A fishy tale of love and lust

THE MERMAID AND MRS HANCOCK by Imogen Hermes Gowar (Harvill Secker £12.99)

THE year is 1785. Learning that he has lost his fortune in exchange for a desiccated mermaid is a gut-wrenching blow to widowed merchant Jonah Hancock.

But he soon turns it to his advantage by making the object into a money-spinning exhibit that earns him so much, it changes his place in society.

Meanwhile, high- class courtesan Angelica Neal, having been forgotten in the will of her most recent protector, is putting herself back into society.

At a lavish party held by ‘bawd’ Mrs Chappell, she meets Mr Hancock, who is overwhelmed by her beauty.

How these two characters come together thanks to the mermaid is the stuff of this marvellous, high-energy, inventive romp through Georgian society.

Rich in delicious period detail and written with a wickedly observant eye, the path of this unlikely romance leads down some unexpected byways to give a fantastical and thoroughly enjoyable reading treat.

THE WOLVES OF WINTER by Tyrell Johnson (HQ £12.99)

IN A DYSTOPIAN future where the world has been decimated by nuclear war and Asian flu, the McBride family have escaped Chicago to live an isolated life in the Yukon.

After seven years of selfsufficiency, a stranger rides onto their land, later followed by a band of men with their own sinister agenda.

Bow and arrow-wielding Lynn McBride, 23, her brothers and mother are drawn in to the conflict, with explosive results. This is a cracking futuristic adventure, told with pace and panache and packed with vivid, shiverinducing description.

Its badass heroine and narrator is one to root for and, if the plot sometimes pushes the boundaries of belief, it doesn’t matter, because the pages keep on turning. KERRY ANDREW is an awardwinning composer who transfers her artistic talent to the page in this confident and atmospheric debut.

Having failed her second university year, lost her friends and possibly killed someone, Polly escapes to her mother, who is living in the Scottish Highlands.

Going out of her mind with boredom, the local bar proves a source of drink, drugs and sex, until Polly finds herself drawn to Jim, a mysterious recluse living in the woods.

In this strange landscape haunted by supernatural, shape-shifting white forms, Polly is terrified and intrigued as she teases out his secrets, while trying to keep her own.

Rooted in Celtic mythology and written with exquisite precision, the novel possesses a lyrical, dreamlike quality.