The Illusions by Liz Hyder

Bristol, 1896. Used to scraping a living as the young assistant to an ageing con artist, Cecily Marsden's life is turned upside down when her master suddenly dies. Believing herself to blame, could young Cec somehow have powers she little understands? Meanwhile Eadie Carleton, a pioneering early film-maker, struggles for her talent to be taken seriously in a male-dominated world, and a brilliant young magician, George Perris, begins to see the potential in moving pictures. 

The Happy Couple by Naoise Dolan

Luke and Celine are in mutual unrequited love with each other, set to marry in a year's time. The best man, Archie, is meant to want to move up the corporate ladder and on from his love for Luke. The bridesmaid, Phoebe, Celine's sister, has no aspirations beyond smoking her millionth cigarette and getting to the bottom of Luke's frequent unexplained disappearances. Then there's the guest, Vivian, who methodically observes her friends like ants. As the wedding approaches and these five lives intersect, each character will find themselves looking for a path to their happily ever after.

Night Watch by Jayne Anne Phillips

In 1874, in the wake of the Civil War, eleven-year-old ConaLee and her mother arrive at the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in West Virginia. They're delivered to the hospital's entrance by Papa after ConaLee's mother, who hasn't spoken in a year, grows even more withdrawn. Before he departs, Papa assigns them new identities and demands that ConaLee introduce herself as her mother's nurse - not her daughter - so they'll both be admitted and allowed to stay. 

Midnight at the Christmas Bookshop by Jenny Colgan

Carmen is at a loose end. Her gorgeous bookshop is the filming site of a cheesy Christmas movie, she's been ousted from her sister's house, and the love of her life has just flown thousands of miles away. It's threatening to be a very unjolly Christmas indeed! But when the elderly owner of the shop comes to Carmen with a Christmas wish that threatens to never come true, Carmen knows she must buckle down to get the funds to save not only his trip, but the shop itself. 

The Cutthroat Countess by Minerva Spencer

Book 3 in the  Wicked women of Whitechapel series.

After saving the life of handsome Honorable Elliot Wingate, circus owner Josephine "Blade" Brown, who's as deadly with a knife as her nickname suggests, tries to keep a safe distance from this man who has the power to stir up her deeply buried, extremely dangerous secrets.

Alex Cross Must Die by James Patterson

When an American Airlines plane explodes in the sky, detectives Alex Cross and John Sampson are first on the scene. They don't hear the gun fire. At first. 

Throne of the Fallen by Kerri Maniscalco

Sinner. Villain. Ruthless. These are wicked names the Prince of Envy welcomes. They remind him what he isn't: a saint. And when a cryptic note arrives, signaling the beginning of a deadly game, he knows he'll be called much worse before it ends...

Resurrection Walk by Michael Connelly

Book 7 in the Lincoln lawyer series

Defense attorney Mickey Haller is back, taking the long shot cases, where the chances of winning are one in a million. He agrees to represent a woman in prison for killing her husband, a sheriff's deputy. Despite her conviction four years earlier, she still maintains her innocence. Haller enlists his half brother, retired LAPD Detective Harry Bosch, as investigator. 

The Prey by Yrsa Sigurðardóttir

The first phone call shocks a family. A box of photo albums is found in the attic of a house in Höfn, a small fishing village on the south coast of Iceland. The new owners return it to the man who sold them the house, along with a muddied child's shoe with a name written on the sole: Salvör. The man is baffled; they never knew anyone called that. 

The Great Deceiver by Elly Griffiths

Book 7 in the Brighton mysteries series.

Magician Max Mephisto, now divorced and living in London, is on his way to visit daughter Ruby and her new-born baby when he is hailed by a voice from the past, fellow performer Ted English, aka the Great Deceiver. Ted's assistant, Cherry, has been found dead in her Brighton boarding house and he's convinced that he'll be accused of her murder. 

Dirty Thirty by Janet Evanovich

Stephanie Plum, Trenton's hardest working, most underappreciated bounty hunter, is offered a freelance assignment that seems simple enough. But as the body count rises and witnesses start to disappear, it won't be easy for Stephanie to keep herself clean when everyone else is playing dirty. It's a good thing Stephanie isn't afraid of getting a little dirty, too.

Jimi Hendrix Live in Lviv by Andrei Kurkov

Strange things are afoot in the cosmopolitan city of Lviv, western Ukraine. Seagulls are circling and the air smells salty, though Lviv is a long way from the sea . . . A ragtag group gathers round a mysterious grave in Lychakiv Cemetery - among them an ex-KGB officer and an ageing hippy he used to spy on. Before long, Captain Ryabtsev and Alik Olisevych are teaming up to discover the source of the "anomalies". 

