died of heartbreak after her husband committed murder and was sent to the gallows. Isobel is intrigued. But Mrs. Abercorn’s curiosity about the ballad is far more than a fickle interest. When Clessidro goes missing, Isobel is forced to confront her past and the truth about The Fiddler’s Wrath begins to emerge.
Using the geography of Edinburgh to guide us through the story, this dark tale becomes more complicated than anyone could have imagined and awakens the chilling retribution of a once buried secret.
Published June 20th by Doubleday Historical Fiction, Domestic Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: The gripping historical debut about a family separated by the Berlin wall – perfect for fans of All the Light We Cannot See, In Memoriam and Alone in Berlin
‘A tautly plotted, deeply involving novel that packs a real emotional punch … I can’t recommend this novel highly enough’Laura Barnett, author of The Versions of Us _____
Imagine waking up and a wall has divided your city in two. Imagine that on the other side is your child…
Lisette is in hospital with her baby boy. The doctors tell her to go home and get some rest, that he’ll be fine.
When she awakes, everything has changed. Because overnight, on 13 August 1961, the border between East and West Berlin has closed, slicing the city – and the world – in two.
Lisette is trapped in the east, while her newborn baby is unreachable in the west. With the streets in chaos and armed guards ordered to shoot anyone who tries to cross, her situation is desperate.
Lisette’s teenage daughter, Elly, has always struggled to understand the distance between herself and her mother. Both have lived for music, but while Elly hears notes surrounding every person she meets, for her mother – once a talented pianist – the music has gone silent.
Perhaps Elly can do something to bridge the gap between them. What begins as the flicker of an idea turns into a daring plan to escape East Berlin, find her baby brother, and bring him home….
Based on true stories, The Silence in Between is a page-turning, emotional epic that will stay with you long after you finish reading.
Boys Who Hurt (Forbidden Iceland Book 5) by Eva Björg Ægisdóttir xxx
Published June 20th by Orenda Books Mystery, Thriller, Icelandic Noir, Hard-Boiled, Women Sleuths, Crime Fiction, Psychological Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTIONL Fresh from maternity leave, Detective Elma finds herself confronted with a complex case, when a man is found murdered in a holiday cottage in the depths of the Icelandic countryside – the victim of a frenzied knife attack, with a shocking message scrawled on the wall above him.
At home with their baby daughter, Sævar is finding it hard to let go of work, until the chance discovery in a discarded box provides him with a distraction. Could the diary of a young boy, detailing the events of a long-ago summer have a bearing on Elma’s case?
Once again, the team at West Iceland CID have to contend with local secrets in the small town of Akranes, where someone has a vested interest in preventing the truth from coming to light. And Sævar has secrets of his own that threaten to destroy his and Elma’s newfound happiness.
Tense, twisty and shocking, Boys Who Hurt is the next, addictive instalment in the award-winning Forbidden Iceland series, as dark events from the past endanger everything…
Published June 20th by Hodder & Stoughton Psychological Thriller, Women Sleuths, Holiday Fiction,
BOOK DESCRIPTIONS: THE PERFECT ESCAPE . . . OR THE PERFECT TRAP?
TWO WEEKS AGO I woke up in a hotel room next to a dead man, with no memory of the night before. Panicked, I cleared up any trace that I was there and fled.
ONE WEEK AGO I was offered the perfect escape: the chance to housesit a gorgeous villa in a remote corner of Italy. Desperate to get away, I jumped at the chance.
NOW The owners have unexpectedly shown up at the house. The only problem? They’re the family of the man I woke up next to, two weeks ago.
ONE OF THEM KNOWS MY SECRET. AND THEY’VE COME TO FIND ME.
Published June 20th by Point Blank Suspense, Psychological Thriller, Domestic Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Sometimes it’s your own child you’re most afraid of…
‘I devoured this truly superb and extraordinary book… A must-read that will haunt me for a long time!’ Kathryn Croft, author of The Girl With No Past
Ever since an ominous palm-reading on her honeymoon, Frankie has suspected that her youngest son, Michael, is different. From an early age he sees things no one else can. As he grows up – academically gifted, a musical prodigy and with an unshakeable religious faith – his mother can no longer deny there is something strange about him, or that it frightens her.
It is only when Frankie learns Michael is sliding into drugs and violence that she realises she can’t keep ignoring the past. But by confronting her destructive marriage and her own responsibility for all that has gone wrong, she begins to see there is something darker at play.
The Cautious Traveller’s Guide To The Wastelands by Sarah Brookes
Published June 20th by W&N Historical Fiction, Historical Fantasy, Steampunk
BOOK DESCRIPTION: A breathtaking historical fantasy set onboard the Great Trans-Siberian Express, perfect for fans of Piranesi, Babel, The Night Circus and Jessie Burton
It is said there is a price that every passenger must pay. A price beyond the cost of a ticket.
It is the end of the nineteenth century and the world is awash with marvels. But there is nothing so marvellous as the Wastelands: a terrain of terrible miracles that lies between Beijing and Moscow.
Nothing touches the Wastelands except the Great Trans-Siberian Express: an impenetrable train built to carry cargo across continents, but which now transports anyone who dares.
Onto the platform steps a curious cast of characters: Marya, a grieving woman with a borrowed name; Weiwei, a famous child born on the train; and Henry Grey, a disgraced naturalist.
But there are whispers that the train isn’t safe. As secrets and stories begin to unravel, the passengers and crew must survive their journey together, even as something uncontrollable seems to be breaking in . . .
The Last Song of Penelope (The Songs of Penelope Book 3) by Claire North
Published June 20th by Orbit Historical Fiction, Fairy Tale, Greek Mythology, Literary Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Following the critically acclaimed Ithaca and House of Odysseus comes the final novel in Claire North’s Songs of Penelope trilogy – anexquisite, gripping tale that breathes life into ancient myth. This is the story of Penelope of Ithaca, famed wife of Odysseus, as it has never been told before.
Many years ago, Odysseus sailed to war and never returned. For twenty years his wife Penelope and the women of Ithaca have guarded the isle against suitors and rival kings. But peace cannot be kept forever, and the balance of power is about to break . . .
A beggar has arrived at the Palace. Salt-crusted and ocean-battered, he is scorned by the suitors – but Penelope recognises in him something terrible: her husband, Odysseus, returned at last. Yet this Odysseus is no hero. By returning to the island in disguise, he is not merely plotting his revenge against the suitors – vengeance that will spark a civil war – but he’s testing the loyalty of his queen. Has she been faithful to him all these years? And how much blood is Odysseus willing to shed to be sure?
The song of Penelope is ending, and the song of Odysseus must ring through Ithaca’s halls. But first, Penelope must use all her cunning to win a war for the fate of the island and keep her family alive, whatever the cost …
Published June 20th by Bedford Square Publishers Mystery, Thriller, Crime Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Set in London in 1968, A CURTAIN TWITCHER’S BOOK OF MURDER follows the lives of the inhabitants of a suburban London street. But this is no ordinary road.
“Ask anyone on Atbara Avenue how well they know their neighbours, and they’ll answer ‘well’. After all, they see each other across the vast distance afforded by close proximity, and that is probably for the best…”.
For the best, because Atbara Avenue is a street where, all too often, murder feels like the solution.
With a delicious cast of characters, dazzling plotting, and an utterly unique voice, Gay Marris’ first book is remarkably accomplished. If you’ve been longing for a fresh and compelling new voice in the world of crime fiction, your wait is over.
The Unforgettable Loretta, Darling by Katherine Blake
Published June 20th by Viking Mystery, Historical Fiction, Historical Mystery, Historical Romance, Crime Fiction, Romance Novel, Urban Fiction, Humorous Fiction, Coming-of-Age Story
BOOK DESCRIPTION: You’re Loretta Darling now, welcome to your brand-new flipping life.
Dreams don’t come true for girls like Loretta but she won’t let that stop her. With her sights set on becoming a make-up artist to the stars, Loretta wangles her way from Lancashire to the bright lights of Golden Age Hollywood.
Only it turns out that Sunset Boulevard is less about dashing fellas and chilled martinis – more sticky floors and misbehaving men. The gift of the gab can only get her so far but she refuses to go quietly.
Hollywood has its secrets … and so does Loretta.
For a start, that’s not her real name, and much more than lipstick lurks inside her beauty case.
After all, revenge is a dish best served with a perfectly painted smile.
Published June 20th by Baskerville Gothic Thriller, Historical Mystery
BOOK DESCRIPTION: ‘A mesmerising historical mystery and tale of suppressed secrets set amid the raw beauty of 1920s and 30s Sark. A brilliantly evoked novel based on a fascinating real case. Delectable’ Anna Mazzola, author of The Book of Secrets
October 1933
With a population of five hundred souls, isolated Sark has a reputation for being ‘the island where nothing ever happens’. Until, one day, the neatly folded clothes of an unknown man and woman are discovered abandoned at a coastal beauty spot. As the search for the missing couple catches the attention of first the local and then national newspapers, Sark finds itself front-page news.
When young islander Phyllis Carey returns to Sark from England she throws herself into solving the mystery. As Phyll digs through swirls of gossip, ghost stories and dark rumours in search of the truth, she crosses paths with Everard Hyde, a surprise visitor from her past. As press coverage builds to fever pitch, long-suppressed secrets from Phyll’s and Everard’s shared, shadowy history begin to surface.
The Stranger’s Companion is a beguiling historical mystery inspired by a real-life crime, which remains unsolved to this day.
Published June 20th by Fairlight Books Historical Fiction, Mystery, Historical Thriller, Literary Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: ‘We’re actually all rather terrible.’
On the cusp of the 1960s, when fourteen-year-old Ben moves into the ancestral home of his aunt and uncle, he is shocked by their wealth and glamour. Under the watchful eye of the Merryvale Mask, his sophisticated cousins teach him how to appreciate their languid opulence and draw him into the world of the elites. But five years later, when a woman’s body is found on the estate, his new life begins to crumble.
As the family is placed at the centre of a murder investigation, Ben starts to see their manipulative power in a harsher light. Placed on a collision course with his family, Ben faces a dilemma: how far is he willing to go to fit into their world?
Published June 20th by Simon & Schuster UK Romance Novel, Contemporary Romance
BOOK DESCRIPTION: ‘I absolutely adored Under Your Spell the sweetest, sexiest, funniest romance. It was such a treat!’ Marian Keyes ‘So witty and smart. I am thoroughly under Laura Wood’s spell’Hannah Grace
She only wants three things. He isn’t one of them…
Dumped by her cheating ex, fired from her dream job, about to lose her flat: Clementine Monroe is not having a good day. So when her sisters get her drunk and suggest reviving a childhood ritual called the breakup spell, she doesn’t see the harm in it.
But now Clemmie has accidentally ruined a funeral, had her first one-night stand, and she’s stuck with a new job she definitely doesn’t want – spending six weeks alone with the gorgeous and very-off-limits rock star, Theo Eliott.
He’s the most famous man on the planet. Her life’s a disaster. When it comes to love, Clemmie is learning you should be careful what you wish for…
Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books by Kirsten Miller
Published June 20th by HQ Satire, Political Ficiton, Southern Fiction, Dystopian
BOOK DESCRIPTION: From the author of The Change, comes a novel about book banning and those brave enough to stand up against this censorship.
In Troy, Georgia, Lula Dean has decided to cleanse the town’s reading habits. All banned books have been removed from public spaces, and the townspeople are only allowed to read books Lula has deemed ‘appropriate’.
But a small group refuse to be told what they can and can’t read.
Published June 25th by Zaffre Contemporary Fiction, Coming-of-Age Story
BOOK DESCRIPTION: I didn’t like to perform. I liked to be loved.
‘Like Daisy Jones soaked in Britney Spears’ Curious’ HOLLY BOURNE
It is 1997, and Amber Young has received a life-changing call. It’s a chance thousands of girls would die for: the opportunity to join a girl group and escape her small town. She quickly finds herself in the orbits of fellow rising stars Gwen Morris, a driven singer-dancer, and Wes Kingston, a member of the biggest boy band in the world.
As Amber embarks on her solo career and her fame intensifies, she increasingly finds herself reduced to a body, a voice, an object. Surrounded by the wrong kind of people and driven by a desire for recognition and success, for love and sex, for agency and connection, Amber comes of age at a time when the kaleidoscope of public opinion can distort everything, and one mistake can shatter a career.
Published June 27th by Michael Joseph Historical Fiction, Mystery, Psychological Fiction, Domestic Fiction, Urban Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Notting Hill, London. One May evening, seventeen-year-old Maggie Parker’s mother walks out of their front door and doesn’t return . . .
With her little brother in tow, desperate to find her mother, Maggie is drawn into a labyrinthine world of antiques and shadowy figures. There she befriends someone else living on their wits. But can he help solve the mystery of her mother’s disappearance?
Twenty-one years later, in a Parisian apartment, Maggie’s phone rings and her hard-won grown-up life shatters. While in London, the new owner of the Parker’s old house is excavating the basement, unaware of what might lie beneath.
Sweeping from bustling London streets, the boulevards of Paris to an old English country house, The Midnight Hour is a thrilling, richly woven story about a golden family with a hidden past – and a woman trying to turn back the hands of time before it’s too late.
Published June 27th by Corvus Romance Novel, Magical Realism, Contemporary Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: ‘Magical … uplifting … the Phoenix Ballroom feels like an old friend’ Anton Du Beke
‘Every page is a joy’ Pip Williams
When it’s time to face the music, all we can do is dance…
Recently widowed Venetia Hamilton Hargreaves is left with a huge house, a bank balance to match and an uneasy feeling that she’s been sleepwalking through the last fifty years. Determined to live fully again, she embraces life with an enthusiasm and purpose she’d forgotten she could muster.
Buying the dilapidated Phoenix Ballroom and with it a drop-in centre and spiritualist church could be seen as reckless, but Venetia’s generosity, courage and kindness provide a refuge for a touching cast of damaged and lonely people who find their chosen family. As their stories intertwine, long buried secrets are revealed, missed opportunities seized and lives are renewed as the Phoenix lives up to its name.
The Phoenix Ballroom is a story of hope and second chances across the generations.
May is another month filled with exciting new releases, including new books from favourite authors such as Laura Purcell, Jennifer Saint, Sarah Perry, John Marrs and M. J. Arlidge, and enthralling debuts from Samuel Burrs, Anne Corlett and Fiona McPhillips.
Here are the books I’m most anticipating:
Enlightenment by Sarah Perry
Published May 2nd by Jonathan Cape Gothic Fiction, Religious Romance, Spiritual Fiction
SYNOPSIS: A story of love and astronomy told over the course of twenty years through the lives of two improbable best friends
***AN OBSERVER FICTION BOOK TO LOOK OUT FOR IN 2024***
‘A complete masterwork’ SARAH HALL
‘A beautifully nuanced novel of love in all its aspects’ SUSAN STOKES-CHAPMAN
Thomas Hart and Grace Macauley are fellow worshippers at the Bethesda Baptist chapel in the small Essex town of Aldleigh. Though separated in age by three decades, the pair are kindred spirits – torn between their commitment to religion and their desire for more. But their friendship is threatened by the arrival of love.
Thomas falls for James Bower, who runs the local museum. Together they develop an obsession with the vanished nineteenth-century female astronomer Maria Veduva, said to haunt a nearby manor, and whose startling astronomical discoveries may never have been acknowledged. Inspired by Maria, and the dawning realisation James may not reciprocate his feelings, Thomas finds solace studying the night skies. Could astronomy offer as much wonder as divine or earthly love?
Meanwhile Grace meets Nathan, a fellow sixth former who represents a different, wilder kind of life. They are drawn passionately together, but quickly pulled apart, casting Grace into the wider world and far away from Thomas.
In time, the mysteries of Aldleigh are revealed, bringing Thomas and Grace back to each other and to a richer understanding of love, of the nature of the world, and the sheer miracle of being alive.
Published May 2nd by Abacus Historical Ficiton, Historical Fantasy, Contemporary Fantasy, Literary Fiction
SYNOPSIS: ‘I was blown away by this dark, enchanting story of witchcraft, power and injustice. ..nothing short of brilliant’ Mary Chamberlain Erzsébet Báthory, whose infamous place in history characterises her as the ‘Blood Countess’, was accused of the murder of over 600 peasant girls in Hungary, 1610. The Nightingale’s Castle tells the story of a woman fighting for her survival and the complicated, often cruel, household over which she presides.
In 1573, Countess Erzsébet Báthory gave birth to an illegitimate child. The infant, a girl, was swiftly bundled up and handed to a local peasant family to be brought up in one of the hamlets surrounding the Castle. Many years later, 15-year-old Boróka reluctantly leaves the safety of the only home she has ever known in the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains. Trusted members of the countess’s household have been sent out to gather new serving girls, and the kindly old man who has taken care of Boróka for almost all her life knows that it is dangerous to turn them away.
Boróka struggles to find her place at Cachtice Castle: she is frightened of the countess’s reputation as an alleged murderer of young girls, and the women who run the castle are terrifyingly cruel. When plague comes into the heart of the castle, a tentative bond begins to form between Boróka and the Countess Báthory. But powerful forces are moving against a woman whose wealth poses such a threat to the king: can the countess really trust the women who are so close to her? And when the show trial begins against the infamous ‘Blood Countess’ where will Boróka’s loyalties lie?
Published May 2nd by Bantam Press Suspense, Psychological Thriller, Literary Fiction, Coming-of-Age Story
SYNOPSIS: “I’m not here for prestige. I’m here for revenge.”
Lou Manson is an outsider when she joins the final-year class at Highfield Manor, Dublin’s most exclusive private school. Beyond the granite pillars and the wrought-iron gates is a world of wealth, privilege and potential. But Highfield is also hiding a dark secret – and Lou is here to expose it.
When Lou befriends the beautiful and talented Shauna Power, her plans are thrown into turmoil. Speaking out against the school would mean betraying Shauna, and Lou soon discovers that the Highfield elite will go to any lengths to protect their own reputation…even when the consequences are fatal.
Thirty years later, Lou is called to testify in a new lawsuit against Highfield. But telling the truth means confronting her past – and there is one story she swore she’d never tell…
For fans of GIRL A, MY DARK VANESSA and ANATOMY OF A SCANDAL, When We Were Silent is a propulsive, bold exploration of power, corruption and retribution.
Published May 2nd by Abacus Humorous Fiction, LGBTQ Literature, Contemporary Fiction
SYNOPSIS: The funniest, wildest and most original debut novel of 2024
‘Gobby, barbed and garrulous’ Eley Williams
‘Truly original’ Nicola Dinan, author of Bellies
‘Genuinely hilarious’ Keiran Goddard, author of Hourglass
It’s Natwest’s last day before he leaves for university, and there’s only one thing on his mind: the deeply embarrassing package he ordered to his house – which still hasn’t arrived. He won’t leave town without it. Any alternative is too distressing to consider …
This is the story of twenty-four hours in the life of NATWEST, and his small-town odyssey in pursuit of the missing package. And yet it’s also the story of a MIDDLE-AGED DENTIST who dreams of being a respected artist – but the only thing he can seem to paint is the human mouth. And it’s the story of a TORTURED IMAM involved in a quasi-romantic entanglement with the local vicar; and an OCTOGENARIAN mourning the death of her secretive husband; and a TROUBLED TEENAGER whose nudes have leaked on the internet. It’s the story of Natwest’s obnoxious EX-BOYFRIEND, and his CLASS-TRAITOR MOTHER and her CHILDHOOD BOYFRIEND, and the life-changing secrets he knows about Natwest’s past.
Alternating between Natwest’s idiosyncratic inner world and the perspectives of the other characters – and dazzling in its energy, imagination and originality – this is an outrageously funny and tenderly moving story about being connected to everyone and everything at all times; about love, friendship, and the lies we tell ourselves; about unhappy endings, happy endings – and whether anything really is as simple as one or the other.
Every Time I Go On Vacation ,Someone Dies by Catherine Mack
Published May 2nd by Pan Macmillan Mystery, Crime Fiction, Humorous Fiction
SYNOPSIS: Ten days. Eight suspects. Six cities. Five authors. Three bodies. One trip to die for.
Eleanor Dash, bestselling author of the Vacation Mysteries series, is on a book tour along the gorgeous Amalfi Coast when life starts imitating art as her ex-boyfriend (and book protagonist) Connor Smith is targeted by a killer.
Eleanor’s sleuthing skills are about to be put to the ultimate test as – among literary rivals, rabid fans, a crazed stalker and another ex-flame on tour with her – suspicions are flying faster than paperbacks off a bestseller shelf. But who is really trying to get away with murder?
Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies is The White Lotus meets Only Murders in the Building and the first in an irresistible and whip-smart mystery series.
Eleanor Dash will return in the next book in the Vacation Mysteries series, No One Was Supposed to Die at this Wedding.
Published May 2nd by Pan Macmillan Thriller, Science Fiction, Mystery, Psychological Thriller, Susepense, Crime Fiction, Speculative Fiction, Dystopian Fiction
SYNOPSIS: ‘John Marrs is a writer at the top of his game and The Family Experiment is his best yet. Frighteningly plausible, gripping, dark, and so clever.’ – Claire Douglas, author of The Woman Who Lied
Some families are virtually perfect . . .
The world’s population is soaring, creating overcrowded cities and an economic crisis. And in the UK, breaking point has arrived. A growing number of people can no longer afford to start families let alone raise them.
But for those desperate to experience parenthood, there is an alternative. For a monthly subscription fee, clients can create a virtual child from scratch who they can access via the metaverse and a VR headset. To launch this new initiative, the company behind Virtual Children has created a reality tv show. It will follow ten couples as they raise a Virtual Child from birth to the age of eighteen but in a condensed nine-month time period. The prize: the right to keep their virtual child or risk it all for the chance of a real baby . . .
Set in the same universe as John Marrs’s bestselling novel The One and The Marriage Act, The Family Experiment is a dark and twisted thriller about the ultimate ‘tamagotchi’ – a virtual baby.
Published May 9th by The Borough Press Historical Fiction, Fantasy Fiction, Romance Novel, Magical Realism, Dark Fantasy, Historical Fantasy
SYNOPSIS: The whole world disappears when you enter
THE SILENCE FACTORY
‘I loved it. A delicately woven novel with an utterly original premise, it ensnared me from the very first page’ EMILIA HART ____________
Henry dreams of silence.
A world without the clattering of carriages through cobbled streets, the distant cries of drunken brawls, the relentless ticking of the clock.
Then he meets a fascinating, mysterious gentleman who sells just that. Precious silk that can drown out the clamour of the world – and everything Henry is so desperate to escape.
Summoned to Sir Edward’s secluded factory to try to cure his young daughter’s deafness, Henry is soon drawn deeper and deeper into the origins of this otherworldly gift: a gift that has travelled from ancient Mediterranean glades to English libraries.
Ignoring repeated warnings from the girl’s secretive governess, he allows himself to fall under the spell of Sir Edward and his silk… but when he learns its true cost, will it be too late to turn back?
From the #1 bestselling author of THE BINDING, this is an enthralling story about complicity, desire and corruption – a novel to lose yourself in.
Published May 9th by Raven Books Historical Thriller, Thriller, Mystery, Crime Fiction
SYNOPSIS: ‘Delicious … dark … sinister’ Susan Stokes-Chapman, author of number one bestseller, Pandora ‘Thrilling’ Emilia Hart, author of Sunday Times bestseller Weyward ‘Stunning’ Lianne Dillsworth, author of Theatre of Marvels ‘Marvellous‘ Naomi Kelsey, author of The Burnings
Deep in the woods, something is stirring.
When Miss Catherine Symonds arrives to take up a position as governess at remote Locksley Abbey in the foothills of the Black Mountains, where England bleeds into Wales, she is apprehensive.
