Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945)

The Lost Children of Spindrift

The Lost Children of Spindrift

Zoe Manlow

An atmospheric, twisty novel of family secrets reaching back to the summer of 1976 on the Norfolk coast, by the author The Last Secret of Wickham Grange.

Backwater

Backwater

James Sallis

From the author of Drive, a spare, haunted crime novel set in the rural American South. John “Bishop” traded his detective’s badge for a jazz guitarist’s life in New York. But Anne’s Ferry, the town he fled, pulls him back, and what he finds there – blood, silence, and a history no one will name – won’t let him go.

Old Dogs

Old Dogs

Donna Moore

La Contessa Letitzia di Ponzo and her sister, ex-hookers turned con artists, plan to steal jewel-encrusted Tibetan shih tzu statuettes from a Glasgow museum. Dodgy thieves, an obsessed islander, and a vengeful hitman all stand in their way… but luxury could be theirs if they pull it off.

Completely Weird

Completely Weird

Esther Walker

A funny, poignant, skewering examination of the need for women to accept who they are, by journalist and author Esther Walker.

Here We Are at the End

Here We Are at the End

Sara Barnard

Leave The World Behind by Rumaan Alam meets The Wedding People by Alison Espach. What happens to Love at the end of the world? An emotional and unique take on the destination wedding novel, written by award-winning YA author Sara Barnard.

Fresh Blood on the Avenue

Fresh Blood on the Avenue

Gay Marris

The residents of suburban Atbara Avenue enter the 1970s with more dark and twisted goings- on behind their closed doors in this dryly funny and clever follow up to A Curtain Twitcher’s Book of Murder.

The Spymaster’s Wife

The Spymaster’s Wife

Liz Denchfield

Nineteen-year-old new wife Elizabeth finds her ‘diplomat’ husband’s espionage career affects every aspect of their life when they are posted to Cyprus in 1968.

Mothers & Friends

Mothers & Friends

Clare Boyd

Three mothers. Three best friends. One colossal secret that could blow them all apart. An emotional, page-turning, suspense-filled celebration of friendship and motherhood by the author of After I’m Gone.

Go to Helena Handbasket

Go to Helena Handbasket

Donna Moore

Wisecracking PI Helena Handbasket juggles a jewel theft, a freezer box full of hands, and a trail of handless corpses marked with scarlet fish. As she hunts a possible serial killer, she also battles life’s real mysteries: which shoes to wear, why her neighbour smells like cheese, which lover is ‘the one’, and whether there’s anything in the fridge.

The Shepherd

The Shepherd

Paul Vidich

A former CIA officer, a Russian escort, and a White House cover-up collide on the eve of a presidential election. When a woman dies at a Washington fundraiser, Alex Matthews finds himself the witness everyone is hunting and the only man who might stop a murder being buried by the most powerful people in America.

The Booksellers of Camden Lock

The Booksellers of Camden Lock

John L. Williams

In 1982 Camden Town, Ellen Moore escapes her past, works at eccentric Leviathan Books, lives in a squat, and sings synth-pop. Love, danger, and a stolen, possibly magical book entangle her with addicts, ambition, and dark secrets that threaten her future.

Under the Falls

Under the Falls

Richard Russo

A spellbinding page-turner about a crime in a small town that exposes long-held secrets and betrayals among a group of lifelong friends, by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Empire Falls