JAMES by Percival Everett

JAMES Percival Everett Mantle (panmacmillan.com) £20.00 Buy a copy from your favourite independent bookshop In mid-19th century Missouri, Jim is a slave owned by Miss Watson, a man who often finds himself the butt of the jokes of local boys Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. When Jim hears a rumour that he is to be […]

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FATHOMFOLK by Eliza Chan

FATHOMFOLK Eliza Chan (elizachan.co.uk) Orbit (www.orbitbooks.net) £18.99 Buy a copy from your favourite independent bookshop The city of Tiankawi is a city of many facets. Partially-flooded, the parts above water are a testament to human ingenuity, with the humans living in shining towers far above the surface of the polluted water. Closer to the surface, […]

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DEADLY ANIMALS by Marie Tierney

DEADLY ANIMALS Marie Tierney Zaffre (bonnierbooks.co.uk) £16.99 Buy a copy from your favourite independent bookshop Thirteen-year-old Ava Bonney is different from other kids her age. Exceptionally bright, Ava has a keen interest in what happens when things die. She has her own “body farm” situated around the local area, where she can observe the rate […]

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SMOKE KINGS by Jahmal Mayfield

SMOKE KINGS Jahmal Mayfield (jahmalmayfield.com) Melville House (mhpbooks.com) £16.99 Buy a copy from your favourite independent bookshop Following the racially-motivated murder of one of their number, a small group of New Jersey friends decide to take the law into their own hands. But rather than seek revenge on the boys who killed their friend, they […]

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THE BAD WEATHER FRIEND by Dean Koontz

THE BAD WEATHER FRIEND Dean Koontz(deankoontz.com) Thomas & Mercer (apub.com) £19.99 Buy a copy from your favourite independent bookshop Benny Catspaw is a nice guy. Just a genuinely nice guy, who can’t imagine being rude or unfriendly to anyone. Even when his life starts to fall apart, Benny can’t believe that it’s anything other than […]

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CHILDREN OF THE SUN by Beth Lewis

CHILDREN OF THE SUN Beth Lewis (bethlewis.co.uk) Hodder & Stoughton (hodder.co.uk) £20 Buy a copy from your favourite independent bookshop Summer 1982. Following the death of his lover in a horrible car accident, journalist James Morrow has spent months trying to get information about what happened. A tip gives him the name of a woman […]

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THE ENCHANTERS by James Ellroy

THE ENCHANTERS James Ellroy (jamesellroy.net) Hutchinson Heinemann (penguin.co.uk) £22 Buy a copy from your favourite independent bookshop Los Angeles, Saturday 4th August 1962. Marilyn Monroe is found dead in her Hollywood home, victim of a drug overdose. Freddy Otash, ex-policeman-private-eye-king-of-the-scandal-rags has been surveilling her since early April at the behest of Jimmy Hoffa, who is […]

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GOOD SCAMMER by Guy Kennaway

GOOD SCAMMER Guy Kennaway Mensch Publishing (menschpublishing.com) £20 Clive “Bangaz” Thompson is a West Jamaican native, orphaned at birth, who just happened to be in the right place at the right time: working in a call centre, Bangaz got his hands on a customer list and a handful of scripts – which he built upon […]

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