A blue-skinned boy brought up to be a god

Blue-Skinned Gods by SJ Sindu

In Tamil Nadu, India, a boy named Kalki is born with blue skin. He believes that he is the Hindu god Vishnu and that he can perform miracles. The truth, however, is much darker. As Kalki struggles to extract himself from under the thumb of his controlling father, he must also reconcile with the idea that everything he’s ever been told might not be true. When his father drags him on a tour to America, Kalki seizes his chance to explore what life as an ordinary man might be like.

I was really intrigued by the concept of this book – how one boy, brought up his entire life believing he is a god with incredible healing powers, has his entire world shaken when he starts to question everything he has been told. But unfortunately, the execution of the story didn’t live up to the premise.

The first half of the book is very slow. It details the story of Kalki’s everyday life in India, where everyone believes him to be a god and where he carries out healing rituals to help those in need. Then in the second half, when the action moves to America, the pace speeds up until it rushes very quickly to an unsatisfactory ending.

My main problem with this book is that I felt no connection to the characters. Something about the writing style created a distance between the reader and the characters – we are consistently told what characters are feeling, rather than being shown it, meaning that even when the big emotional scenes happen, it seems insincere.

A good concept, but lacking in emotional impact.

Historical novel plunges you into the debauched world of the Jacobean court

The Dangerous Kingdom of Love by Neil Blackmore

How have I, Francis Bacon, well-known as the cleverest man in England, been caught in this trap? For years I survived the brutal games of the English court, driven by the whims of the idiot King James I – and finally, I was winning. But now, at the moment of my greatest success, a deadly alliance of my enemies has begun closing in on me. Led by the King’s beautiful and poisonous lover, Carr, this new alliance threatens to turn our foolish King against me. But I have concocted a brilliant new plan: I will find my own beguiling young man and supplant Carr in the King’s bed, and take power for myself. All I need to do is find him, my beautiful and mysterious creature, my perfect chess move.

I had some trepidation about this book at first. It’s written in such a unique, in-your-face voice that I think it’s going to be quite a love-it-or-hate-it thing. It took me a while to really get in board with it – particularly as it takes some time for the plot to get going – but by the halfway point, I was utterly engrossed.

The story plunges you headlong into the world of the Jacobean court. It’s a place of drama and debauchery, love and lust, intrigue and danger. Bacon – a foul-mouthed, amoral know-it-all – is our guide to this world. There’s a fair bit of info-dumping in the first few chapters before Blackmore seems to find his feet, but it’s a lot of fun once he lets his characters run loose.

Most of all, I loved the relationship between Bacon and his protege, George Villiers. It’s fascinating to watch as it develops, from two men wary and perhaps even afraid of each other, to something more intimate. Their clash of words and personalities at times left me breathless.

A thrilling, enjoyable read for any historical fiction fan.

New book releases January 2022

Pandora by Susan Stokes-Chapman

London, 1799. Dora Blake is an aspiring jewellery artist who lives with her uncle in what used to be her parents’ famed shop of antiquities. When a mysterious Greek vase is delivered, Dora is intrigued by her uncle’s suspicious behaviour and enlists the help of Edward Lawrence, a young antiquarian scholar. Edward sees the ancient vase as key to unlocking his academic future. Dora sees it as a chance to restore the shop to its former glory, and to escape her nefarious uncle. But what Edward discovers about the vase has Dora questioning everything she has believed about her life, her family, and the world as she knows it.

Release date: 27^th January

The Maid by Nita Prose

Molly the maid is all alone in the world. She’s used to being invisible in her job at the Regency Grand Hotel, plumping pillows and wiping away the grime, dust and secrets of the guests passing through. But Molly is thrown into the spotlight when she discovers an infamous guest, Mr Black, dead in his bed. As Molly becomes embroiled in the hunt for the truth, she discovers a power she never knew was there. She’s just a maid – but what can she see that others overlook?

