Literary
Lulu Allison Beast Bluemoose, 31st July, £12, PB, 9781915693327
A ’90s musician considers a pact with the devil. Follow-up to Allison’s Women’s Prize longlisted second novel Salt Lick.
James Campbell Black Shroud Bluemoose, 1st January, £10.99, PB, 9781915693402
A young woman in Victorian England trains as an apprentice Black Shroud, “releasing” loved ones from pain.
Katie Hale The Edge of Solitude Canongate, 3rd July, £9.99, PB, 9781837260751
Shap-based poet and novelist Hale’s second novel is a thought- provoking, vivid, speculative climate fiction set in Antarctica.
Megan Hunter Days of Light Picador, 3rd April, £8.99, PB, 9781529010206
Six pivotal days across six decades in the life of Ivy, moving through the Second World War and the 20th century. This is Manchester-born Hunter’s third novel.
Marcia Hutchinson The Mercy Step Cassava Republic, 22 July, £16.99, HB, 9781913175740
Lettice Cooper Fenny Penguin, 11th September, £12.99, PB, 9781405984157
The Mermaid Collection reissues Yorkshire-born Cooper’s 1953 classic, where Yorkshire teacher Ellen Fenwick takes a position as a governess in 1930s Florence. Introduced by Jennie Godfrey.
Simon Crump Post It Notes from Underground
Bluemoose, 1st June, £12, PB, 9781915693488
Satire of one man’s attempts to destroy an established workplace Post-it note universe.
Yrsa Daley-Ward The Catch Merky Books, 10th July, £16.99, HB, 9781529923643
Estranged twin sisters Clara and Dempsey are brought together by a woman who looks like their missing mother, Serene, and who appears not to have aged since her disappearance. Daley- Ward’s debut novel.
Matt Greene The Definitions Dead Ink Books, 2nd October, £10.99, PB, 9781915368850
A group gather to relearn how to navigate the world after a mysterious illness strips them of their memories.
Jamie Guiney The Lightning Bluemoose, 1st May, £12, PB, 9781915693440
In 1957, a Northern Irish grandfather and his grandson look after a lighthouse in the North Atlantic before their tranquillity is disrupted by visitors.
In 1960s Bradford, Mercy struggles to find her place in the world alongside a strained relationship with her Windrush generation parents.
Connor Hutchinson Dead Lucky Corsair, 20th July, £20, HB, 9781472159069
Jamie, an embalmer at a busy Openshaw funeral home, is hiding a gambling
addiction that has left him in eye-watering debt. When pressure increases, he responds by placing the biggest bet of his life. Debut novel from Mancunian Hutchinson.
Kay Inckle Overspill SRL Publishing, 23rd September, £16.99, HB, 9781915073525
In 2055, Liverpool has been devastated by the global disaster of arctic melt. Megan is disabled and trapped in an institution and with nearly everyone she loves dead, must rely on an elite contact to escape to freedom.
Carolyn Kirby Ravenglass Northodox Press, 25th September, £10.99, PB, 9781915179715
Immersive historical adventure steeped in queer history, which sees Kit Ravenglass grow up in a house of secrets in 18th-century Whitehaven before being swept up in the violence of the Jacobite Rebellion.
Caleb Klaces Mr Outside Prototype, 16th October, £12, PB, 9781913513801
When a son grapples with moving his father to a care home, long-buried conflicts resurface. Klaces is senior lecturer in creative writing and
English literature at York St John University.
Benjamin Myers Rare Singles Bloomsbury, 3rd July, £9.99, PB, 9781526671912
Paperback release of Myers’ warm tale of the power of music, love and friendship, Scarborough and Chicago and Northern Soul.
Benjamin Myers Jesus Christ Kinski Bloomsbury, 23rd October, £16.99, HB, 9781526663429
In 1970s Berlin, Kinski, Germany’s most controversial actor stages a controversial one-man performance about Jesus Christ. Fifty years on, a housebound writer becomes obsessed with video footage of Kinski’s performance. New novel from Mytholmroyd- based Myers, author of the Goldsmiths Prize- winning Cuddy.
David Nicholls You Are Here Sceptre, 3rd July, £9.99, PB, 9781444715460
A clever illustrated cover for the paperback of Nicholls’ story of middle- aged Michael and Marni, both recovering from painful divorces, thrown together on a coast-to- coast walking holiday.
Jordan Prosser Big Time Dead Ink Books, 4th September, £10.99, PB, 9781915368881
In the near future, Australia’s eastern states have become an autocracy, and outside temporal anomalies abound, all traceable to the final album of Melbourne band the Acceptables.
Leanne Betasamosake Simpson
Noopiming: The Cure for White Ladies And Other Stories, 4th November, £14.99, PB, 9781916751354
A poetic novel steeped in an Indigenous world view depicting a dialogue between the natural world, from the caribou to the maple tree, and the unnatural urban-settler world in North America. Shortlisted for the Dublin Literary Award.
Colette Snowden Celeste Bluemoose, 1st September, £10.99, PB, 9781915693358
Snowden’s third novel with Bluemoose. Four witnesses relate their interactions with a 17-year-old woman who does not return home after a night out.
