THE THREE by Sarah Lotz

THE THREE Sarah Lotz (sarahlotz.com) Hodder & Stoughton (www.hodder.co.uk) £14.99 They’re here…The boy watch the boy watch the dead people oh Lordy there’s so many…They’re coming for me now. We’re all going soon…Pastor Len warn them that the boy he’s not to- It was the day that would become known as Black Thursday, the day […]

MR MERCEDES by Stephen King

MR MERCEDES Stephen King (stephenking.com) Hodder & Stoughton (www.hodder.co.uk) £20.00 On a foggy April morning, in an anonymous, recession-hit Midwestern city, Brady Hartfield ploughs a stolen Mercedes Benz into a group of people queued for a job fair, killing nine and injuring many more. Six months later, Detective William Hodges retires from the City Police […]

BARRICADE by Jon Wallace

BARRICADE Jon Wallace (thingaboutchickens.blogspot.co.uk) Gollancz (www.gollancz.co.uk) £14.99 In the near future, humans create the Ficials, an engineered race of post-humans who are designed – optimised – for specific tasks, and who are virtually indestructible. Under the central command of Control, the Ficials rise against their human creators, and begin a country-wide cull. Following a nuclear […]

GUEST POST: Four Methods of Travel in BARRICADE: Kenstibec’s Guide by JON WALLACE

Name: JON WALLACE Author of: BARRICADE (2014) On the web: thingaboutchickens.blogspot.co.uk On Twitter: @Jon__Wallace Kenstibec is the main character in Barricade. He is a member of the ‘Ficial’ race, a breed of merciless super-humans optimised for soldiering, engineering and other vital roles. They fought a war against humanity and turned Britain into a wasteland. Now […]

SPEED OF DARK by Elizabeth Moon

SPEED OF DARK Elizabeth Moon (www.elizabethmoon.com) Orbit (www.orbitbooks.net) £8.99 In a not-too-distant future, pharmaceutical companies have eliminated the majority of illnesses and disabilities that plague the human race. Lou Arrendale is autistic, one of a small number remaining: Lou was born too early for the procedure that can cure autism in babies. Along with a […]

GUEST POST: Writing About Drugs in the 60s by WILLIAM SHAW

Name: WILLIAM SHAW Author of: A SONG FROM DEAD LIPS (2013) A HOUSE OF KNIVES (2014) On the web: williamshaw.com On Twitter: @william1shaw Photograph © Ellen Shaw When you write a book about recent history, what’s important is the difference between then and now. There are the blindingly obvious differences. Want to set […]

A SONG FROM DEAD LIPS by William Shaw

A SONG FROM DEAD LIPS William Shaw (williamshaw.com) Quercus (www.quercusbooks.co.uk) £7.99 When a young woman is found strangled and naked yards away from the recording studio on Abbey Road made famous by The Beatles, the case falls to Cathal Breen, a member of the Met’s D Division. Still recovering from the death of his father, […]

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 TRUTH ABOUT THE HARRY QUEBERT AFFAIR by Joël Dicker

THE TRUTH ABOUT THE HARRY QUEBERT AFFAIR Joël Dicker (joeldicker.com) Translated by Sam Taylor Maclehose Press (maclehosepress.com) £20.00 Late in the summer of 1975, Nola Kellergan disappeared from the small seaside town of Somerset, New Hampshire. Almost thirty-three years later, her body is found buried on Harry Quebert’s land, along with the original manuscript of […]

MIDNIGHT CROSSROAD by Charlaine Harris

MIDNIGHT CROSSROAD Charlaine Harris (charlaineharris.com) Gollancz (www.gollancz.co.uk) £18.99 You might pass through the town of Midnight without noticing it, if it weren’t for the stoplight at the intersection of Witch Light Road and the Davy highway. Most of the town residents are very proud of the stoplight, because they know that without it the town […]