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.