This preview highlights titles to be published in January
01
series moves between Singapore, the Kremlin and the CIA headquarters at Langley. BookScan
Jenny Morris An Ethical Guide To Murder Simon & Schuster, 16th, £16.99, hb, 9781398534407 How to Kill Your Family meets The Power in this high-concept thriller about a woman who can tell how long someone has left to live by touching them, and can transfer life from one person to another.
Cate Quinn The Bridesmaid Orion, 16th, £22, hb, 9781398720503 In the latest escapist thriller from the author of Blood Sisters, a nightclub heiress hosts her dream wedding on a private island where she was kidnapped and held hostage on her 21st birthday. Will the unsolved case ruin her big day?
Stella Rimington The Hidden Hand Bloomsbury Publishing, 30th, £20, hb, 9781526652737 Book two in the Manon Tyler series. “A must-read for fans of contempo- rary spy fiction,” said Publishers Weekly.
Rob Parker The Troubled Deep Raven Books, 16th, £16.99, hb, 9781526681904 When special-forces veteran turned cold-case diver Cam Killick discovers the sunken car of a family missing for 30 years, he thinks it will be the end of their story, but it is only the beginning. This “grip- ping and atmospheric” crime thriller is the first in a new Norfolk-set series from the author of Far From the Tree.
Tony Parsons Murder for Busy People Century, 2nd, £18.99, hb, 9781529197334 The seventh instalment in the crime series starring DC Max Wolfe, following #taken.
Jacqui Rose The Good Wife Macmillan, 2nd, £16.99, hb, 9781035030149 A gritty urban thriller, for fans of Kimberley Chambers, about a self- destructive psychologist who wants to be a good wife to her cop husband, but is hiding a plethora of secrets, which return to haunt her when her father is attacked.
Edgar Allan Poe Award, and The Clockwork Girl. Her first thriller set in the modern day tells the story of a lawyer who joins forces with a government adviser to investigate the cover-up of the death of a girl found drowned in the Thames.
“page-turner” from the author of To the Lions, eight friends gather 20 years after university, following the death of one of their friends. But why did she die, and how far is one of them prepared to go to stop the truth coming out?
Kate van der Borgh And He Shall Appear 4th Estate, 16th, £16.99, hb, 9780008636548
Début A dark academia thriller for fans of
“Saltburn”, about a young Cambridge undergradu- ate who falls under the spell of a magnetic party boy and skilled magician.
Mary Watson The Cleaner Bantam, 30th, £16.99, hb, 9780857506030
Début Exploring obses- sion and privi-
Anna Sharpe Notes on a Drowning Orion, 23rd, £18.99, hb, 9781398715578 Anna Sharpe is the pseudonym of Anna Mazzola, author of The Unseeing, which won an
Horror & ghost stories Kylie Lee Baker
Bat Eater Hodder & Stoughton, 1st, £20, hb, 9781399729819
lege, this “sinister, propul- sive” adult début follows a woman who takes a job as a cleaner, but is after revenge. Watson won the Caine Prize for African Writing and was named on the Africa39 list of writers under 40. Her YA novels have been nominated for the Irish Book Awards and the Carnegie Medal.
Holly Watt The Last Truths We Told Raven Books, 16th, £16.99, hb, 9781526661500 In this suspenseful
M J Arlidge, Andy Maslen Your Child Next Orion, 16th, £9.99, pbo, 9781398716636 A mother is threatened with a faked video of her daughter’s funeral in this thriller co-written by the author of the Helen Grace series and the Gabriel Wolfe series.
Javier Castillo The Soul Game Michael Joseph, 2nd, £8.99, pbo, 9781405960908 A cold case, the shocking crucifixion of a teenage girl, and a journalist with no leads come together in the new cat-and-mouse thriller from the Spanish author of The Snow Girl. Following the success of its adaptation of The Snow Girl, Netflix will launch its adaptation in January 2025 with an “ambitious” campaign. BookScan
about a serial killer who throws an exclusive party that no one will be able to resist—or be able to survive. Lucy Foley meets The Serial Killer’s Wife, says Penguin.
Karsten Dusse, Florian Duijsens (trans) Murder Mindfully Faber, 2nd, £9.99, pbo, 9780571384044 A lawyer starts commit- ting murder because of a mindfulness course in this “satirical, voice-driven” crime novel for fans of Chris Brookmyre. It is the first in a series that has sold more than 2.5 million copies in Germany alone, with a Netflix adaptation currently in production.
from the author of The Black Country, Gamble and God’s Country.
Rebecca Heath The Wedding Party Head of Zeus, 23rd, £9.99, pbo, 9781035913121 Three families united by a terrible event 12 years earlier must survive a deadly wedding in this latest thriller from the author of The Summer Party and The Dinner Party.
Carlo Fruttero, Franco Lucentini, Gregory Dowling (trans) Runaway Horses Bitter Lemon Press, 23rd, £9.99, pbo, 9781916725034 Following on from The Lover of No Fixed Abode, the next mystery from the Italian writing duo is set in Siena during the Palio, a horse race dating back to the Middle Ages held every summer.
Amy Cunningham The Serial Killer’s Party Penguin, 16th, £8.99, pbo, 9781804997017
Début A twisty locked- room thriller
One to Watch
In this horror thriller from the author of YA fantasy series including the Scarlet Alchemist duology, a biracial woman is haunted by hungry ghosts and her own trauma as she’s entangled in a series of murders. Cora Zeng is a
crime scene cleaner, washing away the remains of brutal killings in New York’s Chinatown. The bloody messes don’t bother her, not when she’s already witnessed her sister being pushed in front of a train. Before fleeing the scene, the murderer whispered the words “bat eater”. This “sharp social horror” explores the racism experienced by East Asians during the pandemic.
TheBookseller.com Crime & thriller
Belinda Bauer The Impossible Thing Bantam, 16th, £16.99, hb, 9781787630970
The “hilarious and addictive” new mystery from the Booker-longlisted author of Snap, two-time winner of CWA Crime Novel of the Year and winner of the Theakstons Crime Novel of the Year, features a five-year-old
who appears to have stolen a rare guillemot egg. A hundred years years later, Patrick Fort (from Bauer’s novel Rubbernecker) is faced with the impossible task of bringing it back home. This hare-brained quest is perfect for fans of Kate
Atkinson and Joanna Quinn, says Doubleday. BookScan
Kerry Hadley-Pryce Lie of the Land Salt, 15th, £10.99, pbo, 9781784633318 A domestic literary thriller about a couple who buy a new house in the Black Country in the Midlands,
Leah Konen The Woman in Room 13 Michael Joseph, 30th, £9.99, pbo, 9781405962896 A woman takes a job as a caretaker of a remote motel in the Catskills, but finds her room filled with her predecessor’s belong- ings. With an atmospheric setting and “jaw- dropping” jump scares, this modern take on “The Shining” is the fifth thriller from the author of Keep Your Friends Close. BookScan
Fiona McIntosh Bye Bye Baby No Exit Press, 16th, £9.99, pbo, 9781835011287 Jack Hawksworth is a Scotland Yard DCI who must confront his own past as the body count rises in a serial killer investigation in Brighton. This is the first book in a new series that has been optioned for TV.
One to Watch
25
© Greg Samborski
© Jay Brooks
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56
