Summertime, and the reading is easy HANNAH STEPHENSON selects a dozen riveting new reads you’ll lose yourself in
but soon an international criminal network springs into action to stalk, kidnap, blackmail and kill, to ensure the jury declares him ‘not guilty’.
OLIVE by Emma Gannon (HarperCollins, £14.99)
single-motherhood and returning to the UK to have the baby she hadn’t planned.
Already counting Caitlin Moran and Dolly Alderton among its fans, the memoir charts her journey as she tries to shed her old life to nurture the new, and fit in the mix of celebrity interviewer, prolonged singleton and loving mother that she becomes.
THE SHELF by Helly Acton (Zaffre Books, £12.99)
together after the death of their other close friend.
Jaded by life, discarded by society and consumed by anger and grief, they have trouble remembering why they are still friends, as their relationships have become fractious, complicated by secrets, regrets and exasperation.
It’s a moving study of age, friendships and all their complexities.
EXCITING TIMES by Naoise Dolan (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, £14.99)
debt to a local criminal called Ugly, and that debt is now theirs to repay – but there’s welcome distraction in Ugly’s gorgeous right-hand man.
The story explores the migrant experience with warmth and energy.
INVISIBLE GIRL by Lisa Jewell (Century, £14.99)
THIS gifted novelist moved seamlessly from female fiction to twisty thrillers and has enjoyed immense success in both genres. Now, the bestselling author of The Family Upstairs brings us a story of betrayal.
When Saffyre Maddox was 10 something terrible happened. The man she thought would heal her didn’t, and now she hides from him, invisible in the shadows.
Owen Pick is invisible too. The 33-year-old has never even had a girlfriend. But when Saffyre goes missing from opposite his house the whole world looks at Owen.
CRY BABY by Mark Billingham (Little, Brown, £20)