Here\u2019s my pick of this week\u2019s new hardback\/paperback fiction titles. In some cases the eBook might already be available. My source is primarily Th<\/strong><\/em>e Bookseller<\/em><\/strong>, but I\u2019ve started to include other sources to broaden the selection. <\/p>\n Just a reminder, I don\u2019t have access to a complete list of titles being published, and, as I don\u2019t see any advance copies, my choices are based on the cover, blurb, gut instinct and what takes my fancy at the time. Which is how I decide on my own purchases. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n (NB This post features Affiliate links<\/a> from which I earn a small commission on qualifying purchases) <\/p>\n Crime, Thriller and Mystery (includes Historical Crime\/Mysteries)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n The Crash by Freida McFadden<\/strong><\/p>\n The nightmare she\u2019s running from is nothing compared to where she\u2019s headed.<\/strong><\/p>\n Tegan is\u00a0eight months pregnant<\/strong>, alone, and desperately wants to put her crumbling life in the rearview mirror. So she hits the road, planning to stay with her brother until she can figure out her next move. But she doesn\u2019t realize\u00a0she\u2019s heading straight into a blizzard<\/strong>.<\/p>\n She never arrives at her destination.<\/p>\n Stranded in rural Maine with a\u00a0dead car and broken ankle<\/strong>, Tegan worries she\u2019s made a terrible mistake. Then a miracle occurs: she is rescued by a couple who offers her a room in their warm cabin until the snow clears.<\/p>\n But something isn\u2019t right. Tegan believed she was waiting out the storm, but as time ticks by, she comes to realize\u00a0she is in grave danger<\/strong>. This safe haven isn\u2019t what she thought it was, and staying here may have been her most deadly mistake yet.<\/p>\n And now she must do whatever it takes to save herself\u2014and her unborn child.<\/strong><\/p>\n The Day of the Roaring by Nina Bhadreshwar<\/strong><\/p>\n Don\u2019t miss this award winning debut crime thriller set in Sheffield introducing DI Diana Walker: A grizzly murder has Diana questioning everything she knows, and secrets come to light that threaten to tear her world apart<\/strong><\/p>\n Silence protects the victims\u2026 And the killer<\/strong><\/p>\n When the dismembered body of a headmaster is found on the derelict site of a former school in Sheffield, DI Diana Walker finds herself chasing shadows.<\/p>\n Faced with missing teachers, unreported crimes and silent witnesses, Diana is running out of leads. Her colleagues insist this is just another instance of gang violence, but Diana knows there\u2019s something more. Something everyone\u2019s too scared to talk about.<\/p>\n With her reputation on the line, Diana is determined to find the truth. Her search for answers leads to Sheffield\u2019s neglected underbelly, where she finds distrust, horrifying secrets and a whole new understanding of justice.<\/p>\n Beautiful Ugly by Alice Feeney<\/strong><\/p>\n Author Grady Green is having the worst best day of his life.<\/p>\n Grady calls his wife as she\u2019s driving home to share some exciting news. He hears Abby slam on the brakes, get out of the car, then nothing. When he eventually finds her car by a cliff edge, the headlights are on, the driver door is open, her phone is still there . . . but his wife has disappeared.<\/p>\n A year later, Grady is still overcome with grief and desperate to know what happened to Abby. He can\u2019t sleep, and he can\u2019t write, so he travels to a tiny Scottish island to try to get his life back on track. Then he sees the impossible: a woman who looks exactly like his missing wife.