Mirrorland by Carol Johnstone
Release Date: Early Apr
This is something new in the thriller section, centred around twin sisters Cat and El, who have had a childhood they try not to think about, or at least think about in ways that are not entirely true. When El goes missing, Cat decides to return to their home town and their childhood fantasy place, Mirrorland, to solve the mystery of her missing sister and along the way uncover her own forgotten past and the trauma of the childhood she tried to forget. A fun thriller. It has had a lot of reviewers going crazy. This one is very much in the sweet spot of The Gone Girl and the like.
The
Best of World SF by Lavie Tidhar
Release Date: Mid Apr
We have got a lot of short story collections in the store and a lot of stories
featuring a variety of authors. What makes this particular book special is that
editor Lavie Tidhar
has deliberately collected stories from all over the world, and while I
recognise some of the contributors, like Chen
Quifan, Tade
Thompson and Silvia
Moreno Garcia, many are new to me. There are 26 stories, from
all over the world and mostly own-voices, meaning that it’s people from a place
or culture that are writing about it. A fascinating collection that will leave
most readers wanting more.
Unlikely
Stories, Mostly by Alasdair Gray
Release Date: Mid Apr
This is the latest addition to our short story collections featuring the
bizarre and peculiar. In this one, we meet a man with a bald patch on the back
of his head that looks curiously like a face, and then starts to turn into a
second person. A bored student digs under his school, finding something
entirely unexpected – and an elderly man is healed by hundreds of tiny people
working inside his head. An illustrated hardcover, it’s quite pretty, as well
as quite odd.
Civilsations by Laurent
Binet
Release Date: Mid Apr
This interesting alternate history story begins in 1000 ad with Norse explorers
who, in the tradition of Erik the Red venture south and encounter the Americas
500 years before Columbus. In 1492, when his voyage does occur, he finds an
Inca empire well prepared and aware of the world beyond their shores. 40 years
later, the Incas invade Europe. Fun and clever. Originally published in French
in 2019.
The
Library of the Dead by
T L Huchu
Release Date: Late Apr
This is the first book in new urban fantasy series set in a post collapse
Edinburgh. 14 year old Ropa Moya dropped out of school to become a
ghost-talker, and now earns a meagre living using the magic of her Zimbabwean
ancestors to relay messages from the dead to the living. When the dead
tell her someone is targeting children, leaving them emotionless husks it’s up
to Ropa to find out who and stop them. This sounds like one for Ben Aaronovitch fans,
particularly since he liked it enough to do a cover quote.
Rule
of Wolves by Leigh Bardugo
Release Date: Early Apr
Leigh Bardugo
seems fond of the two-book series format, which I suppose deals with the slow
middle book syndrome that some fantasy suffers from. Set in the Grishaverse
setting like her previous series’ the finishes the story begun in King of
Scars. Fjerda’s army is invading and Nikolai, Zoya and Nina, King, General and
Spy will each have to face doing what they fear most if they are to save the
Kingdom. Tremendous YA fantasy with an Eastern European setting a wonderful
folklore style.
The
Aosawa Murders by Riku Onda
Release Date: Early Feb
If you are looking for something different in your crime reading, how about
this one, by an award-winning Japanese author. We begin in the 1970s, a wealthy
family hosts a gala birthday party during which 17 members die through cyanide
poison in their drinks. The only family survivor is the strange and bewitching
blind girl Hisako. Thirty years later, a policeman decides there is something
deeply suspicious about the activities of that day and decides to get to the
bottom of it. Though witness reports, memories, records and interviews with the
strange Hisako, we get closer to the truth and perhaps a revelation. A
fascinating and wonderful crime read.
Lady
with the Gun Asks the Questions by Kerry
Greenwood
Release Date: Early Apr
Late last year, after a seven year hiatus, Kerry Greenwood returned to the world of
Phryne Fisher, she of the Lulu bob, the cutting remark, the pearl-handled
pistol and insatiable curiosity, was once again solving crimes. It appears that
the spirit is very much moving Kerry
Greenwood in this direction because only a few months later
we’ve got another Phryne book on the way. This one is a short story collection,
featuring all of our favourite characters – Phryne, of course, the ever-loyal
Dot, the ingenious Mr Butler and various other friends and household members.
Definitely one for fans of Kerry
Greenwood’s period crime stuff.
Ariadne by Jennifer
Saint
Release Date: Early Apr
TThere’s been a lot of folklore related books in the last few years that
challenge, re-examine or even rewrite classic tales. This one takes the story
of Theseus and The Minotaur and tells it from the perspective of Ariadne.
Princess of Crete, daughter of King Minos and sister to the Minotaur. For love
she will betray her family and help Theseus kill her brother and escape the
curse laid upon her family. In a world of capricious gods and vain kings where
women are little more than the property of powerful men, escape means risking
everything. Though not quite as intense as Pat Barker’s Silence of the Girls
or Madeline Miller’s
Circe,
this is still good fun for folklore fans.