It is not the echoing, near empty house with its skeleton staff that frightens her, nor the ancient woods that surround the Abbey or even the dogs that the owner, Sir Rowland, encourages to stalk the grounds, baying for blood. It is Catherine herself who fears scrutiny: her reference and very identity are fraudulent. She is travelling in disguise to investigate the fate of the last governess at the house, who took her own life out in the woods. For that governess was Catherine’s own sister, but until now she had believed Emily had died many years before, when they were just children.
In Rosie Andrews’s extraordinary follow up to the bestselling The Leviathan – one of the biggest debuts of 2022 – an isolated forest becomes the unsettling, beguiling backdrop to a tale of myths, memory and murder.
Published May 9th by Orion Cozy Mystery, Coming-of-Age Story, Literary Fiction, Puzzles and Quizzes
SYNOPSIS: The extraordinary, gloriously uplifting and hotly-anticipated debut novel from Samuel Burr – available to pre-order now!
‘Utterly beautiful. I adored it’ JOANNA CANNON
‘Hugely uplifting and wonderful’AJ PEARCE
‘A ripping yarn full of warmth and wonder’BETH MORREY
Sometimes finding your place in the world is the greatest puzzle of all…
Clayton Stumper is an enigma.
He might be twenty-five years old, but he dresses like your grandad and drinks sherry like your aunt.
Abandoned at birth on the steps of the Fellowship of Puzzlemakers, he was raised by the sharpest minds in the British Isles and finds himself amongst the last survivors of a fading institution.
When the esteemed crossword compiler, Pippa Allsbrook, passes away, she bestows her final puzzle to him: a promise to reveal the mystery of his parentage and prepare him for his future.
Yet as Clay begins to unpick the clues, he uncovers something even the Fellowship have never been able to solve – and it’s a secret that will change everything…
Published May 9th by Avon Books Psychlogical Thriller, Serial Killers, Police Biographies, Murder Biographies
SYNOPSIS: What would you do if you found out the man you loved was rotten to the core?
Prepare to be hooked by Alice Hunter’s addictive new novel – so shocking it should come with a warning…
Trusted officer. Family man. Monster.
Becky Lawson’s life has been shattered.
When she discovered her husband, John – a trusted policeman – was a monster, she reported him. But her faith in the system was crushed when it didn’t lead to any charges or consequences.
Now, John lives freely with a new girlfriend and her young daughter, while Becky battles guilt over missing the obvious signs.
Determined for justice, Becky hunts him down. But John wants her silenced – at any cost. Becky knows only one of them can survive, and she’ll do anything to make sure it’s her.
Becky must tread carefully though, because John isn’t the only bad apple lurking in the shadows…
A gripping psychological suspense about betrayal, courage, and the darkness that can hide behind a seemingly trustworthy façade. Perfect for fans of K.L. Slater, B.A. Paris and the Netflix hit TV series You.
Published May 9th by Viking Thriller, Mystery, Suspense, Psychological Thriller, Crime Fiction, Police Procedural
SYNOPSIS: I guess you’re probably wondering about the next girl. Because there’s always another girl, right? A girl waiting to be taken. To be swept away. I’ll tell you about her.
It’s been twenty years since Detective Chelsey Calhoun lost her sister, and she’s been searching ever since: for signs, for closure, for other missing girls. Happy endings are rare in Chelsey’s line of work.
Until one day, local teenager Ellie Black is found in Washington State woods. Two years after her disappearance, she’s an echo of herself, but alive.
But something’s not right about this girl. Where has she been, and who is she protecting?
Chelsey has to find out. For herself, for her sister, and before the next girl is taken.
Published May 9th by Manilla Press Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction
SYNOPSIS: From the Observer debut novelist of the year, comes a blistering, heart-wrenching new novel of complicity and atonement, delving into one nurse’s experience of the little-known history of conversion therapy and the heart-breaking betrayal of the AIDS crisis.
March 2020. Annie is alone in her house as the world shuts down, only the ghosts of her memories for company. But then she receives a phone call which plunges her deeper into the past.
1959. Annie and Rita are student nurses at Fairlie Hall mental hospital. Working long, gruelling hours, they soon learn that the only way to appease their terrifying matron is to follow the rules unthinkingly. But what is happening in the hospital’s hidden side wards? And at what point does following the rules turn into complicity – and betrayal?
1983. Annie is reeling from the loss of her husband and struggling to face raising her daughter alone. Following a chance encounter, she offers a sick young man a bed for the night, a good deed that soon leads to another. Before long, she finds herself entering a new life of service – her home a haven for those who are cruelly shunned. But can we ever really atone?
The powerful and captivating new novel from the celebrated author of KEEPER and YOUNG WOMEN, HOLD BACK THE NIGHT is Jessica Moor’s most powerful and commercial book to date. A darkly compelling character-led novel, drawing on themes of complicity and betrayal, it is bursting with talking points and absolutely perfect for reading groups.
Published May 9th by Headline Historical Fiction, Biographical Fiction
SYNOPSIS: Sunday Times bestselling novelist Alison Weir returns with the spellbinding story of Mary I.
A DESTINY REWRITTEN. A ROYAL HEART DIVIDED.
Adored only child of Henry VIII and his Queen, Katherine of Aragon, Princess Mary is raised in the golden splendour of her father’s court. But the King wants a son and heir.
With her parents’ marriage, and England, in crisis, Mary’s perfect world begins to fall apart. Exiled from the court and her beloved mother, she seeks solace in her faith, praying for her father to bring her home. But when the King does promise to restore her to favour, his love comes with a condition.
The choice Mary faces will haunt her for years to come – in her allegiances, her marriage and her own fight for the crown. Can she become the queen she was born to be?
MARY I. HER STORY.
Alison Weir’s new Tudor novel is the tale, full of drama and tragedy, of how a princess with such promise, loved by all who knew her, became the infamous Bloody Mary.
Published May 9th by Tor Fantasy Fiction, Romantic Fantasy, Romance Novel, Lesbian Literature, Cozy Fantasy, Adventure Fiction
SYNOPSIS: A heart-warming, sapphic journey brimming with jeopardy, magic and a love of tea – for fans of Travis Baldree’s Legends & Lattes and TJ Klune.
Two women wanted to open a cosy bookshop. They discovered a world of adventure.
Reyna and Kianthe dream of opening a friendly book shop together, serving the very best tea and cakes. Worn wooden floors, plants on every table, firelight drifting between the rafters – all complemented by love and good company. But Reyna is an elite bodyguard to a vengeful queen, and Kianthe is the most powerful mage in existence. Leaving their lives behind seems . . . impossible. Yet they flee to Tawney, a town nestled in the icy peaks of dragon country. There, they open the bookstore they’d always wanted.
What follows is a tale of mishaps, mysteries, dragons, and a murderous queen throwing the realm’s biggest temper tantrum. Through it, these two women will discover what they mean to each other – and their world.
Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea by Rebecca Thorne is a gorgeous treat of a book, filled with cosy adventure, sapphic romance and good feelings. The story continues in the swashbuckling A Pirate’s Life for Tea.
Published May 14th by Sceptre Romance Novel, Time Travel Fiction, Time Travel Romance, Science Fiction
SYNOPSIS: ‘Fast moving and riotously entertaining, a genre-busting blend of wit and wonder’ 10 best new novelists for 2024, Observer
A 2024 literary highlight in the Sunday Times, BBC, Grazia, Dazed, Sunday Express, GQ, i-D, Stylist, Bookseller and Literary Friction
A BOY MEETS A GIRL. THE PAST MEETS THE FUTURE. A FINGER MEETS A TRIGGER. THE BEGINNING MEETS THE END. ENGLAND IS FOREVER. ENGLAND MUST FALL.
In the near future, a disaffected civil servant is offered a lucrative job in a mysterious new government ministry gathering ‘expats’ from across history to test the limits of time-travel.
Her role is to work as a ‘bridge’: living with, assisting and monitoring the expat known as ‘1847’ – Commander Graham Gore. As far as history is concerned, Commander Gore died on Sir John Franklin’s doomed expedition to the Arctic, so he’s a little disoriented to find himself alive and surrounded by outlandish concepts such as ‘washing machine’, ‘Spotify’ and ‘the collapse of the British Empire’. With an appetite for discovery and a seven-a-day cigarette habit, he soon adjusts; and during a long, sultry summer he and his bridge move from awkwardness to genuine friendship, to something more.
But as the true shape of the project that brought them together begins to emerge, Gore and the bridge are forced to confront their past choices and imagined futures. Can love triumph over the structures and histories that have shaped them? And how do you defy history when history is living in your house?
Published May 16th by Hutchinson Heinmann Historical Romance, Historical Fiction
SYNOPSIS: London, 1833
Doctress Hester Reeves has been offered a life-changing commission.
But it comes at a price. She must leave behind her husband and their canal-side home in Kings Cross and move to Tall Trees – a dark and foreboding house in Fitzrovia.
If Hester can cure the ailing health of its owner, Gervaise Cherville, she will receive payment that will bring her everything she could dream of.
But on arriving at Tall Trees, Hester quickly discovers that an even bigger task awaits her. Now she must unearth secrets that have lain hidden for decades – including one that will leave Hester’s own life forever changed…
Pre-order here*
Girls by Kirsty Capes
Published May 16th by Orion Contemporary Fiction
SYNOPSIS: Everyone has heard of Girls. But what happened to the women they became?
At the time of her death, the press wrote many things about Ingrid Olssen:
She was a brilliant artist. She was a terrible mother to her girls, Mattie and Nora. And that her legacy would live on forever.
Even so, it’s unlikely the world will ever see another Ingrid Olssen exhibition – her last request to her daughters was to throw her ashes in the canyon and her paintings in the sea.
But as Mattie and Nora reluctantly embark on an all-or-nothing trip to fulfil her wishes, they start to unpick the painful scars of their past.
And soon they begin to realise that the ties that bound them, might also break them…
Perfect for fans of Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason and Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid. GIRLS is as devastating as it is hilarious, as tender and moving as it is shocking – this is a book that will stay with you long after you have turned the final pages.
Pre-order here*
The Honey Witch by Sydney J. Sheilds
Published May 16th by Orbit Romantic Fantasy, Historical Fantasy, LGBTQ Literature
SYNOPSIS: ‘Reading The Honey Witch is like dreaming in a fragrant sunlit garden while bees sing around you. It’s a gorgeous book, with a lovely cottagecore ambience and a heart-warming sapphic romance intertwined with unique magic that enchants the imagination‘ India Holton, internationally bestselling author
The Honey Witch of Innisfree can never find true love. That is her curse to bear. But when a young woman who doesn’t believe in magic arrives on her island, sparks fly in this deliciously sweet debut novel of magic, hope, and love overcoming all.
Twenty-one-year-old Marigold Claude has always preferred the company of the spirits of the meadow to any of the suitors who’ve tried to woo her. So when her grandmother whisks her away to the family cottage on the tiny Isle of Innisfree with an offer to train her as the next Honey Witch, she accepts immediately. But her newfound magic and independence come with a price: No one can fall in love with the Honey Witch.
When Lottie Burke, a notoriously grumpy skeptic who doesn’t believe in magic, shows up on her doorstep, Marigold can’t resist the challenge to prove to her that magic is real. But soon, Marigold begins to care for Lottie in ways she never expected. And when darker magic awakens and threatens to destroy her home, she must fight for much more than her new home-at the risk of losing her magic and her heart..
A delicious debut that combines the swoon-worthy romance of Bridgerton and the whimsical sorcery of Practical Magic, with a dash of The Secret Life of Bees thrown in for good fun.
Pre-order here*
Moon Road by Sarah Leipciger
Published May 16th by Doubleday Domestic Fiction, Literary Fiction, Contemporary Fiction
SYNOPSIS: For fans of Elizabeth Strout and Barbara Kingsolver: Beautifully observed portrait of marriage, divorce and reconciliation as an estranged couple go on a road trip to uncover a family mystery.
‘Sarah Leipciger is a consummate storyteller’RACHEL JOYCE ‘A wonderful, beautiful book – fierce, tragic, lyrical. I just loved it’ CLAIRE FULLER ‘Deeply humane. Tough, tender, wonderful‘ JOANNA QUINN, author of The Whalebone Theatre ____________________________
It’s irksome to her, how well she knows this man, how much he has changed and how exactly the same he is …
Kathleen and Yannick have not spoken for nineteen years, not since what happened with their daughter.
Now, there’s unexpected news from the other side of the country, and the call for a road trip they can only make together.
As they rattle over two thousand miles in a pick-up, through forests, over mountains and into service stations, an alluring history reveals itself: of fierce love, complicated ex-wives and headstrong children, and of a unique bond that never really went away.
As they drive, argue, gossip and reminisce, an unexpected future for this once estranged couple begins to emerge.
MOON ROAD captures the wonder and grief of watching our children grow up; of recovering from long buried pain, and rediscovering those closest to us when we think we know all there is to know; and of learning to live and love in a completely new way.
Pre-order here*
Butcher by Joyce Carol Oates
Published May 21st by Harper Collins Horror Fiction, Suspense, Historical Ficiton, Psychological Fiction
SYNOPSIS: From one of our most accomplished storytellers, an extraordinary and arresting novel about a women’s asylum in the nineteenth century, and a terrifying doctor who wants to change the world
In this harrowing story based on authentic historical documents, we follow the career of Dr. Silas Weir, “Father of Gyno-Psychiatry,” as he ascends from professional anonymity to national renown. Humiliated by a procedure gone terribly wrong, Weir is forced to take a position at the New Jersey Asylum for Female Lunatics, where he reigns. There, he is allowed to continue his practice, unchecked for decades, making a name for himself by focusing on women who have been neglected by the state–women he subjects to the most grotesque modes of experimentation. As he begins to establish himself as a pioneer of nineteenth-century surgery, Weir’s ambition is fueled by his obsessive fascination with a young Irish indentured servant named Brigit, who becomes not only Weir’s primary experimental subject, but also the agent of his destruction.
Narrated by Silas Weir’s eldest son, who has repudiated his father’s brutal legacy, Butcher is a unique blend of fiction and fact, a nightmare voyage through the darkest regions of the American psyche conjoined, in its startling conclusion, with unexpected romance. Once again, Joyce Carol Oates has written a spellbinding novel confirming her position as one of our celebrated American visionaries of the imagination.
Published May 23rd by Wildfire Historical Fiction, Fairy Tale, Greek Mythology, Literary Ficiton, Psychological Fiction
SYNOPSIS: The enthralling tale of a powerful Greek goddess maligned in both myth and ancient history, as told by Sunday Times bestselling author Jennifer Saint.
‘A brilliant read’Women & Home | ‘A spirited retelling’Times | ‘Beautiful and absorbing’ Fabulous | ‘A vivid reimagining of Greek mythology’Harper’s Bazaar | ‘Jennifer Saint has done an incredible job’Red
When Hera, immortal goddess and daughter of the ancient Titan Cronus, helps her brother Zeus to overthrow their tyrannical father, she dreams of ruling at his side.
As they establish their reign on Mount Olympus, Hera suspects that Zeus might be just as ruthless and cruel as the father they betrayed.
She was always born to rule, but must she lose herself in perpetuating this cycle of violence and cruelty? Or can she find a way to forge a better world?
Often portrayed as the jealous wife or the wicked stepmother, this retelling captures the many sides of Hera, vengeful when she needs to be but also compassionate and most importantly, an all-powerful queen to the gods.
Pre-order here*
Moonstone by Laura Purcell
Published May 23rd by Magpie Gothic Fiction, Gothic Romance, Horror, Paranormal Fiction
SYNOPSIS: From award-winning bestseller Laura Purcell comes her YA debut, MOONSTONE.
Don’t misbehave. Beware the moon. And never go out after dark . . .
Following a scandal at the Vauxhall pleasure gardens, Camille is sent to the woods to live with her reclusive godmother and her strange daughter, Lucy. Cast out from polite society, she must learn to live by her godmother’s strict rules.
Camille has never met anyone quite like Lucy before, and as they grow closer and cross forbidden boundaries, strange things begin to happen. Mysterious deaths, claw marks raking the doors, and the nights are pierced by the howls of a creature that sounds almost . . . otherworldly.
Should Camille be more afraid of what’s hiding in the woods – or her own heart?
From the award-winning, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Silent Companions, Moonstone is a haunting gothic romance with real bite.
Pre-order here*
The Theatre of Glass and Shadows by Anne Corlett
Published May 23rd by Black & White Publishing Historical Fiction, Historical Fantasy, Contemporary Fantasy
SYNOPSIS: ‘Marvellous’ Bridget Collins, TheSunday Times bestselling author of The Binding
Sometimes the greatest spectacle hides the darkest secrets . . .
In an alternate London, the city’s Theatre District is a walled area south of the river where an immersive production – the Show – has been running for centuries, growing ever bigger, more sprawling and lavish. The Show is open to anyone who can afford a ticket but the District itself is a closed world; even the police have no jurisdiction within its walls.
Juliet’s mother died when she was a baby. Brought up by her emotionally distant father and even more distant stepmother, she has never felt wanted. It’s only when her father passes away that Juliet – now nineteen – learns her birth was registered in the District. Desperate to belong somewhere at last, she travels to London where she hopes to unearth the truth about her identity, her mother’s death and her father’s years of silence – and claim her birthright.
But in the District, there is only one central truth: the Show must go on. And in a world where illusions abound, and powerful men control the narrative, Juliet has no idea of just how far some will go to ensure certain stories are never told . . .
For fans of The Miniaturist and The Doll Factory, The Theatre of Glass and Shadows is a place where nothing is as it seems.
‘Original and captivating’ Karen Coles, author of The Asylum
Pre-order here*
Glass Houses by Francesca Reece
Published May 23rd by Tinder Press Literary Fiction, Contemporary Fiction, Psychlogical Fiction
SYNOPSIS: Somewhere, in a box in Margot Yates’ attic there’s a video of Gethin by the lake at Ty Gwydr. He’s young – nineteen, maybe twenty. It’s late spring and dusk, and a low sun leaks white light into the horizon behind the dark fringe of trees. Olwen is filming. Gethin narrows his eyes at the camera. Her bodiless voice says to him, I love it here. He says, good. This place is ours.
Forester Gethin Thomas is struggling to make ends meet in his rural hometown in North Wales. Bright, charming, but unambitious, the thing that keeps him going is Ty Gwydr, a beautiful lakeside house that he keeps an eye on for absent English owners. The house has been empty for so long he’s come to think of it as his own.
That is until the owners decide to sell, sending Geth into freefall. And when he discovers that Olwen, his first love who left him and their small town for a new life in London, has returned to North Wales with her husband, Geth and Olwen will find themselves pulled back into the past and what could have been – or still could be.
But soon mysterious messages start arriving at the house, and they must question whether this is the love story they thought it was, or whether there might be something altogether more sinister lurking beneath the surface.
Published May 23rd by Orenda Books Mystery, Literary Fiction
SYNOPSIS: When Mathilde is forced to leave her teaching job in Oslo after her relationship with eighteen-year-old Jacob is exposed, she flees to the countryside for a more authentic life.
Her new home is a quiet cottage on the outskirts of a dairy farm run by Andres and Johs, whose hobbies include playing the fiddle and telling folktales – many of them about female rebellion and disobedience, and seeking justice, whatever it takes.
But beneath the surface of the apparently friendly and peaceful pastoral life of the farm, something darker and less harmonic starts to vibrate, and with Mathilde’s arrival, cracks start appearing … everywhere.
Published May 23rd by Headline Satire, Hunour, Dark Comedy, Suspense, Mystery, Thriller, Psychologcial Thriller, Crime Fiction, Humorous Fiction, Domestic Fiction
SYNOPSIS: Their hangovers may fade, but this is a hen party they’ll never forget…
Lauren, Saskia, Dominica, Farah and Tansy have been friends since nursery. They wonder if that was the last time they all actually liked each other.
Reunited as bridesmaids at Tansy’s spiritual hen party in the woods, it doesn’t take long before old grudges begin to surface. Not to mention the secret they’ve been hiding for twenty years.
But what starts as a weekend of macramé and contraband vodka ends in murder when Tansy chokes to death on a poisoned cacao drink.
As the body count keeps climbing, the friends realise that one of their group must be the killer – and if any of them want to make it down the aisle, they need to watch their sash-covered backs.
Who will be left standing when the bouquet is thrown?
Published May 23rd by HQ Suspense, Mystery, Psychlogical Thriller, Crime Ficiton, Police Procedural
SYNOPSIS: Once secrets catch… they spread…
Deadly fires are lighting up Brighton, and the latest case is alarmingly close to home for DC Eve Starling. The blaze was deliberately set, and a mother and daughter didn’t make it out of the smoke.
Eve’s investigation takes her deep into her own uncomfortable past. When her key witness disappears, and with the killer always one step ahead, Eve is desperate to solve the case – whatever the cost.
But Eve has no idea how close she is to the flames, and playing with fire can get you burned…
Published May 23rd by Fourth Estate Urban Fiction, Domestic Fiction, Literary Fiction, Romantic Comedy
SYNOPSIS: From the Sunday Times bestselling author of Cleopatra and Frankenstein
‘A stunning exploration of sisterhood and grief, addiction and recovery, pain and pleasure. Captivating’ TESS GUNTY
‘In Blue Sisters, grief is rendered with gorgeous particularity’ RAVEN LEILANI
The Blue sisters have always been exceptional – and exceptionally different.
Avery, a strait-laced lawyer living in London, is the typical eldest daughter, though she’s hiding a secret that could undo her perfect life forever.
Bonnie was a boxer but, following a devastating defeat, she’s been working as a bouncer in LA, until one reckless night threatens to drive her out of the city.
And Lucky, the rebellious youngest, is a model in Paris whose hard-partying ways are finally catching up with her.
Then there was Nicky, the beloved fourth sister, whose unexpected death left Avery, Bonnie and Lucky reeling. When, a year later, the three of them must reunite in New York to stop the sale of their childhood home, they find that it’s only by returning to each other that they can navigate their grief, addiction and heartbreak―and learn to fall in love with life again.
Published May 30th by Orion Suspense, Mystery, Thriller, Crime Fiction
SYNOPSIS: When 3-month-old Max is abducted, his parents are plunged into their worst nightmare. Devastated mum Sarah only took her eyes off him for a second, but that doesn’t stop her guilt. Even husband Jake can’t hide his anger that their little boy went missing on her watch.
By contrast there are smiles and celebration at a caravan park in Lincolnshire, as baby Blaze is introduced to the Star family. Jenna and Gary are delighted with the new addition to their family. He is their fourth child and a real object of delight to their eldest – fifteen-year-old Willow – who once again will raise the child.
But trouble is brewing for the Star family. Willow is concerned by the desperate online appeals from Sarah and Jake, baby Max has neonatal diabetes and without regular treatment will die. As baby “Blaze” becomes seriously ill, Willow makes a shocking discovery. What is the truth about her family? And how far will they go to hide their deadly secret?
Published October 12th, 2023 by Orenda Thriller, Mystery, Dark Comdey, Noir Fiction, Book Series, Horror Fiction
I’m a little late due to illness, but here’s my review for the laugh-out-loud funny The Beaver Theory, which was also my first Orentober read. Thank you to Anne at Random Things Tours for my invitation to take part and to Orenda for my proof copy of the book.
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SYNOPSIS:
Can everyone’s favourite insurance mathematician, Henri, combine the increasingly dangerous world of adventure parks with the unpredictability of blended-family life? He’s about to find out in the final instalment of the hilarious, nail-biting Rabbit Factor Trilogy.