<\/p>\n Wives think their husbands will change, but they don\u2019t. The Dark Hours by Amy Jordan<\/strong><\/p>\n 1994:<\/strong>\u00a0When Garda\u00ed Julia Harte and Adrian Clancy are called out to a sleepy housing estate in Cork to investigate a noise complaint, they are entirely unprepared for what they find. What happens next will haunt Julia for the rest of her days, leaving her plagued with nightmares and terrified of the dark. There is a serial killer at work in Cork, one as clever as he is deadly. Julia may not be a detective yet, but after the harrowing events of that night, she is determined to be the one to catch him\u2026<\/p>\n 2024:<\/strong>\u00a0Julia Harte has chosen just the right place to disappear. Now a retired detective with an illustrious career behind her, she has moved to a tiny cottage in a remote part of Ireland where she hopes to find peace. But then she receives a phone call from her old Superintendent \u2013 two women have been murdered, their bodies marked and staged, just like in \u201994.<\/p>\n It\u2019s happening again.<\/strong>\u00a0Only this time, the stakes are even higher. Julia must return to Cork to face down a vicious killer and the memories that haunt her still. Yet Julia is no longer a na\u00efve junior officer but a seasoned, tough professional who proves more than a match for any murderer\u2026<\/p>\n Famous Last Words by Gillian McAllister<\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s Camilla\u2019s first day back at work, her daughter\u2019s first day at nursery. Then it starts.<\/p>\n Breaking news:<\/strong>\u00a0there\u2019s a hostage situation developing in London. But he isn\u2019t a hostage. Luke \u2013 doting father, successful writer, enthusiastic runner and eternal optimist \u2013 is the gunman.<\/strong><\/p>\n What Camilla does next is crucial. Because only she knows what the note he left behind says, and the clues it might hold . . .<\/p>\n The Woman in Room 13 by Leah Konen<\/strong><\/p>\n An isolated motel. When Kerry arrives to start a new job as the caretaker of a remote motel in the Catskills, she\u2019s excited for a fresh start.<\/p>\n But she quickly realises that something is very wrong.<\/p>\n Her room is full of the previous caretaker\u2019s belongings \u2013 and it looks like she was trying to leave in a hurry.<\/p>\n And then, Kerry sees it \u2013 the trails of blood. The hand reaching out from the snow\u2026<\/p>\n Confused and scared, in the midst of a snowstorm, Kerry goes out to seek help. When the police arrive, though, things go from bad to worse.<\/p>\n Because the body has disappeared. But the killer is still out there\u2026<\/p>\n A Serpent in the Garden by Howard Linskey<\/strong><\/p>\n London, 1592. 28-year-old\u00a0William Shakespeare<\/strong>\u00a0is the rising man of English theatre. But plague has hit the capital, and the playhouses are to be shut. Livelihoods, and lives, are at stake.<\/p>\n Lady Celia Vernon<\/strong>\u00a0is one of the first to perish but did she really die of plague? Her cousin, the\u00a0Earl of Southampton<\/strong>, orders Will to discover the truth in a London filled with conspirators, cutthroats and traitors.<\/p>\n The Queen\u2019s spymaster,\u00a0Robert Cecil<\/strong>, suspects the Earl of treason and orders Will to spy on him in return. Caught between two of the most powerful men in the kingdom, Will cannot possibly serve both masters, and could easily become the next victim of the killer he is trying to catch.<\/p>\n With his future, safety and life on the line, Will uncovers a devastating secret, and changes the course of his, and the world\u2019s destiny forever.<\/p>\n The Wedding Party by Rebecca Heath<\/strong><\/p>\n A group of old friends. A grieving mother. A lying bride.<\/strong> But Adele isn\u2019t telling the truth about her relationship. And some of the wedding party \u2013 still reeling from a tragic death in the group a decade before \u2013 hold secrets of their own.<\/p>\n What happened on the jetty all those years ago was an accident, everyone agrees.<\/strong><\/p>\n The Hidden Hand by Stella Rimington<\/strong><\/p>\n A historic institution is hiding a very modern threat.<\/strong><\/p>\n The student<\/strong> The scapegoat<\/strong> The spy who might be their only hope\u2026<\/strong> The Psychopath Next Door by Mark Edwards<\/strong><\/p>\n Ethan Dove\u2019s family has moved to a new home in a safe community, and it\u2019s exactly the fresh start they need. Not only is his marriage to Emma hanging by a thread, but his son, Dylan, and twelve-year-old daughter, Rose, deserve to have a happy childhood.