Book of the month

Ethan has always been one of the good guys, and for years, nobody has appreciated this fact more than his wife. Until now. Ethan finds himself caught between their regular meetings at his home and the battle to get his livewire daughter Alex to sleep. But the new, stilted rhythm of his life is interrupted when he receives a panicked message. Accusations. Against his business partner. A slew of them. And Ethan is abruptly forced to question everything: his past, his future, his marriage, and what he values most. Unfolding over five turbulent days in 2018, The Smash-Up wrestles shrewdly with some of the biggest questions of our time: What, exactly, does it mean to be a good guy?

What price would you put on a second chance? When Alex Cassidy and Diane Alison meet by chance at a party in Princeton, New Jersey, there are instant sparks. Both are single parents living in wealthy suburbia, independent, highly competent and seemingly settled in their lives. She runs a successful catering business. He's part of a crew that robs banks, casinos and jewellery stores around the world. As Alex prepares for one final, daunting job, he discovers that he's not the only one with secrets - and that both of them are playing for the highest stakes imaginable.

Two young people meet at a pub in South East London. Both are Black British, both won scholarships to private schools where they struggled to belong, both are now artists trying to make their mark in a city that by turns celebrates and rejects them. Winner of the 2021 Costa Book Award Best First Novel.   

In the traditions of two great but very different British writers, Agatha Christie and P.G. Wodehouse, Waugh's hilarious and entirely original twist on the country house murder mystery comes complete with stiff upper lips, even stiffer drinks, and any stiffs that might embarrass the family getting smartly brushed under the carpet…  Longlisted for the Comedy Women In Print Award.

A gripping story of love and duty set in San Francisco's Chinatown during the 1950s. Seventeen-year-old Lily Hu can't remember exactly when the question took root, but the answer was in full bloom the moment she and Kathleen Miller walked under the flashing neon sign of a lesbian bar called the Telegraph Club.   America in 1954 is not a safe place for two girls to fall in love, especially not in Chinatown… A TikTok sensation.

Do you like women who don’t take any sh*t? Then this book is definitely for you. Think Villanelle – but she’s on your side. Nikki Griffin, our bookseller-by-day, badass PI-by-night heroine, is back…

In every pub in every town, unspoken stories lie beneath the surface. Each week, six women meet at The Bluebell Inn. They form an unlikely and occasionally triumphant ladies darts team. They banter and jibe, they laugh. But their hidden stories of love and loss are what, in the end, will bind them. With humanity and insight, Kit Fielding reveals the great love that lies at the heart of female friendship. Raw, funny and devastating, all of life can be found at the Bluebell.

One murder. Twelve suspects. Twelve motives for murder...   This Christmas, sit back and become a real armchair detective. This is a murder mystery told entirely through interviews. Private Investigator Elizabeth Chalice needs YOU to help her solve this case. It’s a beautiful Christmas day in Como, and the Caswell-Jones family are celebrating with their nearest and dearest in their Villa Janus. Merriment and limoncello abound.   That is, until Jonty Caswell-Jones is found dead in his study. 

A searing debut novel about mothers and daughters. This is a tale of obsession and betrayal. This is a poisoned love story. But not between lovers - between mother and daughter. Tara and Antara, the woman and her angry shadow. But which one is which? Sharp as a blade and compulsively readable, Burnt Sugar slowly untangles the knot of memory and fiction that binds two women together, revealing the truth that lies beneath.   Longlisted Women's Prize for Fiction 2021. Shortlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize.   Join the Modern Fiction reading group to discuss this book!

A top ten New York Times bestseller. A compulsive debut novel that explores the aftershock of a brutal crime on the women of a small Texas oil town. When justice is as slippery as oil, and kindness becomes a hazardous act, sometimes courage is all we have to keep us alive… ’The very definition of a stunning debut’ – Ann Patchett. ’Brilliant, sharp, tightly wound, and devastating’ – Elizabeth Gilbert. Join the Crime reading group in Uppsala to discuss this book at the pub!