Henri Koskinen, intrepid insurance mathematician and adventure-park entrepreneur, firmly believes in the power of common sense and order. That is until he moves in with painter Laura Helanto and her daughter…
As Henri realises he has inadvertently become part of a group of local dads, a competing adventure park is seeking to expand their operations, not always sticking to the law in the process…
Is it possible to combine the increasingly dangerous world of the adventure-park business with the unpredictability of life in a blended family? At first glance, the two appear to have only one thing in common: neither deals particularly well with a mounting body count.
In order to solve this seemingly impossible conundrum, Henri is forced to step far beyond the mathematical precision of his comfort zone … and the stakes have never been higher…
Warmly funny, quirky, touching, and a nail-biting triumph of a thriller, The Beaver Theory is the final instalment in the award-winning Rabbit Factor Trilogy, as Henri encounters the biggest challenge of his career, with hair-raising results…
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MY REVIEW:
We’re back with Henri and the others at the YouMeFun Adventure Park for the last book in the Rabbit Factor Trilogy. In his final adventure, the actuary and adventure-park entrepreneur is trying to balance his new family commitments with saving his park, preventing his staff becoming embroiled in an adventure-park war, and solving a murder. And time is running out. But Henri believes that order and mathematics will win the day as they always have, even if he’s forced further out of his comfort zone than ever as he faces his biggest challenges to date.
Laugh-out-loud funny, wacky, touching and unpredictable, The Beaver Theory is a glorious finale for this offbeat trilogy. In this instalment Henri is a real fish out of water as he embraces the chaos of family life, school runs and bake sales alongside the running of his adventure-park, a job that is far more dangerous than you’d imagine. Written with Antti Tuomainen’s signature kooky comic genius, warmth and tension, he kept me guessing as the madness unfolded right up to the spectacular finale. But this witty caper was also bittersweet as I never wanted the trilogy to end and I’m glad I’ve got the TV adaptation to look forward to.
Henri remains one of my favourite characters ever written. Sensible, ordered, meticulous and very quirky, there is no one else like him. I adore this character and love the way he finds respite in logic, order and mathematics even when he’s a suspected murderer. He’s such a refreshing character to read and you can’t help but root for him every step of the way. Iloved seeing him happy and taking on the challenge of family life and all its craziness in this book, especially when he’s pulled into being part of the ‘Dads Gang’. The latter paved the way for many hilarious moments and I enjoyed seeing his softer side in his interactions with Laura and her daughter.
Kooky, original and entertaining, The Beaver Theory is another must-read from Tuomainen and Orenda. While it could be read as a standalone, I’d recommend reading the whole series to avoid missing out on some of the best fiction you’ll ever read.
Rating: ✮✮✮✮✰
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MEET THE AUTHOR:
Finnish Antti Tuomainen was an award-winning copywriter when he made his literary debut in 2007 as a suspense author. In 2011, Tuomainen’s third novel, The Healer, was awarded the Clue Award for Best Finnish Crime Novel and was shortlisted for the Glass Key Award. In 2013, the Finnish press crowned Tuomainen the ‘King of Helsinki Noir’ when Dark as My Heart was published. With a piercing and evocative style, Tuomainen was one of the first to challenge the Scandinavian crime-genre formula, and his poignant, dark and hilarious The Man Who Died became an international bestseller, shortlisting for the Petrona and Last Laugh Awards. Palm Beach Finland (2018) was an immense success, with The Times calling Tuomainen ‘the funniest writer in Europe’, and Little Siberia (2019) was shortlisted for the Capital Crime/Amazon Publishing Readers Awards, the Last Laugh Award and the CWA International Dagger, and won the Petrona Award for Best Scandinavian Crime Novel. The Rabbit Factor, the prequel to The Moose Paradox, will soon be a major motion picture starring Steve Carell for Amazon Studios.
David Hackston is a British translator of Finnish and Swedish literature and drama. Notable publications include The Dedalus Book of Finnish Fantasy, Maria Peura’s coming-of-age novel At the Edge of Light, Johanna Sinisalo’s eco-thriller Birdbrain, two crime novels by Matti Joensuu and Kati Hiekkapelto’s Anna Fekete series (which currently includes The Hummingbird, The Defenceless and The Exiled, all published by Orenda Books). He also translates Antti Tuomainen’s stories. In 2007 he was awarded the Finnish State Prize for Translation. David is also a professional countertenor and a founding member of the English Vocal Consort of Helsinki.
I can’t quite believe we’re already at the half way point for this years most anticipated books. But, here we are, and June is another month jam-packed witth fantastic fiction, including new releases from some of my favourite authors and exciting debuts I can’t wait to dive into.
So, here are the books out next month that I’m most anticipating:
The Miniscule Mansion of Myra Malone by Audrey Burges
Published June 1st by Pan Macmillan Contemporary Fiction, Magical Realism, Contemporary Romance
SYNOPSIS: Audrey Burges’ The Minuscule Mansion of Myra Malone is a charming and magical debut novel, with a love story at its heart, woven across multiple periods and perspectives, about a mystical dolls’ house.
Once upon a time there was a house . . .
From her attic in the Arizona mountains, thirty-four year-old recluse Myra Malone blogs about a miniature mansion – a dolls’ house – which captivates thousands of readers worldwide. Myra herself is tethered to the Mansion by a strange magic she can’t understand – there are rooms that appear and disappear overnight, music that plays in its corridors.
Across the country, Alex Rakes, the thirty-four year-old heir of a furniture business, encounters two Mansion fans trying to recreate a room from her stories. Alex is shocked to recognize his own bedroom in minute scale.
The Mansion is his family’s home, handed down from the grandmother who disappeared mysteriously when Alex was a child. Searching for answers, Alex begins corresponding with Myra. Together, the two unwind the lonely paths of their twin worlds – big and small – and trace the stories that entwine them, setting the stage for a meeting rooted in loss, but defined by love.
Published June 1st by Magpie Literary Fiction, Family Saga, War
SYNOPSIS: How far would you travel to find a love lost in time?
1927, East London. The first time Tommy and Peggy meet, they are nine years old. He is lost in London’s original Chinatown, panicking as he struggles to escape the tangle of Limehouse streets, with their road signs in Chinese characters that he can’t decipher.
‘Where do you come from?’ Peggy asks him.
For Tommy, the answer to that question can never be straightforward, because his family share a secret gift: they can travel through time. And each must eventually decide how much the present day means to them, and how far they are willing to travel to hold onto the people they love.
Heartfelt and hopeful, weaving through decades and across continents, The Moon Represents My Heart is an unforgettable debut about one extraordinary family, the gift that threatens to tear them apart and the love that binds them together.
‘An immediately compelling, unusual story with a totally fresh voice.’Jennifer Saint, author of Ariadne
See Me Rolling : On Disiblity, Equality and Ten-Point Turns by Lottie Jackson
Published June 1st by Hutchinson Heinemann Autonbiography, Humour
SYNOPSIS: ‘The world was sadly not my lobster, it was a skimpy crayfish from a petrol station sandwich and it was on the turn.’
In this heartfelt, thought-provoking and often hilarious book, Lottie Jackson reflects on her experiences of living with disability: from the pitfalls of going shopping on a mobility scooter, and the headache of defining oneself on a tick-box form, to a slapstick scuffle with the so-called ‘easy-pull’ tights aid, and the intense pleasure of finally swapping a hospital gown for a slinky dress. Lottie captivatingly expresses the raw vulnerabilities, injustices and untold joys of disability, as well as the bizarre everyday occurrences that able-bodied people usually don’t experience.
See Me Rolling is a playful, illuminating memoir, but it is also a clarion call for greater diversity and inclusion. Lottie powerfully explores the ways in which we undervalue and underrepresent disabled people in our society, and demonstrates how negative stigmas about ‘abnormal’ bodies seep into all aspects our lives, from travel, work and education, to fashion and social media. In this dazzling debut, Lottie reveals why we must strive for change and redefine what it means to be disabled in every facet of life. She has a voice that needs to be heard.
Published June 6th by Wildfire Psychologial Thriller
SYNOPSIS: SOMETIMES THE ONLY PERSON WHO CAN SOLVE YOUR MURDER IS YOU.
‘Startling and original, My Murder is a gripping speculative twist on the crime novel.’ – Paula Hawkins, bestselling author of The Girl on the Train ‘Completely absorbing. A smart, speculative twist on domestic suspense.’ – Ashley Audrain, bestselling author of The Push
‘A cool, confident, clever thriller. But best and most of all, this book is F-U-N.’ – A. J. Finn, bestselling author of The Woman in the Window Lou has been murdered.
She was the fifth victim of the serial killer Edward Early. A young wife and new mother, Lou’s death outraged a public breathlessly following the story of the serial murders.
Lou has been cloned.
Along with Early’s other four victims, Lou has been brought back to life by the government-funded replication commission. The women gather at a weekly support group, helping each other to navigate a society obsessed with their very existence.
Lou has been lied to.
But when Lou agrees to help fellow murder victim Fern secure a visit with Edward Early, a shocking revelation causes Lou to investigate the events around her death and question everything she thought she knew about her murder.
Published June 6th by Bloomsbury Publishing Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction
SYNOPSIS: Vienna, 1938. Samuel Adler is five years old when his father disappears during Kristallnacht – the night their family loses everything. As her child’s safety seems ever harder to guarantee, Samuel’s mother secures a spot for him on the last Kindertransport train out of Nazi-occupied Austria to England. He boards alone, carrying nothing but a change of clothes and his violin.
Arizona, 2019. Eight decades later, Anita Diaz and her mother board another train, fleeing looming danger in El Salvador and seeking refuge in the United States. But their arrival coincides with the new family separation policy, and seven-year-old Anita finds herself alone at a camp in Nogales. She escapes her tenuous reality through her trips to Azabahar, a magical world of the imagination. Meanwhile, Selena Duran, a young social worker, enlists the help of a successful lawyer in hopes of tracking down Anita’s mother.
Intertwining past and present, The Wind Knows My Name tells the tale of these two unforgettable characters, both in search of family and home. It is both a testament to the sacrifices that parents make, and a love letter to the children who survive the most unfathomable dangers – and never stop dreaming.
Published June 6th by Headline Thriller, Mystery, Southern Fiction
SYNOPSIS: The stunning new thriller from the international bestselling, multi-award-winning author.
‘S. A. Cosby’s novels always hit the grand slam of crime fiction; unstoppable momentum, gripping intrigue and deep character with a hard and telling look at culture and society’MICHAEL CONNELLY
‘American crime fiction has found its future and his name is S.A. Cosby’ DENNIS LEHANE
‘Titus Crown is one of the most compelling characters I’ve read in a long time.’ STEVE CAVANAGH A BLACK SHERIFF. A SERIAL KILLER. AND A SMALL TOWN READY TO COMBUST.
Titus Crown is the first Black sheriff in the history of Charon County, Virginia. In recent decades, Charon has had only two murders. After years of working as an FBI agent, no one knows better than Titus that while his hometown might seem like a land of moonshine, cornbread, and honeysuckle, secrets always fester under the surface.
But a year to the day after Titus’s election, a school teacher is killed by a former student. The student is then fatally shot by Titus’s deputies.
As Titus investigates the shootings, he unearths terrible crimes, and a serial killer who has been hiding in plain sight, haunting the dirt lanes and woodland clearings of Charon. With the killer’s possible connections to a local church and the town’s harrowing history weighing on him, Titus tries to project confidence about closing the case while concealing a painful secret from his own past. At the same time, he also has to contend with a far-right group that wants to hold a parade in celebration of the town’s Confederate history.
Charon is Titus’s home and his heart. But where faith and violence meet, there will be a reckoning.
‘Cements S.A. Cosby’s place as one of the most important new voices in crime fiction. I won’t read a better book this year. Incredible.’ M. W. CRAVEN
Published June 8th by Coruvs Gothic Fiction, Historical Mystery, Literary Fiction, Thriller
SYNOPSIS: ONE OF LIT HUB‘S TOP CRIME NOVELS OF 2023
‘A story of women who defy strict rules’ KATE MANNING, author of My Notorious Life ‘Asuperb novel, suffused with dread’ ELIZABETH MCKENZIE, author of The Dog of the North
KILLINGLY is a haunting, gothic, turn-of-the-century campus thriller about female desire, rage and ambition in the face of convention and patriarchal control.
The young women at Mount Holyoke College are famed for their beauty and virtue – except for Agnes and Bertha. With their strange dresses, scholarly pursuits and intimate friendship, these two students are considered peculiar.
One autumn morning, Bertha is spotted in the woods. Then she vanishes, leaving Agnes to wander the cold university halls alone.
While a search team dredges the pond where Bertha might have drowned, a private detective arrives in town and an investigation ensues, sending shockwaves through the university and the quiet town of Killingly.
Bertha might be gone, but she left behind secrets. Secrets which are beginning to surface, threatening to put her best friend in mortal danger and shatter the peaceful world of Mount Holyoke forever…
Published June 8th by HarperNorth Historical Fiction, Gothic Fiction, Fantasy Fiction, Magical Realism
SYNOPSIS: Nothing scares men like witchcraft . . .
1589. Scottish housemaid Geillis and Danish courtier Margareta lead opposite lives, but they both know one thing: when a man cries “witch”, no woman is safe.
Yet when the marriage of King James VI and Princess Anna of Denmark brings Geillis and Margareta together, everything they supposed about good, evil, men, and women, is cast in a strange and brilliant new light.
For the first time in history, could black magic – or rumours of it – be a very real tool for women’s political gain?
As the North Berwick witch trials whip Scotland – and her king – into a frenzy of paranoia, the clock is ticking. Can Margareta and Geillis keep each other safe? And once the burnings are over, in whose hands will power truly lie?
Inspired by the incredible true story that set 16th-century Scotland and Denmark alight, The Burnings is 2023’s most bewitching debut novel, by a multi-awardwinning new star of historical fiction.
Published June 8th by Apollo Mystery, Suspense, Gothic Fiction, Horror Fiction, Fantasy Fiction, Mashup Novel
SYNOPSIS: A grand hotel, a famous opera star and a psychoanalyst with a hidden agenda. Kate Mascarenhas’s third novel offers her readers a glamorous, thrilling ride through murder, madness and the darkest recesses of the mind.
February, 1929. The Regent Hotel in Birmingham is a place of deception and glamour. Behind its six-storeyed façade, guests sip absinthe cocktails on velvet banquettes, while the hotel’s red-jacketed staff scurry through its lavish corridors to ensure the finest service is always at hand.
In the early evening, a psychoanalyst checks in under a pseudonym: Nora Dickinson. Nora is young, diligent and ambitious. Though she doesn’t see herself as a liar, she is travelling with an agenda. Having followed the famous opera singer, Berenice Oxbow, from Zurich to Birmingham, she’s determined not to let her out of her sight.
But when a terrible snow storm isolates the hotel – and its guests – from the outside world, the lines between nightmare and reality begin to blur…
Published June 8th by Raven Books Thriller, Suspense, Psychological Fiction
SYNOPSIS: ‘This is The Undoing meets Big Little Lies.A fast-paced, decadent skewering of upper middle-class motherhood’ ABIGAIL DEAN The outstanding new thriller from the author of international bestseller, Greenwich Park _______________
You want to be one of them. Until you know them.
Ex-journalist Tash has been searching for a story to launch her freelance career. But she has also been searching for something else: new friends to help her navigate motherhood.
She sees them at her son’s new playgroup. The other mothers. The sleek, the sophisticated, the successful mothers. The women she wants to be.
And then one day they welcome her into their circle and Tash discovers the kind of life she has always dreamt of; their elegant London townhouses a far cry from her cramped basement flat and endless bills.
They seem to have everything. But they also have their secrets. And it’s soon clear that not everyone at the playgroup can be trusted.
Published June 8th by Bantam Press Thriller, Suspense, Psychological Thriller, Crime Fiction
SYNOPSIS: ‘One thing I’ve learned, these last few weeks, is that small acts of kindness are far less effective than fear…’
Meet Mercy Lake. She likes to fix things: broken toys, old appliances. People.
She watches them in the dead of night, identifies what their lives are lacking and gives it to them . . . quietly. So quietly, they don’t even know she exists.
Then Mercy meets Louis. He believes some of these people deserve punishment, not help. Joining up with him to dispense a little harmless justice feels good – at first. But when people start getting hurt, Mercy must decide if the ends can ever justify their increasingly violent means.
And soon, their interventions draw the attention of the very person Mercy embraced her nocturnal existence to evade. Someone who will go to extreme lengths to make her pay for knowing their secret . . .
The answer to ‘What if Eleanor Oliphant found herself in a Stephen King novel?’, The People Watcher is a shiver-inducing, heart-pounding suspense that will keep you up into the early hours.
Published June 8th by Picador Literary Fiction, Contemporary Fiction, Romance Novel
SYNOPSIS: ‘A stunning debut’ – Meg Mason, author of Sorrow and Bliss
‘Plain funny as hell’ – Zakiya Dalila Harris, author of The Other Black Girl
When Jess first meets Josh at their Ivy League college she dislikes him immediately: an entitled guy in chinos, ready to take over the world. Meanwhile Jess is almost always the only Black woman in their class. And Josh can’t accept that life might be easier for him because he’s white.
After graduating, Jess and Josh end up working together in the same investment bank. As they lunch, spar and pick each other’s brains, Jess begins to see Josh in a different light.
Soon, their tempestuous friendship turns into an electrifying romance that shocks them both, and Jess finds herself questioning who she really is and whether she’s willing to compromise that for love.
Everything’s Fine is an utterly original and deeply moving take on an age-old question from a dazzling new voice: what have you got to lose when you fall in love?
Published June 8th by Fourth Estate Psychological Fiction, LGBT Literature, Romance
SYNOPSIS: An Observer Best Debut of the Year
‘Oozes with erotic tension from the start’ Sarah Winman, author of Still Life
‘Tense and taut and exhilarating’ Monica Heisey, author of Really Good, Actually
Powerfully sensual and sublimely stylish, Mrs S is a tale of queer love that smoulders with the heat of summer.
In an elite English boarding school where the girls kiss the marble statue of the famous dead author who used to walk the halls, a young Australian woman arrives to take up the antiquated role of ‘matron’. Within this landscape of immense privilege, in which the girls can sense the slightest weakness in those around them, she finds herself unsure of her role, her accent and her body.
That is until she meets Mrs S, the headmaster’s wife, a woman who is her polar opposite: assured, sophisticated, a paragon of femininity. Over the course of a long, restless heatwave, the matron finds herself irresistibly drawn ever closer into Mrs S’s world and their unspoken desire blooms into an illicit affair of electric intensity. But, as the summer begins to fade, both women know that a choice must be made.
K Patrick’s portrait of the butch experience is revelatory; exploring the contested terrain of our bodies, our desires and the constraints society places around both. Mrs S marks the arrival of a major new literary talent, unlike any other.
‘The intense physicality of the novel’s emotions and its stylish, stripped-back prose make for an arresting pairing’ Observer
Published June 8th by Harper Collins UK Literary Fiction, Humorous Fiction, Urban Fiction
SYNOPSIS: The uplifting, unforgettable new novel from the acclaimed author of The Reading List
In a small pocket of London, between the houses of No.77 and No.79 Eastbourne Road, lies a neglected community garden.
Once a sanctuary for people when they needed it most, the garden’s gate is now firmly closed. And that’s exactly how Winston at No.79 likes it – anything to avoid his irritating new next-door neighbour.
But when a mystery parcel drops on Winston’s doormat – a curious bundle of photographs of a community garden, his garden, bursting with life years ago – a seed of an idea is planted . . .
Somewhere out there, a secret gardener made a decades-old promise to keep the community’s spirit alive. And now it’s time for The Twilight Garden to come out of hibernation . . .
Sweeping through the 1970s to a modern corner of London, this is a life-affirming story of small spaces, small pleasures – and a community lost and found.
Published June 8th, 2023 by Bloomsbury Publishing Humour, Romance Novel, Domestic Fiction
SYNOPSIS: Chosen by The Irish Times and Tatler as a fiction highlight for 2023 WHEN THE STAKES ARE HIGH, HOW LOW WILL YOU GO?
Ayesha Scott has a perfect life. Home is an art-filled Cornish castle with her stratospherically wealthy, titled husband and their beloved daughter. But behind every realised dream lurks an unexploded nightmare and in the course of one day Ayesha discovers that she will be penniless, homeless and powerless unless she can outwit the international mafia, infiltrate the world of high finance and make backstreet deals with the shadiest members of the art world.
Hurt and betrayed, she’s determined to fight for herself and her daughter – but can she do it without enlisting the help of her beloved, deeply eccentric but estranged family?
Sharp escapist fiction, High Time is a novel about high stakes and high jinx set in the world of high art and high finance.
Published June 8th by Harvill Secker Legal Thriller, Psychological Thriller, Suspense
SYNOPSIS: The most dangerous person in the courtroom isn’t the killer. . .
Revelle is a court interpreter and knows the power of words. She spends her days translating for other people; murderers, fraudsters and their victims. She speaks their words. Only she knows exactly what they’re saying.
When she spots an injustice is about to take place, and a guilty man about to be labelled innocent, she has the power to twist an alibi to get the verdict she wants. The verdict she believes is correct. She’s willing to risk it all.
Published June 8th by Zaffre Humour, Mystery, Cozy Mystery, Humorous Fiction
SYNOPSIS: Motherland meets Midsomer Murders in this fresh and funny mystery about a group of soon-to-be mums who turn detective when there’s a murder at their antenatal class.
FEATURED IN THE EVENING STANDARD‘S BOOKS TO WATCH IN 2023
‘Cosy crime at its finest!’ JANICE HALLETT
‘A sharply witty debut’ SIMON BRETT
For Alice and her partner Joe, moving to the sleepy Cotswold village of Penton is a chance to embrace country life and prepare for the birth of their unexpected first child. He can take up woodwork; maybe she’ll learn to make jam. But the rural idyll they’d hoped for doesn’t quite pan out when a dead body is discovered at their local antenatal class and they find themselves suspects in a murder investigation.
With a cloud of suspicion hanging over the heads of the whole group, Alice sets out to solve the mystery and clear her name, with the help of her troublesome dog, Helen. However, there are more secrets and tensions in the heart of Penton than first meet the eye. Between the discovery of a shady commune up in the woods, the unearthing of a mysterious death years earlier and the near-tragic poisoning of Helen, Alice is soon in way over her head.
Published June 13th by Sphere Romancic Comedy, Contemporary Romance, Literary Ficiton
SYNOPSIS: From the author of tiktok sensations and global bestsellers The Love Hypothesis and Love on the Brain
Rival physicists collide in a vortex of academic feuds and fake dating shenanigans in this delightfully STEMinist romcom.
The many lives of theoretical physicist Elsie Hannaway have finally caught up with her. By day, she’s an adjunct professor, toiling away at grading labs and teaching thermodynamics in the hopes of landing tenure. By other day, Elsie makes up for her non-existent paycheck by offering her services as a fake girlfriend, tapping into her expertly honed people-pleasing skills to embody whichever version of herself the client needs.
Honestly, it’s a pretty sweet gig – until her carefully constructed Elsie-verse comes crashing down. Because Jack Smith, the annoyingly attractive and arrogant older brother of her favourite client, turns out to be the cold-hearted experimental physicist who ruined her mentor’s career and undermined the reputation of theorists everywhere. And he’s the same Jack Smith who rules over the physics department at MIT, standing right between Elsie and her dream job.
Elsie is prepared for an all-out war of scholarly sabotage but… those long, penetrating looks? Not having to be anything other than her true self when she’s with him? Will falling into an experimentalist’s orbit finally tempt her to put her most guarded theories on love into practice?