Release date: 20^th January

Reckless Girls by Rachel Hawkins

Meroe Island is a desolate spot in the middle of the Pacific Ocean with a mysterious history of shipwrecks, cannibalism, and even rumours of murder. Six stunning twenty-somethings are about to embark on a blissful, free-spirited journey – one filled with sun-drenched days and intoxicating nights. But as it becomes clear that the group is even more cut off from civilization than they initially thought, it starts to feel like the island itself is closing in, sending them on a dangerous spiral of discovery. When one person goes missing and another turns up dead, the remaining friends wonder what dark currents lie beneath this impenetrable paradise.

Release date: 4^th January

The Last House on the Street by Diane Chamberlain

1965. A young white female student becomes involved in the fight for civil rights in North Carolina, falling in love with one of her fellow activists, a Black man, in a time and place where an interracial relationship must be hidden from family, friends and the Ku Klux Klan. As tensions rise in the town, she realises not everyone is who they appear to be. 2010. A recently widowed architect moves into the home she and her late husband designed, heartbroken that he will never cross the threshold. But when disturbing things begin to happen, it’s clear that someone is sending her a warning. Who is trying to frighten her away, and why?

Release date: 20^th January

The Starless Crown by James Rollins

A gifted student foretells an apocalypse. Her reward is a sentence of death. Fleeing into the unknown, she is drawn into a team of outcasts. A broken soldier, who once again takes up the weapons he’s forbidden to wield and carves a trail back home. A drunken prince, who steps out from his beloved brother’s shadow and claims a purpose of his own. An imprisoned thief, who escapes the crushing dark and discovers a gleaming artefact – one that will ignite a power struggle across the globe. On the run, hunted by enemies old and new, they must learn to trust each other in order to survive in a world evolved in strange, beautiful, and deadly ways, and uncover ancient secrets that hold the key to their salvation.

Release date: 4^th January

Hare House by Sally Hinchcliffe

In the first brisk days of autumn, a woman arrives in Scotland having left her job at an all-girls school in London in mysterious circumstances. Moving into a cottage on the remote estate of Hare House, she begins to explore her new home. But among the tiny roads, dykes and scattered houses, something more sinister lurks: local tales of witchcraft, clay figures and young men sent mad. Striking up a friendship with her landlord, Grant, and his younger sister, Cass, she begins to suspect that all might not be quite as it seems at Hare House. And as autumn turns to winter, and a heavy snowfall traps the inhabitants of the estate within its walls, tensions rise to fever pitch.

Release date: 6^th January

Beautiful Little Fools by Jillian Cantor

On a sultry August day in 1922, Jay Gatsby is shot dead in his West Egg swimming pool. To the police, it appears to be an open-and-shut case of murder/suicide when the body of George Wilson, a local mechanic, is found in the woods nearby. Then a diamond hairpin is discovered in the bushes by the pool, and three women fall under suspicion. Daisy Buchanan once thought she might marry Gatsby – before her family was torn apart by an unspeakable tragedy that sent her into the arms of the philandering Tom Buchanan. Jordan Baker, Daisy’s best friend, guards a secret that derailed her promising golf career and threatens to ruin her friendship with Daisy as well. Catherine McCoy, a suffragette, fights for women’s freedom and independence, and especially for her sister, Myrtle Wilson. Their stories unfold in the years leading up to that fateful summer of 1922, when all three of their lives are on the brink of unravelling.

Release date: 4^th January

The Christie Affair by Nina de Gramont

Agatha Christie’s world is one of glamorous society parties, country house weekends, and growing literary fame. Nan O’Dea’s world is something very different. Her attempts to escape a tough London upbringing during the Great War led to a life in Ireland marred by a hidden tragedy. After fighting her way back to England, she’s set her sights on Agatha. Because Agatha Christie has something Nan wants. And it’s not just her husband. Despite their differences, the two women will become the most unlikely of allies. And during the mysterious 11 days that Agatha goes missing, they will unravel a dark secret that only Nan holds the key to.

