The Barbecue at No 9 by Jennie Godfrey (Hutchinson Heinemann, £16.99)Most of the action in Godfrey’s second novel takes place during the Live Aid concert on 13 July 1985, at a barbecue hosted by the Gordon... Read more »
Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy (Canongate, £9.99)The award-winning Australian writer’s third adult novel begins with a lone woman, Rowan, washed up on a remote island between Tasmania and Antarctica. Shearwater is... Read more »
Too much of the literature taught in UK schools is putting children off reading and thrillers should become part of the curriculum, one of the world’s biggest selling authors has argued. Lee... Read more »
The Murder at World’s End by Ross Montgomery; The Confessions by Paul Bradley Carr; The Good Nazi by Samir Machado de Machado; Bluff by Francine Toon; The Token by Sharon Bolton The... Read more »
Quantum of Menace by Vaseem Khan (Zaffre, £20)Dismissed from his role as a back-room boffin in the British secret service, Major Boothroyd, AKA Q, returns to his market-town roots in Khan’s excellent... Read more »
The Predicament by William Boyd (Viking, £20) A second adventure for amateur spy Gabriel Dax, first seen in Boyd’s 2024 novel Gabriel’s Moon. It’s early 1963, and Dax, a travel writer, is... Read more »
Not Quite Dead Yet by Holly Jackson (Michael Joseph, £20)The bestselling YA author’s first novel for adults has an intriguing premise: thanks to the combination of a blow to the head by... Read more »
Fox by Joyce Carol Oates (4th Estate, £18.99)In this hefty, immersive study of gullibility, complicity and betrayal, English teacher Francis Fox is a predator, all the more dangerous for being charming enough... Read more »
Fair Play by Louise Hegarty (Picador, £16.99)Award-winning short-story writer Hegarty’s debut opens with guests arriving at an Irish Airbnb country house for a murder mystery-themed birthday party. Abigail has organised the celebration... Read more »