July’s BOOK CLUB
Our books editor Zoe West gives us her favourite picks for the month, plus Jo Thomas shares her writing secrets
ENLIGHTENING JOURNEY
Four Seasons in Japan by Nick Bradley (£16.99, HB, Transworld) Flo is a shy English translator in Tokyo, stuck in a work rut, and feeling like a failure in love and life. Tokyoite Kyo has flunked his university entrance exams and been sent to live with his fierce grandmother in a provincial town while attending cram school. Set against the fleeting beauty of the seasons, the lives of Flo and Kyo intertwine in a soulful story about Japanese culture, tradition and resilience.
COMPELLING THRILLER
The Fallen by John Sutherland (£18.99, HB, Orion) John Sutherland spent 25 years in the Met Police, so he is writing about what he knows. When we meet hostage negotiator Alex Palmer, who is trying to talk heartbroken Home Office employee Becca Palmer down from Westminster Bridge, it’s utterly believable. Becca suggests she knows something she shouldn’t about the policing minister, and the stakes are high. A compelling page-turner you’ll struggle to put down.
SWEEPING MYSTERY
The Square of Sevens by Laura Shepherd-robinson (£18.99, HB, Pan Macmillan) This beguiling, Georgian-set mystery follows Red, the daughter of a Cornish fortune teller. Taken in by kindly gentleman scholar Mr Antrobus when orphaned, Red is raised as a lady. Although content, she has questions about her mother. Following a tragedy, Red finds herself on the run, caught between two powerful families. Using The Square of Sevens, an ancient method of fortune telling, she works her way into the homes and minds of others in this atmospheric and complex novel that will have you spellbound.
PERCEPTIVE AND LITERARY
The Fire by Daniela Krien (£16.99, HB, Quercus) Rahel and Peter have been told their holiday cottage has burnt down. Instead, they go to stay at a friend’s isolated farm. Here, we observe a woman who feels out of step with her children and frustrated with her husband; a man who has distanced himself from his marriage. With her trademark hypnotic prose, Krien looks at the nuances of a relationship with honesty and clarity. A stylish, subtle read that digs deep into the human psyche.
GOTHIC DRAMA
The Birdcage Library by Freya Berry (£16.99, HB, Headline) When plant hunter Emily Blackwood accepts a job at a remote Scottish castle in the 1930s, her sinister employer sets her off on a deadly treasure hunt. Adventuress Emily is locked in a race to discover what happened to former castle owner Hester Vogel in the exotic bird trade of 1880s New York. The only clue is a mysterious old book… Deliciously creepy and very clever, Berry’s Gothic mystery keeps you glued until the final twist.
NON-FICTION TREAT
La Vie: A Year in Rural France by
John Lewis-stempel (£16.99, HB, Transworld) Descriptions of nature are interwoven with vignettes of life and a dash of comedy in a book that will make you smile from cover to cover. Farmer and nature writer Lewis-stempel and his wife arrived in the Charente area to research organic farming, but fell for its charm and moved there to establish a self-sufficient lifestyle. This brilliantly written memoir will make you want to up sticks and join them.
PSYCHOLOGICAL TALE
The End of Us by Olivia Kiernan (£16.99, HB, Quercus)
Meet GP Myles Butler and his wife Lana, who live on an affluent estate in Wimbledon. But Myles is in financial difficulty, requiring desperate measures. When the wealthy Wrights move in with an answer to their problems, we are plunged into a web of lies, greed and murder. Brilliantly paced with constant twists and turns, it’s a sit-up-all-night read.
SECRETS AND INTRIGUE
Coming to Find You by Jane
Corry (£8.99,
PB, Penguin) Nancy is hiding a terrible truth. When a gruesome family murder is splashed across the papers, she flees the media frenzy and hides away at Tall Chimneys, a remote, rambling seaside property that once belonged to her grandmother. But the old house has its own secrets and a chilling wartime legacy. Following two timelines, one in 1940s England and the other in the present day, this gripping emotional drama keeps you guessing right up to the last page.