Published June 15th by Magpie Historical Fiction, Fantasy Ficiton, Historical Fantsasy, Fairy Tale, Adventure Fiction, Arthurian Romance
SYNOPSIS: One of National Book Tokens’ ’23 Books to Read in 2023′
An atmospheric, feminist retelling of the early life of famed villainess Morgan le Fay, set against the colourful chivalric backdrop of Arthurian legend.
When King Uther Pendragon murders her father and tricks her mother into marriage, Morgan refuses to be crushed. Trapped amid the machinations of men in a world of isolated castles and gossiping courts, she discovers secret powers. Vengeful and brilliant, it’s not long before Morgan becomes a worthy adversary to Merlin, influential sorcerer to the king. But fighting for her freedom, she risks losing everything – her reputation, her loved ones and her life.
Clytemnestra’s Bind (The House of Atreus) by Susan C. Wilson
Published June 15th by Neem Tree Press Greek Mythology, Fairy Tale, Myths, Historical Romance
SYNOPSIS: Perfect for fans of MADELINE MILLER’S CIRCE and THE SONG OF ACHILLES, this is the first instalment in an epic three-part series.
The House of Atreus is spiralling into self-destruction – a woman must find a way to break the family curse.
Queen Clytemnestra’s world shatters when Agamemnon, a rival to the throne of Mycenae, storms her palace, destroys her family and claims not only the throne but Clytemnestra herself. Tormented by her loss, she vows to do all she can to protect the children born from her unhappy marriage to Agamemnon. But when her husband casts his ruthless gaze towards the wealthy citadel of Troy, his ambitions threaten to once more destroy the family Clytemnestra loves.
From one of Greek mythology’s most reviled characters – a woman who challenged the absolute power of men – comes this fiery tale of power, family rivalry and a mother’s burning love.
Published June 15th by Pan Macmillan Thriller, Mystery, Suspense, Psychological Thriller, Crime Fiction, Domestic Fiction
SYNOPSIS: A breathless page-turner from an international master of suspense, this is a story about dependency, justice, and the sometimes fine line between right and wrong.
Three young people.
Bill, a widower and single dad, is in a financial mess with bills to pay when he rents out a room in his apartment to Karla.
Karla left home to study law and to earn some money begins working as a cleaner at the palatial home of Steven and Regina Rytter. But inside their house it is clear that something is wrong with the doctor and his wife, who never leaves her bedroom.
Jennica is single and careerless when she meets Steven on Tinder. But just as she thinks her luck is changing, it soon becomes clear that Steven is hiding secrets of his own . . .
Two murders.
By the end of the summer Steven and Regina Rytter will be found dead in their home and the questions will begin . . .
One truth.
Ordinary people will do things they never thought possible when faced with extraordinary circumstances, and the truth is that the woman inside may hold the key to it all . . .
Published June 22nd by Simon & Schuster UK Mystery, Suspense, Psychological Thriller, Crime Ficiton, Legal Thriller, Political Thriller, Legal Story
SYNOPSIS: TO STEAL A MAN’S FREEDOM ALL IT TAKES IS . . . CONVICTION
Wade Darling stands accused of killing his wife and teenage children as they slept before burning the family home to the ground.
When the case lands on barrister Neve Harper’s desk, she knows it could be the career making case she’s been waiting for. But only if she can prove Wade’s innocence.
A matter of days before the case, as Neve is travelling home for the night, she is approached by a man. He tells her she must lose this case or the secret about her own husband’s disappearance will be revealed.
Failing that, he will kill everyone she cares about until she follows orders.
Neve must make a choice – betray every principle she has ever had by putting a potentially innocent man in prison, or risk putting those she loves in mortal danger.
For fans of Steve Cavanagh, Linwood Barclay and Gillian McAllister, introducing the latest novel from the master of the moral dilemma, Jack Jordan.
Published June 22nd by Orenda Gothic Fiction, Historical Fiction, Thriller, Suspense, Historical Romance
SYNOPSIS: The estranged grandson of a wealthy collector of human curiosities becomes fascinated with teenaged twin sisters, leading them into a web of dark obsessions. A dazzlingly dark gothic novel from the bestselling author of The Somnambulist.
‘Essie Fox follows in the footsteps of Angela Carter and AS Byatt with an adult fairy tale that delves into the darkest compulsions of human nature … an opium trance of a novel, a vivid fantasmagoria’ Noel O’Reilly
‘An enthralling tale about deception, love and loss, and what it means to be different. Macabre and shocking, beautiful and tender, it had me spellbound’ Louisa Treger
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Victorian England. A world of rural fairgrounds and glamorous London theatres. A world of dark secrets and deadly obsessions…
Twin sisters Keziah and Tilly Lovell are identical in every way, except that Tilly hasn’t grown a single inch since she was five. Coerced into promoting their father’s quack elixir as they tour the country fairgrounds, at the age of fifteen the girls are sold to a mysterious Italian known as ‘Captain’.
Theo is an orphan, raised by his grandfather, Lord Seabrook, a man who has a dark interest in anatomical freaks and other curiosities … particularly the human kind. Resenting his grandson for his mother’s death in childbirth, when Seabrook remarries and a new heir is produced, Theo is forced to leave home without a penny to his name.
Theo finds employment in Dr Summerwell’s Museum of Anatomy in London, and here he meets Captain and his theatrical ‘family’ of performers, freaks and outcasts.
But it is Theo’s fascination with Tilly and Keziah that will lead all of them into a web of deceits, exposing the darkest secrets and threatening everything they know…
Exploring universal themes of love and loss, the power of redemption and what it means to be unique, The Fascination is an evocative, glittering and bewitching gothic novel that brings alive Victorian London – and darkness and deception that lies beneath…
Published June 22nd by Headline Historical Fiction
SYNOPSIS: Dear Reader, the man I love is trying to kill me…
A rich, beguiling story of long-buried secrets and dark obsession, The Birdcage Library will hold you in its spell until the final page.
‘A delicious page-turning mystery within a mystery, with twists and surprises’ LIZ HYDER ‘Gothic, gorgeous and atmospheric; an immersive page-turner to be swept up in’ ELLERY LLOYD ‘It glistens with a hint of the danger that lurks within’ CHARLOTTE PHILBY _________
1932. Emily Blackwood, adventuress and plant hunter, travels north for a curious new commission. A gentleman has written to request she catalogue his vast collection of taxidermied creatures before sale.
On arrival, Emily finds a ruined castle, its owner haunted by a woman who vanished five decades before. And when she discovers the ripped pages of a diary, crammed into the walls, she realises dark secrets lie here, waiting to entrap her too…
Published June 22nd by Mantle Historical Fiction, Crime Fiction
SYNOPSIS: ‘A book that stays with you . . . The Square of Sevens is a masterpiece’ – Janice Hallett, bestselling author of The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels
‘A sweeping Dickensian tour de force of a novel . . . cementing the author’s place as the queen of modern Georgian literature’ – Susan Stokes-Chapman, bestselling author of Pandora
Laura Shepherd-Robinson’s The Square of Sevens is an epic and sweeping novel set in Georgian high society, a dazzling story offering up mystery, intrigue, heartbreak, and audacious twists.
‘My father had spelt it out to me. Choice was a luxury I couldn’t afford. This is your story, Red. You must tell it well . . .’
A girl known only as Red, the daughter of a Cornish fortune-teller, travels with her father making a living predicting fortunes using the ancient method: the Square of Sevens. When her father suddenly dies, Red becomes the ward of a gentleman scholar.
Now raised as a lady amidst the Georgian splendour of Bath, her fortune-telling is a delight to high society. But she cannot ignore the questions that gnaw at her soul: who was her mother? How did she die? And who are the mysterious enemies her father was always terrified would find him?
The pursuit of these mysteries takes her from Cornwall and Bath to London and Devon, from the rough ribaldry of the Bartholomew Fair to the grand houses of two of the most powerful families in England. And while Red’s quest brings her the possibility of great reward, it also leads into her grave danger . . .
‘The Square of Sevens dazzles with heart, mystery and breathtaking detail. I doubt I’ll read a better book this year’ ― Chris Whitaker, bestselling author of We Begin at the End
Published June 22nd by Manilla Press Historical Fiction, Historical Romance, Historical Fantasy, Magical Realism, Supernatrual Fiction, Horror Fantasy
SYNOPSIS: At a time of extraordinary change, two women must harness their talents to take control of their own destiny . . .
Bristol, 1896. Used to scraping a living as the young assistant to an ageing con artist, Cecily Marsden’s life is turned upside down when her master suddenly dies. Believing herself to blame, could young Cec somehow have powers she little understands?
Meanwhile Eadie Carleton, a pioneering early film-maker, struggles for her talent to be taken seriously in a male-dominated world, and a brilliant young magician, George Perris, begins to see the potential in moving pictures. George believes that if he can harness this new technology, it will revolutionise the world of magic forever – but in order to achieve his dreams, he must first win over Miss Carleton . . .
As a group of illusionists prepare for a grand spectacle, Cec, Eadie and George’s worlds collide. But while Cec falls in love with the bustling realm of theatre and magic, she faces the fight of her life to save the performance from sabotage and harness the element of real magic held deep within her.
THE ILLUSIONS is the captivating new novel from the much-lauded author of THE GIFTS. Inspired by real-life illusionists and early film pioneers, this astonishing story of women and talent, magic and power, sweeps you into a world where anything is possible and nothing is quite as it seems . . .
‘Hyder is a wonderfully accomplished storyteller. The Illusions is a magical tale of innovation, darkness and delight. A book to disappear into – I devoured it greedily’ Joanne Burn, author of The Hemlock Cure
‘Filled with wonders in all forms, in real life and in the theatre, this is a story that will mesmerise and cast its spell. I loved it’ Essie Fox
Published June 22nd by Fourth Estate Historical Fantasy, Historical Mystery, Supernatural Fiction, Religious Fiction
SYNOPSIS: The irresistible story of two rival mediums in Victorian London…
’Charming, gorgeous, an utter delight’ Marian Keyes
Mrs Wood is London’s most celebrated medium. She’s managed to survive decades in the competitive world of contacting the Other Side, has avoided the dreaded slips that revealed others as frauds and is still hosting packed-out séances for Victorian high society.
Yet, some of her patrons have recently cancelled their appointments. There are reports of American mediums nearly materialising full spirits and audiences are no longer satisfied with the knocking on tables and candle theatrics of years gone by. And then, at one of Mrs Wood’s routine gatherings, she hears something terrifying – faint, but unmistakable: a yawn.
Mrs Wood needs to spice up her brand. She decides to take on Emmie, a young protégé, to join her show. But is Emmie Finch the naïve ingenue she seems to be? Or does she pose more of a threat to Mrs Wood’s reign and, more horrifyingly, her reputation than Mrs Wood could ever have imagined?
After That Night (Will Trent Book 11) by Karin Slaughter
Published June 22nd by Harper Collins UK Thriller, Mystery, Suspense, Crime Fiction, Police Procedural, Crime Series
SYNOPSIS: After that night, nothing was ever the same again …
Fifteen years ago, Sara Linton’s life changed forever when a celebratory night out ended in a violent attack that tore her world apart. Since then, Sara has remade her life. A successful doctor, engaged to a man she loves, she has finally managed to leave the past behind her.
Until one evening, on call in the ER, everything changes. Sara battles to save a broken young woman who’s been brutally attacked. But as the investigation progresses, led by GBI Special Agent Will Trent, it becomes clear that Dani Cooper’s assault is uncannily linked to Sara’s.
And it seems the past isn’t going to stay buried forever …
Published June 22nd by Michael Joseph Thriller, Mystery, Suspense, Psychological Thriller, Crime Fiction, Police Procedural, Southern Fiction
SYNOPSIS: Being developed as a TV series by FOX Network
‘Haunting, heartfelt, chilling and beautifully told, Night Will Find You walks that rare line between mystery, thriller and truly original character study. I adored it’ CHRIS WHITAKER, bestselling author of WE BEGIN AT THE END
——————
Vivvy Bouchet, respected scientist and reluctant psychic, saved a boy’s life after a premonition when she was a child. That boy is now a Texas police officer.
He convinces Vivvy to help him solve a high-profile cold case, working alongside detective Jesse Sharp, a sceptic of anything but fact. Three-year-old Lizzie Solomon disappeared in broad daylight from her home. A body was never found, but the child’s mother, Nicolette, is in prison for the disappearance, loudly proclaiming her innocence.
When a popular podcaster hears of Vivvy’s involvement in the case, his conspiracy theories about the missing child, and Vivvy’s background, have an army of fans hanging on every dangerous word.
But when it becomes clear there may be a kidnapper – or killer – still on the loose, Vivvy knows there’s more to lose than her reputation.
Because the difference between the truth and a lie can mean life or death . . .
A sharply observed psychological thriller, Night Will Find You explores the dangerous meeting of conspiracy theories and our need to believe – and the line between fact and what we can’t explain.
Published June 22nd by Baskerville Mystery, Thriller, Suspense, Contemporary Fiction
SYNOPSIS: Seven women stand in shock in a seedy hotel room; a man’s severed head sits in the centre of the floor. Each of the women – the wife, the teenager, the ex, the journalist, the colleague, the friend, and the woman who raised him – has a very good reason to have done it, yet each swears she didn’t. In order to protect each other, they must figure out who did.
Against the ticking clock of a murder investigation, each woman’s secret is brought to light as the connections between them converge to reveal a killer.
A beautifully written debut thriller about love, loyalty, and manipulation, Speak of the Devil explores the roles in which women are cast in the lives of terrible men . . . and the fallout when they refuse to stay silent for one moment longer.
Published June 22nd by Aries Fiction Mystery, Suspense, Humour, Romance Novel, Contemporary Romance, Psychological Thriller
SYNOPSIS: ‘Utterly compelling and laught-out-loud funny.’ Katy Brent, author of How To Kill Men and Get Away With It
Finding true love can be murder.
Gwen Turner, 29, entrepreneur and part-time barista.
Likes: true-crime podcasts, cheese-based snacks (the more unnaturally orange the better) and constantly refreshing her dating apps.
Dislikes: two-day hangovers, people who refer to themselves as entrepreneurs… and discovering her latest match is actually a serial killer (probably should have put that top of the list).
They say romance is dead – but if Gwen can’t catch the mystery killer who’s targeting every man she’s ever dated – it’s about to get a whole lot more deadly.
A twisty, fast-paced and darkly hilarious modern murder mystery set in the terrifying and mystifying world of online dating, Don’t Swipe Right is perfect for fans of Bella Mackie’s How To Kill Your Family and Netflix’s You.
Published June 22nd by Michael Joseph Humorous Fiction, Domestic Fiction, Revenge Comedy
SYNOPSIS: Does she have the perfect life? Or is she living the perfect lie?
Iris is happy, really. No, this isn’t exactly what she thought her forties would look like…she’s divorced. She hasn’t had the baby she so wanted. She’s had to rent out her spare room to help with the bills. But she has a job as a kitchen designer that she loves, and great friends. Things could definitely be worse.
Social influencer Maddy Fulford’s brand is happy families. She preaches loyalty and the sanctity of marriage, and is quickly becoming famous for her wholesome videos of family life. But she’s also the woman who destroyed Iris’s marriage, and Iris isn’t sure she can bear the hypocrisy … But what happens when not everything being posted is the complete truth?
Jane’s sharply hilarious novel explores the murky truths behind the versions of ourselves we project online, the lengths we go to when we feel we’ve been wronged, and the often unlikely places we find true friendship.
Published June 22nd by Tor Fantasy Fiction, Historical Fiction, Historical Fantasy, Dark Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Supernatural Fiction, Paranormal Fiction, Paranormal Fantasy
SYNOPSIS: If you knew how dark tomorrow would be, what would you do with today?
The First Bright Thing by J. R. Dawson is a spellbinding debut for fans of The Night Circus and The Invisible Life of Addie La Rue.
Welcome to the Circus of the Fantasticals.
Ringmaster – Rin, to those who know her best – can jump to different moments in time as easily as her wife, Odette, soars from bar to bar on the trapeze. With the scars of World War I feeling more distant as the years pass, Rin is focusing on the brighter things in life. Like the circus she’s built and the magical misfits and outcasts – known as Sparks – who’ve made it their home. Every night, Rin and the Fantasticals enchant a Big Top packed full with audiences who need to see the impossible.
But while the present is bright, threats come at Rin from the past and the future. The future holds an impending war that the Sparks can see barrelling toward their Big Top and everyone in it. And Rin’s past creeps closer every day, a malevolent shadow Rin can’t fully escape. It takes the form of another Spark circus, with tents as black as midnight and a ringmaster who rules over his troupe with a dangerous power. Rin’s circus has something he wants, and he won’t stop until it’s his.
Published June 22nd by Headline Thriller, Suspense, Psychological Thriller
SYNOPSIS: Today, nothing is going right for Em. And it’s about to get much worse. Heartbroken by a recent split, with her 30th birthday looming, she loses her job and her home in the same morning because of two swaggering, dishonest men – the boss who sexually harassed her and the flatmate sleeping with her behind his fiancée’s back. But all Em can think about is catching a flight to attend her sister’s wedding and see her dying mother.
With a record-breaking heatwave, and a serial killer making the streets unsafe, London is completely gridlocked. Em’s life has always been full of men getting their own way, and today the scorched city teems with them standing between her and home. As Em’s troubled past returns to haunt her, she refuses to let them win. Her defiance leads to shocking consequences that soon spiral wildly out of control.
In a world where men don’t listen, and girls have no voice, one woman can change everything. Today, no one will be staying silent.
Published June 22nd by Zaffre Mystery, Trhiller, Crime Fiction, Detective Stories, Women Sleuths
SYNOPSIS: Agatha Christie meets Andy Weir in the ultimate locked room mystery set in the first hotel on the moon. Perfect for fans of Lucy Foley, Anthony Horowitz and Hanna Jameson.
FEATURED IN THE EVENING STANDARD‘S BOOKS TO WATCH IN 2023
‘And Then There Were None meets Black Mirror. Lauren Forry’s moon-based murder mystery is heaps of fun. I had a blast!’ TOM HINDLE, author of A Fatal Crossing
THE TRIP OF A LIFETIME. YOU’D DIE TO BE THERE.
Ten lucky people have won a place at the most exclusive launch event of the century: the grand opening of the Hotel Artemis, the first hotel on the moon. It’s an invitation to die for. As their transport departs for its return to Earth and the doors seal shut behind them, the guests take the next leap for mankind.
However, they soon discover that all is not as it seems. The champagne may be flowing, but there is no one to pour it. Room service is available, but there is no one to deliver it. Besides the ten of them, they are completely alone.
When one of the guests is found murdered, fear spreads through the group. But that death is only the beginning. Being three days’ journey from home and with no way to contact the outside, can any of the guests survive their stay?
Published June 22nd by Michael Joseph Suspense, Thriller, Psychological Thriller
SYNOPSIS: With her life back in London falling apart, Olivia cannot believe her luck when she’s invited on a once-in-a-lifetime Antarctic cruise with her boyfriend, Aaron.
Olivia has never been anywhere so spectacular: huge cliffs of ice loom high on the horizon, penguins dive through the sparkling sea, and above it all, the sun never sets in the eerie twilight sky.
And then Aaron disappears. And a body is discovered on board.
Surrounded by strangers, Olivia has no idea who she can trust.
And if she can’t figure it out soon, she won’t make it back alive…
Published June 22nd by Doubleday UK Literary Fiction, Contemporary Fiction
SYNOPSIS: Flo is sick of Tokyo. Suffering from a crisis in confidence, she is stuck in a rut, her translation work has dried up and she’s in a relationship that’s run its course. That’s until she stumbles upon a mysterious book left by a fellow passenger on the Tokyo Subway. From the very first page, Flo is transformed and immediately feels compelled to translate this forgotten novel, a decision which sets her on a path that will change her life…
It is a story about Ayako, a fierce and strict old woman who runs a coffee shop in the small town of Onomichi, where she has just taken guardianship of her grandson, Kyo. Haunted by long-buried family tragedy, both have suffered extreme loss and feel unable to open up to each other. As Flo follows the characters across a year in rural Japan, through the ups and downs of the pair’s burgeoning relationship, she quickly realises that she needs to venture outside the pages of the book to track down its elusive author. And, as her two protagonists reveal themselves to have more in common with her life than first meets the eye, the lines between text and translator converge. The journey is just beginning.
From the author of The Cat and The City, Four Seasons in Japan is a gorgeously crafted book-within-a-book about literature, purpose and what it is to belong.
Published June 22nd by Virago Literary Fiction, Humorous Fiction
SYNOPSIS: The Rachel Incident is an all-consuming love story. But it’s not the one you expected…
*2023’s MOST ANTICIPATED SUMMER READ*
‘Funny, LOVELY, romantic, DRENCHED in nostalgia’ MARIAN KEYES ‘You will love The Rachel Incident’ GABRIELLE ZEVIN, author of Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow
The Rachel Incident is an all-consuming love story. But it’s not the one you’re expecting. It’s unconventional and messy. It’s young and foolish. It’s about losing and finding yourself. But it is always about love.
When Rachel falls in love with her married professor, Dr Byrne, her best friend James helps her devise a plan to seduce him. But what begins as a harmless crush soon pushes their friendship to its limits. Over the course of a year they will find their lives ever more entwined with the Byrnes’ and be faced with impossible choices and a lie that can’t be taken back…
Published June 29th by Ebury Books LGBTQ+ Biographies, Social Issues
SYNOPSIS: Hey, I’m Jamie, a 29-year-old trans guy from the UK. I’ve been transitioning for 12 years now after realising I was trans (by accident!) at sixteen years old. I knew I was a boy since the age of four, but realised whilst growing up that I was different. It was only in my teens that I found the words to express who I was and what I needed to do. Since then, I’ve been on testosterone for more than a decade – I know, I can’t believe it either – I’ve also had top and bottom surgery and legally changed my sex, so I know a few things about the transitioning process and being trans!
I want to welcome you to The T in LGBT where you can explore and learn about so many topics surrounding gender identity: realising you’re trans, starting hormones, considering surgery, and everything in between. Whether you’re questioning your own identity and are looking for advice on certain stages of transition, or whether you’re wanting to learn about the trans experience to support someone or understand allyship, I hope this book can be your one-stop guide to everything trans related.
And don’t just take my word for it either – this book is packed full of advice, tips, and the personal stories of a range of trans voices, because no one journey is the same.
Welcome to another edition of Emma’s Anticipated Treasures. Somehow, it’s time for May’s edition. I swear time speeds up with every passing year!
May is another brilliant month for books. There’s some exciting debuts such as Orphia and Eurydicius, Fyneshade, The Cassandra Complex, Psyche and Eros, The Curse of Saints, and Yellowface, and then there are new releases by some of my favourite authors such as Polly Crosby, Joanne Harris, A. A. Chaudhuri, Will Dean, Mark Edwards, and A. J. Pearce.
So, withouth further ado, here are the books I’m most looking forward to being released in May:
Orphia and Eurydiciusby Elyse John
Published May 3rd, 2023 by Harper Collins Australia Fairy Tale, Mythology, Historical Fiction, Historical Romance, Contemporary Romance, LGBT Literature
SYNOPSIS: A stunning, enthralling story about unconventional love, the power of creativity and the courage of women who struggle to make their voices heard – for fans of Jennifer Saint, Madeline Miller and Pat Barker.
Their love transcends every boundary. Can it cheat death?
Orphia dreams of something more than the warrior crafts she’s been forced to learn. Hidden away on a far-flung island, her blood sings with poetry and her words can move flowers to bloom and forests to grow … but her father, the sun god Apollo, has forbidden her this art.
