Twists, turns and an undertone of fear

Pick of the best new fiction and non-fiction releases

FICTION

FURIES

Margaret Atwood et al

Virago, £16.99 (ebook £9.99).

Feminist publisher Virago – founded in the 1970s in response to the political and social change happening at that time – amplifies the voices of women with something to say. Furies is a short story collection featuring some of the greatest and most exciting voices among them, including Canadian novelist Margaret Atwood, Nigerian writer Chibundu Onuzo and British-Pakistani writer Kamila Shamsie. Sandi Toksvig provides the introduction, warning readers this is a book of wild writing – and it’s a promise that delivers. While different in style and contents, each story in some way or other explores female experience and, most crucially, power. Some are historical, some are infused with the mystical and magical, some have threads of fierce commentary and some are laugh-out-loud funny. All of them fizz with energy, meaning and pageturner plots.

8/10

CUDDY

Benjamin Myers

Bloomsbury Circus, £20 (ebook £14).

Durham Cathedral was born from a vision – a determination to create a work of art that would endure. In Cuddy, Myers has brought his own ambitious vision of an overarching literary novel to life. Through poetry, prose, diary entries and script, Myers covers ground from pre-Norman to modern day,

charting the legacy of St Cuthbert – the titular “Cuddy” – and the history of the north of England. Cuddy is a book to be taken seriously, even though at times, its own tongue sits firmly in its cheek. Its characters, through the ages, are credible and colourful, and while the book is dense with literary and historical references, it has a lightness of touch which prevents it sagging beneath its own weight. The humour and sharp observations that are woven through even the darkest of sections keep the narrative marching on at pace. In Cuddy, Myers presents us with a labour of love. It is not a superficial read and it certainly won’t be a novel for everyone. It is beyond the normal scope; it will invite remark. But as a work of literature and as a tribute to a man and his region, it will endure.

8/10

I WILL FIND YOU Harlan Coben

Century, £20 (ebook £10.99).

Going to prison for a crime you didn’t commit is one thing, but going to prison for killing your toddler son

then being told he may still be alive makes for terrifying reading. David Burroughs is merely surviving life in a high-security prison as a convicted “child killer”, his marriage in tatters, until his former sister-in-law shows up with an unbelievable photograph. This is a dramatic, suspenseful Coben novel, and while there are plenty of twists and turns, it does feel a little too chock full of cliches. From cop tropes to corruption, this book has everything Coben does well in it – plus a bit of unnecessary romance and a little too predictably delivered. While so much of Coben’s writing thrives on-screen, this book feels too much designed for TV and not necessarily for the reader. Yet this is a fabulous crime novel with a satisfying resolution and a rumbling undertone of real fear over how to prove you didn’t do something you can’t remember.

7/10

CHILDREN’S BOOK

THE GIRL WHO LOVES BUGS Lily Murray

Macmillan Children’s Books, £7.99

The life of the first woman to run London Zoo’s insect house is the inspiration behind a beautifully illustrated book about a young girl who loves bugs. Evie plays in her garden with moths, snails, crickets – even worms and spiders – but decides to take them to her bedroom, delighting in going to sleep alongside ants and woodlice. She’s as snug as a bug, until the slimy creatures escape around the house, just as her family is arriving for a visit. A scary great gran ends up saving the day by helping Evie build a bug hotel and minibeast zoo. There’s a lovely underlying message of the importance for young girls to be curious and deal with a drama.

Though it reads like it’s designed for TV, Harlan Coben’s latest is a fabulous crime novel