Release date: 20^th January

The Twyford Code by Janice Hallett

Forty years ago, Steven Smith found a copy of a famous children’s book by disgraced author Edith Twyford, its margins full of strange markings and annotations. Wanting to know more, he took it to his English teacher, Miss Iles, not realising the chain of events that he was setting in motion. Miss Iles became convinced that the book was the key to solving a puzzle, and that a message in secret code ran through all Twyford’s novels. Then Miss Iles disappeared on a class field trip, and Steven has no memory of what happened to her. Now, out of prison after a long stretch, Steven decides to investigate the mystery that has haunted him for decades. Was Miss Iles murdered? Was she deluded? Or was she right about the code?

Release date: 13^th January

The Key in the Lock by Beth Underdown

By day, Ivy Boscawen mourns the loss of her son, Tim, in the Great War. But by night she mourns another boy – one whose death decades ago haunts her still. For Ivy is sure that there is more to what happened all those years ago: the fire at the Great House, and the terrible events that came after. A truth she must uncover, if she is ever to be free. But once you open a door to the past, can you ever truly close it again?

Release date: 13^th January

Historic novel explores the aftermath of the fall of Troy

The Women of Troy by Pat Barker

Troy has fallen. The Greeks have won their bitter war. They can return home as victors – all they need is a good wind to lift their sails. But the wind has vanished, the seas becalmed by vengeful gods, and so the warriors remain in limbo – camped in the shadow of the city they destroyed, kept company by the women they stole from it.

Barker continues her retelling of The Iliad, which began with The Silence of the Girls, putting the focus on the women who are often forbidden to a voice in this classic tale. While the first book told the story of the siege of Troy, this second book is set after the fall of the city, in the immediate aftermath of a battle which saw all Troy’s male inhabitants slaughtered and most of its female citizens captured as slaves.

The setting is undeniably fascinating. The horrific reality of life for the surviving women is vividly brought to life. With a culture of violence and tensions simmering just below the surface, the Greek camp is a tinderbox just waiting for a spark to set it all aflame. Unfortunately, this tension remains below the surface throughout the book, and very little actually happens.

Our main characters is Briseis, formerly Achilles’ prize, now pregnant with his child and married to Alcimus. She spends most of her time wandering around the camp, visiting the other women – including Helen, Hecuba and Cassandra – and having the same repetitive conversations over and over again.

While this book claims to give a voice to the women of The Iliad, there are several chapters here focusing on Pyrrhus, son of Achilles, and Calchas, a prophet. Barker did the same with The Silence of the Girls, where there were more than a few chapters from Achilles’ point of view. I can’t really understand why, as it seems to undermine the whole point of this series.

Though this book had its problems, I admittedly would probably read the next book – assuming there’s going to be another one – in the hope that there would be a bit more meat to the plot.

My Books of the Year 2021

10. Ariadne by Jennifer Saint

There definitely seems to be a craze for retellings of classic Greek myths, and this is another fantastic one to add to the collection. The story focuses on Ariadne, Princess of Crete, who grows up beneath the shadow of her brother, the Minotaur, a creature that demands blood sacrifice. Although it doesn’t quite earn its ‘feminist’ label, it’s nevertheless an atmospheric and immersive read.

9. Wedlock by Wendy Moore

This non-fiction book – which tells the true story of Mary Eleanor Bowes – was a wild ride from start to finish. It’s a non-fiction history book but was so cinematic it felt like a thriller. When a charming young soldier flirts and lies his way into Mary’s life, she finds herself trapped in a cruel and violent marriage. But Mary refused to go down without a fight. This book took me on a journey through every emotion on the spectrum. I was furious at the horrific way some husbands treated their wives; I was touched by the joys the characters managed to find despite terrible circumstances; I was gripped with excitement during the cross-country chase; and I was shocked by the twists and turns of the plot.

8. The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson

Obviously, this is not a new book, but is the first in a very well-known and popular fantasy trilogy. Set on a world in which the bad guy has won and now ash falls from a permanently darkened sky, the plot focuses on Kelsier, gifted with the powers of a Mistborn, who is determined to overthrow the Lord Ruler with the support of his criminal crew. With an incredibly unique magic system at its heart, this story nevertheless thrives on its incredibly vivid characters and the relationships between them.

