Books Monthly
September 2024
September 2024
New fiction for 2024
Bella Mackie: What A Way To Go
Published 29th August 2024
‘I was immensely grateful that despite the gruesome way my husband died, he’d done it with his clothes on.’
Anthony Wistern is wealthy beyond imagination. Fragrant wife, gaggle of photogenic children, French chateau, Cotswold manor, plethora of mistresses, penchant for cutting moral corners, tick tick tick tick tick tick.
Unfortunately for him, he’s also dead. Suddenly poised to inherit his fortune, each member of the family falls under suspicion.
And that’s when everything comes crashing down…
Robert Harris: Precipice
Published 29th August 2024
Summer 1914. A world on the brink of catastrophe.
In London, 26-year-old Venetia Stanley – aristocratic, clever, bored, reckless – is having a love affair with the Prime Minister, H. H. Asquith, a man more than twice her age. He writes to her obsessively, sharing the most sensitive matters of state.
As Asquith reluctantly leads the country into war with Germany, a young intelligence officer is assigned to investigate a leak of top secret documents – and suddenly what was a sexual intrigue becomes a matter of national security that will alter the course of political history.
Seamlessly weaving fact and fiction in a way that no writer does better, Precipice is the thrilling new novel from Robert Harris.
Ian Rankin: Midnight And BluePublished 10th October 2024
John Rebus spent his life as a detective putting Edinburgh's most deadly criminals behind bars. Now, he's joined them...
As new allies and old enemies circle, and the days and nights bleed into each other, even the legendary detective struggles to keep his head.
That is, until a murder at midnight in a locked cell presents a new mystery. They say old habits die hard...
However, this is a case where the prisoners and the guards are all suspects, and everyone has something to hide.
With no badge, no authority and no safety net, Rebus walks a tightrope - with his life on the line.
But how do you find a killer in a place full of them?
Richard Osman: We Solve MurdersPublished 12th September 2024
FROM THE #1 BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB
A brand new series.
An iconic new detective duo.
And a thrilling new murder to solve . . .
Steve Wheeler is enjoying retired life. He does the odd bit of investigation work, but he prefers his familiar habits and routines: the pub quiz, his favourite bench, his cat waiting for him when he comes home. His days of adventure are over: adrenaline is daughter-in-law Amy’s business now.
Amy Wheeler thinks adrenaline is good for the soul. As a private security officer, she doesn’t stay still long enough for habits or routines. She’s currently on a remote island keeping world-famous author Rosie D’Antonio alive. Which was meant to be an easy job . . .
Then a dead body, a bag of money and a killer with their sights on Amy have her sending an SOS to the only person she trusts. A breakneck race around the world begins, but can Amy and Steve stay one step ahead of a deadly enemy?
Kate Atkinson: Death at the Sign of the RookPublished 22nd August 2024
Welcome to Rook Hall.
The stage is set. The players are ready. By night’s end, a murderer will be revealed.
Ex-detective Jackson Brodie is staving off a bad case of midlife malaise when he is called to a sleepy Yorkshire town, and the seemingly tedious matter of a stolen painting. But one theft leads to another, including the disappearance of a valuable Turner from Burton Makepeace, home to Lady Milton and her family. Once a magnificent country house, Burton Makepeace has now partially been converted into a hotel, hosting Murder Mystery weekends.
As paying guests, a vicar, an ex-army officer, impecunious aristocrats, and old friends converge, we are treated a fiendishly clever mystery; one that pays homage to the masters of the genre―from Agatha Christie to Dorothy Sayers.
Brilliantly inventive, with all of Atkinson’s signature wit, wordplay and narrative brio, Death at the Sign of the Rook may be Jackson Brodie’s most outrageous and memorable case yet.
J D Kirk: A Killer of InfluencePublished 12th September 2024
What price would you pay for fame? Following a convention in the Scottish Highlands, eight social media influencers vanish without a trace, leaving their followers – and families – in a state of shock, and the police clueless as to their whereabouts. And then, the livestreams begin. Broadcast live from their squalid underground cells, the young influencers are forced into a sadistic battle for survival. With each livestream, their captor pits them against each other in a twisted competition for likes. The influencer with the fewest positive reactions faces a gruesome end – live on camera. As the likes increase and the death toll rises, DCI Jack Logan and his team must traverse both the Scottish wilderness and the darkest corners of the internet to try and save the remaining captives. But how do you catch a killer who is always one click ahead? A Killer of Influence is the 20th book in the multi-million selling DCI Jack Logan series from internationally bestselling Scottish crime author, JD Kirk.
Lucinda Riley: The Hidden GirlPublished 12th September 2024
Sweeping and evocative, The Hidden Girl is a lost treasure from the global number one bestselling author Lucinda Riley. You can’t alter destiny . . . Born and raised in a small village on the Yorkshire moors, Leah Thompson grows more beautiful with each passing day. When she catches the attention of the influential, troubled Delancey family, she knows her life will never be the same again. Years later, Leah takes the modelling world by storm, travelling from Milan to London and New York and living life in the lap of luxury. But her past follows her like a dark shadow, mysteriously intertwined with the tragic tale of two young siblings in Poland during the Second World War. As two generations of secrets threaten to explode, Leah is haunted by a fatal, forgotten prophecy from her past, and must fight to challenge the destiny that has been mapped out for her in the stars . . . Long before she became the bestselling author of The Seven Sisters series, Lucinda Riley wrote Hidden Beauty as Lucinda Edmonds. This standalone novel has been reworked and given new life as The Hidden Girl by Harry Whittaker, Lucinda’s son and co-author of Atlas: The Story of Pa Salt.
The Reverend Richard Coles: Murder Under The MistletoePublished 24th October 2024
It is Christmas Day and at Champton Rectory, Canon Daniel Clement and his mother Audrey are joined by the residents and guests of the big house to drink, eat and be merry.
At the festive feast, peace and goodwill prevail.
Until two meet under the mistletoe. One of them falls down dead. And Daniel suspects murder has returned to Champton...
Can Daniel and Detective Sergeant Neil Vanloo solve the crime and catch the Christmas killer?
Kate Mosse: The Map Of BonesPublished 10th October 2024
A sweeping story of love, adventure and adversity, The Map of Bones by Kate Mosse is an epic tale of courageous women battling to survive in a hostile land. Olifantshoek, Southern Africa, 1688. When the violent Cape wind blows from the south-east, they say the voices of the unquiet dead can be heard whispering through the deserted valley. Suzanne Joubert, a Huguenot refugee from war-torn France, arrives in search of her cousin ― the notorious she-captain and pirate commander Louise Reydon-Joubert ― who landed at the Cape of Good Hope more than sixty years before, then disappeared without a trace . . . Franschhoek, Southern Africa, 1862. Nearly one hundred and eighty years after Suzanne’s perilous journey, another intrepid and courageous woman of the Joubert family ― Isabelle Lepard ― has journeyed to the small frontier town once known as Oliftantshoek in search of her long-lost relations. Intent on putting the women of her family back into the history books, she quickly discovers that the crimes and tragedies still shadow the present. And now, Isabelle faces a race against time if she is to discover the truth, and escape with her life . . . Painstakingly researched and beautifully told, The Map of Bones is the fourth – and final – novel of The Joubert Family Chronicles, following the bestselling The Burning Chambers, The City of Tears and The Ghost Ship.
Books Monthly is published on the first of every month and has been on the web since 1998. You can contact me at paulenorman1@gmail.com