Tag: book preview

books

Out This Week: The Author’s Guide to Murder

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The new novel from Lauren Willig, Karen White and Beatriz Williams has come out this week – and part of the blurb describes it as Murder, She Wrote meets Agatha Christie which is absolutely something I can get on board with. As I said in the autumn preview post this has got a big name author being murdered on a remote island in the Scottish Highlands, with three authors among the suspects.

When I came to write this post, I was convinced that there was more than one novel this Christmas that has got an author being murdered on an island (even an island in Scotland(, but I thought I must just have been remembering being excited about this one, which is hilarious. And then when I was in Foyles the other week I spotted this years BLCC Christmas release in the wild, which is about the murder of a well known playwright at his castle on a private island off Scotland – so I was right, there is more than one, it’s just the BLCC one was first published in 1948 and has been forgotten since then. So I wasn’t going mad, and I had actually remembered something real. Anyway this seems to be a break from their previous books as a trio because as far as I can tell this one only has one strand and it’s set in the present day. The blurb describes it as a pointed satire about the literary world, which is definitely a new development for these three, so I’m excited to see what they’ve written – if I can find a copy which is always a challenge…

Book previews

Out Today: Return to the Dallergut Dream Department store

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I’m going to start with the fact that I have no idea why this is coming out on a Friday, when Thursday is the usual book release day in the UK and Tuesday in the US. But that’s what the bookshop websites say, so I’m going with it as it enabled me to post about the new TJR yesterday, even if I then found copies on sale in Foyles yesterday evening on my way to the theatre. And yes. I checked the release date again and it still said preorder on the book sites.

Anyway, this is the sequel to Mi-ye Lee’s The DallerGut Dream Department Store, which came out this time last year (and which has been sitting on my tbr shelf for almost that long) and has been one of the translated fiction books you’ll have seen in the bookshops this year. In the first book we meet Penny, a new employee at the store which sells dreams, in book two she is continuing to learn about the dream industry – and discovers the people who make complaints about their dreams and tries to work out why some people never come back to the shop.

Will this be the push I need to read the first book, for the sake of my TBR pile we can only hope it is…

Book previews

Out Today: New Adele Buck

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Another Thursday, another new book to highlight. This time it’s the new Adele Buck book, The Anti-social Season, which is the second in her first responders series and came out today in the UK – and on Tuesday in the US. The first in the series was Fake Flame which I reviewed back when in May when it came out here. That was about a fake relationship between a university professor and a firefighter after her ex tried to win her back with a public proposal which she tried to set on fire. This time it is Christmas themed and has a female firefighter who is about to hang up her active duty hose and a male librarian who is tasked with teaching her about her new job as the squad’s social media manager. I love the fact that the genders are the reverse of what you normally find in a firefighter romance – or a romance involving a librarian – so I can’t wait to read it – I have it on pre-order so it should have dropped onto my Kindle by the time you read this!

If you want to buy it, it’s available now on Kindle and Kobo. And as a bonus, Fake Flame is 99p on Kindle and Kobo at the moment too.

previews

Out Today: The Bells of Westminster

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A step away from the Christmas themed-books today for a new historical mystery. It’s 1774 and Susan’s father is the Dean of Westminster. Life is pretty calm, until the Society of Antiquities arrives with a letter from the King demanding the opening of Edward I’s tomb. Then a ghostly figure is spotted and then a man is murdered. Susan’s father’s job is under threat so she decides to investigate. I do like a good historical mystery and this is recommended for people who like Andrew Taylor (among others) so I have high hopes!

Book News, Book previews

Series Redux: Thursday Next

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You guys. It’s finally coming. I never thought it would. But it has a date now – an actual date, not just a year – and the date is on the publishers website as well as on Amazon. The eighth Thursday Next book is coming in 2025. And so before I start my re-read of the series ahead of the publication of Dark Reading Matter – “the eighth and last” in the series, I thought I’d remind you about them so you can join in too.

