SEASON HIGHLIGHTS
Heresies won the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction and the Desmond Elliott Prize. This, her third novel, is pitched as a riotous blast of sex, scandal, obsession, love, feminism, gender, music, class and transgression.
Richard Osman The Thursday Murder Club Penguin, 13 May, pb, £8.99, 9780241988268
Adventure, crime & horror
Début novel from the “Pointless”
host, which was a huge bestseller in hardback. Set in a “luxury retirement village” off the A21 in Kent, where octogenarians Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron share a passion for cold cases. When a local property developer is found dead, the quartet find themselves in the thick of things. Now in paperback.
an acceptance of sorts about the narrow parameters of her life, until she starts to investigate a news story. Both an absorbing mystery and a tender love story, Chambers is a writer who finds the truth of things. Now in paperback.
Bernard Cornwell War Lord HarperCollins, 27 May, pb, £8.99, 9780008183981
Sagas, romance & historical
In the epic conclusion to the bestselling Last Kingdom
series (13 books in all), England is under attack, chaos reigns and the warrior king Uhtred of Bebbanburg faces his final battle. “Like ‘Game of Thrones’, but real” reckons the Observer, and George R R Martin is himself a fan.
June
Avni Doshi Burnt Sugar Penguin, 3 June, pb, £8.99, 9780241989142
General fiction Shortlisted for the Booker
Elizabeth Macneal Circus of Wonders Picador, 13 May, hb, £14.99, 9781529002539
Sagas, romance & historical
I’m looking forward to this, the second novel from the author
of The Doll Factory. Set in 1866, it tells of birth-marked Nell, whose father sells her to Jasper Jupiter’s Circus of Wonders as a “leopard girl”, where she becomes a sensation due to the Victorian obsession with spectacle.
Stuart Turton The Devil and the Dark Water Raven Books, 13 May, pb, £8.99, 9781408889534
Adventure, crime & horror
Follow-up to The Seven Deaths of
Evelyn Hardcastle, which won the Costa First Novel Award. The year is 1634 and Samuel Pipps, the world’s greatest detective, is sent to Amsterdam to face trial for a crime he may, or may not, have committed. As soon as the ship sets sail, strange and terrifying things start to happen… Now in paperback.
Clare Chambers Small Pleasures Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 13 May, pb, £8.99, 9781474613903
General fiction I adored this. Set in 1950s
London, it follows journalist Jean Swinney, who has come to
Prize. In her youth, Tara was wild: abandoning her loveless marriage, joining an ashram, chasing after a deadbeat “artist”, all with her young daughter, Antara, in tow. Now Tara has dementia and Antara is faced with caring for a woman who never cared for her. Now in paperback.
Bill Clinton, James Patterson The President’s Daughter Century, 7 June, hb, £20, 9781529125665
Adventure, crime & horror
The former president teams up again
with the world’s bestselling thriller writer, following the success of their first joint effort, The President is Missing. There is a new administration in the White House, but it’s the previous First Family who tops an international assassin’s hit list.
Curtis Sittenfeld Rodham Black Swan, 10 June, pb, £8.99, 9780552776608
General fiction Latest from the wonderful
Sittenfeld (Prep, American Wife) weaves real events into a fictional tale, an intimate exploration of how things might have turned out if Hillary Rodham had turned down Bill Clinton’s proposal of marriage—for them, for America, and for the world itself. Now in paperback.
Sarah Winman Still Life Fourth Estate, 10 June, hb, £12.99, 9780008283353
General fiction Fourth novel from Winman
(When God was a Rabbit, Tin Man), and her first for Fourth Estate, opens in 1944 in the ruined wine cellar of a Tuscan villa. It is a “richly tapestried” story of people brought together by love, war, art, flood… and the ghost of E M Forster.
Libby Page The Island Orion, 10 June, hb, £12.99, 9781409188261
General fiction A tale about a mother,
Lorna, and her daughter, who leave London to return to the tiny, remote Scottish island where Lorna grew up. But with two decades, hundreds of miles and a lifetime’s worth of secrets between Lorna and the island, can coming home mean starting again?