<\/p>\n After Rose is bullied by the boys across the road, Ethan is relieved when the woman who lives next door steps in. Fiona Smith has come into their lives at just the right moment, and when she offers to look after Rose during the school holidays, Ethan and Emma can\u2019t believe their luck.<\/p>\n Which is exactly what Fiona wants. Because, far from being the perfect neighbour, Fiona is the last person you should trust with your child. With a vicious plot for revenge, Fiona is happy to train Rose to be her accomplice, especially when she begins to suspect that Rose might not be as innocent as she appears\u2026<\/p>\n The Perfect Guest by Casey Kelleher<\/strong><\/p>\n \u2018I\u2019m home,\u2019 she says, standing at my door with a sky-blue backpack clutched tightly to her chest. I haven\u2019t seen my granddaughter in years. But I know she\u2019s hiding a deadly secret\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s been ten years since I last saw Stephanie, but looking into her haunted eyes, she looks just as innocent as she did as a baby. I remember the photo of her wrapped in a little pink blanket; how my heart hurt not to hold her on the day she was born. Pulling her in to a tight embrace, I promise her that although she\u2019s lost her mother, I will take care of her from now on. No matter what\u2026<\/p>\n But as I usher her inside, I can\u2019t help wondering if Stephanie knows my secrets. The real reason I hadn\u2019t seen her mother in years\u2026 or why she wasn\u2019t ever allowed to visit me at my house.<\/p>\n Did my daughter take our family secrets to the grave? Stephanie\u2019s heart breaks when she talks about her mother. But soon details slip out about the night she died, and I begin to realise that my granddaughter is just as good a liar as I am\u2026<\/p>\n Stephanie says my daughter\u2019s death was an accident, but I\u2019m not so sure. If I uncover my granddaughter\u2019s secrets, will I be next?<\/strong><\/p>\n Been Wrong So Long it Feels like Right by Walter Mosley<\/strong><\/p>\n In the latest from \u201cmystery master\u201d Walter Mosley, a family member\u2019s terminal illness leads P.I. Joe King Oliver to the investigation of his life: tracking down his long-lost father, and meanwhile, a new case pits King\u2019s professional responsibility against his own moral code. (TheWashington Post<\/em>)<\/strong><\/p>\n Joe King Oliver\u2019s beloved Grandma B has found a tumor, and at her age, treatment is high-risk. She\u2019s lived life fully and without regrets, and now has only a single, dying wish: to see her long-lost son. King has been estranged from his father, Chief Odin Oliver, since he was a young boy. He swore to never speak to the man again when he was taken away in handcuffs. But now, Grandma B\u2019s pure ask has opened King\u2019s heart, and through his hunt, he gains a deeper understanding of his father as a complicated, righteous man\u2014a man defined by women, a man protected by women, a man he wants to know. Although Chief was released from prison years ago, he\u2019s been living underground ever since. Now, King must not only find his father, but prove his innocence, and protect the future of his entire family.<\/p>\n Simultaneously, King finds himself in a moral bind. Marigold Hart, the wife of a powerful Californian billionaire, has gone missing, along with their seven-year-old daughter. Orr is brutish and dangerous, and King realizes after locating her that it\u2019s in her best interest to stay hidden. But are his motives pure? There is something magnetic about Marigold; he can\u2019t help but want her near. \u00a0<\/p>\n Helle\u2019s Hound by Oskar Jensen<\/strong><\/p>\n A dead art historian. Cold War skulduggery.<\/strong> Dame Charlotte Lazerton \u2013 eminent art historian and mentor of Danish academic Torben Helle \u2013 is dead. And to make things worse, she was found partially eaten by her Irish wolfhound, Mortimer. While the police believe that she died of natural causes, Torben becomes convinced that Charlotte was murdered, although as usual no one pays any attention to him. That is, until he gains the confidence of a policeman who has watched too many Nordic Noir television shows and is ready to listen to any Scandinavian in a fetching woolly jumper.