The Best Writers Are Onion Peelers by MICHAEL GROTHAUS

Name: MICHAEL GROTHAUS Author of: EPIPHANY JONES (2016) On the web: http://www.michaelgrothaus.com On Twitter: @michaelgrothaus Epiphany Jones, I’ve been told, is hard to categorize. When I ask people who have read it what kind of book they think it is they’ve replied “psychological thriller”, “literary fiction”, “crime”, “social satire”, “dark comedy”, “transgressive fiction”, and “a […]

EPIPHANY JONES by Michael Grothaus

EPIPHANY JONES Michael Grothaus (www.michaelgrothaus.com) Orenda Books (orendabooks.co.uk) £8.99 Tonight I’m having sex with Audrey Hepburn. Jerry Dresden is something of a loner. Obsessed with sex and celebrity – and, very often, both at the same time – he spends his days working at the Art Institute of Chicago, and his nights in front of […]

An Interview with MATTHEW BLAKSTAD

Name: MATTHEW BLAKSTAD Author of: SOCKPUPPET (2016) On the web: http://www.matthewblakstad.com On Twitter: @mattblak Matthew Blakstad’s first career was as a professional child actor. From the age of ten, he had roles in TV dramas on the BBC and ITV, in films and at theatres including the Royal Court. After graduating from Oxford with a […]

SOCKPUPPET by Matthew Blakstad

SOCKPUPPET Matthew Blakstad (www.matthewblakstad.com) Hodder & Stoughton (www.hodder.co.uk) £16.99 Days before the nationwide rollout of Number 10’s Digital Citizen initiative, news appears online that the pilot scheme has been hacked, and the data stolen. The source of the information becomes an immediate suspect, but there’s only one problem: famous Parley personality sic_girl doesn’t exist; she’s […]

THE ARRIVAL OF MISSIVES by Aliya Whiteley

THE ARRIVAL OF MISSIVES Aliya Whiteley (aliyawhiteley.wordpress.com) Unsung Stories (www.unsungstories.co.uk) £9.99 The Great War is a not-too-distant memory, and England is still in the process of recovering from the horror and loss that it wreaked. Teenager Shirley Fearn lives in the small village of Westerbridge, where she attends the local school taught by Mr Tiller […]

GUEST POST: The Arrival of Opportunity by ALIYA WHITELEY

Name: ALIYA WHITELEY Author of: THE BEAUTY (2014) THE ARRIVAL OF MISSIVES (2016) On the web: aliyawhiteley.wordpress.com On Twitter: @AliyaWhiteley Aliya Whiteley’s second novella, The Arrival of Missives, goes on sale on Monday 9th May. To celebrate the book’s launch Reader Dad is very pleased to welcome Aliya back to talk about the book’s […]

THE LAST DAYS OF SUMMER by Vanessa Ronan

THE LAST DAYS OF SUMMER Vanessa Ronan (vanessaronanbooks.com) Penguin (www.penguin.co.uk) £12.99 Lizzie Curtis lives with her two young daughters at the edge of a rural Texas town towards the end of the 1970s or early 1980s. Her brother has spent ten years in jail for an unspecified crime against his ex-girlfriend. His sentence served, Lizzie […]

INFLUENCES: Magic on Every Shelf by VANESSA RONAN

Name: Vanessa Ronan Author of: THE LAST DAYS OF SUMMER (2016) On the web: vanessaronanbooks.com On Twitter: @vronan To celebrate tomorrow’s launch of Vanessa Ronan’s debut novel, The Last Days of Summer, I’m very pleased to welcome the author to Reader Dad to talk about her influences as a writer. My parents had a huge […]

HEX by Thomas Olde Heuvelt

HEX Thomas Olde Heuvelt (www.oldeheuvelt.com) Translated by Nancy Forest-Flier (jimandnancyforest.com) Hodder & Stoughton (www.hodder.co.uk) £16.99 The town of Black Spring lies on the banks of the Hudson River, close to the military academy at West Point. It looks like any other small town, but its residents are hiding a terrible secret from the rest of […]

LONG DARK DUSK by JP Smythe

LONG DARK DUSK (Book 2 of the Australia Trilogy) JP Smythe (james-smythe.com) Hodder & Stoughton (www.hodder.co.uk) £13.99 Months after the events that brought her and her companions to Earth, Chan Aitch is living in a shanty town built against the inner surface of the wall that now surrounds Washington, D.C. She has, so far, managed […]