THIS MONTH’S BEST BOOKS
LITERARY EDITOR SARRA MANNING’S FAVOURITES INCLUDE A HERD OF DAIRY COWS, GERIATRIC SLEUTHS AND A HEROINE YOU MAY HAVE MET BEFORE…
Charlotte by Helen Moffett (Manilla Press, £12.99, out 3rd September)
Whatever happened to Pride And Prejudice’s Charlotte Lucas after she married prototype mansplainer Mr Collins? This stunning debut follows Charlotte as she settles into life as a clergyman’s wife but chafes against the restraints placed on her as a woman. Helen Moffett respects the source text but breathes new and credible life into these beloved characters (even Mr Collins improves with age) and, at last, Charlotte is given a voice.
The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman (Viking, £14.99, out 3rd September)
The Thursday Murder Club are four sprightly geriatric sleuths who meet every Thursday to pore over old cold cases. But when a local builder with a colourful past is bludgeoned to death, Elizabeth (who I want to be when I grow up), Ron, Ibrahim and Joyce are soon on the hunt for his killer. Keenly observed, dryly funny and with a high body count, The Thursday Murder Club is a sheer delight.
The Heatwave by Kate Riordan
(Michael Joseph, £7.99, out 3rd September)
A departure for historical novelist Kate Riordan is this page-turner of a thriller, set in Provence during a sticky heatwave. Sylvie has been summoned back to La Reverie, her family home, with her daughter Emma. But the house is full of memories of her first daughter, Elodie, and Sylvie is forced to confront the secret she’s been hiding about the mysterious circumstances in which Elodie died.
Cow Girl by Kirsty Eyre (Harpercollins, £8.99, out 3rd September)
When her father is taken ill, biochemist Billie leaves London for her family’s Yorkshire dairy farm. Suddenly, Billie is the only gay in the village, in charge of a herd of opinionated dairy cows and has to see vet Lorna – her arch nemesis as a teenager – on a daily basis. As you’d expect from the winner of last year’s Comedy Women in Print unpublished novel award, Cow Girl is very funny and a breath of (slightly manure-scented) fresh air.
The Harpy by Megan Hunter (Picador, £14.99, out 3rd September)
With lots of interesting things to say about marriage and motherhood, The Harpy centres on a woman who discovers her husband is having an affair with a colleague. To even the score, Jake agrees that Lucy can hurt him three times, but her betrayal and pain have a transformative effect not just on their relationship but on her entire being. A contemporary fairy tale, written in spare but utterly haunting prose.