LATEST TITLES

GIVE ME YOUR HAND by Megan Abbott, Picador, £14.99 (ebook £10.49).

KIT and Diane form an unlikely friendship in high school through a shared love of running and science. But their bond is broken when Diane confesses to a dark secret Kit finds hard to keep.

Years later, their paths cross when Diane joins Kit in a research team working for their idol Dr Lena Severin.

Abbott’s ninth novel takes a while to get going, but once the big secret is out, the tedium ceases as the plot hots up with twist after alarming twist as more is revealed about the secretive characters working in the research lab. Abbott, a former winner of a Mystery Writers of America’s Edgar Allan Poe award, really hits her stride in the second two-thirds of the novel and shows why her female-led crime fiction has proved so popular.

INVITATION TO A BONFIRE by Adrienne Celt, Raven Books, £14.99 (ebook £12.99)

WHEN Zoya Andropova finds herself uprooted for a new life at a New Jersey boarding school, after losing her family in war-torn Russia, she faces a hefty challenge: Trying to fit in among the swarms of innately confident and entitled wealthy American schoolgirls.

But this is just the beginning; with growing paranoia around Soviet spies, and no safety net to fall back on once she graduates, Zoya’s challenges are far from over.

Things take a turn when she meets fellow Russian Leo Orlov, an author she’s been obsessed with for years, but twists of another nature soon emerge.

Adrienne Celt, whose debut novel The Daughters won the PEN Southwest Book Award for Fiction, weaves her characters and plot twists into a rich, vibrant tapestry that drags you right into every scene. If you love intrigue and intensity with glowing prose Invitation To A Bonfire won’t disappoint.