LATEST TITLES

LETHAL WHITE by Robert Gailbraith, Sphere, £20 (ebook £9.99) ★★★★★

THE fourth novel in The Cormoran Strike series, under JK Rowling’s Robert Galbraith pseudonym, picks up where Career Of Evil left off – Robin’s wedding to the infuriating Matthew.

As always with Rowling’s writing, the plot is bursting with vivid characters and unnerving plot twists. Set throughout the summer of 2012 in London, two gruesome mysteries are entwined in Strike’s latest investigation.

Delving into the corridors of Parliament, Strike and Robin meet myriad complex characters, including corrupt politicians, political activists and an aristocratic family who all have ridiculous public school nicknames.

Unlike the previous three novels, the main plot in Lethal White is a pretty slow burn. But the fourth instalment does give us more details of Strike and Robin’s personal lives, which only add to the captivating storytelling.

RUNNING UPON THE WIRES by Kate Tempest, Picador, £9.99 (ebook £6.49) ★★★★★

LONDONER Kate Tempest is well known as a performance poet, whose boundary-crossing work has seen her nominated for both a Costa Book Award and the Mercury Music Prize.

Running Upon The Wires, however, is poetry designed to stand alone and its theme turns towards the personal, charting the journey from one relationship to another and the grey area of mixed feelings that lies in between ‘the end’ and ‘the beginning’.

Tempest’s distinctive voice is still here, in the urgent rhythms, unexpected shifts of tone and pace, emotional intensity and wellobserved images – “Forget that your heart is a piece of brown meat/Feel nothing but love for those that have love”.

Reading from the page, without accompaniment, allows her wordcraft to shine.