No One Prayed Over Their Graves by Khaled Khalifa

December, 1907: one morning after a night of drunken carousing in the city, Hanna and his friend Zakariya return home to their village near Aleppo--only to discover a scene of tragedy. A devastating flood has levelled their homes, shops and places of worship, and their neighbours, families and children are nearly all dead. Their lives will never be the same. 

The Fragile Threads of Power by V. E. Schwab

Once, there were four worlds, nestled like pages in a book, each pulsing with fantastical power, and connected by a single city: London, until the magic grew too fast, and forced the worlds to seal the doors between them in a desperate gamble to protect their own. 

After the Forest by Kell Woods

1650: The Black Forest, Wurttemberg. Fifteen years after the witch in the gingerbread house, Greta and Hans are struggling to get by. Their father and stepmother are long dead, Hans is deeply in debt from gambling, and the countryside lies in ruin, its people recovering in the aftermath of a brutal war. 

Hazardous Spirits by Anbara Salam

Edinburgh, 1923. Evelyn Hazard is a young woman living a comfortable and unremarkable middle-class life. One day, her quiet existence is shattered when her steady, reliable husband Robert makes a startling announcement: he can communicate with the dead. 

Rouge by Mona Awad

For as long as she can remember, Belle has been insidiously obsessed with her skin and skincare videos. When her estranged mother Noelle mysteriously dies, Belle finds herself back in Southern California, dealing with her mother's considerable debts and grappling with lingering questions about her death. 

Dual Memory by Sue Burke

Antonio Moro lost everything to the Leviathan League. Now he's alone in a city on an Arctic island fighting the ruthless, global pirates with the chance to be the artist he always wanted to be. Unfortunately, he thinks it's a cover story for his real purpose-spying on sympathizers. When things look bleak, he discovers an unusual ally. His new personal assistant program, Par Augustus. It's insolent, extroverted, moody, and a not-quite-legal nascent A. I. 

Herc by Phoenicia Rogerson

This should be the story of Hercules: his twelve labours, his endless adventures...everyone's favourite hero, right? Well, it's not. This is the story of everyone else: Alcmene: Herc's mother (she has knives everywhere) Hylas: Herc's first friend (they were more than friends) Megara: Herc's wife (she'll tell you about their marriage) Eurystheus: Oversaw Herc's labours (he never asked for the job) his friends, his enemies, his wives, his children, his lovers, his rivals, his gods, his victims. It's time to hear their stories. Told with humour and heart, Herc gives voice to the silenced characters, in this feminist, queer (and sometimes shocking) retelling of classic Hercules myth.

The Dead Take the A Train by Cassandra Khaw and Richard Kadrey

Julie is a coked-up, burnt-out thirty-year-old whose only retirement plan is dying early. She's been trying to establish herself in the NYC magic scene, and she'll work the most gruesome gigs, exorcize the nastiest demons, and make deals with the cruelest gods to claw her way to the top. But nothing can prepare her for the toughest job yet: when her best friend, Sarah, shows up at her door in need of help. 

A Past Unearthed by Jin Yong

Genghis Khan is dead, but the Mongolians, led by his son, continue their assault on the Central Plains. A new generation of martial artists has emerged to face this threat, foremost among them Guo Jing and his wife Lotus Huang. And a new danger stalks the land, with all the fury of a woman scorned - Blithe Li, the Red Serpent Celestial. 

Fishes of Aotearoa by Paul Caiger

With a long and complex coastline scattered with countless islands, and freshwater waterways weaving all through our rugged landscape, Aotearoa really is an aquatic nation. With a wonderful array of fascinating stories about all the best-known fish species, as well as descriptions of many of the wonderful and weird species not so well known, it is a captivating read. All of this is illustrated with superb underwater photography by the author and marine ecologist, Paul Caiger, and very much written for a general audience.

The End of Reality by Jonathan Taplin

At a time when the crises of income inequality, climate, and democracy, are compounding to create epic wealth disparity and the prospect of a second American civil war, four billionaires are hyping schemes that are designed to divert our attention away from issues that really matter. Each scheme--the metaverse, cryptocurrency, space travel, and transhumanism--is an existential threat in moral, political, and economic terms. Jonathan Taplin shows how the tech monopolies of Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Marc Andreesen have brought middle-class wage stagnation, the hollowing out of many American towns, a radical increase in income inequality, and unbounded public acrimony.

