Kingfisher by Rozie Kelly (Tuesday October 6th)
When a creative writing academic becomes infatuated with his colleague – the poet – it is not long before it begins to threaten his relationship with his partner, Michael. Michael is beautiful. Michael is safe. But the poet is everything he isn’t; she has everything he wants. While he writes about steel and sex, she dreams about the movements of swallows. While he tends to his budding career, she writes from her big, white house in the woods.
As he slips between his old life and this new one, his fixation grows into something more powerful. The poet, his Kingfisher, is his sole focus. He is hypnotised. But when simultaneous illnesses threaten to destroy the precarious reality he clings to, he’s forced to question what he can and cannot take from someone. This is a novel about grief, power and desire – and the tangles in between that make up a life.
Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka (Tuesday November 3rd)
Ansel Packer is scheduled to die in twelve hours. But this is not his story. Ansel doesn't want to die; he wants to be celebrated, understood.
Yet now he awaits the same fate he forced on those girls, years ago. This is the story of the women who survive. As the clock ticks down, three women - a mother, a sister, a detective - reckon with the choices that culminate in tragedy, the impact on those in its wake, and the possibility of redemption.
Moderation by Elaine Castillo (Tuesday December 1st)
Sometimes people just..something Girlie Delmundo works a day job as a content moderator, removing the very worst that makes it on to the internet. She's one of the best at it, too, so it's no surprise when she's given a big salary rise to start moderating its new venture: virtual-reality theme parks, lush simulations of civilizations long since dead.
But as she begins to explore the intricate worlds that she moderates, Girlie notices two deeply troubling things: that there might be something much darker built into the very code of the company, and that William, technically her new boss, a man whose barriers are as mighty as her own, might just be that long-forgotten thing... Girlie's type.
Universality by Natasha Brown (Tuesday January 5th)
On an abandoned Yorkshire farm, a group of hippie-anarchists have taken up residence to build a new society. When their leader is brutally bludgeoned with a solid gold bar, an ambitious young journalist sets out to uncover the truth behind the attack. The longread exposé she writes goes viral - but is there more to the story than meets the eye?Universality unravels the messy aftermath of that exposé through the perspective of each of the mystery's key players: a self-pitying banker, a columnist with secrets, a cult leader with dreams, and a fugitive with nothing left to lose.
The follow-up to Natasha Brown's Assembly is a twisty, slippery story of media, class, power and truth. Cutting through the noise, it reveals British society today for what it is.
My Darkest Prayer by S.A. Cosby (Tuesday February 2nd)
"I handle the bodies."Whether it's working at his cousin's funeral home or tossing around the local riffraff at his favorite bar, Nathan Waymaker is a man who knows how to handle the bodies. A former marine and sheriff's deputy, Nathan has built a reputation in his small Southern town as a man who can help when all other avenues have been exhausted.
When a beloved local minister is found dead, his parishioners ask Nathan to make sure the death isn't swept under the rug. What starts out as an easy payday soon descends into a maze of mayhem filled with wannabe gangsters, vicious crime lords, porn stars, crooked police officers, and a particularly treacherous preacher and his mysterious wife. Nathan must use all his varied skills and some of his wit to navigate the murky waters of small town corruption even as dark secrets of his own threaten to come to the surface.
The books total £51.95, but if you buy them in a bundle, I can offer free P+P and a fiver off.
(if you'd like to order a mix of them but not all, let me know and we can work out a deal i'm sure)
.jpg "The Year of the Locust by Terry Hayes")