7. Circus of Wonders by Elizabeth Macneal

I absolutely loved Macneal’s debut novel, The Doll Factory, so I was very pleased to discover that her second was also a great read. Set in the 19^th century, it follows our protagonist, Nell, who is sold by her father and finds herself thrust into the limelight as the newest act in Jasper Jupiter’s Circus of Wonders. It’s a wonderfully colourful exploration of a time in Victorian England when freak shows were considered popular entertainment, but there’s a current of darkness running just beneath the surface.

6. Girl in the Walls by A.J. Gnuse

Elise is an orphan who has made a home for herself within the walls and secret spaces of her former family home. But when the property’s current occupants begin to realise something isn’t quite right, Elise finds herself under threat. While this book certainly had its ups and downs – particularly in terms of pacing – the writing was excellent, with some really striking descriptions and real heart-in-mouth tension.

5. Cecily by Annie Garthwaite

This astonishingly well-written debut novel tells the story of Cecily Neville, who was a key player in the Wars of the Roses. Garthwaite’s writing has a unique style, different to other, similar historical novels about famous women, with its blunt descriptions and violent machinations of power. Cecily is a fascinating character, as are the times she lives in, and though the pace slowed in the middle, the heart-pounding finale more than made up for it.

4. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Aging and reclusive Hollywood movie icon Evelyn Hugo is finally ready to tell the truth about her glamorous and scandalous life. But when she chooses unknown magazine reporter Monique Grant for the job, no one is more astounded than Monique herself. I was reluctant to read this book after all the hype it’s garnered since its release, but I really enjoyed it. It was different than I expected, but in a good way. It’s beautifully written and Evelyn is a wonderfully flawed character, and the setting of 1930-70s Hollywood is fascinating.

3. The Haunting Season by Various Authors

When I heard this book was coming out, I was thrilled. The authors of some of my favourite books of the last few years – including Natasha Pulley, Imogen Hermes Gowar, Laura Purcell, Kiran Millwood Hargrave and Bridget Collins – have come together to write a collection of spooky stories. And it didn’t disappoint. Every story was beautifully written, atmospheric and wonderfully creepy. They were tense, suspenseful and genuinely frightening at times. A particular highlight was Natasha Pulley’s story, which featured the main characters from her previous novel, The Watchmaker of Filigree Street.

2. The Manningtree Witches by A.K. Blakemore

In 17^th century Essex, Rebecca West lives in a town gripped by puritanical fervour. When a newcomer, Matthew Hopkins, arrives and begins to ask questions about Rebecca and other women like her, dangerous rumours begin to circulate. The first thing I have to mention about this book is the writing, because it is just exquisite. Blakemore successfully creates an atmosphere in which the supernatural jostles elbows with the everyday. You never know if the darkness at your back is just a shadow, or the devil himself. Interspersed with excerpts from the real Essex Witch Trials of 1645, Blakemore not only crafts stunning literary prose, but brings to life the people who would have lived through this period, and whose voices have been lost to history.

1. The Kingdoms by Natasha Pulley

As with Natasha Pulley’s other books, The Kingdoms is a bizarre, complicated, many-headed creature It’s an epic, time-hopping love story, taking the reader from battle scenes on the high seas to the dank cells of Newgate gaol. It follows Joe Tournier, who steps off a train into the 19^th century French colony of England with no memory of who he is or where he’s going. The only clue he has of his identity is a postcard with a picture of a lighthouse, dated a century earlier and signed with the letter M. I was devastated to turn the final page and finish this book, only because I’d enjoyed spending so much time in this world with these characters. It’s full of heart and beauty and atmosphere. It’s the kind of story that lodges in your brain and refuses to leave.

New book releases September 2021

Empire of the Vampire by Jay Kristoff

It has been 27 long years since the last sunrise. For nearly three decades, vampires have waged war against humanity; building their eternal empire even as they tear down our own. Now, only a few tiny sparks of light endure in a sea of darkness. Gabriel de Leon, half man, half monster and last remaining silversaint – a sworn brother of the holy Silver Order dedicated to defending the realm from the creatures of the night – is all that stands between the world and its end. Now imprisoned by the very monsters he vowed to destroy, the last silversaint is forced to tell his story. A story of legendary battles and forbidden love, of faith lost and friendships won, of the quest for humanity’s last remaining hope: the Holy Grail.