Philippa Gregory Dark Tides Simon & Schuster UK, 10 June, pb, £8.99, 9781471172885
Sagas, romance & historical
Now in paperback, the second novel in historical superstar
Gregory’s latest Fairmile series, tracking the rise of the Tidelands family in Restoration London, Venice and New England. It is now Midsummer Eve, 1670, and Alinor receives two unexpected visitors at her shabby warehouse on the south side of the River Thames…
Esther Freud I Couldn’t Love You More Bloomsbury Publishing, 10 June, hb, £16.99, 9781526629906
Sagas, romance & historical
I couldn’t be more excited about a new novel from
Esther Freud. This spans three generations of women who are connected across half a century by love, betrayal, secrets and motherhood. Sounds wonderful.
almost imperceptibly to a deafening thrum of dread, and the ending is devastating. Now in paperback.
Stacey Halls Mrs England Manilla Press, 10 June, hb, £12.99, 9781838772864
Sagas, romance & historical
Third novel from the bestselling author of The Familiars and
The Foundling is set in West Yorkshire, 1904, where new nurse Ruby takes a position at isolated Hardcastle House, looking after the children of a wealthy couple from a powerful dynasty of mill owners. But it becomes clear that there is something not quite right about the lady of the house…
Stephen King If It Bleeds Hodder Paperbacks, 10 June, hb, £8.99, 9781529391572 Now in
Adventure, crime & horror
paperback, this features
a standalone sequel to The Outsider, plus three more long stories: “Mr Harrigan’s Phone”, “The Life of Chuck” and “Rat”. King fans will also be thrilled with his Author’s Note, giving an insight into the origin of each story.
Louise Candlish The Heights Simon & Schuster UK, 24 June, hb, £14.99, 9781471183485
Adventure, crime & horror
The latest thriller from the author
of the award-winning Our House sounds like a must read. A woman glimpses a man standing on the roof terrace of The Heights, but cannot reconcile what she sees— because he’s been dead for more than two years, and she’s the one who killed him.
July
John Grisham A Time for Mercy Hodder Paperbacks, 8 July, pb, £7.99, 9781529342369
Adventure, crime & horror
Jake Brigance (A Time to Kill) returns as the
court-appointed lawyer for 16-year-old Drew Gamble, who is at the centre of a sensational murder trial that bitterly divides the citizens of Clanton, Mississippi. Now in paperback.
Sarah Moss Summerwater Picador, 10 June, pb, £9.99, 9781529035476
General fiction Latest from the author of Ghost
Wall is set in a rainy Scottish campsite over the course of a single day. As the inhabitants of six cabins narrate, it becomes clear that all are divided along age, class and political lines. The sense of unease builds
Dorothy Koomson I Know What You’ve Done Headline Review, 8 July, hb, £12.99, 9781472277336
Adventure, crime & horror
What if all your neighbours’ secrets landed
in a diary on your doorstep, and the woman who gave it to you was murdered by one of the people in the diary? If the police asked, would you hand
over the book of secrets? Or try to find out what everyone had done?
Cathy Rentzenbrink Everyone is Still Alive Phoenix, 8 July, hb, £14.99, 9781474621120
General fiction I’m looking forward to
this, the début novel from my esteemed former colleague and host of “The Bookseller Podcast”, who has three non-fiction books to her name. This is said to explore “the deeper reality of marriage, parenthood and the way life thwarts our expectations”.
Robert Harris V2 Arrow Books, 8 July, pb, £8.99, 9781787460980
Adventure, crime & horror
November, 1944. As the volatile V2
rockets land on London from Occupied Holland, the British government decides to send a team to newly-liberated Belgium in the hope of discovering the launch sites. Kay Caton-Walsh, a Women’s Auxiliary Air Force officer, finds herself in mortal danger. Now in paperback.
Melanie Blake Ruthless Women Head of Zeus, 8 July, pb, £8.99, 9781800243040
General fiction Jackie Collins for a new
generation, I’m reliably informed, following her blockbuster début The Thunder Girls. This is billed as a “sizzling” thriller, set behind the scenes of a glamorous TV soap, where three women battle to stay on top…
Christy Lefteri Songbirds Bonnier Zaffre, 8 July, hb, £12.99, 9781838773762
General fiction Latest from the author
of The Beekeeper of Aleppo is set in Cyprus, where poacher Yiannis traps the songbirds as they migrate from Africa to Europe. When the woman he loves disappears, Yiannis is convinced he is responsible.
Lisa Taddeo Animal Bloomsbury Circus, 22 July, hb, £16.99, 9781526630940
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