Christine Poulson Safe as Houses Comma Press, 4th December, £10.99, PB, 9781917093057
New short story collection from North Yorkshire-born and raised crime writer Poulson. The title story revolves around an eerie incident with a baby monitor.
Morgan Talty Night of the Living Rez And Other Stories, 7th August, £14.99, PB, 9781916751187
Following the success of last autumn’s Fire Exit, And Other Stories publishes Talty’s acclaimed debut collection of 12 stories set on the Penobscot Indian Nation reservation in Maine. Winner of the National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Prize.
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Phillipa Ashley All We Want for Christmas
Penguin, 6th November, £9.99, PB, 9781804945582
Sparks fly at Ravendale Castle, in the snowy
Literary short stories
Jan Kaneen Hostile Environment Northodox Press, 7th August, £9.99, PB, 9781915179678
Thirty short stories from Bolton-born Kaneen, exploring what makes somewhere a safe or dangerous place to inhabit.
Clemens Meyer, Katy Derbyshire (trans) All the Lights
And Other Stories, 1st July, £14.99, PB, 9781916751309
Stories about people who have lost out in life and in love. Introduced by Stuart Evers. Meyer’s collection is reissued in the Sheffield publisher’s smart new look, designed by Elisa von Randow.
Saima Mir (ed) The Book of Bradford Comma Press, 16th October, £10.99, PB, 9781917093002
Mir, the crime writer behind The Khan and Vengeance, brings together 10 short stories set in Bradford that “showcase the people and communities simply trying to make their voices heard within a city undergoing serious social and cultural change”.
heart of the Lake District, when Lara grows close to technical manager Flynn as they prepare to put on a Winter Spectacular.
Lady Cecil Cameron The Rebel Daughters HarperNorth, 6th November, £9.99, PB, 9780008540937
Historical romance set in 1820s Russia.
Andrea Christodoulou It’s All Greek to Me UCLan Publishing, 1st July, £9.99, PB, 9781916747517
When Ismeena discovers her mum’s motivations for matchmaking go beyond Greek tradition, a family emergency hurries a marriage proposal that could solve all of their problems.
Tillie Cole Write Me for You Penguin, 31st July, £9.99, PB, 9781405964708
Teesside-born Cole’s YA-crossover romance sees June fall in love with Jesse and write their story, given that any day might be their last.
Jane Costello Forty Love Hodder, 23rd April, £9.99, PB, 9781399739504
Single mum Jules finds perimenopausal anxiety propel her to rashly join a tennis team and all manner of rallying, sexy encounters ensue. New novel from Liverpool’s Costello.
Charlotte Crosby Lucky Break HarperNorth, 17th July, £16.99, HB, 9780008776497
Debut novel set in a reality TV show where contestants head to a house with
sex, scandal and fame on their minds.
Helen Gaskell The Regency Switch HQ Digital, 26th February, £9.99, PB, 9780008769574
Manchester-based Gaskell’s time-switch romance sees Etta Moore swap the 21st century for the Regency and Miss Henrietta Bainbridge aka ‘Mad Hetty’ leave behind servants for a crash course in new technology.
Sharon Gosling The Forest Hideaway Simon & Schuster UK, 28th August, £9.99, PB, 9781398538887
Saskia is building a home out of the ruins of an old castle on the wild edge of Cumbria, close to the Scottish border. Local builder Owen signs up to manage the construction but after an initial clash, and the discovery of a secret, realises he is more
invested in the project, and Saskia. Croglin- based Gosling’s latest character-driven tale.
Suzan Holder What Would Dolly Do? HarperNorth, 17th July, £9.99, PB, 9780008738686
A Scottish Dolly Parton tribute singer looks for romance, revenge and her real self on the road to Nashville.
Mollie Kendrick Middle Rage HQ, 20th November, £9.99, PB, 9780008754778
Four women lose themselves at a retreat on Bodmin Moor.
Hexham-based Kendrick’s debut novel.
Adele Parks Our Beautiful Mess HQ, 28th August, £16.99, HB, 9780008586379
This is Teesside-born Parks’ 25th novel in 25 years. Connie cannot wait to have all her daughters back home for the holidays until unease and deception threaten her family.
Kirstie Pelling Sink or Swim HarperNorth, 7th May, £9.99, PB, 9780008771720
Burton-in-Kendal-based Pelling sets her new novel in the fictional Lake District village of Ingletown. Aria returns home but is forced to live in a ramshackle fishing hut and pitted against Nic, a property tycoon with plans to transform the lakeshore into a luxury haven for the rich.
Alexandra Potter So, I Met This Guy… Pan Fiction, 5th February, £18.99, HB, 9781529098860
When Maggie realises her man is a romance fraudster, she joins forces with reporter Flick to track him as he goes on the run across Europe. Bradford-born Potter’s novel Confessions of a Forty-Something F**k Up was adapted as Disney+ series Not Dead Yet.
Zoë Richards Tell It to the Bees Fox and Ink Books, 7th August, £9.99, PB, 9781916747746
Lorraine’s Pinewoods retreat is in trouble and visiting businesswoman Georgie is ready to capitalise but will
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Books
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