New fiction

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. For most people, that means a time of celebration, relaxation and inebriation, but not for the staff of the Stranger Times. While a book club meeting ending in a triple murder isn't unprecedented, it is at least noteworthy. It quickly emerges that this is no ordinary book-club-triple-murder either, as it features a librarian possessed by a chaotic entity who has broken through from another dimension and is hellbent on vengeance. He's made a list, but he's not checking it twice as the whole of humanity is on it. Who would want to summon such a thing? And how is anyone going to be able to send it back? As if that wasn't enough to be dealing with, a shocking revelation about a member of the Stranger Times team's past brings family together, but not in a way that's ever going to make it into a Hallmark movie.

He thought he was invincible, but he was wrong ...When an old man is found dead inside the ancient hermitage at Warkworth Castle, Northumbria CID are called in to investigate. With no apparent motive, it’s their job to unravel why he was murdered – and this time they’re forced to do it without their star detective ...DCI Ryan is thousands of miles away. He’s tracked a killer across Europe and has sworn not to return until he has his man in custody.Nathan Armstrong is a dangerous psychopath, but there’s just one problem – he’s also an international celebrity: a world-famous thriller writer with money and connections. Ryan is a stranger in a foreign land, but he knows one thing – he’ll never give up. Murder and mystery are peppered with romance and humour in this fast-paced crime whodunnit set amidst the spectacular landscapes of Northumberland and Tuscany.

There’s power in a book… They call them wayward girls. Loose girls. Girls who grew up too fast. And they’re sent to Wellwood House in St. Augustine, Florida, where unwed mothers are hidden by their families to have their babies in secret, to give them up for adoption, and most important of all, to forget any of it ever happened. Fifteen-year-old Fern arrives at the home in the sweltering summer of 1970, pregnant, terrified and alone. Under the watchful eye of the stern Miss Wellwood, she meets a dozen other girls in the same predicament. There’s Rose, a hippie who insists she’s going to find a way to keep her baby and escape to a commune. And Zinnia, a budding musician who plans to marry her baby’s father. And Holly, a wisp of a girl, barely fourteen, mute and pregnant by no-one-knows-who. Everything the girls eat, every moment of their waking day, and everything they’re allowed to talk about is strictly controlled by adults who claim they know what’s best for them. Then Fern meets a librarian who gives her an occult book about witchcraft, and power is in the hands of the girls for the first time in their lives. But power can destroy as easily as it creates, and it’s never given freely. There’s always a price to be paid...and it’s usually paid in blood.

12 people on the move around planet Earth, twelve individual lives, each in turmoil, and each in some way touching the next. In this nuanced and deeply moving sequence, David Szalay's diverse protagonists circumnavigate the world in 12 plane journeys, from London to Madrid, from Dakar to Sao Paulo, to Toronto, to Delhi, to Doha, en route to see lovers and parents, children and siblings, or nobody at all. Along the way, Szalay deftly depicts the ripple effect that, knowingly or otherwise, a person's actions have on those around them, and invites us to consider our own place in the vast and delicately balanced network of human relationships that is the world we live in today.

Since the death of her twin sister two years before Charlie Hudson has drifted through life until the day her classmate goes missing. Drawn to the disappearances by forces she can't explain, Charlie soon finds herself investigating the mysterious, alluring newcomer in town, Elias Everhart. She knows Elias is hiding something, but what she doesn't know. Soon his secrets will lead her to a place she never imagined: a world hiding in plain sight, made of magic, gods, and monsters - and a first love fated to fall apart.

New York City, 2001. Editorial Assistant Clodagh 'Clo' Harmon wants nothing more than to rise through the ranks at the world's most prestigious fashion magazine. But there's just one problem: she doesn't have the right pedigree. Clo is a 'workhorse' in a world of beautiful, wealthy, impossibly well-connected 'show horses' and it seems that her fortunes will never change. That is until Clo meets Harry Wood, a reporter with visions of his own media empire and the person who might be Clo's ally in gaming the system - or is he the only thing standing between Clo and her rightful place at the top? Clo begins to wade across boundaries, taking ever greater and more dangerous risks to become the important person she wants to be. But who is Clo under all the borrowed designer clothes and studied manners? And who are we if we share her desires?