A chance meeting with a young shield-maker, Eurydicius, gives her the courage to use her voice. After wielding all her gifts to defeat one final champion, Orphia draws the scrutiny of the gods. Performing her poetry, she wins the protection of the goddesses of the arts: the powerful Muses, who welcome her to their sanctuary on Mount Parnassus. Orphia learns to hone her talents, crafting words of magic infused with history, love and tragedy.
When Eurydicius joins her, Orphia struggles with her desire for fame and her budding love. As her bond with the gentle shield-maker grows, she joins the Argonauts on their quest for the Golden Fleece. Facing dragons, sirens and ruthless warriors on the voyage, Orphia earns unparalleled fame, but she longs to return to Eurydicius.
Yet she has a darker journey to make – one which will see her fight for her love with all the power of her poetry.
Published May 4th, 2023 by Doubleday UK Literary Fiction, Coming-of-Age Story
SYNOPSIS: OVER A MILLION COPIES SOLD IN JAPAN WINNER OF THE NAOKI PRIZE AND THE JAPAN BOOKSELLERS’ AWARD
The Night Circus meets Lonely Castle in the Mirror in this million-copy multi-awardwinning Japanese bestseller, available finally in an English translation by Philip Gabriel, a translator of Murakami
‘A pitch-perfect, vivid masterpiece’ Nick Bradley, author of The Cat and The City ‘Propulsive and poetic’ Kirkus Reviews ______________________
Welcome to a magical world of music, friendship and rivalry …
In a small coastal town just a stone’s throw from Tokyo, a prestigious piano competition is underway. Over the course of two feverish weeks, three friends will experience some of the most joyous – and painful – moments of their lives. Though they don’t know it yet, each will profoundly and unpredictably change the others, for ever.
Aya was a piano genius, until she ran away from the stage and vanished; will the tall and talented Makun bring her back? Or will it be child of nature, Jin, a pianist without a piano, who carries the sound of his father’s bees wherever he goes? Each of them will break the rules, awe their fans and push themselves to the brink. But at what cost?
Tender, cruel, compelling, HONEYBEES AND DISTANT THUNDER is the unflinching story of love, courage and rivalry. Most of all, it shows how three young people reconcile with the highs and lows of what it means to truly be a friend.
Published May 4th, 2023 by Allen & Unwin Contemporary Fiction, Humorous Fiction
SYNOPSIS: ***’A refreshing perspective on mourning, as well as a moving tale of a social outcast’ – i-D Magazine***
An Yu’s Braised Pork meets Flaubert’s Madame Bovary in this unforgettable, tragi-comic tale of one woman’s mid-life re-awakening in contemporary rural China.
The Funeral Cryer long ago accepted the mundane realities of her life: avoided by fellow villagers because of the stigma attached to her job as a professional mourner and under-appreciated by The Husband, whose fecklessness has pushed the couple close to the brink of break-up. But just when things couldn’t be bleaker, The Funeral Cryer takes a leap of faith – and in so doing things start to take a surprising turn for the better . . .
Dark, moving and wry, The Funeral Cryer is both an illuminating depiction of a ‘left behind’ society – and proof that it’s never too late to change your life.
Published May 4th, 2023 by Picador Historical Fiction, Romance Saga, Coming-of-Age Story, Lesbian Literature
SYNOPSIS: ‘Masterful in its portrayal of love, sex and friendship’ – The Observer ‘Utterly engrossing, vivid and honest’ – Emma Donoghue
Raised in a brothel at the edge of a dying empire, a boy of no known origin creates his own identity. He is Sparrow, who sings without reason and can fly from trouble. His world is a kitchen, a herb-scented garden, a loud and dangerous tavern, and the mysterious upstairs where the ‘wolves’ – prostitutes and slaves from every corner of the empire – conduct their business.
He spends his days listening to stories told by his beloved ‘mother’ Euterpe, running errands for her lover the cook, and dodging the blows of their brutal overseer and the machinations of the chief wolf, Melpomene. A hard fate awaits Sparrow, one that involves suffering, murder, mayhem, and the scattering of the women who have been his whole world.
Through meticulous research and bold imagination, James Hynes brings the entirety of the Roman city of Carthago Nova – its markets, temples, taverns of the lowly and mansions of the rich – to vivid, brutal life. Walking through lost places, hearing forgotten voices, this story belongs to the slave class that made an infamous empire function.
This is one of the most powerfully affecting and memorable characters of recent fiction. This is Sparrow.
Published May 4th, 2023 by Doubleday UK Fairy Tale, Thriller, Historical Fiction, Gothic Ficiton, Supernatural Fiction, Historical Fantasy, Science Ficiton, LGBT Literature
SYNOPSIS: ‘Compelling and utterly absorbing … an artfully crafted debut that echoes the dark essence of Mary Shelley’s FRANKENSTEIN while maintaining a fascinating originality all of its own’ Susan Stokes-Chapman, author of PANDORA
‘A gripping Gothic tale of grief and ambition, passion and intrigue’ Jess Kidd, author of THE NIGHT SHIP
Mary is the great-niece of Victor Frankenstein. She knows her great uncle disappeared in mysterious circumstances in the Arctic but she doesn’t know why or how…
The 1850s is a time of discovery and London is ablaze with the latest scientific theories and debates, especially when a spectacular new exhibition of dinosaur sculptures opens at the Crystal Palace. Mary, with a sharp mind and a sharper tongue, is keen to make her name in this world of science, alongside her geologist husband Henry, but without wealth and connections, their options are limited.
But when Mary discovers some old family papers that allude to the shocking truth behind her great-uncle’s past, she thinks she may have found the key to securing their future… Their quest takes them to the wilds of Scotland, to Henry’s intriguing but reclusive sister Maisie, and to a deadly chase with a rival who is out to steal their secret…
Published May 4th, 2023 by Corvus Mystery, Ghost Story, Contemporary Horror
SYNOPSIS: ‘Fast, funny and furious, this book has bags of humour, bags of heart and a proper murder mystery at its core’ Janice Hallett Claire and Sophie aren’t your typical murder investigators . . .
When 30-something freelance medium Claire Hendricks is invited to an old university friend’s country pile to provide entertainment for a family party, her best friend Sophie tags along. In fact, Sophie rarely leaves Claire’s side, because she’s been haunting her ever since she was murdered at the age of seventeen.
On arrival at The Cloisters it quickly becomes clear that this family is hiding more than just the good china, as Claire learns someone has recently met an untimely end at the house.
Teaming up with the least unbearable members of the Wellington-Forge family – depressive ex-cop Basher and teenage radical Alex – Claire and Sophie determine to figure out not just whodunnit, but who they killed, why and when.
Together they must race against incompetence to find the murderer – before the murderer finds them… in this funny, modern, media-literate mystery for the My Favourite Murder generation.
Published May 4th, 2023 by Oneworld Publications Pyschological Thriller, Literary Fiction, Contemporary Fiction
SYNOPSIS: ‘I was blown away by this book… At once somber and joyful, sly and earnest, nimble and painstaking, perverse and profoundly invigorating.’ Lydia Kiesling, award-winning author of The Golden State
The baby I hold in my arms is a leech, let’s call her Button. Button is crying.
There is a before, and there is an after.
In her cramped Brooklyn apartment, a mother wilts beneath the intense August heat, struggling to adapt to her role as the silent interpreter of her newborn baby’s needs. She is not the first woman to give birth, to hold and carry and soothe and cradle. But the walls of her home seem to press ever closer as she balances on the fragile tightrope between maternal instinct and the longing for all she has left behind.
A lifeline emerges in the unexpected form of Peter, her ailing upstairs neighbour, who hushes the baby with his oxygen tank in tow. They are both confined to this oppressive apartment building, and they are both running out of time. Something is soon to crack.
In this mesmerizing portrait of the first days of motherhood, Szilvia Molnar lays bare the strength it takes to redefine who you are, and rediscover the simple pleasures of life along the way.
Published May 11th, 2023 by Hodder & Stoughton Thriller, Mystery, Suspense, Psychological Thriller
SYNOPSIS: A luxury cruise liner, abandoned with no crew, steaming into the mid-Atlantic. And you are the only passenger left on board.
‘Astonishing’ IAN RANKIN ‘Expect not just the unexpected but strokes of genius’ IMRAN MAHMOOD ‘Thrilling and terrifying in equal measure with a brilliantly heart-stopping ending. So good!’ B.A. PARIS
Caz Ripley, a cafe owner from a small, ordinary town, boards the RMS Atlantica with her boyfriend Pete and a thousand fellow passengers destined for New York. The next morning, she wakes to discover that everyone else on board has disappeared. And that’s just the beginning. Caz must prepare for a crossing that will be anything but plain sailing …
With the drama of The Woman in Cabin 10 and the tension of And Then There Were None , The Last Passenger is a psychological thriller set aboard a cruise ship about a woman whose seemingly ordinary life is suddenly thrown dramatically off course. Will Dean is The Master of Intense Suspense and this novel is full of his trademark twists and turns.
Published May 11th, 2023 by Coronet Literary Fiction, Domestic Fiction, Contemporary Fiction
SYNOPSIS: An ambitious new novel of family life past and present from the author of the Costa Book Awards shortlisted The Stranding.
A tender yet vivid novel in both form and voice, its threads as bright as the tapestry of life it depicts. I lived, laughed and ached for these characters throughout. A superb accomplishment.’ WIZ WHARTON
‘Subtle, intelligent, and so deeply moving … people who just feel so achingly real. Extraordinary.’ A.J. WEST
‘Lyrical, literary and luminous … buy it and treat yourself to writing at its finest.’ BETHANY CLIFT
‘Intriguing, gripping, moving – this deserves to be HUGE.’ MARIAN KEYES
‘Messy, complicated joyful characters and relationships that sneak into your heart and make you care … a bittersweet, deftly woven, captivating portrayal of a mother and daughters.’ JENNIFER SAINT
‘Unfolds like a great piece of theatre… The more I read, the harder it became to put down.’ BOBBY PALMER
It is my dearest wish, that after so long apart, I am able to bring this family together for my wedding day.
This house. This family.
Mary has raised a family in this house. Watched her children play and laugh and bicker in this house. Today she is getting married in this house, with all her family in attendance.
The wedding celebrations have brought fractured family together for the first time in years: there’s Phoebe and her husband Michael, children in tow. The young and sensitive Rosie, with her new partner. Irene, Mary’s ex-mother-in-law. Even Emma, Mary’s eldest, is back for the wedding – despite being at odds with everyone else.
Set over the course of an English summer’s day but punctuated with memories from the past forty years of love and loss, hope and joy, heartbreak and grief, this is the story of a family. Told by a chorus of characters, it is an exploration of the small moments that bring us to where we are, the changes that are brought about by time, and what, despite everything, stays the same.
Published May 11th, 2023 by Orion Thriller, Supernatural Fiction, Crime Fiction, Psychological Thriller
SYNOPSIS: ‘I inhaled this book in one long breath. It’s addictive – profound, moving and utterly unforgettable. Bernie Moon will live in my imagination for a long time to come.’ – CATRIONA WARD, Bestselling author of Sundial and The Last House on Needless Street
A bold and timely novel from #1 bestselling author Joanne Harris that explores how women can feel invisible as they grow older – and what happens when they decide to take back control…
Have you ever felt invisible?
Bernie Moon has given her life to other people: her husband, her son, her friends (who are these days, mostly online). At nineteen she was full of dreams and ambitions; now almost fifty, and going through the menopause, she’s fading, fast. Heartbroken and hormonal, she often feels like she’s losing her mind.
But when a young woman is murdered in a local park, it sparks a series of childhood memories in Bernie and with them, a talent that has lain dormant most of her adult life.
She promised herself she’d never think of it again. When she was a teenager, it almost destroyed her. But now she’s older, could it be the power she’s been missing?
Could it be the chance to, finally, make them look?
Published:May 11th, 2023 by Century Romance Novel, Fantasy Fiction, Magical Realism, Contemporary Romance, Time Travel Ficiton, Disability Fiction
SYNOPSIS: ‘This book is a treasure … Everyone should read it and everyone will love it’ Lindsey Kelk ‘Sharp, funny, quirky, insightful and so very, very relatable’ Joanne Harris ‘Deeply human, wildly original, and gut-warmingly funny. Holly Smale is a GENIUS’ Emma Jane Unsworth ‘A brilliantly clever, twisty story that dazzles with its wit whilst touching our hearts’ Sarah Haywood ___________________
Cassandra Penelope Dankworth is a creature of habit.
She likes what she likes (museums, jumpsuits, her boyfriend Will) and strongly dislikes what she doesn’t (mess, change, her boss drinking out of her mug). Her life runs in a pleasing, predictable order. Until now.
She’s just been dumped. She’s just been fired. Her local café has run out of banana muffins.
Then, something truly unexpected happens: Cassie discovers she can go back and change the past.
Now, Cassie should be able to find a way to fix the life she accidentally obliterated. And with time on her side, how hard can it be…?
The hotly anticipated adult novel from the multi-million-copy bestselling author of Geek Girl, Holly Smale.
Published: May 11th,2023by Michael Joseph Fantasy Fiction, Gothic Fiction, Historical Fantasy, Dark Fantasy, Romantic Fantasy
SYNOPSIS: PRE-ORDER THE SPELL-BINDING NEW FANTASY DEBUT THAT EVERYONE HAS BEEN TALKING ABOUT!
Has she been sent to save the realm or destroy it?
As Spymaster to the Queen, Aya’s blood oath ensures she protects those she fights alongside – including Will, the Queen’s Enforcer and Aya’s bitter rival.
When rumors of dark magic rise in a nearby kingdom, both are sent to investigate.
But when Aya’s power acts beyond her gods-given affinity, she risks being turned into a weapon in a war she doesn’t know how to win.
And when her relationship with Will unexpectedly shifts, neither knows the danger that will follow . . .
SYNOPSIS: Atmospheric, dramatic and full of nerve-jangling twists and turns, Thirty Days of Darkness is a darkly funny, unsettling debut Nordic Noir thriller that marks the start of a breath-taking new series.
A Danish literary author is challenged to write a crime novel in thirty days, travelling to a small village in Iceland for inspiration, and then a body appears … an atmospheric, darkly funny, twisty debut thriller, first in an addictive new series.
Copenhagen author Hannah is the darling of the literary community and her novels have achieved massive critical acclaim. But nobody actually reads them, and frustrated by writer’s block, Hannah has the feeling that she’s doing something wrong.
When she expresses her contempt for genre fiction, Hanna is publicly challenged to write a crime novel in thirty days. Scared that she will lose face, she accepts, and her editor sends her to Húsafjöður – a quiet, tight-knit village in Iceland, filled with colorful local characters – for inspiration.
But two days after her arrival, the body of a fisherman’s young son is pulled from the water … and what begins as a search for plot material quickly turns into a messy and dangerous investigation that threatens to uncover secrets that put everything at risk … including Hannah.
Published May 11th, 2023 by Michael Joseph Historical Fiction, War Story
SYNOPSIS: The greatest hero of the Second World War . . . is a girl you’ve never heard of
Pre-order the blazing debut novel based on the unsung true story of Hannie Schaft, a young-woman-turned-Dutch-Resistance-fighter in Nazi-occupied Netherlands
‘Inspiring, empowering, and timely, compellingly detailed and impressively researched, but better still, it’s an immersive story of a terrifying warren of history through which our guide is the sort of hero we all need right now: relatable and resolute and absolutely right’ Laurie Frankel, New York Times bestselling author of THIS IS HOW IT ALWAYS IS
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1940, Amsterdam.
You’re nineteen years old. The war has stolen your future and your country is under siege. The people you love are no longer safe.
Will you stand aside as the menace of Nazi evil tightens its grip on your homeland? Or do you unleash your fury, joining forces with your enemies’ enemies, plotting to strike?
Because if not you, then who?
You’re drawn deep into a web of plots, disguises and assassinations. The Resistance trained you for this. You flash your enemies a smile and beckon them closer.
Little do they know you’ve grown used to the weight of a gun in your hand…
Soon they will all know your name.
You’re “the Girl with the Red Hair.” A match for any Nazi soldier, a true threat, a target.
Published May 11th, 2023 by Serpent’s Tail Contemporary Horror, Horror Fiction, Myths, Fairy Tales
SYNOPSIS: ‘Had me gripped from start to finish … timely, horrifying, and hugely entertaining’ – Kiran Millwood Hargrave, author of The Dance Tree and The Mercies
The day Rowena Murray was born, 250 starlings fell like stones from the sky. Ever since, she has been marked by Death. First the visions; then her boyfriend died suddenly; now her father, too.
Salvation, Rowena is told, lies to the North: in Culcrith, where her grandmother can save her from the curse. Her mother’s farmhand, a young Egyptian man named Halim, is to drive her.
The trip isn’t easy. Rowena is rebellious, spiky, and sees bad omens everywhere; Halim is reserved, quiet and prefers to play by the rules; the land is mysterious and treacherous, with people who have married old traditions with new prejudices. The pair’s battle of wills may yet develop into an alliance, if they can only let their guards down and let the wild in.
Exploring belief, loyalty and legacies beyond our control, Nadia Attia’s thrilling debut is as magnetic and unpredictable as the curse Rowena is racing to escape.
Scarlet (The Scarlet Revolution 1) by Genevieve Cogman
Published May 11th, 2023 by Tor Fantasy Fiction, Historical Fiction, Fairy Tale, Historical Fantasy, Paranormal Ficiton, Paranormal Fanatsy
SYNOPSIS: Revolution’s a bloodthirsty business . . . Scarlet is a thrilling reinvention of the tale of The Scarlet Pimpernel with the addition of magic and even more mayhem.
Revolutionary France is no place to be, especially for aristocrat vampires facing the guillotine. But the League of the Scarlet Pimpernel are determined to rescue them. And they have an ace up their sleeve: Eleanor, a lowly maid from an English estate with a striking resemblance to French royalty.
For Eleanor, the League and their legendary deeds are little more than rumour – until she’s drawn into their most dangerous plot yet. The mission? Travel to France in disguise, impersonate Queen Marie Antoinette and rescue the royal family. If they succeed, it’ll be the heist of the century.
But there’s more to fear than ardent Revolutionaries. For Eleanor stumbles across a centuries-old war between vampires and their fiercest enemy. And they’re out for blood . . .
Scarlet is the first book in the Scarlet Revolution trilogy, set during the turbulent French Revolution, and featuring all of Genevieve Cogman’s trademark wit and fast-paced plotting. It’s perfect for fans of The Invisible Library series, Kim Newman and Gail Carriger.
The Book That Wouldn’t Burn (The Library Trilogy Book 1) by Mark Lawrence
Published May 11th, 2023 by Harper Voyager UK Fantasy Fiction, High Fantasy, Dark Fantasy, Romantic Fantasy, Historical Fantasy, Fantasy Series
SYNOPSIS: All books, no matter their binding, will fall to dust. The stories they carry may last longer. They might outlive the paper, the library, even the language in which they were first written.
The greatest story can reach the stars . . .
This is the start of an incredible new journey from the internationally bestselling author of Prince of Thorns, in which, though the pen may be mightier than the sword, blood will be spilled and cities burned…
Evar has lived his whole life trapped within a vast library, older than empires and larger than cities.
Livira has spent hers in a tiny settlement out on the Dust where nightmares stalk and no one goes.
The world has never noticed them.
That’s about to change.
As their stories spiral around each other, across worlds and time, each will unlock vast secrets about the world and themselves. This is a tale of truth and lies and hearts, and the blurring of one into another.
Published May 11th, 2023 by Bloomsbury Publishing Historical Fiction
SYNOPSIS: BOOK OF THE YEAR – EVENING STANDARD, THE OBSERVER and THE TIMES
‘Beautifully written and completely convincing’ The Observer
TO LOVE IS TO FALL . . .
On a rooftop in Elizabethan London two worlds collide. Shay is a messenger-girl and trainer of hawks who sees the future in the patterns of birds. Nonesuch is the dark star of the city’s fabled child theatre scene, as famous as royalty yet lowly as a beggar.
Together they create The Ghost Theatre: a troupe staging magical plays in London’s hidden corners. As their hallucinatory performances incite rebellion among the city’s outcasts, the pair’s relationship sparks and burns against a backdrop of the plague and a London in flames. Their growing fame sweeps them up into the black web of the Elizabethan court, where Shay and Nonesuch discover that if they fly too high, a fall is sure to come.
Fantastical and captivating, The Ghost Theatre charts the rise and dramatic destruction of a dream born from love and torn apart by betrayal.
Published May 11th, 2023 by Harper Teen Thriller, Romantic Mystery, Paranormal Fiction, Fantasy Ficiton, Young Adult Fiction
SYNOPSIS: Yellowjackets meets One of Us Is Lying in this masterful survival thriller from award-winningauthor Sarah Beth Durst.
Claire’s grown up triple-checking locks. Counting her steps. Second-guessing every decision. It’s just how she’s wired—her worst-case scenarios never actually come true.
Until she arrives at an off-the-grid summer camp to find a blackened, burned husk instead of a lodge—and no survivors, except her and two other late arrivals: Reyva and Mariana.
When the three girls find a dead body in the woods, they realize none of this is an accident. Someone, something, is hunting them. Something that hides in the shadows.
Published May 11th, 2023 by Mariner Books Historcial Fiction, Coming-of-Age Fiction
SYNOPSIS: “This powerful novel should join classics like Ernest J. Gaines’s The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, Helena Maria Viramontes’s Under the Feet of Jesus, and Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird.”—New York Times Book Review
A gripping, gut-punch of a novel about a Cherokee child removed from her family and sent to a Christian boarding school in the 1950s—an ambitious, eye-opening reckoning of history and small-town prejudices from Pulitzer Prize finalist Margaret Verble.
Kit Crockett lives on a farm with her grief-stricken, widowed father, tending the garden, fishing in a local stream, and reading Nancy Drew mysteries from the library bookmobile. One day, Kit discovers a mysterious and beautiful woman has moved in just down the road.
Kit and the newcomer, Bella, become friends, and the lonely Kit draws comfort from her. But when a malicious neighbor finds out, Kit suddenly finds herself at the center of a tragic, fatal crime and becomes a ward of the court. Her Cherokee family wants to raise her, but the righteous Christians in town instead send her to a religious boarding school. Kit’s heritage is attacked, and she’s subjected to religious indoctrination and other forms of abuse. But Kit secretly keeps a journal recounting what she remembers—and revealing just what she has forgotten. Over the course of Stealing, she unravels the truth of how she ended up at the school and plots a way out. If only she can make her plan work in time.
In swift, sharp, and stunning prose, Margaret Verble spins a powerful coming-of-age tale and reaffirms her place as an indelible storyteller and chronicler of history.
Published May 11th, 2023 by Avon Psychological Thriller, Crime Series
SYNOPSIS: ‘Completely unpredictable and OMG THAT ENDING!!!!’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
She thought she’d left her past behind. She was wrong…
Despite a childhood in the care system, Anna Price has beaten the odds and built for herself the perfect life, complete with beautiful seaside home, devoted husband and a job she loves.
Then a policeman appears at Anna’s door: her estranged brother Henry is a wanted serial killer, and the police need Anna’s help to catch him before he strikes again.
When an envelope turns up on her doorstep, Anna suddenly finds herself caught in a sick game. One that she remembers all too well from childhood – one that, this time, she must win at all costs…
Published May 16th, 2023 by Piatkus Contemporary Romance, Romance Novel, Holiday Fiction
SYNOPSIS: The True Love Experiment, the next escapist romance from Christina Lauren, New York Times bestselling author of TikTok favourite, The Unhoneymooners, is the book their fans have been waiting for, ever since Fizzy’s debut in The Soulmate Equation!
