The 2021 Round-up – Part 1

Happy New Year! Now that 2021 is well and truly in the can, and I’ve started reading books due to be published in 2022, I think it’s safe to present the list of books that stood out for me over the past twelve months. I read 102 books in 2021 and, after much agonising and […]

THE NEWCOMER by Laura Elizabeth Woollett

THE NEWCOMER Laura Elizabeth Woollett (lauraelizabethwoollett.com) Scribe (scribepublications.co.uk) £9.99 Paulina Novak is a “mainie”, a transplant from mainland Australia, trying to make a new life on small, idyllic Fairfolk Island. When Judy – Paulina’s mother – visits the island to celebrate her daughter’s 30th birthday, Paulina disappears. Judy isn’t particularly surprised, as their relationship has […]

DARK THINGS I ADORE by Katie Lattari

DARK THINGS I ADORE Katie Lattari (katielattari.com) Titan Books (titanbooks.com) £8.99 Audra Colfax is an art student at a top Boston school. Young, passionate and very talented, she has caught the attention of esteemed artist and professor, Max Durant, who has taken her under his wing. As she approaches the end of her studies, Audra […]

THE DARK by Emma Haughton

THE DARK Emma Haughton (emmahaughton.com) Hodder & Stoughton (hodder.co.uk) £12.99 Buy now from your favourite independent bookshop Doctor Kate North is a last minute addition to the crew of the United Nations Antarctica station following the untimely death of their original medic. It’s a last-ditch attempt to get her life back on track following a […]

An Extract from THE HAND OF THE SUN KING by J. T. Greathouse

THE HAND OF THE SUN KING J. T. Greathouse (jtgreathouse.com) Gollancz (gollancz.co.uk) £16.99 Buy a copy from your local independent bookshop Grandmother led me up the steps to the altar at the temple’s heart. She unbound her hair and let its thick reddish-brown curls, tinted grey at the temples, flow freely over her shoulders. Like […]

GUEST POST: So it’s a Historical Book by JOHN STEELE

RAT ISLAND John Steele Silvertail Books (silvertailbooks.com) £12.99 ‘So it’s a historical book.’ The NYPD sergeant stood in the Fifth Precinct, in Elizabeth Street in the heart of New York City’s Chinatown. He had delivered a statement of fact with all the blunt authority you’d expect from a New York cop. I blanched for a […]

GUEST POST: The Top Five(ish) Horror Movies that Actually Scared Me by SARAH LANGAN

GOOD NEIGHBOURS Sarah Langan (sarahlangan.com) Titan Books (titanbooks.com) £8.99 As a horror movie lover, I’ve developed fear calluses. This probably started back during the summer before fifth grade, when I rented Dawn of the Dead from the local Long Island video store, Video Quest, where the owner was always giving me the stink eye because he felt […]

GOOD NEIGHBOURS by Sarah Langan

GOOD NEIGHBOURS Sarah Langan (sarahlangan.com) Titan Books (titanbooks.com) £8.99 The Wildes – Arlo and Gertie and their kids, Julia and Larry – are the latest addition to Maple Street, a quiet Garden City crescent bordering a six-acre park. They fit in reasonably well, the kids joining the Rat Pack – as the street’s children call […]

An Extract from THE DYING SQUAD by Adam Simcox

THE DYING SQUAD Adam Simcox Gollancz (gollancz.co.uk) £16.99 Winter hated Lincolnshire. It sprinkled frost on its fields, squatted on the remains of its abandoned crops and draped everything in a sea of compacted fog, almost as if it were embarrassed by the place. The flatness of its Arctic landscape had always made Joe think of […]

RAZORBLADE TEARS by S. A. Cosby

RAZORBLADE TEARS S. A. Cosby Headline (headline.co.uk) £18.99 Isaac “Ike” Randolph is in mourning following the violent death of his son, Isiah. Ike has much to mourn, given the strained nature of their relationship, caused by Ike’s inability to accept that his son was gay. Now, having been gunned down with his husband, it’s too […]