Easily one of the most highly anticipated fantasy novels of 2021, this book also marks the start of a new series from the author of the Nevernight Chronicle.

Release date: 7^th September

The Man Who Died Twice by Richard Osman

Elizabeth has received a letter from an old colleague, a man with whom she has a long history. He’s made a big mistake, and he needs her help. His story involves stolen diamonds, a violent mobster, and a very real threat to his life. As bodies start piling up, Elizabeth enlists Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron in the hunt for a ruthless murderer. And if they find the diamonds too? Well, wouldn’t that be a bonus? But this time they are up against an enemy who wouldn’t bat an eyelid at knocking off four septuagenarians. Can the Thursday Murder Club find the killer before the killer finds them?

Osman follows his phenomenally successful debut novel with a sequel that promises to be every bit as fun and entertaining as the first. Let’s just hope there aren’t quite so many plot holes…

Release date: 16^th September

Horseman by Christina Henry

Everyone in Sleepy Hollow knows about the Horseman, but no one really believes in him. Not even Ben Van Brunt’s grandfather, Brom Bones, who was there when it was said the Horseman chased the upstart Crane out of town. Brom says that’s just legend, the village gossips talking. More than 30 years after those storied events, the village is a quiet place. Fourteen-year-old Ben loves to play ‘Sleepy Hollow boys’, re-enacting the events Brom once lived through. But then Ben and a friend stumble across the headless body of a child in the woods near the village, and the discovery makes Ben question everything the adults in Sleepy Hollow ever said. Could the Horseman be real after all? Or does something even more sinister stalk the woods?

After reinventing tales from Alice in Wonderland to The Little Mermaid, Henry now turns her attention to The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, with a new book that sounds perfect for the time of year when the nights start drawing in.

Release date: 28^th September

Matrix by Lauren Groff

Seventeen-year-old Marie, too wild for courtly life, is thrown to the dogs one winter morning, expelled from the royal court to become the prioress of an abbey. At first taken aback by life at the abbey, Marie finds purpose and passion among her mercurial sisters. Yet she deeply misses her secret lover, Cecily, and queen Eleanor. Born last in a long line of women warriors and crusaders, Marie decides to chart a bold new course for the women she now leads and protects. She will bring herself, and her sisters, out of the darkness, into riches and power.

This new historical novel from the bestselling author of Fates and Furies has been described by Sarah Waters as ‘an audacious piece of storytelling, full of passion, wisdom and magic’.

Release date: 23^rd September

Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty

Joy Delaney and husband Stan have done well. Four wonderful grown-up children. A family business to envy. The golden years of retirement ahead of them. So when Joy Delaney vanishes – no note, no calls, her bike missing – it’s natural that tongues will wag. How did Stan scratch his face? And who was the stranger who entered and suddenly left their lives? What are they all hiding? But for the Delaney children, there is a much more terrifying question: did they ever know their parents at all?

The worldwide bestselling author of Big Little Lies and Nine Perfect Strangers returns with another compelling read about twisted family dynamics.

Release date: 14^th September

Once Upon a Broken Heart by Stephanie Garber

For as long as she can remember, Evangeline Fox has believed in happily ever after. Until she learns that the love of her life is about to marry another, and her dreams are shattered. Desperate to stop the wedding and heal her wounded heart, Evangeline strikes a deal with the charismatic but wicked Prince of Hearts. In exchange for his help, he asks for three kisses, to be given at the time and place of his choosing. But after Evangeline’s first promised kiss, she learns that bargaining with an immortal is a dangerous game – and that the Prince of Hearts wants far more from her than she pledged. He has plans for Evangeline, plans that will either end in the greatest happily ever after, or the most exquisite tragedy.

From the bestselling author of the Caraval series comes the first book in a new series about love, curses, and the lengths people will go to for happily ever after.