‘My favourite kind of book to devour: something that manages to be hot and intense, yet still the very best comfort food’ JODI PICOULT ……………
They’re crafting the perfect Hollywood romance for the screen. But the chemistry behind the camera might be the real story.
Felicity ‘Fizzy’ Chen is lost. Sure, she has an incredible career as a beloved romance novelist with numerous bestsellers to her name, but when she’s asked to give a commencement address, it hits her: she hasn’t been practising what she’s preached.
She hasn’t been in love. In lust? Sure. But that swoon-worthy, can’t-stop-thinking-about-him, all-encompassing feeling? Nope. And suddenly the optimism she’s encouraged in her readers starts to feel like a lie.
Connor Prince, documentary filmmaker and single father, loves that his work allows him to live near his daughter. Then his profit-minded boss orders him to create a reality TV show, putting it all in jeopardy. Desperate to find his romantic lead, a chance run-in with an exasperated Fizzy offers Connor the perfect solution. What if he could show the queen of romance herself falling head-over-heels? But when production on The True Love Experiment begins, Connor wonders if that perfect match will ever be in the cue cards for him too.
Published May 18th, 2023 by Viper Books Gothic Fiction, Historical Mystery, Suspense, Supernatural Fiction, Mystery
SYNOPSIS: ‘I was entranced from the first page to the last’ – ANTONIA HODGSON ‘A new standout voice in gothic fiction’ – SUSAN STOKES-CHAPMAN ‘A highly original work of dark gothic brilliance’ – JANICE HALLETT
Many would find much to fear in Fyneshade’s dark and crumbling corridors, its unseen master and silent servants. But not I. For they have far more to fear from me…
On the day of her beloved grandmother’s funeral, Marta discovers that she is to become governess to the young daughter of Sir William Pritchard. Separated from her lover and discarded by her family, Marta has no choice but to journey to Pritchard’s ancient and crumbling house, Fyneshade, in the wilds of Derbyshire.
All is not well at Fyneshade. Marta’s pupil, little Grace, can be taught nothing, and Marta takes no comfort from the silent servants who will not meet her eye. More intriguing is that Sir William is mysteriously absent, and his son and heir Vaughan is forbidden to enter the house. Marta finds herself drawn to Vaughan, despite the warnings of the housekeeper that he is a danger to all around him. But Marta is no innocent to be preyed upon. Guided by the dark gift taught to her by her grandmother, she has made her own plans. And it will take more than a family riven by murderous secrets to stop her…
Perfect for readers of Laura Purcell, Jessie Burton and Stacey Halls, Fyneshade is a dark and twisted gothic novel unlike any you’ve read before…
Published May 18th, 2023 by Hodder & Stoughton Suspense, Psychological Thriller, Contemporary Horror
SYNOPSIS: If you give this book a one-star review, you might end up dead.
Emma is house-sitting on the rainy Washington coast with only her golden retriever for company. She likes the isolation, the peace and quiet, and the opportunity to read.
But her latest pick, a poorly written and gruesome horror novel, is disappointing and Emma leaves a one-star review. A message dings back – the author, H.G. Kane, has replied and he’s furious. Emma brushes it off, until disturbing incidents start to occur. Scratches in the night. A figure crawling around in the shadows.
Kane has written sixteen other novels, all similarly sadistic tales of stalking and murder. He knows he’s a brilliant writer – he just needs to make Emma understand…
Expect the unexpected in this pulse-pounding novel of psychological suspense and terror from the critically acclaimed author of the TikTok sensation No Exit.
Published May 18th by Faber & Faber Litearary Fiction, Contemporary Fiction, Humorous Fiction
SYNOPSIS: ** SOON TO BE A MAJOR HBO SERIES STARRING JODIE COMER **
‘Made me laugh and think too much (the right amount?) about sex and death and honesty.‘ MONICA HEISEY ‘Utterly addictive. . . I laughed so hard it ached.’ GILLIAN ANDERSON ‘Juicy, salacious and compelling. Trauma shouldn’t be this fun.’ SARA PASCOE
Greta liked knowing people’s secrets. That wasn’t a problem. Until she met Big Swiss.
Big Swiss. That’s Greta’s nickname for her – she is tall, and she is from Switzerland. Greta can see her now: dressed top to toe in white, that adorable gap between her two front teeth, her penetrating blue eyes. She’s a head-turner: including the heads of infants and dogs.
Well that’s how Greta imagines seeing her; they haven’t actually ever met in person. Nor has Greta actually ever been to Switzerland.
Greta and Big Swiss are not in the same room, or even the same building. Greta is miles away, sitting at a desk in her own house, wearing only headphones, fingerless gloves, a kimono, and legwarmers, transcribing this disembodied voice.
What Greta doesn’t know is that she’s about to bump into Big Swiss in the local dog park. A new – and not entirely honest – relationship is going to be born.
A relationship that will transform both of their lives. . .
Published May 18th, 2023 by Chatto & Windus Literary Fiction, Romantic Suspense, Mystery, Thriller
SYNOPSIS: ***HARPER’S BAZAAR BEST NEW FICTION BOOKS IN 2023***
A young woman pretends to be someone she isn’t in this stunning novel by the New York Times bestselling author of The Girls
Summer is coming to a close on Long Island, and Alex is no longer welcome…
One misstep at a dinner party and the older man she’s been staying with dismisses her with a ride to the train station and a ticket back to the city. With few resources, but a gift for navigating the desires of others, Alex stays on the island. She drifts like a ghost through the gated driveways and sun-blasted dunes of a rarefied world, trailing destruction in her wake.
Taut, sensual and impossible to look away from, The Guest captures the latent heat and potential danger of a summer that could go either way for a young woman teetering on the edge.
Published May 25th, 2023 by HQ Historical Fiction, Historical Mystery, Romance Novel, Lesbian Literature
SYNOPSIS: A haunting mystery for fans of Eve Chase, Kate Morton and Kate Mosse.
’Hugely evocative and beautifully written’ Anna Mazzola, author of The Clockwork Girl
‘A thoroughly compelling mystery meets a poignant love story, all wrapped up in beautifully lyrical writing’ Frances Quinn, author of The Smallest Man
‘A beguiling mystery from a gifted storyteller’ Louise Fein, author of People Like Us
1938: Lady Vita Goldsborough lives in the menacing shadow of her controlling older brother, Aubrey. But when she meets local artist Dodie Blakeney, the two women form a close bond, and Vita finally glimpses a chance to be free.
1997: Following the death of her mother, Eve Blakeney returns to the coast where she spent childhood summers with her beloved grandmother, Dodie. Eve hopes that the visit will help make sense of her grief. The last thing she expects to find is a bundle of letters that hint at the heart-breaking story of Dodie’s relationship with a woman named Vita, and a shattering secret that echoes through the decades.
What she discovers will overturn everything she thought she knew about her family – and change her life forever.
‘Luminous and captivating … Polly Crosby’s shimmering writing veils a dark hint of the gothic’ Kate Griffin, author of Fyneshade
Mrs Porter Calling (The Emmy Lake Chronicles Book 3) by A.J. Pearce
Published May 25th, 2023 by Picador Historical Ficiton, Historical Romance, Humorous Fiction, Romance Novel, Coming-of-Age Story
SYNOPSIS: THE FEEL-GOOD NOVEL OF THE SUMMER
A heart-warming, heart-wrenching new wartime story from The Sunday Times bestselling author of Dear Mrs Bird, AJ Pearce.
Emmy Lake is the much-loved agony aunt at Woman’s Friend magazine, relied upon by readers across the country as they face the challenges of life on the Home Front. With the problem page thriving and a team of fantastic women behind her, Emmy finally feels she is Doing Her Bit.
But when a glamorous new owner arrives, everything changes. As the Honourable Mrs Porter tries to charm her way around the rest of the team, Emmy realises that she plans to destroy everything readers love about the magazine.
With happiness quickly turning to heartbreak and war still raging in Europe, will Emmy and her friends find the inner strength they need to keep keeping on – and save the magazine they love?
Published May 25th, 2023 by The Borough Press Litearary Fiction, Satire, Suspense, Humorous Ficiton
SYNOPSIS: The new book from the no. 1 New York Times and no. 2 Sunday Times bestselling author R.F. Kuang
‘A riot’ PANDORA SYKES
‘Razor-sharp’ TIME
‘Satirical and humorous’ COSMOPOLITAN
Athena Liu is a literary darling and June Hayward is literally nobody.
White lies When Athena dies in a freak accident, June steals her unpublished manuscript and publishes it as her own under the ambiguous name Juniper Song.
Dark humour But as evidence threatens June’s stolen success, she will discover exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.
Deadly consequences… What happens next is entirely everyone else’s fault.
Published May 25th, 2023 by Canelo Hera Mystery, Thriller, Suspense, Crime Fiction, Psychological Thriller, Domestic Fiction, Urban Ficiton, Coming-of-Age Story
SYNOPSIS: SIX FRIENDS.
In a luxury villa set high in the hills above the glamorous town of Sorrento, southern Italy, three couples gather for the perfect 40th birthday celebration.
ONE BODY.
Before the week is out, one of them is dead.
COUNTLESS LIES.
Their perfect reunion quickly becomes the holiday from hell when one of the group starts receiving anonymous messages, threatening to expose a dark secret from their university days.
As old friendships are tested to the limit, it’s clear that what happens in the dark past won’t stay buried…
A heart-racing psychological thriller that will hook you from the very first page, with twist after twist that will make your jaw drop. Fans of B.A. Paris, My Husband’s Killer and Lucy Foley won’t be able to put this down. If you were hooked by The White Lotus or The Watcher, you’ll love this.
Published May 25th, 2023 by Orion Mythology, Fairy Tale, Romantic Fantasy, Greek Mythology, Literary Fiction, Historical Romance, Coming-of-Age Story
SYNOPSIS: A stunning, exciting and hotly-anticipated feminist retelling of one of the greatest love stories in Greek mythology!
The greatest love story ever told…
Born into an era of heroes, a prophecy claims that Psyche – Princess of Mycenae – will defeat a monster feared even by the gods themselves. Rebelling against society’s traditions, she spends her youth mastering blade and bow, preparing to fulfil her destiny.
But she is soon caught up in powers beyond her control, when the jealous Aphrodite sends the God of Desire, Eros, to deliver a fatal love-curse. The last thing Eros wants is to become involved in the chaos of the mortal world, but when he is pricked by the very arrow intended for Psyche, he is doomed to love a woman who will be torn from him the moment their eyes meet.
Thrown together by fate, headstrong Psyche and world-weary Eros will face challenges greater than they could have ever imagined. And as the Trojan War begins and the whole of the heavens try to keep them apart, will they find their way back to each other… before it’s too late?
Luna McNamara’s exquisitely written debut will appeal to fans of Madeline Miller, Jennifer Saint and Susan Stokes-Chapman.
Published May 25th, 2023 by One More Chapter Historical Ficiton, Mythology, Fairy Tale, Domestic Ficiton, Greek Mythology, Coming-of-Age Story
SYNOPSIS: ‘A beautiful and unique retelling of Medea. I loved it!’ Sunday Times bestselling author Sophie Irwin
‘Absorbing and thoughtful…full of page-turning drama and vibrantly drawn characters. Bold and illuminating’ Claire Heywood, author of Daughters of Sparta
A propulsive retelling inspired by the Greek myth of Medea
A woman wronged will shake an empire
Calcutta, 1757.
Bengal is on the brink of war. The East India Company, led by the fearsome Sir Peter Chilcott, are advancing and nobody is safe. Meena, the Nawab’s neglected and abused daughter, finds herself falling under the spell of James Chilcott, nephew of Sir Peter, who claims he wants to betray the company . . . for a price.
Caught between friend and foe, Meena and James escape Calcutta, their hands stained in blood and pockets filled with gold. In Ceylon, they’re cleansed of their sins by Meena’s beloved aunt Kiran, before the young lovers set sail for the Dutch controlled Cape of Good Hope, with the promise of a new life.
Yet past resentments and present betrayals begin to pile up as they struggle to overcome their differences. And as Meena yet again finds herself in a foreign land without anyone to turn to, she is forced to find out what she is willing to sacrifice when love turns to hate.
The perfect read for fans of The Song of Achilles, Ariadne and Pandora
Published May 25th, 2023 by Bantam Press Psychological Thriller, Literary Fiction, Coming-of-Age Story
SYNOPSIS: Destined to be THE dark book-club debut of 2023.A compulsive and timely exploration of the complicated nature of memory and trauma, power and consent, victimhood and shame.
‘A mesmerising, unsettling and gripping debut’ CATHERINE RYAN HOWARD, author of RUN TIME
‘Thought-provoking, timely. The book of the summer’ SARAH TURNER, author of STEPPING UP
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Rachel has loved Alistair since she was seventeen.
Even though she hasn’t seen him for sixteen years and she’s now married to someone else.
Even though she was a teenager when they met.
Even though he is almost twenty years older than her.
Now in her thirties, Rachel has never been able to forget their golden summer together on a remote, sun-trapped Greek island. But as dark and deeply suppressed memories rise to the surface, Rachel begins to understand that Alistair – and the enigmatic, wealthy man he worked for – controlled much more than she ever realized.
Rachel has never once considered herself a victim – until now.
Published May 25th, 2023 by Harper Collins UK Mystery, Literary Fiction, Humorous Ficiton
SYNOPSIS: We are invisible: we clean your houses, we look after your children, we know your secrets. But now you know one of ours…
Rules for being a maid: • No smoking • No boyfriends • No visitors • And most importantly: be invisible…
Corazon, Angel and Donita have all come to Singapore to work for a living. The thing that unites them? Their labour must remain unseen.
But when a friend is accused of murdering her employer, everything changes. The accused could be any of them; they all know the stories of women who were scapegoated or even executed for crimes they didn’t commit.
Each woman has secrets to keep, yet they must gather every ounce of bravery, fearlessness and complete audacity to clear the name of one of their own.
After all, no-one knows the secrets of Singapore’s elite quite like the women who work in their homes…
Published May 25th, 2023 by Simon & Schuster UK Romance Novel, Contemporary Romance, Humorous Fiction, Urban Fiction
SYNOPSIS: ‘Seven Exes made me laugh out loud. It’s fresh, fast-paced and joyous. Lucy Vine’s writing is so warm and funny – her books are the literary equivalent of an amazing girls’ night out.’ Beth O’Leary _______________ Esther is out with her two friends, bemoaning her lack of relationship, when she finds a magazine from the noughties. Seeking comfort – and a laugh – she turns to the dating advice only to find an article that feels a little too close to home. According to the journalist, there are seven people a woman will date before finding the one:
The First Love, The Work Mistake, The Friend with Benefits, The Overlap, The Missed Chance, The Bastard and The Serious One.
Her friends laugh but Esther realises each of her exes fits these roles perfectly. Deciding that she’s mistaken her true love in the reject pile she decides to contact each of her exes to find out which is the one that got away…
The Last Dance (Detective Miller Book 1) by Mark Billingham
Published May 25th, 2023 by Sphere Mystery, Thriller, Suspense, Crime Fiction, Crime Series
SYNOPSIS: THE FIRST NEW SERIES FROM #1 BESTSELLER MARK BILLINGHAM IN 20 YEARS.
‘Readers rejoice! A captivating new series from Mark Billingham, the very best in the business’ — RICHARD OSMAN
Meet Detective Miller: unique, unconventional, and criminally underestimated…
He’s a detective, a dancer, he has no respect for authority - and he’s the best hope Blackpool has for keeping criminals off the streets. Meet Detective Declan Miller.
A double murder in a seaside hotel sees a grieving Miller return to work to solve what appears to be a case of mistaken identity. Just why were two completely unconnected men taken out?
Despite a somewhat dubious relationship with both reality and his new partner, can the eccentric, offbeat Miller find answers where his colleagues have found only an impossible puzzle?
Published May 25th, 2023 by Amazon Publishing Thriller, Crime Fiction, Psychological Thriller
SYNOPSIS: In this sinister tale from 4 million copy bestselling author Mark Edwards, a deadly secret turns a couple’s new romance into a nightmare. And they’re not the only ones who know the truth…
After twenty years apart, Matthew and Helena have rekindled their college romance and are away in Iceland on their first holiday together. Swept up in the romance on a mountain hike, one moment they are taking the perfect photo, the next Helena is hanging from the cliff edge…
Terrified, Matthew almost misses Helena’s sudden and shocking confession―but what he hears chills him to the bone. And when Helena reveals the full truth Matthew is horrified, not only by what she’s done, but why she did it. Does he really know her at all?
His shock turns to horror when, back in England, they discover that someone not only overheard Helena’s confession but plans to blackmail her. Now Matthew must decide whether to go to the police or help Helena keep her secret―and as events spiral out of control, how far is Matthew willing to go to protect his ‘perfect’ girlfriend?
The Benevolent Soceity of Ill-Mannered Ladies by Alison Goodman
Published May 30th, 2023 by Piatkus Historical Fiction, Regency Romance, Mystery, Historical Mystery, Romantic Comedy
SYNOPSIS: ‘Goodman’s ladies are the undercover Regency heroes we’ve been waiting for! This is sparkling, thrilling, romantic fun’ TONI JORDAN
A high society amateur detective at the heart of Regency London uses her wits and invisibility as an ‘old maid’ to protect other women in a new and fiercely feminist historical mystery series from New York Times bestselling author Alison Goodman. …………………….
Lady Augusta Colebrook, ‘Gus’, is determinedly unmarried, bored by society life, and tired of being dismissed at the age of forty-two. She and her twin sister, Julia, who is grieving her dead betrothed, need a distraction. One soon presents itself: to rescue their friend’s goddaughter, Caroline, from her violent husband.
The sisters set out to Caroline’s country estate with a plan, but their carriage is accosted by a highwayman. In the scuffle, Gus accidentally shoots the ruffian, only to discover he is Lord Evan Belford, an acquaintance from their past who was charged with murder and exiled to Australia twenty years ago. With Lord Evan injured and unconscious, the sisters have no choice but to bring him on their mission to save Caroline. What follows is a high adventure full of danger, clever improvisation, heart-racing near misses, and a little help from a revived and rather charming Lord Evan.
Back in London, Gus can’t stop thinking about her unlikely (not to mention handsome) comrade-in-arms. She is convinced Lord Evan was falsely accused of murder, and she is going to prove it. She persuades Julia to join her in a quest to help Lord Evan, and others in need-society be damned! And so begins the beguiling secret life and adventures of the Colebrook twins.
A rollicking and joyous adventure, with a beautiful love story at its heart, about two rebellious sisters forging their own path in Regency London. ……………………. ‘If you love Georgette Heyer, you’ll love [this]. Smart and sassy and featuring heroines of a certain age, this is the Regency I’ve been waiting for. Adventure! Mystery! A touch of romance!’ JENN MCKINLAY
Apologies for the delay, but today I’m finally sharing my review for the mesmerising and unforgettable Beautiful Shining People. Thank you to Anne at Random Things Tours for the invitation to take part and to Karen at Orenda books for the gifted copy of the book.
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SYNOPSIS:
A damaged teenager meets an enigmatic waitress in a tiny Tokyo café, sparking an epic journey across Japan that will change everything, forever…
‘A fascinating exploration of what it means to be human in a world where everything can be faked, and an alarming projection into a not-too-distant and all-too-plausible future … wonderful, insightful and thoughtful’ James Oswald
‘Totally engrossing from the start – the story, characters and settings will linger in your imagination long after you’re finished … truly wonderful’ Jonathan Whitelaw
‘Exquisite world-building, this book had me invested from the very first page. Vivid plot and irresistible characters and a real tug at the soul … you’ll drown in it’ Lisa Bradley
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This world is anything but ordinary, and it’s about to change forever…
It’s our world, but decades into the future…
An ordinary world, where cars drive themselves, drones glide across the sky, and robots work in burger shops. There are two superpowers and a digital Cold War, but all conflicts are safely oceans away. People get up, work, and have dinner. Everything is as it should be…
Except for seventeen-year-old John, a tech prodigy from a damaged family, who hides a deeply personal secret. But everything starts to change for him when he enters a tiny café on a cold Tokyo night. A café run by a disgraced sumo wrestler, where a peculiar dog with a spherical head lives, alongside its owner, enigmatic waitress Neotnia…
But Neotnia hides a secret of her own – a secret that will turn John’s unhappy life upside down. A secret that will take them from the neon streets of Tokyo to Hiroshima’s tragic past to the snowy mountains of Nagano.
A secret that reveals that this world is anything ordinary – and it’s about to change forever…
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MY REVIEW:
“Before, I thought I understood the world. At least where it was heading. But now? Now, what do I know?”
Tokyo, many years into the future. 17-year-old John, a tech prodigy, enters a small cafe late at night and meets Neotina, a beautiful and enigmatic waitress. The spark is instant and they slowly begin to get to know each other. But they are each hiding a shameful secret, one they try to hide from the world and are terrified of being discovered. But it is what Neotina is hiding that will turn their worlds upside down and change things forever…
This book is a masterpiece. Mesmerising, dreamlike, and unforgettable, it took my breath away. A story about those who never fit in—the alienated outsiders who want to belong. It’s about the search for purpose, pain, suffering, and the shadows that live within all of us, and what it is that makes us human.
“Let people misjudge you – condemn you, even. Smile at them, then carry on with your life. Their faults weaken only them.”
Speculative and dystopian fiction is my least favourite genre, yet I was utterly blown away by this book. I lost myself in these pages, unable to stop reading yet also tried to savour every exquisite word. I loved how eclectic the vibe of this story was. It starts out calm and chilled but with a twist of anguish from the secret shame John is hiding, then the air fills with the flush of first love as he and Neotina get closer, before moving into an atmosphere that crackles with danger as shocking revelations change their entire world. Each shift in tension and pace was smooth and seamless, holding mehostage in the author’s web of words.
The characters in the book are a motley crew of outsiders who were likeable and very entertaining to read. Our narrator, John, is an American teenage coding genius hiding a secret shame he wants to fix. Like all teenagers, he just wants to be like everyone else, and he thinks if he fixes what’s wrong with him he’ll finally be ‘normal’. John’s voice perfectly captures the insecurity of those teenage years. That time where, more than ever, the opinion and acceptance of our peers matters so much and we want to fit in rather than stand out. These feelings are also explored in Neotina, the charismatic Japanese waitress he meets. Their relationship perfectly captures the innocence, joy, confusion and fear of falling in love for the first time. But we soon learn that these aren’t any other young people in love. There’s something extraordinary that sets them apart. Stealing the show on many occasions were Goeido, a former Sumo who owns the cafe where Notina works, and his dog, Inu, who has the craziest haircut and a strange story of his own. And then there is Joe, a character who appears briefly but makes a huge impact.
“My shadow is deep, and its ingredients are many. It’s rich in loneliness. Isolation. Alienation. Loathing.”
This may have been my first book by Michael Grothaus, but it will not be my last. Not only is his writing and characterisation exquisite, but transported me to the world he had created. A world that is fictional, yet believable, future. I can imagine everything he wrote coming true and it felt like a glimpse into the world that my grandchildren or great-grandchildren will know. But at the same time it was totally familiar, and it was only when I read a line about self-driving cars or bots serving you in a restaurant that I’d remember this is set in the future. I also loved how detailed the research was and I learned a lot about Japanese culture while reading the book. But what I think I enjoyed most is how he keeps the reader guessing. He had me on the edge of my seat with no idea where things were headed, even halfway through the book. But what I did know is that wherever this led, it was going to be spectacular. And then there is that twist. Wow. I sat there in awe, trying to make myself believe what I’d just read and wondering how I didn’t see it. The clues were all there in hindsight and I totally missed them, feeling as floored and as the character did when all was revealed.