Back when I last wrote about the series, it had been eight years since book seven – it’s now been 12 and I had been thinking it might never happen – especially given that we’ve had a sequel to Shades of Grey from Fforde before we got another Thursday Next. And as ever I wonder how quick I am to spot this (see also yesterday’s post about the next H M The Queen Investigates) but I’m pretty sure this is pretty recent – Fforde’s own website isn’t updated with the release dates as I write this…

And if you want an explanation of the series, he has a good one on there which explains the fact that it’s a world where the Crimean war never ended, where time travel is possible as is entering a book and removing characters from existence. If you like books and reading, this is the sci-fi-fantasy-crime mash up for you. Also, it has this quote from Terry Pratchett.

‘Ingenious – I’ll watch Jasper Fforde nervously’

Terry Pratchett

As well as the Thursday Next novels, Fforde’s nursery crime series are set in the same universe so if you want to be a completist you can read those too. I probably will. Now the only question left is whether a) the cover of book eight will match and b) will I be able to cope with a hardback among my set of paperbacks. Who. Can. Tell.

Book News

New H M The Queen Investigates coming!

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Now while I was writing yesterday’s Kindle offers post and discovering that there’s a Her Majesty the Queen investigates book on offer this month, I also discovered that there’s a fifth in the series coming! The Queen who came in from the Cold is out in the UK in hardback first (and Kindle) on Feb 6th. The blurb says the Queen is planning her trip to Italy on the Royal Yacht Britannia when someone claims to have seen a brutal murder on the Royal Train. The Queen and her private secretary get to work – and as the title suggests there are meant to be spies and Cold War skullduggery. I can’t wait!

Book previews

Out this week: New Ashley Herring Blake

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It’s not that long since I wrote about Ashley Herring Blake’s Bright Falls series, so I wanted to mention that her new book (not set in Bright Falls) Make the Season Bright came out on Tuesday. This one features two exes who discover they are going to be forced to spend Christmas together after they are invited to spend it with a friend (the friends are sisters, the blurb isn’t clear on whether the sisters know that their friends are exes). I’m intrigued to see how this works out because the blurb says that Charlotte was left at the altar by Brighton and I’m not sure how you redeem that in romance terms.

Make the Season Bright now is out now on Kindle and Kobo and also in paperback- and all the Waterstones near me seem to have copies available.

Book previews

Out today: New Richard Osman

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The Thursday Murder Club series has featured a fair bit on this blog, but after the last one came out Richard Osman said he was taking a break from writing the series to write something different – and today is the day that that something different comes out. It’s called We Solve Murders and it’s got a detective duo who are father-in-law and daughter-in-law. He’s retired, she’s a private security officer and from the blub it sounds like an adventure caper with murders. So I’m hoping for something that’s a bit early Steph Plum maybe, because Osman does humour in his mysteries. I’m hoping to pick up a copy of this at the airport next time we go on holiday, because once again it’s a hardback first release, and I’m bad at waiting. So watch this space!

Book previews

Out This Week: Prime Time Romance

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Our heroine is Brynn, newly divorced and with a new roommate, Josh, to help her pay the bills. On her birthday she makes a wish on a cake that mysteriously appears on their doorstep and the next morning she wakes up inside her favourite 90s soap Carson’s Cove – and Josh is there too – he’s the bad boy and she’s the sweetheart. The blurb is promising a rom com with 90s nostalgia – and this is one of those where I feel like it’s either really, really going to work for me – or somehow not. But I’m always an optimist in these preview posts, which is why I picked it out of the new releases this week to highlight! Prime Time Romance came out on Tuesday if you’re in the US or today (Thursday) if you’re in the UK and it’s a Penguin release so it should be available pretty widely.

Book previews

Out Today: New Matt Haig

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I know Matt Haig is an autobuy for some people, so today I wanted to mention that he has a new book hitting the bookshops. It’s called The Life Impossible and it’s his first novel since the mega hit The Midnight Library, which I still need to get around to reading, especially given how much I enjoyed How to Stop Time. Anyway, this is about Grace, a retired maths teacher who is left a rundown house on Ibiza and sets out with a one way ticket and absolutely no plan about what to do about it. The blurb promises hope, adventure, wonder and the power of a new beginning. From which I deduce it may make you cry so maybe not one to read on the plane, but perhaps one for behind some big sunglasses on your late summer holiday!