Malice by Heather
Walter
Release Date: Mid Apr
This is a rather interesting take on Snow White in the form of a saphic romance
vaguely reminiscent the Disney film Maleficent.
We have Aurora, the princess, who is cursed and must find her true love to kiss
to break it, and Alice who is a young woman from the bloodline that cursed
Aurora. She has her own magic and is hated for it. Strangely, the two become
friends and then more than friends discovering that true love’s kiss doesn’t
always turn out the way it does in the old school fairy tales. Good fun.
Romance, fantasy and with some interesting twists on some familiar tropes.
The
Prison Healer by Lynette Noni
Release Date: Early Apr
The new book from one of our most popular new YA writers features a young
protagonist who has grown up in a notorious prison. Kiva has spent ten of her
seventeen years in Zalindov prison, trading her healing skills for safety. When
the Rebel Queen is imprisoned there, Kiva is charged with keeping the
terminally ill woman alive long enough to face the Trial by Ordeal, a series
challenges are so difficult and deadly that they amount to an execution. Word
then comes to Kiva that help is on the way if she can just keep the Queen alive
for a bit longer. But to do that Kiva will have to face the trials in her
place. Trials that no one has ever survived.
The
Rose Daughter by Maria Lewis
Release Date: Mid Apr
Everyone who knows Dreckly Jones will tell you she’s a 40-ish oyster shucker.
What they don’t know is that she’s actually closer to 140 and that she’s the
result of a forbidden union between an earth elemental and a selkie. She’s very
good at hiding what she is, but then she meets some rebels who desperately need
help and then begins to wonder if there might not be more important things than
her own safety. Part of her Supernatural
Sisters series this is a very cool urban fantasy with a
refreshingly mature protagonist and Lewis’
usual sharp and insightful feminist eye.
The
Seven Ancient Wonders by
Matthew Reilly
Release Date: Early Apr
Okay, if you are a Matthew
Reilly fan then you will recognise that this isn’t even
remotely new, and that is why it’s on the list. Originally published in 2005,
well before Matthew
Reilly commanded the beautiful hardcover editions he does now,
this is a reissue of the first book in the Jack West series in a hardcover
edition to match the recent new releases and the final book in the series,
which will be out late this year. So something for collectors to make sure your
collection stops bothering you every time you look at it on the bookshelf.
They’re also selling for the paperback price of $19.99, which should make
replacing your old copy much less painful.
Fireheart
Tiger by Aliette de Bodard
Release Date: Mid Apr
This is only a novella, but despite the size manages to create a world I think
many readers would like to see more of. It’s fantasy that draws its setting
from ancient Vietnam and the Champa Kingdoms. Thanh is a royal princess who has
spent years in a rival kingdom as a diplomatic hostage. On her return her
family hope that her experience will make her useful in negotiations. But she’s
not as forthright as her family expects and they think she’s just too timid.
The truth is she came back with ideas that her family might not approve of, and
something that scares her even more. The memory of a burning palace and the knowledge
that for some reason small fires start around her without a cause.
The
Englishman by David Gilman
Release Date: Mid Apr
Regulars are probably familiar with David
Gilman’s historical fiction, but this is a contemporary action
thriller with a former French Foreign Legionary protagonist who has to
infiltrate a Russian penal colony to track down an evil mercenary. Plots,
explosions, schemes, good guys, bad guys and most of all, tough guys and plenty
of guns. This is a really good fun action thriller from somebody who readers
may not be familiar with doing this sort of stuff but he has certainly got a
handle on it.
Midnight
Bargain by C L Polk
Release Date: Mid Apr
A regency fantasy where magic is real but women with the power have it locked
away from them when they marry. Beatrice has aspirations to become the first
great female mage and practices her craft in secret. Her family however, deeply
in debt, see her only value in securing a rich husband. When a betrayal seems
to have dashed her hopes, she’s offered another chance at her dream. One that
comes with a dangerous price. Regency romance with magic and a social
conscience from the author of Witchmark
The
Swimmers by Marian Womack
Release Date: Early Apr
Set in a dystopian future Spain, ravaged by climate change, this book explores
the nature of social inequality in the post-collapse world. The fortunate live
high in the stratosphere, the ‘Techie’ families proudly descended from the
scientists and engineers. On the surface life is hard and the ‘Beanies’ are
second class citizens. Or at least they were. The book is set in a time of
change and narrated by Pearl, a young techie girl who guides the readers
through the nature of this new world and the people in it as they go through
this societal change. A thought provoking book in the tradition of Ursula Le Guin and Octavia Butler.
Taiping
Tales of Terror by Julya Oui
Release Date: Early Apr
This creepy short story collection is my first encounter with Malaysian writer Julya Oui, and it has
a wonderful structure. Boys sitting around a campfire tell stories of
headless ghosts, strange bird-like creatures and were-tigers that stalk
villagers. Each of them tells a story and as the night draws to a close and
they are all frightened and shivering, a terrible realisation occurs to all of
them. They started with 12 boys but there have been 13 stories. Great fun
for horror short story fans.