Moving, powerful and enthralling, Beautiful Shining People is a phenomenal story that will stay with you. I have no doubt that this is going to be one of my books of the year and highly recommend it to everyone, even if the genre doesn’t seem like your thing. Just try it. I know I’m so glad that I did.
Rating: ✮✮✮✮✮
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MEET THE AUTHOR:
Michael Grothaus is a novelist and author. Born in Saint Louis, Missouri. He spent his twenties in Chicago where he earned his degree in filmmaking from Columbia and got his start in journalism writing for Screen. After working for institutions including The Art Institute of Chicago, Twentieth Century Fox, and Apple he earned his postgraduate degree with distinction in creative writing from the University of London. His writing has appeared in Fast Company, VICE, The Guardian, Litro Magazine, The Irish Times, Screen, Quartz, and others. His debut novel, EPIPHANY JONES, a story about sex trafficking among the Hollywood elite, was longlisted for the CWA New Blood Dagger Award and named one of the 25 “Most Irresistible Hollywood Novels” by Entertainment Weekly.
His first non-fiction book is TRUST NO ONE: INSIDE THE WORLD OF DEEPFAKES. The book examines the human impact that artificially generated video will have on individuals and society in the years to come. His next novel is BEAUTIFUL SHINING PEOPLE, a speculative story set in Tokyo that explores how the things that cast us as outsiders can be the very things that draw us together, and examines whether there is an inherent meaning in the world to come, or if we must create our own.
I can’t believe we’re almost in February already. And while it may be the shortest month of the year, there’s certainly no shortage of exciting new books being released next month, including new books from some of my favourite authors such as Laura Purcell, Tina Baker, Libby Page looksand Linwood Barclay, and an array of debuts I can’t wait to read. So, here are the books released in February that I’m most aniticpating.
SYNOPSIS: Be careful what you wish for… it may just come true. At The Mercury Theatre in London’s West End, rumours are circulating of a curse.
It is said that the lead actress Lilith has made a pact with Melpomene, the tragic muse of Greek mythology, to become the greatest actress to ever grace the stage. Suspicious of Lilith, the jealous wife of the theatre owner sends dresser Jenny to spy on her, and desperate for the money to help her family, Jenny agrees.
What Jenny finds is a woman as astonishing in her performance as she is provocative in nature. On stage, it’s as though Lilith is possessed by the characters she plays, yet off stage she is as tragic as the Muse who inspires her, and Jenny, sorry for her, befriends the troubled actress. But when strange events begin to take place around the theatre, Jenny wonders if the rumours are true, and fears that when the Muse comes calling for payment, the cost will be too high.
’Alive, vivid and gripping’ ABIGAIL DEAN ‘Humming with a sly, exhilarating magic’ BRIDGET COLLINS ‘Totally unique’ GILLIAN MCALLISTER
KATE, 2019 Kate flees London – abandoning everything – for Cumbria and Weyward Cottage, inherited from her great-aunt. There, a secret lurks in the bones of the house, hidden ever since the witch-hunts of the 17th century.
VIOLET, 1942 Violet is more interested in collecting insects and climbing trees than in becoming a proper young lady. Until a chain of shocking events changes her life forever.
ALTHA, 1619 Altha is on trial for witchcraft, accused of killing a local man. Known for her uncanny connection with nature and animals, she is a threat that must be eliminated.
But Weyward women belong to the wild. And they cannot be tamed…
Weaving together the stories of three women across five centuries, Weyward is an enthralling novel of female resilience and the transformative power of the natural world.
SYNOPSIS: “Surely you would like to be immortalised in art, fixed forever in perfection?”
Sadler’s Wells, 1933.
I would kill to dance like her.
Disciplined and dedicated, Olivia is the perfect ballerina. But no matter how hard she works, she can never match identical twin Clara’s charm.
I would kill to be with her.
As rehearsals intensify for the ballet Coppélia, the girls feel increasingly like they are being watched. And, as infatuation turns to obsession, everything begins to unravel.
Published: February 2nd, 2023 Publisher: John Murray Press Genre: Historical Fiction, Domestic Fiction, Coming-of-Age Story
SYNOPSIS: Lena has her life mapped out. While her sister obsesses about fortune-telling gypsies and marriage, Lena studies the way the heart works. She isn’t going to let being a girl stop her from becoming one of Poland’s first female doctors. But the world has other plans for Lena. Instead of university she finds herself a reluctant army wife, lonely and unmoored by the emotions of motherhood. And as she tries to accept a different future from the one she wanted, the threat of global war becomes reality. Lena must face just how unpredictable life can be.
Deemed Enemies of State by the invading Soviets, she and her family are exiled from their Polish village to a work camp in the freezing hell of Siberia. It’s here, despite the hunger and back-breaking work, Lena learns something remarkable; it is possible to fall in love even at the edge of life. And for that love, Lena must make a decision, the consequences of which will haunt her for ever.
Tender, brutal and passionate, The Snow Hare is about living with impossible choices and our incredible ability to cultivate hope in the darkest places.
Published: February 2nd, 2023 Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK Genre: Mystery,Thriller, Suspense, Psychological Thriller, Crime Fiction, Domestic Fiction, Urban Fiction
SYNOPSIS: *** PRE-ORDER THE NEW CAUTIONARY TALE OF OBSESSION, LOVE, JEALOUSY AND DECEPTION FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF OUR HOUSE AND THE OTHER PASSENGER ***
There’s the obvious story. And then there’s the truth.
Alex lives a comfortable life with his wife Beth in the leafy suburb of Silver Vale. Fine, so he’s not the most outgoing guy on the street, he prefers to keep himself to himself, but he’s a good husband and an easy-going neighbour.
That’s until Beth announces the creation of a nature trail on a local site that’s been disused for decades and suddenly Alex is a changed man. Now he’s always watching. Questioning. Struggling to hide his dread . . .
As the landscapers get to work, a secret threatens to surface from years ago, back in Alex’s twenties when he got entangled with a seductive young woman called Marina, who threw both their lives into turmoil.
And who sparked a police hunt for a murder suspect that was never quite what it seemed.
SYNOPSIS: They think as one. They act as one. They kill as one.
‘Look Both Ways is devilishly good – exciting, thrilling – Barclay at his best!’ SHARI LAPENA, No. 1 internationally bestselling author
The residents of Garrett Island are part of a visionary experiment. Their cars have been sent to the mainland and for one month, they’ve got self-driving vehicles called Arrivals. With just a voice command, an Arrival will take you where you want to go, and as the cars are all aware of each other, road accidents should be a thing of the past.
As the world’s press arrives for a glimpse of this driverless future, islander and single mom Sandra Montrose preps for the huge media event. She’s ready for this new world. Her husband died when he fell asleep at the wheel, and she’s relieved her two teens, Archie and Katie, may never need driver’s licenses.
But as the day gets underway, there are signs all is not well. A member of the press has vanished. There are rumours of industrial sabotage.
Before long, the sleek driverless cars are no longer taking orders. They’re starting to organize. They’re starting to hunt. And they’ve got the residents of Garrett Island in their sights.
From the international bestseller Linwood Barclay comes a breakneck new thriller.
Published: February 2nd, 2023 Publisher: Pan Macmillan Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Suspense, Crime Fiction, Crime Series, Police Procedural
SYNOPSIS: Critically acclaimed international bestseller Jane Harper returns.
A mother disappears from a busy festival on a warm spring night.
Her baby lies alone in the pram, her mother’s possessions surrounding her, waiting for a return which never comes.
A year later, Kim Gillespie’s absence still casts a long shadow as her friends and loved ones gather to welcome a new addition to the family.
Joining the celebrations on a rare break from work is federal investigator Aaron Falk, who begins to suspect that all is not as it seems.
As he looks into Kim’s case, long-held secrets and resentments begin to come to the fore, secrets that show that her community is not as close as it appears.
Falk will have to tread carefully if he is to expose the dark fractures at its heart, but sometimes it takes an outsider to get to the truth…
An outstanding novel, a brilliant mystery and a heart-pounding read from the author of The Dry, Force of Nature, The Lost Man and The Survivors.
Song of Silver, Flame Like Night by Amelie Wen Zhao
Published: February 2nd, 2023 Publisher: HarperVoyager UK Genre: Fantasy Fiction, High Fiction
SYNOPSIS: In a fallen kingdom, one girl carries the key to its forgotten past – and the demons that sleep at its heart…
Once, Lan had a different name. Now, she goes by the one the Elantian colonizers gave her when they invaded her kingdom, killed her mother, and outlawed her people’s magic. She spends her nights as a songgirl in Haak’gong, a city transformed by the conquerors, and spends her days scavenging for remnants of the past. For anything that might help her understand the strange mark burned into her arm by her mother, in her last act before she died.
No one can see the mysterious mark, an untranslatable Hin character, except Lan. Until the night a boy appears at the teahouse and saves her life.
Zen is a practitioner – one of the fabled magicians of the Last Kingdom, whose abilities were rumoured to be drawn from the demons they communed with. Magic believed to be long lost. Magic to be hidden from the Elantians at all costs.
Both Lan and Zen have secrets buried deep within. Fate has connected them, but their destiny remains unwritten. Both hold the power to liberate their land. And both hold the power to destroy the world.
A ferocious tale of romance and fate, SONG OF SILVER, FLAME LIKE NIGHT is a gift to those seeking adventure with a mythological twist.
Perfect for fans of DAUGHTER OF THE MOON GODDESS by Sue Lynn Tan, THE FINAL STRIFE by Saara El-Arifi, and IRON WIDOW by Xiran Jay Zhao.
Published: February 2nd, 2023 Publisher: Michael Joseph Genre: Contemporary Fiction, Contemporary Romance, Romance Novel, Literary Fiction
SYNOPSIS: A story of mix-ups, mess-ups and making the most of second chances, this is the new novel from international sensation Jojo Moyes, author of Me Before You and The Giver of Stars
‘A delightful reverse-Cinderella story of two women who seem polar opposites – until circumstance forces them to experience each other’s lives. Nobody writes women the way Jojo Moyes does – recognizably real and complex and funny and flawed’ JODI PICOULT
Who are you when you are forced to walk in someone else’s shoes?
Meet Sam . . . She’s not got much, but she’s grateful for what she has: a job she’s just about clinging on to and a family who depend on her for everything. She knows she’s one bad day away from losing it all – and just hopes today isn’t it . . .
Meet Nisha . . . She’s got everything she always dreamed of – and more: a phenomenally rich husband; an international lifestyle; and . . . she’s just been locked out of all of it after her husband initiates divorce proceedings . . .
Sam and Nisha should never have crossed paths. But after a bag mix-up at the gym, their lives become intertwined – even as they spiral out of control.
Each blames the other as they feel increasingly invisible, forgotten, lost – and desperately alone.
But they’re not.
No woman is an island. Look around. Family. Friends. Strangers. Even the woman you believe just ruined your life might turn out to be your best friend. Because together you can do anything – like take back what is yours . . .
SYNOPSIS: … But is she searching in the right places?
Pre-order the laugh-out-loud and heart-warming new novel from Sophia Money-Coutts
Stella Shakespeare isn’t having a good day, or month come to think of it. She’s been unceremoniously dumped by her boyfriend,cut off from the bank of dad and at thirty-two years old, she doesn’t know what she’s doing with her life.
What Stella really wants is to find love. She wants all-consuming, can’t-think-about-anything-else, can’t-even-manage-to-eat kind of love. What she found beside her in bed that morning wasn’t love. But when a tall, handsome man in a well-fitting suit walks into a Notting Hill pub, she thinks she’s finally found The One.
Everything seems to be falling into place now Stella has met the man of her dreams and has an actual job working with a private investigator nicknamed ‘The Affair Hunter’. Although sadly, life is never that straightforward and Stella starts to question whether she’s been looking for love in the wrong places all along…
Do I Know You? by Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegemund-Broka
Published: February 2nd, 2023 Publisher: Pan Macmillan Genre: Romance Novel, Contemporary Romance
SYNOPSIS: ‘Honest to the bone, refreshing, and . . . deliciously surprising’ – Jodi Picoult
After five years’ marriage they’re about to have their first date . . .
Eliza and Graham’s marriage is quietly failing. With their five-year anniversary approaching, neither of them are thrilled about the weeklong getaway they’ve been gifted. The luxury retreat prides itself on being a destination for those in love and those looking to find it – but for Eliza and Graham it’s the last place they want to be.
After a well-meaning guest mistakes Eliza and Graham as being single and introduces them at the hotel bar, they don’t correct him. Suddenly, they’re pretending to be perfect strangers and it’s unexpectedly fun. Eliza and Graham find themselves flirting like it’s their first date.
Everyone at the retreat can see the electric chemistry between Eliza and Graham’s alter egos. But as their game continutes they realize this performance could be the very thing that saves their marriage . .
Published: February 2nd, 2023 Publisher: Head of Zeus Genre: Historical Fiction, Historical Fantasy
SYNOPSIS: ‘A heroine with a generous spirit, an unshakable will and a dragon’s fury.’ H. M. Long
Having grown up hearing tales of her uncle, the great King Beowulf, Fryda’s one desire is to become a shield maiden in her own right. Yet a terrible childhood accident has left Fryda disabled – thus, she believes, thwarting her dream of becoming a warrior-woman for good. But still, somehow, she feels an uncontrollable power begin to rise within herself.
Meanwhile, a great celebration of Beowulf’s reign is underway, and Fryda’s house is soon overrun with foreign kings and chieftains. Amidst the drunken revelry, a discovery is made that threatens the safety of Fryda’s entire clan – and her own life. Enraged, Fryda resolves to fight for her people, no matter the cost… and all the while, her powers seem only to grow stronger.
But she is not the only one to feel its effects. For, buried deep in her gilded lair, a dragon is drawn to Fryda’s untamed power, and is slowly awakening from a long, cursed sleep…
Published: February 7th Publisher: Simon & Schuster Genre: Historical Fiction
SYNOPSIS: From the award-winning author of Yellow Wife, a daring and redemptive novel set in 1950s Philadelphia and Washington, DC, that explores what it means to be a woman and a mother, and how much one is willing to sacrifice to achieve her greatest goal.
1950s Philadelphia: fifteen-year-old Ruby Pearsall is on track to becoming the first in her family to attend college, in spite of having a mother more interested in keeping a man than raising a daughter. But a taboo love affair threatens to pull her back down into the poverty and desperation that has been passed on to her like a birthright.
Eleanor Quarles arrives in Washington, DC, with ambition and secrets. When she meets the handsome William Pride at Howard University, they fall madly in love. But William hails from one of DC’s elite wealthy Black families, and his par-ents don’t let just anyone into their fold. Eleanor hopes that a baby will make her finally feel at home in William’s family and grant her the life she’s been searching for. But having a baby–and fitting in–is easier said than done.
With their stories colliding in the most unexpected of ways, Ruby and Eleanor will both make decisions that shape the trajectory of their lives.
‘Urgent and furious’ ROSIE ANDREWS, author of The Leviathan ___________________
In Athens, crowds flock to witness the most shocking trial of the ancient world. The royal family is mired in scandal. Phaedra, young bride of King Theseus, has accused her stepson, Hippolytus of rape.
He’s a prince, a talented horseman, a promising noble with his whole life ahead of him. She’s a young and neglected wife, the youngest in a long line of Cretan women with less than savoury reputations.
The men of Athens must determine the truth. Who is guilty, and who is innocent?
But the women know truth is a slippery thing. After all, this is the age of heroes and the age of monsters. There are two sides to every story, and theirs has gone unheard.
A Gift of Poison by Bella Ellis (The Bronte Mysteries)
Published: February 9th, 2023 Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton Genre: Historical Fiction, Historical Mystery, Book Series
SYNOPSIS: Haworth 1847 – Anne and Emily Brontë have had their books accepted for publication, while Charlotte’s has been rejected everywhere, creating a strained atmosphere at the parsonage.
At the same time, a shocking court case has recently concluded, acquitting a workhouse master of murdering his wife by poison. Everyone thinks this famously odious and abusive man is guilty. However, he insists he is many bad things but not a murderer. When an attempt is made on his life, he believes it to be the same person who killed his wife and applies to the detecting sisters for their help.
Despite reservations, they decide that perhaps, as before, it is only they who can get to the truth and prove him innocent – or guilty – without a shadow of doubt.
SYNOPSIS: A moving mystery about family secrets, grief and growing up ___________________________________
Summer, 1995.
July Hooper knows eighteen things about her mother.
Like number thirteen: she loved dancing on the kitchen table. And number eight: she was covered in freckles.
And then there’s number two: she died after being hit by a car when July was small.
She keeps this list hidden in a drawer away from her father. Because they’re not allowed to talk about her mother. Ever.
But an anonymous note slipped into July’s bag on her tenth birthday is about to change everything she thinks she knows about her mum.
Determined to discover what really happened to her, July begins to investigate, cycling around the neighbourhood where her family used to live. There she meets someone who might finally have the answers.
July wants her family to stop lying to her, but will the truth be harder to face?
Published: February 9th, 2023 Publisher: Corvus Genre: Suspense, Thriller, Dystopian Fiction, Political Thriller
SYNOPSIS: A BBC RADIO 2 BOOKCLUB PICK ‘Engrossing and original, political and unpredictable, The Silence Project will get people talking’ Bernardine Evaristo
Monster. Martyr. Mother.
On Emilia Morris’s thirteenth birthday, her mother Rachel moves into a tent at the bottom of their garden. From that day on, she never says another word. Inspired by her vow of silence, other women join her and together they build the Community. Eight years later, Rachel and thousands of her followers around the world burn themselves to death.
In the aftermath of what comes to be known as the Event, the Community’s global influence quickly grows. As a result, the whole world has an opinion about Rachel – whether they see her as a callous monster or a heroic martyr – but Emilia has never voiced hers publicly. Until now.
When she publishes her own account of her mother’s life in a memoir called The Silence Project, Emilia also decides to reveal just how sinister the Community has become. In the process, she steps out of Rachel’s shadow once and for all, so that her own voice may finally be heard.
Published: February 14th, 2023 Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton Genre: Coming-of-Age Story, Contemporary Literature
SYNOPSIS: Hilarious, honest and heartbreaking, MAAME is the most moving debut of 2023 – and a heroine you’ll never forget.
A 2023 DEBUT OF THE YEAR, AS CHOSEN BY: SUNDAY TIMES, STYLIST, VOGUE, RED MAGAZINE, INDEPENDENT, BELFAST TELEGRAPH, HUFFINGTON POST UK, POP SUGAR, HARPERS BAZAAR, MY WEEKLY, EVENING STANDARD, COSMOPOLITAN, BUSTLE
‘Lively, funny, poignant . . . Prepare to fall in love with Maddie. I did!’ BONNIE GARMUS, Sunday Times bestselling author of Lessons in Chemistry
‘Utterly charming and deeply moving . . . Maddie’s journey will resonate with anyone who’s had to grow up – or who’s still trying to’ CELESTE NG, New York Times bestselling author of Little Fires Everywhere
‘I loved every page of this beautiful, heartwarming, empowering book. An exceptional debut from an incredibly exciting new talent’ BETH O’LEARY, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Flatshare
***
Maame (ma-meh) has many meanings in Twi, but in my case, it means woman.
Meet Maddie Wright.
All her life, she’s been told who she is. To her Ghanaian parents, she’s Maame: the one who takes care of the family. Her mum’s stand-in. The primary carer for her father, who suffers from Parkinson’s. The one who keeps the peace – and the secrets.
It’s time for her to speak up.
When she finally gets the chance to leave home, Maddie is determined to become the kind of woman she wants to be. One who wears a bright yellow suit, dates men who definitely aren’t on her mum’s list of prospective husbands, and stands up to her boss’s microaggressions. Someone who doesn’t have to google all her life choices.
But when tragedy strikes, Maddie is forced to face the risks – and rewards – of putting her heart on the line.
But will it take losing everything to find her voice? As blisteringly funny and achingly relatable as its heroine, MAAME is an unforgettable coming-of-age story about finally becoming the heroine of your own life.
SYNOPSIS: The uplifting new novel from the bestselling author of The Lido
‘Libby Page is a literary burst of sunshine . . . Utterly delightful’ VERONICA HENRY ‘I simply adored this gloriously uplifting story about friendship and fashion’ KATE EBERLEN
Among the cobbled streets of the Somerset town of Frome, Lou is embarking on the start of something new. After the death of her beloved mother, she takes a deep breath into the unknown and is opening her own vintage clothes shop.
In upstate New York, Donna has just found out some news about her family which has called into question her whole upbringing. The only clue she has to unlock her past is a picture of a yellow dress, and the fact it is currently on display in a shop in England.
For Maggy, she is facing life as a 70-something divorcee and while she got the house, she’s not sure what to fill it with now her family have moved out. The new vintage shop in town sparks memories of her past and reignites a passion she’s been missing…
Together, can these three women find the answers they are searching for and unlock a second chance at a new life?
SYNOPSIS: She will leave your surfaces sparkling. But she may well leave you dead…
Maria is a good woman and a good cleaner. She cleans for Elsie, the funny old bird who’s losing her marbles, with the terrible husband. She cleans for Brian, the sweet man with the terrible boss. She cleans for the mysterious Mr Balogan, with the terrible neighbours.
If you’re thinking of hiring her, you should probably know that Maria might have killed the terrible husband, the terrible boss and the terrible neighbours. She may also have murdered the man she loved.
She didn’t set out to kill anyone, of course, but her clients have hired her to clean up their lives, and she takes her job seriously – not to mention how much happier they all are now. The trouble is, murder can’t be washed out. You can only sweep it under the carpet, and pray no one looks too closely…
Darkly funny and completely gripping from the first page to the last, Make Me Clean is one thriller you won’t be able to scrub from your mind. Perfect for fans of Harriet Tyce, Fiona Cummins and My Sister the Serial Killer.
SYNOPSIS: Soon you will become the thing all other beasts fear.
Treasure and her mother lost everything when Treasure’s daddy died. Haggling for scraps in the market, Treasure meets a spirit who promises to bring her father back – but she has to do something for him first.
Ozoemena has an itch in the middle of her back that can’t be scratched. An itch that speaks to her patrilineal destiny, to defend her people by becoming a leopard. Her father impressed upon her what an honour this was before he vanished, but it’s one she couldn’t want less.
But as the two girls reckon with their burgeoning wildness and the legacy of their fathers’ decisions, Ozoemena’s fellow students at her new boarding school start to vanish. Treasure and Ozoemena will face terrible choices as each must ask herself: in a world that always says ‘no’ to women, what must two young girls sacrifice to get what is theirs?
Published: February 16th, 2023 Publisher: Orenda Genre: Suspense, Dystopian Fiction, Political Fiction, Science Fiction, Adventure Fiction
SYNOPSIS: Lured by rumours of tropical sanctuary, a disparate group of men and women escape their inhospitable exile to seek freedom, in a near future where civilisation has collapsed … A cataclysmic, clarion-call climate-change thriller from one of the world’s leading environmental scientists…
‘Hardisty is a fine writer’ Lee Child _________________
Civilisation is collapsing. Frustrated and angry after years of denial and inaction, a ‘government of youth’ has taken power in North America, and deemed all those older than a prescribed age responsible for the current state of the world, and decreed they should be ‘relocated’, their property and assets confiscated.
David Ashworth, known by his friends and students as Teacher, and his wife May, find themselves among the thousands being moved to ‘new accommodation’ in the abandoned southern deserts – thrown together with a wealthy industrialist and his wife, a high court lawyer, two recent immigrants to America, and a hospital worker. Together, they must come to terms with their new lives in a land rendered unrecognisable.
