SORCERER TO THE CROWN by Zen Cho

SORCERER TO THE CROWN Zen Cho (zencho.org) Macmillan (www.panmacmillan.com) £16.99 Regency London in a time of magical upheaval. The Sorcerer Royal is dead, his staff passed on to his successor, but his familiar gone. His successor has split opinion within the Royal Society of Unnatural Philosophers: Zacharias Wythe is Sir Stephen’s son in all but […]

FALL OF MAN IN WILMSLOW by David Lagercrantz

FALL OF MAN IN WILMSLOW David Lagercrantz (www.davidlagercrantz.se) Translated by George Goulding MacLehose Press (maclehosepress.com) £18.99 On a wet morning in early June 1954, Detective Constable Leonard Corell finds himself investigating the death of a mathematician in the sleepy Cheshire town of Wilmslow. Preliminary investigation points towards suicide, the man having died after eating a […]

GUEST POST: Researching The Widow’s Confession by SOPHIA TOBIN

Name: SOPHIA TOBIN Author of: THE SILVERSMITH’S WIFE (2014) THE WIDOW’S CONFESSION (2015) On the web: sophiatobin.wordpress.com On Twitter: @SophiaTobin1 From day trips to directories: researching The Widow’s Confession The Widow’s Confession is set during a summer season at a Victorian seaside resort. Researching the life of the Victorian tourist with its excursions, shell-collecting, […]

THE WIDOW’S CONFESSION by Sophia Tobin

THE WIDOW’S CONFESSION Sophia Tobin (sophiatobin.wordpress.com) Simon & Schuster (www.simonandschuster.co.uk) £12.99 In the summer of 1851, Edmund Steele leaves the stresses of London behind and, at the behest of his good friend, heads to the seaside resort of Broadstairs and takes up residence with the town’s parson, Theo Hallam. It isn’t long before Edmund and […]

A MAN LIES DREAMING by Lavie Tidhar

A MAN LIES DREAMING Lavie Tidhar (lavietidhar.wordpress.com) Hodder & Stoughton (www.hodder.co.uk) £18.99 In another time and place, a man lies dreaming. National Socialism is routed at the 1933 elections by Communism, and its leadership exiled from Germany. Sentenced to a concentration camp, Adolf Hitler escapes and makes his way to London where, under his old […]

THE ABDUCTION by Jonathan Holt

THE ABDUCTION Jonathan Holt (www.carnivia.com) Head of Zeus (headofzeus.com) £12.99 WALL STANDING IS NOT TORTURE. AT 9 P.M. THIS EVENING, SHE WILL NOT BE TORTURED. WATCH IT LIVE ON CARNIVIA. When the teenage daughter of a high-ranking US soldier is abducted from one of Venice’s sex clubs, it seems that the protesters against the […]

THE BLOOD DIMMED TIDE by Anthony Quinn

THE BLOOD DIMMED TIDE Anthony Quinn (anthonyquinnwriter.com) No Exit Press (www.noexit.co.uk) £8.99 In the dying days of 1917, the body of young woman is washed ashore on the west coast of Ireland, near Sligo. She is in an old and decomposing coffin. Before her death, she sent a letter to London, to the poet William […]

PERFIDIA by James Ellroy

PERFIDIA James Ellroy (jamesellroy.net) William Heinemann (www.randomhouse.co.uk/…/william-heinemann) £18.99 December 6th, 1941: four members of a Japanese family living in Los Angeles are found dead in their home in what, at first glance, appears to be a ritual Japanese suicide. Hideo Ashida, the only Japanese employee of the Los Angeles Police Department, finds evidence that suggests […]

THE AXEMAN’S JAZZ by Ray Celestin

THE AXEMAN’S JAZZ Ray Celestin Mantle (www.panmacmillan.com) £16.99 New Orleans, May 1919. A man, styling himself the Axeman, has already brutally murdered six people, leaving tarot cards by their mutilated bodies, and has sent a letter to the Times-Picayune promising more in the future. Independently of each other, three people – Detective Lieutenant Michael Talbot; […]

THE UNDERTAKING by Audrey Magee

THE UNDERTAKING Audrey Magee (audreymagee.com) Atlantic Books (atlantic-books.co.uk) £12.99 In order to temporarily escape the madness of the Eastern Front, German soldier Peter Faber turns to marriage. It is a marriage of convenience, the bride one Katharina Spinell, chosen from a catalogue, a girl he has never met. The benefits are mutual: ten days’ honeymoon […]