<\/p>\n Aided by his old friend Leyla, Torben soon realises that there are plenty of people who might have wanted Dame Charlotte dead, from her competitors for a prestigious academic presidency to old enemies from her time in intelligence during the Cold War. One thing is for sure: Torben Helle is woefully unqualified to catch a killer, and the killer knows it\u2026<\/p>\n The Soulmate by Rona Halsall<\/strong><\/p>\n Do you believe in love at first sight?<\/strong><\/p>\n Holly<\/strong>\u00a0does, in spite of everything that\u2019s happened in her life. Sometimes the thought that her soulmate is out there is the only thing that keeps her going.<\/p>\n Then she hears her favourite song being played in a train station. She\u2019s drawn to where the sound is coming from, as if by a magnetic force. There is a handsome young man sitting at the piano, who smiles at her, and she feels that spark she\u2019s always dreamt of. She asks if she can join him, and sings along, seeing his face light up.<\/p>\n He\u2019s called\u00a0Mark<\/strong>, she later discovers. And he feels the same. They both feel like they\u2019ve been hit with a thunderbolt. But even though it seems like they\u2019ve known each other for lifetime, the truth is that they\u2019re strangers.<\/p>\n Because Holly has secrets. And so does Mark.<\/p>\n And one of them might just kill to keep them\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n The Time of the Fire by Emma Kavanagh<\/strong><\/p>\n Northern California, end of summer. Fire Hazard Severity Zone: Very High.<\/em><\/p>\n A mysterious death.<\/strong><\/p>\n On the anniversary of her mother\u2019s death, CEO-in-waiting Robyn Sandoval goes for a morning run. She knows her father \u2013 a local fire fighting hero \u2013 is desperate to speak to her, to tell her something he wants her to know before she starts her new job leading the corporation that owns most of their Northern Californian town of Destino. But when Robyn arrives, she finds him dead.<\/p>\n A devastating fire.<\/strong><\/p>\n Meanwhile, after months of drought, a freak forest fire ignites on the mountain ridge looming over the town. Destino has never burned; its unique position protected by the seemingly insurmountable barrier of the ridge, a favourable wind direction, and a belief long held by the community that they are categorically safe.<\/p>\n A life split in two.<\/strong><\/p>\n Robyn is shaken to the core by her father\u2019s death, and her life is shattered in two, the fabric of her reality shorn by the sheer force of her grief.<\/p>\n The next time she wakes, everything is different: her father is alive, and there\u2019s no sign of the fire on the ridge.<\/p>\n To understand what is happening, she has to confront not only the secrets of her past but both versions of her present. Because back in her world, the fire is spreading and the time to find answers is running out\u2026<\/p>\n The Resurrectionist by A Rae Dunlap<\/strong><\/p>\n In this gothic, twisty debut historical novel, a young medical student is lured into the underworld of body snatching in 19th-century Edinburgh \u2026 and unexpectedly falls in love.<\/strong><\/p>\n 1828.<\/strong>\u00a0James Willoughby arrives in Edinburgh with empty pockets a dream of studying surgery. Desperate to scrape together fees for the city\u2019s leading anatomy school, he strikes a deal with Nye MacKinnon, a dashing young dissectionist who shows James a way into this elite academic realm \u2026 via the cemetery.<\/p>\n James descends with Nye into the underground ranks of the Resurrectionists \u2013 men infamous for stealing fresh corpses and selling them to professors as anatomical specimens. Before he knows it, they are caught up in a life-or-death scheme as rival gangs of snatchers compete in a morbid race for power and prestige. And as James and Nye lock eyes across graves and dissection tables, they soon realise that they yearn to be more than partners in academic crime \u2026<\/p>\n The Resurrectionist<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0is a thrilling tale of queer love, murder, and the grisly origins of modern medicine.