THE BEST NEW FICTION

Absynthe

Brendan P. Bellecourt

Head of Zeus £18.99 This is a sci-fi thriller that takes us to 1920s Chicago as you’ve never seen it before: a jazzed-up Jazz Age of bullet trains, cyborgs and serums that enable telepathy. We follow Liam, an amnesiac war veteran who comes to understand that he is living in an authoritarian dystopia, to say nothing of his own role in it. Absynthe is a complex feat of world-building that raises evergreen questions of truth and power with dizzying verve.

Anthony Cummins

The Newcomer

Laura Elizabeth Woollett Scribe £9.99

Paulina, a troubled young woman, tries to escape her demons on an idyllic Pacific island. But she’s an outsider in the tight-knit community, and her self-destructive tendencies spiral out of control until she is brutally murdered. Woollett subverts the crime-fiction genre in this character-driven narrative such that the discovery of the murderer is almost incidental, and by focusing on the victim and her grieving mother, she highlights violence against women. Disturbing but immensely readable.

Simon Humphreys

Under The Rainbow

Celia Laskey HQ £8.99

After Big Burr,

Kansas, is named the most homophobic place in America, an LGBTQ organisation sends a task force to live there in the hope of educating folk out of their prejudices. What could possibly go wrong? Among a chorus of narrators is closeted Gabe, Linda, lost in grief, and teenage Avery, whose lesbian mum has relocated from Los Angeles to lead the project. It’s refreshing, smartly executed and often very funny.

Hephzibah Anderson

The Apollo Murders

Chris Hadfield Quercus £20

Not the first crime novel to be set in space, but the first to be written by someone who’s been there. Set in 1973, this offers an alternative history in which Apollo 18 wasn’t cancelled, but rather embroiled in an extension of the Cold War beyond the stratosphere. This is a gripping and convincing thriller, as a spaceship makes a wonderfully claustrophobic crime scene.

John Williams