Release date: 30^th September

Powers and Thrones by Dan Jones

This epic new history is a thousand-year adventure that moves from the ruins of the once-mighty city of Rome, to the first contacts between the old and new worlds in the 16^th century. It shows how, from a state of crisis and collapse, the West was rebuilt and came to dominate the entire globe. The book identifies three key themes that underpinned the success of the West: commerce, conquest and Christianity. It shows how successive western powers thrived by attracting – or stealing – the most valuable resources, ideas and people from the rest of the world.

Covering a thousand years of history, Dan Jones’s epic new book tells the story of how the world we know today came to be built.

Release date: 2^nd September

No Gods, No Monsters by Cadwell Turnbull

One October morning, Laina gets the news that her brother has been shot and killed by Boston cops. But what looks like a case of police brutality soon reveals something much stranger. Monsters are real. And they want everyone to know it. As creatures from myth and legend come out of the shadows, seeking safety through visibility, their emergence sets off a chain of seemingly unrelated events. Members of a local werewolf pack are threatened into silence. A professor follows a missing friend’s trail of breadcrumbs to a mysterious secret society. And a young boy with unique abilities seeks refuge in a pro-monster organisation with secrets of its own. At the centre is a mystery no one thinks to ask: why now? What has frightened the monsters out of the dark? The world will soon find out.

This novel is a sprawling urban fantasy about monsters, magic and mythology, inspired by the Caribbean and asking what happens when monsters walk among us.

Release date: 7^th September

The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina by Zoraida Córdova

The Montoyas are used to life without explanations. They know better than to ask why the pantry never seems to run low, or why their matriarch won’t ever leave their home in Four Rivers. But when Orquídea Divina invites them to her funeral and to collect their inheritance, they hope to learn some of her secrets. Instead, they are left with more questions than answers. Seven years later, her gifts have manifested in different ways for Orquídea’s family, granting them unexpected blessings. But soon, a hidden figure begins to tear through their family tree, picking them off one by one. Determined to save what’s left of their family, the four descendants travel to Ecuador – to the place where Orquídea buried her secrets.

A story about family, ancestry and power, this novel from the acclaimed author of the Brooklyn Brujas series has been billed for fans of Alice Hoffman and Isabel Allende.

Release date: 7^th September

Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead

To his customers and neighbours on 125^th street, Carney is an upstanding salesman of reasonably-priced furniture. He and his wife, Elizabeth, are expecting their second child, and if her parents don’t approve of him or their cramped apartment across from the subway tracks, it’s still home. But cash is tight, so if his cousin Freddie occasionally drops off the odd ring or necklace at the furniture store, Ray doesn’t see the need to ask where it comes from. He knows a discreet jeweller downtown who doesn’t ask questions. Then Freddie falls in with a crew who plan to rob the Hotel Theresa and volunteers Ray’s services as the fence. The heist doesn’t go as planned, and now Ray has to cater to a new clientele of shady cops, vicious minions of the local crime lord, and numerous other Harlem lowlifes.

The two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and author of The Underground Railroad, Whitehead returns with a family saga set against the backdrop of 1960s Harlem.

Release date: 14^th September

Wife, politician, mother, traitor: Who was Cecily Neville?

Cecily by Annie Garthwaite

You are born high, but marry a traitor’s son. You bear him twelve children, carry his cause and bury his past. You play the game, against enemies who wish you ashes. Slowly, you rise. You are Cecily. But when the king who governs you proves unfit, what then? Loyalty or treason – death may follow both. The board is set. Time to make your first move.

I’ve always loved historical fiction, but it’s been a while since I returned to the period I love the most – the Wars of the Roses and the Tudors. So the release of this new book seemed like the perfect chance to step back to this fascinating time. And what a book to do it with.

Cecily is a fascinating portrayal of an incredible woman – a wife, mother, politician, strategist, and queen in all but name. While many books have been written about the Wars of the Roses from the male perspective, women are often relegated to the background. But here, Cecily takes centre stage. Working quietly and diligently to determine the course of events, using her astounding intelligence and political know-how, she strives to gain power for herself and her family. And while she doesn’t always succeed, she always comes back stronger.

