Hot off the press
Dive into a great holiday read
Brilliant books for the sunlounger
BESTSELLERS
Reviewed by Emma Lee-potter Never Greener by Ruth Jones (Black Swan, £8.99)
Actress Kate Andrews has everything – a loving husband, a young daughter and a successful career. But she can’t forget her affair with a married man 17 years ago. When their paths cross again, do they walk away or risk losing everything? An engrossing story from the co-creator of TV’S
Gavin & Stacey. The Newcomer by Fern Britton (Harpercollins, £7.99)
Angela Whitehorn is the new vicar of Pendruggan, a Cornish seaside village. She arrives with her TV reporter husband and teenage daughter and is full of plans for the parish. But when poison-pen letters appear, it is clear not everyone is happy about her appointment. A Country Escape by Katie Fforde (Arrow, £7.99) Talented chef Fran Duke moves to a Cotswolds farm to make a new start – even though she’s broke, knows next to nothing about farming and is terrified of cows. Readers who dream of quitting the rat race for country life will enjoy this heartwarming tale. Roar by Cecelia Ahern (Harpercollins, £7.99) The 30 short stories in this collection feature women facing challenges from childcare guilt to feeling ignored. Cecelia Ahern, author of PS, I Love You, has a clear message – if you want to change your life, you can. Still Me by Jojo Moyes (Penguin, £8.99) The third book in Jojo Moyes’s Me Before You trilogy sees Lou Clark move to New
York to work for the lonely wife of a mega-rich businessman. But will her long-distance relationship with her paramedic boyfriend survive?
The Girl
In The Letter by Emily Gunnis (Headline Review, £7.99)
When Ivy Jenkins falls pregnant, she is sent to a home for unmarried mothers.
Her baby is adopted against her will, but 60 years later journalist Samantha Harper finds one of Ivy’s letters and decides to investigate. A pacy, heartrending read.
THRILLERS Reviewed by Jake Kerridge
In A House Of Lies by Ian Rankin (Orion, £7.99) Now somewhat decrepit, ex-cop John Rebus pokes his nose into another unsolved murder. Meanwhile, a dodgy secret from his past emerges but the great man is not a shred less lovable for it.
Killing Eve: No Tomorrow by Luke Jennings (John Murray, £8.99) The bizarre love-hate relationship between MI5’S Eve Polastri and
sexy assassin Villanelle has inspired a great TV series, but it is just as much fun on the page. Lethal White by Robert Galbraith (Sphere, £8.99) This fourth entry in JK Rowling’s pseudonymous series takes private detective Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott’s romance further. It’s more memorable as a love story than as a mystery.
Smoke And Ashes
by Abir Mukherjee (Vintage, £8.99) This brilliant series set in the dying days of the Raj gets better and better. In 1920s Calcutta, British policeman Sam Wyndham gets in a pickle when he witnesses a crime while indulging his secret addiction at an opium den. Forget My Name by JS Monroe (Head of Zeus, £7.99)
A woman suffering from memory loss turns up at the home of a couple claiming she used to live in their house. They make the rash decision to take her in and help her remember who she really is. This is a book that will send chills down your spine on even the hottest beach. The Au Pair by Emma Rous (Little, Brown, £7.99) On the day Seraphine and her twin brother were born, their mother killed herself. Now a young woman, Seraphine decides to track down the mysterious au pair who abandoned the family home on the same day. A good old-fashioned mystery.
Stone Cold Heart by Caz Frear (Zaffre, £7.99)
A man is accused of murder but his wife refuses to confirm his alibi. Who is lying? Cat kinsella seals her status as fiction’s most irresistible cop as she delves into this toxic marriage.
Literary Fiction reviewed by eithne Farry
the Hoarder by Jess Kidd (Canongate, £8.99)
Secretive Cathal Flood lives in a ramshackle mansion filled with hoarded stuff and is haunted by old memories including a mystery involving his dead wife. Care worker Maud Flood, an unwilling psychic, is determined to discover just what happened in this gorgeously Gothic novel. Love & ruin by Paula Mclain (Fleet, £8.99) based on the memoirs and letters of courageous war correspondent Martha Gellhorn, this captivating novel captures her tempestuous relationship with the domineering Ernest Hemingway, as she battles to hold on to her dreams. by Kelleigh Greenbergjephcott (Hutchinson, £8.99)
This debut novel tells the story of Truman Capote and the socialite swans surrounding him. Capote’s charm sprinkled everything with “magic dust” until he overstepped the mark and revealed in print what they had confided in private – with grievous consequences for the fêted author. normal People by Sally rooney (Faber, £8.99) Marianne and Connell, schoolfriends and lovers, head to the same university and grapple with their differences while trying to keep hold of love. Misunderstandings and missed chances make for an intense, engrossing novel.
now We Shall Be entirely Free by andrew Miller (Sceptre, £8.99) Set against the backdrop of the Napoleonic Wars, this thriller tells the story of wounded soldier John Lacroix. Pursued, he absconds from his regiment to find refuge and romance in the Hebrides.
an american Marriage by tayari Jones (oneworld,
£8.99)
When Roy is imprisoned for a crime he didn’t commit, his life implodes and his marriage falters. This year’s Women’s Prize winner is a romantic love story – and a powerful indictment of the US justice system.
non-fiction Help Me! How Self-help Has not Changed My Life by Marianne Power (Picador, £8.99)
Marianne was single, in debt and miserable when she decided to road test a different self-help book each month for a year. From The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People to The Power Of Now, the results are hilarious and thought-provoking. in My Life: a Music Memoir by alan Johnson (Corgi, £6.99) The former Labour Home Secretary’s nostalgic look at the music that inspired him, from the beatles to Elvis Costello.
Barefoot at the Lake: a Memoir of Summer
People and Water Creatures by Bruce Fogle (September, £9.99)
From the Canada-born TV vet comes a gorgeous memoir of idyllic childhood summer holidays spent at his family’s cottage on the shores of Lake Chemong in ontario where the days “stretched out like cats lazing in the sun”. Factfulness: How to really Understand the Modern World by Hans rosling with ola rosling and anna rosling rönnlund (Sceptre, £9.99) When asked about global trends, we invariably get the answers wrong. That is the starting point for this smart read which explains why and reveals the preconceptions that mislead us. In this delightful and fascinating account of a year of keeping bees, Helen Jukes blends memoir with the wisdom of other bee enthusiasts, from Aristotle onwards. Ultimately, she learns as much about herself as she does about the creatures she keeps.