In the wake of the blockbuster DC event Absolute Power, Arthur Curry's powers have evolved to powerful new heights, and this is one king ready to use them to kick some serious butt. Mammoth water-construct Kaijus have emerged from each of the seven seas, and only Aquaman's water-warping abilities can stop them-but not if they kill the good king in the process! Enter Dagon, Arthur's guide on the quest to unlock the secrets of the 'blue'. But what deadly secret awaits Arthur on his journey?

Libby Sarjeant returns to take on her latest case in the twenty-third gripping and twisting whodunit from Lesley Cookman.

Los Angeles, 1964. For two decades, Del and Dinah Newman and their sons, Guy and Shep, have ruled television as America's Favourite Family. Millions of viewers tune in every week to watch them play flawless, black-and-white versions of themselves. But now the Sixties are in full swing, and the Newmans' perfection suddenly feels woefully out of touch. Ratings are in free fall, as are the Newmans themselves. Del is keeping an explosive secret from his wife, and Dinah is slowly going numb. Steady, stable Guy is hiding the truth about his love life, and rock 'n' roll idol Shep may finally be in real trouble. When Del is in a mysterious car accident, Dinah decides to take matters into her own hands. She hires Juliet Dunne, an outspoken young reporter, to help her write the final episode. But Dinah and Juliet have wildly different perspectives about what it means to be a woman in 1964 America.

Leif Foehammer, the adopted elf, begins to understand General Blackpool's rise to power, but his answers may lie with his former vampire lover, the arch-goblin ruler, Queen Ooktha! Leif's brother Bjorn seeks solitude, struggling to come to terms with Leif's connection to the vampiress, the very creature that killed their mother! Meanwhile, Dru Foehammer rises in status, becoming the Commander of the Sedgedunum City Watch, while his mentor, the assassin Damon Crag, begins building his own empire as the Shadow Company overlord of Sedgedunum. Betrayal, attacks in the frontier, and new characters shed doubt on General Blackpool's legitimacy as ruler of Vorclaw. To help unravel it all, Leif may have to travel back into the mountain range known as The Spine of Vana!

For three hundred years the wild island of Croi' has been subject to the Empire of the Answering. Clans have been subjugated, their language outlawed, their religion reduced to the whisper of fugitive priests. Until Croi's prayers are answered. The Gods return. Feral and majestic, they stride the land as colossi, throwing the Empire into chaos. The dispossessed and the vengeful struggle for power. A ruthless priestess rallies the faithful, offering a simple choice - believe, or die - even as the empire's Queen makes the first moves in a long and dangerous game. But for all their machinations, one woman will decide the fate of them all - Sister Wake, unwilling saint of the Goddess of Death.

Sins never stay buried. You may call it a sin; I say it was an act of desperation. Like all pathologists, Cuthbert finds dealing with dead children the hardest part of his job. However, when the body of a young boy is found in the grounds of a church orphanage, Cuthbert not only has to steel himself for the task ahead, he is also forced to revisit his own childhood grief. The boy in his shallow grave has been interred with some ritual, but just how did he die? And why was he killed? Working closely with his assistant and the team at Scotland Yard, Cuthbert slowly and painstakingly reveals the terrible truth.

Medium turned private investigator Claire Hendricks is excited to embark on her first official case. Pro-wrestling manager Ken King, convinced that his late father, Eddie, is haunting the gym and show venue in Brighton, hires Claire to help, unaware that her teenage best friend, Sophie, now a ghost, comes as part of the package. But Eddie is adamant he did not die of natural causes, and tasks Claire and Sophie with bringing his killer to justice. In the world of pro wrestling, can they work out what's real, who's faking and unmask the killer once and for all?

Emma is at an all-time low the day she meets Nick. She sits down in a quiet rose garden in her local park, and from nowhere a handsome man sits next to her and turns her world upside down. Over the weeks, she and Nick meet regularly, always in the same place, always at the same time. They discover they have a lot in common - shared heartbreak, and shared dreams. They tell each other stories about the people they've lost - things they've never told anyone else. Bit by bit, they get to know each other, and fall in love. But there's a catch, because however much they have in common, they have one big thing keeping them apart - twenty years apart. Because when Nick is sitting in the garden it's 1999 - two decades before Emma is there. Emma never expected to fall in love again, but now she has, she's not going to give up on it without a fight.