Garthwaite delves deep into her protagonist’s psyche, creating a detailed portrait of an unsentimental, power-hungry, ruthless woman – but also a woman whose love for her children transcends all else, and who knows when shrewdness is more important than pride.

The writing had a different style to other historical fiction novels about famous women, with its blunt descriptions, keen psychological insights and examinations of the violent machinations of power. It reads like a real-life Game of Thrones, taking you away from the battlefields and into the dimly-lit rooms and shadowy corridors where real power is lost and won.

There are no clear-cut heroes and villains here. Everyone is shown to be capable of terrible things in the pursuit of what they want, just as everyone is shown to be capable of small acts of kindness and mercy. It’s a brutal, bloody, cut-throat world, peopled by those hungry and desperate enough for power, to make choices that will change the course of history.

Cecily is an incredible protagonist and, though the pace in the middle of the book is quite slow, the heart-pounding finale more than makes up for it.

New book releases August 2021

A Slow Fire Burning by Paula Hawkins

Laura has spent most of her life being judged. She’s seen as hot-tempered, troubled, a loner. Some even call her dangerous. Miriam knows that just because Laura is witnessed leaving the scene of a horrific murder with blood on her clothes, that doesn’t mean she’s a killer. Bitter experience has taught her how easy it is to get caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. Carla is reeling from the murder of her nephew. She trusts no one. But how far will she go to find peace?

The author of the phenomenally successful The Girl on the Train hit a bit of a mess with her most recent novel, Into the Water, but that hasn’t kept me from getting excited about this new release.

Release date: 31^st August

The Women of Troy by Pat Barker

Troy has fallen. The Greeks have won their bitter war. They can return home victors, loaded with their spoils: their stolen gold, stolen weapons, stolen women. All they need is a good wind to lift their sails. But the wind does not come. The gods have been offended and so the victors remain in limbo, camped in the shadow of the city they destroyed. Largely unnoticed by her squabbling captors, Briseis remains in the Greek encampment. She forges alliances where she can – with young, dangerously naïve Amina, with defiant Hecuba, with Calchus, the disgraced priest – and begins to see the path to a kind of revenge.

Following her bestselling The Silence of the Girls, Pat Barker continues her atmospheric retelling of the Trojan War.

Release date: 26^th August

Girl One by Sara Flannery Murphy

Josie Morrow is Girl One, the first of nine Miracle babies conceived without male DNA on an experimental commune known as the Homestead. The Girls were raised in the shadow of controversy – plagued by zealots calling them aberrations – until a suspicious fire claimed the lives of three people, leaving the survivors to scatter across the United States. Years later, upon learning that her mother has gone missing, Josie sets off on a desperate road trip, tracking down the only people who might help: her estranged sisters. Tracing clues her mother left behind, they journey back through their past. But someone out there is determined to stop Josie finding the truth about what really happened at the Homestead.

The author of one of my favourite books from recent years, The Possessions, finally returns with an electrifying thriller about love, ambition and the bonds of sisterhood.

Release date: 5^th August

Velvet was the Night by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

1970s Mexico City. While student protests and political unrest consume the city, Maite seeks escape from her humdrum life in the stories of passion and danger filling the latest issue of Secret Romance. She is deeply envious of her neighbour, a beautiful art student apparently living the life of excitement and intrigue Maite craves – so when Leonora disappears under suspicious circumstances, Maite finds herself searching for the missing woman, journeying deep into Leonora’s secret life of student radicals and dissidents. But someone else is looking for Leonora. Elvis is an eccentric criminal who longs to escape his own life. Watching Maite from a distance, he comes to see her as a kindred spirit. As Maite and Elvis come closer to discovering the truth behind Leonora’s disappearance, they can no longer escape the dangers threatening to consume their lives.

The author of Mexican Gothic returns with her second book, a historical noir novel where no one and nothing is as it seems.