<\/strong><\/p>\n Black Tag by Simon Mayo<\/strong><\/p>\n Your house is on fire. What do you save? When the West End Gallery in London\u2019s fashionable Coal Drops Yard is set alight, the fire service must use the list of paintings lodged with it \u2013 a grab list \u2013 to snatch the key pieces of art from the flames.<\/p>\n But something has been altered. It\u2019s the wrong list.<\/p>\n Then the ashes reveal another tragedy: an unidentified dead body. Someone who shouldn\u2019t have been in the gallery. Crusading journalist Famie Madden wants to know who it is and why they were there. Soon it becomes apparent that the ashes are hiding much more than they should be \u2013 and that this is much more than a casual act of arson\u2026<\/p>\n I Bet You\u2019d Look Good in a Coffin by Katy Brent<\/strong><\/p>\n My name is Kitty Collins and I\u2019m a serial killer.<\/strong><\/p>\n I don\u2019t want to kill. It\u2019s just so hard to resist. Some men really,\u00a0really<\/em>\u00a0deserve it.<\/p>\n Men like Blaze Bundy, an anonymous influencer spreading misogyny online. He\u2019s making it very hard for me to control my murderous urges.<\/p>\n Meanwhile I\u2019m in the South of France to watch my mother marry a man I\u2019ve never met. I should be drinking cocktails and focusing on my tan, not plotting a murder.<\/p>\n But a woman\u2019s work is never done. Surely one more teensy little kill wouldn\u2019t hurt, would it?<\/p>\n Back to Index<\/a><\/p>\n So that\u2019s all for this week.<\/p>\n Happy Reading!<\/strong><\/p>\nIndex<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Crime, Thriller & Mystery <\/strong><\/h3>\n
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Husbands think their wives won\u2019t change, but they do.<\/p>\n![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/m.media-amazon.com\/images\/I\/41MYet5F+mL._SY445_SX342_PQ25_.jpg\")
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But husband Luke is nowhere to be seen. The only trace of him is an unfinished note. Camilla tries to put it out of her mind; there must be a rational explanation.
At work, there are welcomes back, and too many distractions.<\/p>\n
The police arrive:<\/strong>\u00a0Luke is caught up in it.<\/p>\n![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/m.media-amazon.com\/images\/I\/41WAi6NthZL._SY445_SX342_PQ25_.jpg\")
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A body in the snow.
A killer lying in wait\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/m.media-amazon.com\/images\/I\/91hFZ5GbxtL._SY342_.jpg\")
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<\/strong>Adele and Jason are childhood sweethearts. Their wedding day on the sunny Australian coast is a chance to reunite and celebrate with friends and family.<\/p>\n![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/m.media-amazon.com\/images\/I\/519f+FEcfML._SY445_SX342_PQ25_.jpg\")
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Li Min, a Chinese student, is forced by her government to transfer from Harvard to Oxford University, where she is recruited to an elite Chinese study centre based out of St Felix\u2019s College.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the centre\u2019s newly recruited head stumbles on its more sinister purpose: recruiting Chinese and sympathetic British students to steal high-value research and intellectual property. Unsure who at the university he can trust, he turns to CIA agent Manon Tyler for help.<\/p>\n
But as Li and another Chinese-American student are drawn deeper into a deadly game, will Manon be able to penetrate the heart of St Felix\u2019s secrets in time to save them?<\/p>\n![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/m.media-amazon.com\/images\/I\/51dA4NH-myL._SY445_SX342_PQ25_.jpg\")
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A reluctant Danish sleuth. And an extremely hungry dog.<\/strong><\/p>\n![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/m.media-amazon.com\/images\/I\/41KGqASzepL._SY445_SX342_PQ25_.jpg\")
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You have seconds to decide.
If everything is about to burn, what do you rescue first?<\/strong><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/m.media-amazon.com\/images\/I\/71TSt6u74-L._SY342_.jpg\")
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