september’s great reads latest books

W&h books editor Fanny Blake reads the best new books out this month and gives you her recommendations. Plus bestselling novelist Val McDermid shares her writing secrets

MY PICK OF THE MONTH

Take Nothing with You by Patrick Gale (Tinder) During 24 hours of hospitalised isolation, Eustace maps his life from his childhood in an old people’s home run by his parents, their difficult relationship, and the passion he finds in playing the cello. A compassionate and funny comingof-age and coming-out novel. If you haven’t read Gale before, start now.

DYSTOPIAN THRILLER

Vox by Christina

Dalcher (HQ)

In a near-future run by the extremist Pure movement, women and female children are fitted with a “counter” that gives a shock if they speak more than 100 words a day. No jobs, no books, no mercy. Can Jean, granted a reprieve, change things? Thought-provoking: I was left speechless.

COMPULSIVELY READABLE

Fatal Inheritance by Rachel Rhys (Doubleday) 1948. Eve Forrester is an unexpected beneficiary in the will of a man she has never heard of. She travels to the French Riviera to find out more. Mingling with the rich and glamorous, she becomes the target of others who want her out of the way. I absolutely loved this intoxicating mix of hedonism, mystery and family secrets.

PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER

Just Before I Died by SK Tremayne (HarperCollins) Set against the wildness of Dartmoor, this sinister thriller focuses on Kath Redway, who’s unable to remember anything that happened before a car accident that nearly killed her. Bit by bit, she begins to piece together what really happened that night. Pulsing with tension, the unfolding of the truth cracks along to its melodramatic denouement.