As the terrible truth of their situation is revealed, lured by rumours of a tropical sanctuary where they can live in peace, they plan a perilous escape. But the world outside is more dangerous than they could ever have imagined. And for those who survive, nothing will ever be the same again…
SYNOPSIS: A powerful, big-hearted debut of love, sisterhood and what it means to be home – warm, joyful and tender
One of the most talked about debuts for 2023
Picked by Stylist as a Big Fiction Debut for 2023
Georgina Moore was chosen by Observer as One of the Ten Best New Novelists for 2023 ____________________________________
‘Sun-drenched escapism with a hint of Mary Wesley … the ideal way to escape a dreary winter and revel in other people’s messy lives’ Stylist
‘With Moore’s evocative proves it’s easy to see why The Garnett Girls is being likened to works by commercial fiction queens Penny Vincenzi and Maeve Binchy’ The Observer
‘A brilliantly readable debut’ Fabulous
Forbidden, passionate and all-encompassing, Margo and Richard’s love affair was the stuff of legend– but, ultimately, doomed.
When Richard walked out, Margo locked herself away, leaving her three daughters, Rachel, Imogen and Sasha, to run wild.
Years later, charismatic Margo entertains lovers and friends in her cottage on the Isle of Wight, refusing to ever speak of Richard and her painful past. But her silence is keeping each of the Garnett girls from finding true happiness.
Rachel is desperate to return to London, but is held hostage by responsibility for Sandcove, their beloved but crumbling family home.
Dreamy Imogen feels the pressure to marry her kind, considerate fiancé, even when life is taking an unexpected turn.
And wild, passionate Sasha, trapped between her fractured family and controlling husband, is weighed down by a secret that could shake the family to its core…
The Garnett Girls, the captivating debut from Georgina Moore, asks whether children can ever be free of the mistakes of their parents.
Published: February 16th, 2023 Publisher: HarperVoyager UK Genre: Fantasy Fiction, Fairy Tale, Romantic Fantasy, Historical Fantasy
SYNOPSIS: From the SUNDAY TIMES bestselling historical fantasy author of THE SHADOW IN THE GLASS comes a tour-de-force of faerie bargains, perfect for fans of THE INVISIBLE LIFE OF ADDIE LA RUE, MEXICAN GOTHIC, and TEN THOUSAND DOORS OF JANUARY
A dance with the fae will change everything
1919. In a Highland village forgotten by the world, the young people who remain after war and flu will soon head south to make something of themselves.
Moira Jean and her friends venture to the forest for a last night of laughter before parting ways. Moira Jean is being left behind. She too planned to leave once – but her lover died in France and, with him, her future. The friends light a fire and dance. But, with every twirl about the flames, strange new dancers thread between them, music streaming from the trees.
The Fae have joined the dance.
Suddenly Moira Jean finds herself all alone, her friends spirited away.
For the Fae feel left behind and forgotten too. Led by the darkly handsome Lord of the Fae, they are out to make themselves known once more. Moira Jean must enter into a bargain with the Lord to save her friends – and fast, for the longer they spend with the Fae, the less like themselves they will be upon return. If Moira Jean cannot save her friends before Beltane, they will be lost forever…
Bewitching, threaded with Highland charm, and sparkling with romance, this fairy tale will carry you away.
The Last Tale of the Flower Bride by Roshani Chokshi
Published: February 16th, 2023 Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton Genre: Gothic Fantasy, Fantasy Fiction, Fairy Tale, Fantasy Romance, Thriller
SYNOPSIS: Do not look. Do not ask. Do not pry.
A sumptuous, gothic story about an obsessive female friendship cursed to end in tragedy, a marriage unraveled by dark secrets, and the danger of believing in fairy tales – the breathtaking adult debut from New York Times bestselling author Roshani Chokshi.
Once upon a time, a man who believed in fairy tales married a beautiful, mysterious woman named Indigo Maxwell-Casteñada. He was a scholar of myths. She was heiress to a fortune. They exchanged gifts and stories and believed they would live happily ever after – and in exchange for her love, Indigo extracted a promise: that her bridegroom would never pry into her past.
But when Indigo learns that her estranged aunt is dying and the couple is forced to return to her childhood home, the House of Dreams, the bridegroom soon finds himself unable to resist. For within the crumbling manor’s extravagant rooms and musty halls, there lurks the shadow of another girl: Azure, Indigo’s dearest childhood friend, who disappeared without a trace.
As the house slowly reveals his wife’s secrets, the bridegroom will be forced to choose between reality and fantasy, even if doing so threatens to destroy their marriage . . . or their lives.
Combining the lush, haunting atmosphere of Mexican Gothic with the dreamy enchantment of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, The Last Tale of the Flower Bride is a spellbinding and darkly romantic page-turner about love and lies, secrets and betrayal, and the stories we tell ourselves to survive.
SYNOPSIS: One damsel + one wolf + many, many, many frogs = DISTRESS
Gloriously fun, romantic and feel-good, discover a 21st century London fairytale with an unforgettable twist . . .
Bella Marble is a true, hopeless, despairing romantic. Above all things, even above her wish to be a writer, she wants love.
But when her beautiful best friend moves out of their flat share to live with the most boring ogre in history, and her perfectly paired parents tell her their own love story is coming to an end, Bella’s illusions of a happily ever after start to shatter. If they can’t find ‘the one’, what chance does she have?
Disenchanted, Bella throws herself into looking for love in all the wrong places. London may be fresh out of knights in shining Armani, but it’s got a surplus of frogs – and as Bella learns, kissing frogs can be extremely fun.
But Bella is forgetting the essential rule of all fairytales.
There is nothing more powerful than a first kiss . . .
Published: February 16th, 2023 Publisher: One More Chapter Genre: Romance Novel, Contemporary Romance, Urban Fiction
SYNOPSIS: ‘A heartfelt and exciting debut . . . a wise and honest story of how it feels to be a young woman in search of yourself’ Taylor Jenkins Reid, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
Meet Nora Hughes – the overworked, underpaid, last bookish assistant standing. At least for now.
When Nora landed an editorial assistant role at Parsons Press she thought it would be The Dream Job. But after five years of admin and taking lunch orders, Nora has come to the conclusion: Dream Jobs do not exist.
With her life spiralling and unable to afford her rent, Nora does the only thing she can think of and starts freelancing for a rival publisher.
But when Andrew Santos, a bestselling author (who also happens to be quite attractive), is thrown into Nora’s life, she must decide where her loyalties lie, and whether she’s ready to choose herself and her future over her job…
Your next book club read touching on mental health, happiness and the ups and downs of being a young woman trying to figure it all out.
Published: February 21st, 2023 Publisher: Hodder and Stoughton Genre: Historical Fiction, Romance Novel, Fairy Tale, Mythololgy
SYNOPSIS: History remembers him as a hero. But the women who knew him best remember a different man…
Perseus grows up wanting to be a hero, but he cannot become one if his mother Danae still sees him as a boy. When his stepfather Polydektes casts him away on a voyage across the sea, Perseus is determined to fulfil the great destiny of the son of a god and the grandson of a king. But the line between heroism and monstrosity is thin, and when Perseus attempts to seduce first gentle Medusa and then beautiful Andromeda, before finally reuniting with Danae, they each learn of the dangers of resisting a boy prepared to risk it all for greatness . . .
Published: February 21st, 2023 Publisher: Del Rey Genre: Fantasy Fiction, Fairy Tale, High Fantasy, Historical Fantasy, Adventure Fiction
SYNOPSIS: In this gorgeous and haunting fantasy set in 1930s Chicago, a talented ballerina finds herself torn between her dreams and her desires when she’s pursued by a secretive patron who may be more than he seems.
“A mix of dreamlike fairytale and enchanting historical fantasy, Nocturne has a real flavour of Phantom of the Opera. Add in a touch of Beauty and the Beast and this is the perfect escape from reality.” Culturefly
Grace has always wanted to be a ballerina, ever since she first peered through the windows of the Near North Ballet company. The elegance of the dance seemed transcendent to an immigrant child of the working poor, and so, when she is orphaned, it is to the ballet that she flees.
Years later, Grace is on the verge of becoming the company’s new prima ballerina – though she is beginning to realise that achieving her long-held dream may not be the triumph she once envisioned. Then Grace attracts the attention of the enigmatic Master La Rosa, and realises that the world may not be as small or constricted as she had come to fear.
But who is her mysterious patron, and what does he want from her? As Grace begins to unlock the Master’s secrets, she discovers that there may be another way entirely to achieve the transcendence she has always sought.
SYNOPSIS: Over a hundred years ago, the citizens of F- did something rather bad. And local school teacher Catherine Evans has made writing the definitive account of what happened when Ilsbeth Clark drowned in the well her life’s work.
The town’s people may not want their past raked up, but Catherine is determined to shine a light upon that shameful event. For Ilsbeth was an innocent, after all. She was shunned and ostracised by rumour-mongers and ill-wishers and someone has to speak up for her. And who better than Catherine, who has herself felt the sting and hurt of such whisperings?
But then a childhood friend returns to F -. Elena is a successful author whose book, The Whispers Inside: A Reawakening of the Soul, has earned her a certain celebrity. In search of a new subject, she takes an interest in the story of Ilsbeth Clark and announces her intention to write a book about the long-dead woman, focusing on the natural magic she believes she possessed.
And Elena has everything Catherine has not, like a platform and connections and no one seems to care that Elena’s book will be pure speculation, tainting Ilsbeth’s memory rather than preserving it. Catherine is determined that something must be done and plots to blunt her rival’s pen. However she had not allowed for the fact that the past might not be so dead after all – that something is reaching out from the well, disturbing her reality.
Before summer’s over, one woman will be dead, the other accused of murder . . . but is she really guilty, or are there other forces at work? And who was Ilsbeth Clark, really? An innocent? A witch? Or something else entirely?
SYNOPSIS: Six years after the end of the Great War, a nation is still in mourning. Thousands of husbands, fathers, sons and sweethearts were lost in Europe; millions more came back wounded and permanently damaged.
Beatrice Cade is an orphan, unmarried and childless – and given the dearth of men, likely to remain that way. London is full of women like her: not wives, not widows, not mothers. There is no name for these invisible women, and no place for their grief. Determined to carve out a richer and more fulfilling way to live as a single woman, Bea takes a room in a Bloomsbury ladies’ club and a job in the City. Then a fleeting encounter changes everything. Bea’s emerging independence is destroyed when she falls in love for the first time.
Kate Ryan is an ordinary wife and mother who has managed to build an enviable life with her handsome husband and her daughter. To anyone looking in from the outside, they seem like a normal, happy family – until two policemen knock on her door one morning and threaten to destroy the facade Kate has created. Suddenly, two women who never should have met are connected for ever . . .
Mesmerising, haunting and utterly remarkable, this is a devastating story of fantasy, obsession inspired by a murder that took place almost a hundred years ago.
Published: February 28th, 2023 Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton Genre: Gothic Romance, Historical Romance, Fantasy Fiction, Paranormal Fantasy
SYNOPSIS: The eagerly-anticipated sequel to Dana Schwartz’s Reese’s Book Club Winter YA Pick and No.1 New York Times bestselling gothic romance, Anatomy: A Love Story
Hazel Sinnett is alone. She’s half-convinced the events of the year before – the immortality, Beecham’s vial – were a figment of her imagination. She doesn’t even know if Jack is alive or dead. All she can really do is run her free clinic, helping people and maintaining Hawthornden Castle as it starts to decay around her.
When saving a life leads to her arrest, Hazel seems doomed to rot in prison until a message intervenes: Hazel has been specifically requested to be the personal physician of Princess Charlotte, the sickly daughter of King George IV. Soon Hazel is dragged into the glamour and romance of a court where everyone has something to hide, especially the ladies of the princess’s close circle, who never seem to stay hurt for long . . .
Meanwhile, Jack Currer has been trying to find a way to die. He’s been traveling across the Atlantic, hoarding any information that could cure his immortality and let him spend a normal life with Hazel. When he hears that Beecham has died, he immediately goes to London to find out how he achieved it – and reunites with Hazel once again.
As their search for the immortality cure entangles them more and more with the British court, Hazel and Jack realize that a life together is not the only thing at stake. Malicious forces are at work in the monarchy, and they are very interested in living forever . . .
Published: February 28th, 2023 Published: Bloomsbury Genre: Fantasy Fiction, High Fantasy, Fairy Tale, Coming-of-Age Fiction
SYNOPSIS: A return to the world of Samantha Shannon’s Sunday Times and New York Times-bestselling The Priory of the Orange Tree ____________________ Tunuva Melim is a sister of the Priory. For fifty years, she has trained to slay wyrms – but none have appeared since the Nameless One, and the younger generation is starting to question the Priory’s purpose.
To the north, in the Queendom of Inys, Sabran the Ambitious has married the new King of Hróth, narrowly saving both realms from ruin. Their daughter, Glorian, trails in their shadow – exactly where she wants to be.
The dragons of the East have slept for centuries. Dumai has spent her life in a Seiikinese mountain temple, trying to wake the gods from their long slumber. Now someone from her mother’s past is coming to upend her fate.
When the Dreadmount erupts, bringing with it an age of terror and violence, these women must find the strength to protect humankind from a devastating threat.
Intricate and epic, A Day of Fallen Night sweeps readers back to the world of A Priory of the Orange Tree, showing us a course of events that shaped it for generations to come.
**Chosen as a book of 2023 by the Metro, Cosmopolitan, Nerd Daily, PinkNews and Waterstones**
Published: February 28th, 2023 Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton Genre: Young Adult Fiction, Mystery, Fantasy Fiction, Thriller
SYNOPSIS: From #1 New York Times bestselling author Chloe Gong comes two captivating new novellas surrounding the events of Foul Lady Fortune and following a familiar cast of characters from the These Violent Delights Duet!
In A Foul Thing, Roma and Juliette have established themselves as the heads of an underground weapons ring in Zhouzhuang, making a living the way they do best while remaining anonymous in their peaceful, quiet life. But when they hear about several Russian girls showing up dead in nearby towns, they decide to investigate-and ultimately discover that this mystery is much closer to home than they ever imagined.
In This Foul Murder, Benedikt and Marshall have been summoned by Roma to find the elusive scientist, Lourens, and bring him to Zhouzhuang. Time is of the essence aboard the week-long Trans-Siberian Express, but when someone is murdered on board, Benedikt and Marshall convince the officer in charge not to stop the train so that they aren’t thrown off-schedule. Instead, they pretend that they are investigators and promise they can solve the murder, but as they dig deeper, they realize that the murder might having surprising ties to their own mission…
Published: February 28th, 2023 Publisher: HQ Genre: Contemporary Romance, Romance Novel, New Adult Fiction
SYNOPSIS: Forgetting is terrifying. Remembering is worse…
Charlie Wynwood and Silas Nash have been best friends since they could walk. They’ve been in love since the age of fourteen. But as of this morning… they are complete strangers. Their first kiss, their first fight, the moment they fell in love… every memory has vanished.
Now Charlie and Silas must work together to uncover the truth about what happened to them and why. But the more they learn about the couple they used to be… the more they question why they were ever together to begin with.
Forgetting is terrifying, but remembering may be worse.
The Number One Sunday Times bestselling author of It Ends with Us joins forces with the New York Times bestselling author of The Wives for a gripping, twisty, romantic mystery unlike any other.
Published: Janaury 19th, 2023 Publisher: Orenda Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Suspense, Political Thriller, Political Fiction, War Story Format: Paperback, Kindle, Audiobook
Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for this compelling thriller. Thank you to Anne at Random Things Tours for the invitation to take part, and Karen at Orenda for the ARC.
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SYNOPSIS:
A compulsive, searing political thriller set on a kibbutz in Northern Israel, where the discovery of the body of an Israeli-Arab worker sets off a devastating chain of events…
‘A first-class political thriller’ Steve Cavanagh
‘A bitingly sharp, pacy thriller. Devilishly good. I inhaled it’ Freya Berry
‘A powerful political thriller that brims with authentic detail. Clever, compulsive and achingly atmospheric’ Kia Abdullah
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This is no utopia…
1996. Northern Israel. Lola leaves an unhappy home life in England for the fabled utopian life of a kibbutz, but this heavily guarded farming community on the Arab-Israeli border isn’t the idyll it seems, and tensions are festering.
Hundreds of miles away, in the Jerusalem offices of the International Tribune newspaper, all eyes are on Israel’s response to a spate of rocket attacks from Lebanon, until cub reporter Jonny Murphy gets a tip from a mysterious source that sends him straight into the danger zone.
When the body of an Arab worker is discovered in the dirt of the kibbutz chicken house, it triggers a series of events that puts Lola and the whole community in jeopardy, and Jonny begins to uncover a series of secrets that put everything at risk, as he begins to realise just how far some people will go to belong…
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MY REIVEW
“The body steamed gently in the heat as the birds pecked their way around it, the fetid smell of chicken feed mingling with the sulphurous whiff of smashed eggs. The pecking became indecorous as the hardest-working chicken, a champion amongst fowl, found an eyeball. Then another.”
When a thriller opens with lines like that you know you’re in for a great read. And Dirt did not disappoint. There is a sense of foreboding that hovers over the pages from the start, something ominous in the air that we are yet to discover. And there is a lot to discover in the complex, layered and twisty political thriller filled with secrets, tension and cover-ups.
1996 is a nostalgic year for me. I was 17-years-old and it was the year I felt I found a sense of freedom and adventure among my peers, so I instantly connected with Lola who is experiencing that on a much bigger scale in this story. Lola has left behind her unhappy home life in England for an adventure in Northern Israel alongside her Jewish best friend, Sam. The two are working as volunteers on a kibbutz, a fabled utopian farming community located on the Arab-Israeli border. There is a real sense of family living and working alongside these people every day. But when a body is found in the heavily guarded community all signs point to murder, and it seems Lola doesn’t know these people as well as she thought.
Meanwhile, our other narrator, Jonny, is hundreds of miles away in Jerusalem. Jonny has also come to the country to find himself, a quest to learn more about his heritage after his Jewish mother was disowned by her family for falling in love with his Irish father. A reporter for the International Tribune, a source alerts him to the body discovered on the kibbutz. Unable to resist the lure of a story, he travels there to investigate, not realising the dangerous chain of events he is about to ignite.
“You have no idea what you’ve stumbled into. Everyone thinks that it is simple – both sides hate the other and will fight to the death until one of them wins. Nothing’s ever that simple though is it?”
Sarah Sultoon isn’t afraid to tackle a difficult subject. Her debut, The Source, was a hard-hitting read and this one is just as unflinching. Alongside her examination of the Arab-Israeli conflict is an exploration of identity that also touches on subjects such as prejudice and sexual assault. While there are occasional gruesome scenes, it is never graphic and she instead focuses on the emotions of the characters to tell her story, making the reader feel everything alongside Lola and Jonny. The writing is so evocative that I was transported and it was almost like I could feel the heat of the sun bearing down on me in the kibbutz or feel the terror as rockets flew overhead during an air raid. It gave me a real connection not only to the characters, but to the setting itself, something that is very important in this book.
A clever, intriguing and intricate thriller that I’d highly recommend.
Rating: ✮✮✮✮✰
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MEET THE AUTHOR:
Sarah Sultoon is a journalist and writer, whose work as an international news executive at CNN has taken her all over the world, from the seats of power in both Westminster and Washington to the frontlines of Iraq and Afghanistan. She has extensive experience in conflict zones, winning three Peabody awards for her work on the war in Syria, an Emmy for her contribution to the coverage of Europe’s migrant crisis in 2015, and a number of Royal Television Society gongs. As passionate about fiction as nonfiction, she recently completed a Masters of Studies in Creative Writing at the University of Cambridge, adding to an undergraduate language degree in French and Spanish, and Masters of Philosophy in History, Film and Television. When not reading or writing she can usually be found somewhere outside, either running, swimming or throwing a ball for her three children and dog while she imagines what might happen if… Sarah lives in London with her family, and she’s currently working on her second thriller
Published: November 10th, 2022 Publisher: Orenda Genre: Thriller, Psychological Thriller, Medical Thriller, Police Procedural Format: Paperback, Kindle, Audiobook
Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for The Pain Tourist. I’m so excited to finally share my review for this jaw-dropping thriller. Thank you to Anne at Random Things Tours for the invitation to take part and Karen at Orenda Book for the gifted proof.
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SYNOPSIS:
A young man wakes from a coma to find himself targeted by the men who killed his parents, while someone is impersonating a notorious New Zealand serial killer … the latest chilling, nerve-shredding, twisty thriller from the author of The Quiet People…
‘Paul Cleave is an automatic must-read for me’ Lee Child
‘You can’t be a true fan of crime fiction if you’re not reading Cleave’s books’ Tom Wood
‘Uses words as lethal weapons’ New York Times
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James Garrett was critically injured when he was shot following his parents’ execution, and no one expected him to waken from a deep, traumatic coma. When he does, nine years later, Detective Inspector Rebecca Kent is tasked with closing the case that her now retired colleague, Theodore Tate, failed to solve all those years ago.
But between that, and hunting for Copy Joe – a murderer on a spree, who’s imitating Christchurch’s most notorious serial killer – she’s going to need Tate’s help … especially when they learn that James has lived out another life in his nine-year coma, and there are things he couldn’t possibly know, including the fact that Copy Joe isn’t the only serial killer in town…
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MY REVIEW:
“Pain tourists are who we get when the podcasts and true-crime novels and the documentaries aren’t enough. They wonder what it’s like being either killer or victim. They slake that curiosity by visiting places where the terrible things happened, and the next you know they’re going from ‘how did this happen?’ to ‘how can I make this happen?’ ”
It’s been a few months since I read this book and I still can’t stop thinking about it. A heart-pounding, jaw-dropping thrill ride that will blow your mind, this book is like nothing I’ve ever read before. It is one of those books where you think you know where it’s going but you really have no clue, the many twists and turns giving me book whiplash. Complex and layered, author Paul Cleave slowly weaves the many threads together so that the full picture begins to take shape. And it looks nothing like you imagined. And that finale… I was holding my breath in anticipation and did NOT expect the turns it took.
I was a big fan of Cleave’s last book, The Quiet People, and I feel like he gets better every time. Exquisitely written with gorgeous and evocative imagery, this book really showcases just how damn good he is. An ensemble cast thriller with multiple threads, it manages to avoid getting confusing. Each character is brilliantly written, compelling and memorable, and it felt like there were no real background characters. But it was James and the mysterious killer whose points of view I found most enthralling. The concept of James living an entire life in ‘coma world’ was genius, and the anguish and confusion he felt upon waking was heartbreaking. I loved how the author brought James’ coma world to life for the reader, making it feel as real to us as it did him. As for the killer, well, what can I say except that I’m a sucker for an insight into a dark and twisted mind.
Imaginative, tense and moving, The Pain Tourist is an absolute triumph. It is one of those books you never want to end but you are also desperate for answers. One of my favourite books this year, if you haven’t read this author yet then do it now!
Rating: ✮✮✮✮✮
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MEET THE AUTHOR:
Paul is an award winning author who often divides his time between his home city of Christchurch, New Zealand, where most of his novels are set, and Europe. He’s won the New Zealand Ngaio Marsh Award three times, the Saint-Maur book festival’s crime novel of the year award in France, and has been shortlisted for the Edgar and the Barry in the US and the Ned Kelly in Australia. HIs books have been translated into over twenty languages. He’s thrown his Frisbee in over forty countries, plays tennis badly, golf even worse, and has two cats – which is often two too many. The critically acclaimed The Quiet People was published in 2021, with The Pain Tourist to follow in 2022.
Emma's Biblio Treasures 