Box of Birds by Stephen Stowers

While working as a doctor in the United States, Stephen Stowers watched with sadness as the profession he loved beacame more and more focused on the bottom line. He descibes what has gone awry in American medicine, showing us how the misguided shift toward a more corporate mindset was ushered in by hospital administrators. He also shows how he found refuge in another country, where he was able to practice medicine in a more ethical fashion once again and explains to us the surprising truth that he discovered: New Zealand has better patient outcomes yet spends less money on healthcare, compared with a country such as the US. How can this be true?

A Memoir of my Former Self by Hilary Mantel

In addition to her celebrated career as a novelist, Hilary Mantel contributed for years to newspapers and journals, unspooling stories from her own life and illuminating the world as she found it. 'Ink is a generative fluid,' she explains. 'If you don't mean your words to breed consequences, don't write at all.' A Memoir of My Former Self collects the finest of this writing over four decades. From her unique childhood to her all-consuming fascination with Thomas Cromwell that grew into the Wolf Hall Trilogy, A Memoir of My Former Self reveals the shape of Hilary Mantel's life in her own dazzling words, 'messages from people I used to be.' 

Rethink Property Investing by Scott O'Neill

Break free from the limitations of residential property investing and get the inside edge with commercial property. From corner stores to medical properties and even warehouses, commercial property can lead to considerable financial success, if you do it right. Filled with real-life examples, essential tips and success stories, this one-of-a-kind guide shares the proven strategies and techniques authors Scott and Mina O'Neill use. 

London by Jack Chesher

This richly detailed and illustrated book provides a miscellany of curiosities, historic features and quirky details to spot as you wander the city, while accompanying maps help you to navigate and explore. Whether you've always wondered why there are cattle troughs on the route to work, why bollards often look like upside down cannon barrels, or wanted to crack the code of the city's weird and wonderful street names, this book provides all the tools you need to decipher, explore and enjoy London's fascinating urban fabric.

Flavour by Sabrina Ghayour

Over 100 fabulously flavourful recipes with a Middle-Eastern twist. Recipes include: Zaatar onion, tomato & aubergine tartines with labneh; Chicken shawarma salad; Herb koftas with warm yoghurt, mint & pul biber; Ras el Hanout and orange lamb cutlet platter; Mama ghanoush; Pan-fried salmon with barbary butter; Nut butter noodles; Lime, coconut & cardamom loaf cake; Tea, cranberry, orange & macadamia shortbreads. Fantastic pictures with each recipe.

Kitty's Salon by Nigel H. Jones

Salon Kitty was the most notorious brothel in the decadent Berlin of the Weimar Republic - the city of Cabaret. But after the Nazis took power, it became something more dangerous: a spying centre with every room wired for sound, staffed by women agents specially selected by the SS to coax secrets from their VIP clients. Masterminded by Reinhard Heydrich, the spymaster whom Hitler himself called 'the man with the iron heart', the exclusive establishment turned listening post was patronised by the Nazi leaders themselves, not knowing that hidden ears were listening. 

The Garden Maker's Book of Wonder by Allison Vallin Kostovick

Drawing on decades of gardening experience and illustrated with vibrant photography from her own home and garden, popular gardening lifestyle influencer Allison Vallin Kostovick offers sage advice on growing bountiful harvests of favorite vegetables, herbs, and flowers. 162 recipes, crafts, tips, techniques and plants to inspire you in every season.

The Ghosts of Rose Hill by R. M. Romero

Verse novel.

When Ilana Lopez discovers a forgotten Jewish cemetery behind her aunt's cottage, she meets the ghost of a kindhearted boy named Benjamin, who died over a century ago. As Ilana restores Benjamin's grave, he introduces her to the enchanted side of Prague, where ghosts walk the streets and their kisses have warmth. But Benjamin isn't the only one interested in Ilana. Rudolph Wassermann, a man with no shadow, has become fascinated with her. But after Ilana discovers the truth about Wassermann and how Benjamin became bound to the city, she resolves to save the boy she loves, even if it means losing him-forever.

He Who Breaks the Earth by Caitlin Sangster

Sequel to ‘She Who Rides the Storm’

Mateo spent years believing he suffered from a strange wasting sickness, but he has finally learned the much darker truth. Now he will do whatever it takes to save himself, even if it means betraying Lia, the one girl who has ever made him care about something more than his research…but the gods have their own plans.

Darkhearts by James L. Sutter

Seventeen-year-old David missed his shot at fame after quitting his band, while his former best friends, Chance and Eli, became pop stars, but when Eli commits suicide, David and Chance reconnect and trade their frenemy status for a confusing, tentative romance.