Release date: 17^th August

The Family Plot by Megan Collins

At twenty-six, Dahlia Lighthouse is haunted by her upbringing. Raised in a secluded island mansion deep in the woods and kept isolated by her true crime-obsessed parents, she is unable to move beyond the disappearance of her twin brother, Andy, when they were sixteen. After several years away and following her father’s death, Dahlia returns to the house, where the family makes a gruesome discovery: buried in their father’s plot is another body – Andy’s, his skull split open with an axe. Dahlia is quick to blame Andy’s murder on the serial killer who terrorised the island for decades, while the rest of her family reacts to the revelation in unsettling ways. As Dahlia grapples with her own grief and horror, she realises that her eccentric family, and the mansion itself, may hold the answers to what happened to her twin.

This delightfully gothic-sounding novel is a tale of suspense and horror with a you-can’t-out-it-down plot.

Release date: 17^th August

With Teeth by Kristen Arnett

If she’s being honest, Sammie Lucas is scared of her son. Working from home in the close quarters of their Florida house, she lives with one wary eye on Samson, a sullen, unknowable boy who resists her every attempt to bond with him. Uncertain in her own feelings about motherhood, she tries her best while growing increasingly resentful of Monika, her confident but absent wife. As Samson grows from feral toddler to surly teenager, Sammie’s life begins to deteriorate into a mess of unruly behaviour. When her son’s hostility finally spills over into physical aggression, Sammie must confront her role in the mess – and the possibility that it will never be clean again.

The New York Times bestselling author returns with a novel about the struggles of motherhood and queer family dynamics.

Release date: 5^th August

The Icepick Surgeon by Sam Kean

Science is a force for good in the world – at least, usually. But sometimes, when obsession gets the better of scientists, they twist a noble pursuit into something sinister. Bestselling author Sam Kean tells the true story of what happens when unfettered ambition pushes otherwise rational men and women to cross the line in the name of science, trampling ethical boundaries and often committing crimes in the process. This book guides the reader through 2,000 years of history, from Ancient Egypt to Manhattan Project, Nazi Germany to contemporary failings of mental health care.

A mixture of science and true crime, the author of numerous popular science novels puts his own spin on the history of science and medicine.

Release date: 5^th August

A Narrow Door by Joanne Harris

It’s an incendiary moment for St Oswald’s School. For the first time in its history, a headmistress is in power, the gates opening to girls. Rebecca Buckfast has spilled blood to reach this position. Barely forty, she is just starting to reap the harvest of her ambition. As the new regime takes on the old guard, the ground shifts. And with it, the remains of a body are discovered. But Rebecca is here to make her mark. She’ll bury the past so deep it will evade even her own memory, just like she has done before. After all, you can’t keep a good woman down.

This new psychological thriller from the popular author of Chocolat has been described as ‘exhilarating, addictive, fierce’ by author Bridget Collins.

Release date: 4^th August

The Husbands by Chandler Baker

Recently, Nora has started to feel that ‘having it all’ comes with a price, one her husband doesn’t seem to be paying quite so heavily. She loves Hayden, but why is it that, however hard men work, their wives always seem to work that little bit harder? When their house-hunting takes them to an affluent suburban neighbourhood, Nora’s eyes are opened to a new world. Here, the wives don’t make all the sacrifices. Here, the husbands can remember the kids’ schedules, and iron and notice when the house needs dusting. But when she becomes involved in a wrongful death case involving one of the local residents, Nora begins to suspect that there’s a dark secret at the heart of this perfect world. One that some will kill to protect.

This new thriller by popular author Chandler Baker has been described as ‘a howl of feminist rage, but one that is pure fun’ by Stylist.

Release date: 3^rd August

Her Heart for a Compass by Sarah Ferguson

London, 1865. In an attempt to rebel against a society where women are expected to conform, free-spirited Lady Margaret Montagu Scott flees her confines and an arranged marriage. But Lady Margaret’s parents, the Duke and Duchess of Buccleuch, as close friends with Queen Victoria, must face the public scrutiny of their daughter’s impulsive nature, and Margaret is banished from polite society. On a journey of self-discovery that will take her to Ireland, America and then back to Britain, Lady Margaret must search for her place and her identity in a changing society.

Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, has penned her debut novel which sounds perfect for fans of Bridgerton and Victoria.

Release date: 3^rd August