From the #1 bestselling author and creator of hit Netflix series THE STRANGER"Run Away confirms one of the world's finest thriller writers is at the very top of his game." PETER JAMES"Coben never, ever lets you down - but this one is really special." LEE CHILD______________________YOUR DAUGHTER IS MISSING.YOU'LL RISK ANYTHING TO FIND HER.And then you see her, frightened and clearly in trouble.You approach her, beg her to come home.SHE RUNS.You follow her into a dark, dangerous world where no-one is safe and murder is commonplace. NOW IT'S YOUR LIFE ON THE LINE...______________________"The modern master of the hook and twist" DAN BROWN"A twisty thriller that'll keep you up way past any sensible lights out time" HEAT"Wonderful ... yet another winner" RICHARD OSMAN"The king of twisty thrillers returns. This is worth turning off your phone for!" CLOSER"[Coben's] writing and storytelling are firing on all cylinders and the seemingly straightforward tale takes a sharp turn when it's least expected" DAILY MAIL"Run Away is Harlan Coben at the height of his narrative mastery... as a thriller it's a narcotic... unmissable." SHOTS MAGAZINE"The award-winning Coben once again gets his hook into you and twists to keep you snared." RTE GUIDE"Few of Harlan Coben's thrillers are anything less than gripping, but every now and again he writes one that exceeds his own high standards. Run Away is one." THE TIMES ONLINE"A twisty, disturbing and poignant thriller" WOMAN

Omar Khayyam Shakil had three mothers who shared everything. They shared the symptoms of pregnancy, they shared the son that they all claim to have borne on the same night. Raised at their six breasts, Omar's mothers teach him to live a life without shame. And it is training that proves very useful when he leaves his mothers' fortress and makes the fateful mistake of falling in love. For he finds himself an unwitting player in an ongoing duel between the families of two men - one a celebrated wager of war, the other a debauched lover of pleasure - living in a world caught between honour and humiliation, where a moment of shame could prove fatal.

London. 1985. A city rife with possibility and desire. One young man who wants it all. Kristian Hadeland, newly arrived in the city, seethes with ambition and contempt. His family in Norway never understood him; his fellow photography students bore him. But he knows he and his art are destined for more. Then he meets Hans, an eccentric Dutch artist. With Hans, the future Kristian yearns for is tangible. All art is possible. Any line can be crossed. But success comes at a price. And when Kristian does the unthinkable, will he be prepared to pay it?

Nobody knows she's checked into Room 706. Caught in the wrong place at precisely the worst time, Kate must face the most confronting situation of her life - and discover what matters most - in this deeply suspenseful and thought-provoking debut novel.

Realising he and she are the very worst kind of people, our unnamed middle-aged narrator embarks on a highly dubious road trip through Switzerland with his terminally ill and terminally drunken mother. They try unsuccessfully to give away or squander the fortune she has amassed from investing in armament industry shares. Along the journey they bicker endlessly over the past, throw handfuls of francs into a ravine and exasperate the living daylights out of their long-suffering taxi driver. The crimes of the twentieth century are never far behind, but neither is the need for more vodka. 'Eurotrash' is a bitterly comic, vertiginous mirror-cabinet of familial and historical reckoning. Kracht's novel is a narrative tour-de-force of the tenderness and spite meted out between two people who cannot escape one another.

No book in modern times has matched the uproar sparked by Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses, which earned its author a death sentence. Furor aside, it is a marvelously erudite study of good and evil, a feast of language served up by a writer at the height of his powers, and a rollicking comic fable. The book begins with two Indians, Gibreel Farishta ("for fifteen years the biggest star in the history of the Indian movies") and Saladin Chamcha, a Bombay expatriate returning from his first visit to his homeland in 15 years, plummeting from the sky after the explosion of their jetliner, and proceeds through a series of metamorphoses, dreams and revelations. Rushdie's powers of invention are astonishing in this Whitbread Prize winner.