THE LAST MURDER AT THE END OF THE WORLD by Stuart Turton

THE LAST MURDER AT THE END OF THE WORLD Stuart Turton (stuturton.com) Raven Books (bloomsbury.com) £20.00 Almost a century ago, the world was overrun by a myterious insect-filled fog that killed everyone it touched. The last survivors – 122 villagers and 3 scientists who are treated like gods – can be found on a small […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

THE UNSPEAKABLE ACTS OF ZINA PAVLOU by Eleni Kyriacou

THE UNSPEAKABLE ACTS OF ZINA PAVLOU Eleni Kyriacou (elenikwriter.com) Head of Zeus (headofzeus.com) £14.99 Buy a copy from your favourite independent bookshop Eva Georgiou is a Greek immigrant living in London with her husband. At night she works the coat check in the Café de Paris, and her name is on the Metropolitan Police’s list […]

EYES OF GLASS by Gemma Metcalfe & Joe Cawley

EYES OF GLASS Gemma Metcalfe & Joe Cawley (hesaysshesays.net) Spellbound Books (spellboundbooks.co.uk) £0.99 Lyra is trying to find the follow-up to her bestselling debut novel, and trying to come to terms with the fact that she’s just found her boyfriend in her bed with another woman, when she discovers a message in a bottle on […]

HOLLY by Stephen King

HOLLY Stephen King (stephenking.com) Hodder & Stoughton (hodder.co.uk) £25.00 Buy a copy from your favourite independent bookshop When Bonnie Dahl disappears on an early summer evening, between work and home, leaving behind her bicycle and a short note (“I’VE HAD ENOUGH”), her mother Penny reaches out to the local private detective agency recommended by the […]

CHASING THE DRAGON by Mark Wightman

CHASING THE DRAGON Mark Wightman (markwightmanauthor.com) Hobeck Books (hobeck.net) £9.99 Buy a copy from your favourite independent bookshop Singapore, 1940. The body of an American archaeologist gets caught in a fishing platform off the island’s southern shore. He has been wrapped in a fishing net and has been force-fed two balls of rough opium. Inspector […]

THE GIRL IN THE EAGLE’S TALONS by Karin Smirnoff

THE GIRL IN THE EAGLE’S TALONS Karin Smirnoff Translated by Sarah Death MacLehose Press (maclehosepress.com) £22 Buy a copy from your favourite independent bookshop A woman’s disappearance is the catalyst for Lisbeth Salander’s trip to the small town of Gasskas, in Sweden’s wild north. This isn’t business, it’s personal as the woman has left behind […]