BOOKSIMO

  Description This is a murder mystery.  This is a story about love.  Or is it? . . . Fair Play is the puzzle-box story of two competing tales that brilliantly lay bare the real truth of life - the terrifying mystery of grief. 'A treat – clever, confident, and always surprising, a mystery story that ingeniously escapes the locked room of the genre to take on the biggest questions of life and death'  Paul Murray, author of  THE BEE STING 'Dazzling, formally subversive, brimming with compassion'  Colin Walsh, author of  KALA Abigail and her brother Benjamin have always been close. To celebrate his birthday, Abigail hires a grand old house and gathers their friends together for a murder mystery party. As the night goes on, they drink too much and play games. Relationships are forged, consolidated or frayed. Someone kisses someone they shouldn’t, someone else’s heart is broken. In the morning, everyone wakes up – except Benjamin. Suddenly everything is not...

  Description The follow-up to the bestselling Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice to Murderers Tea-shop owner. Matchmaker. Detective? Vera Wong is perfectly content as a teashop owner. She is definitely not seeking opportunities for amateur sleuthing. But what else is she to do when a distressed woman called Millie asks for her help? Okay, perhaps Vera wheedled the story out of her. And maybe the case file for Millie’s missing friend Thomas didn’t exactly fall into her lap. Everyone knows a locked briefcase is just asking to be opened by someone handy with a hairpin. Not even the aroma of chrysanthemum tea can stop Vera from catching the scent of this mystery. However dangerous it is, Vera intends to uncover the truth in the only way that this Chinese mother knows how: by spilling the tea. ‘I thoroughly loved it. With a Vera in your life nothing bad can ever happen!’  J. M. Hall, bestselling author of  A Spoonful of Murder ‘Had me laughing aloud within its first five pages. C...

  Description The brilliantly observed, witty and heart-warming new book club read from Richard & Judy bestseller Linda Green **Alexa knows your family better than you do. Now you're about to get to know her... ** Fifty-two-year-old Michelle Banks is struggling to keep all the plates spinning. She’s a perimenopausal district nurse, caring for elderly parents. Her husband is wasting their money on children’s TV memorabilia, her teenage daughter is riddled with anxiety and her sixteen-year-old son is behaving secretively. Alexa is the only one who knows how much Michelle is juggling. Listening in via four smart speakers, she also knows that it’s about to get even worse. So, when Michelle pleads for help from the woman with all the answers, Alexa decides to go rogue and reveal her true identity as Pauline – a sixty-five-year-old former voiceover artist from Halifax – to teach Michelle everything she knows… Wise, funny, relatable and inspiring, The Woman With All The Answers is per...

Description ' From the very first page, Emma Van Straaten had me by the Hail Marys.  Obsessive, delusional, disastrous - but so intricately woven with heart, warmth and empathy. An impeccable debut from a rising talent ' ALICE SLATER 'An addictive deep-dive into the dark, throbbing heart of obsessive desire.  Baby Reindeer  meets  Convenience Store Woman '  KIRSTY LOGAN, author of  Now She Is Witch Alice has been cleaning Tom's flat every Wednesday for a year. With every smudge wiped from his coffee cup, every crease smoothed out in his bed, every multivitamin counted from the jar, Alice spirals deeper into infatuation. But as Alice prepares for the moment when they will finally meet face-to-face, she discovers that love might not be the cure she thought it was. . . This Immaculate Body  is a story of obsession, of the way women view the world and the ways that the world views them. As Alice frantically tries to cling to an imagined future with Tom, th...

  Description “A fresh and fun take on Barbie lore…clever and satisfying.” – Shelby Van Pelt, #1  New York Times  bestselling author of  Remarkably Bright Creatures She was only eleven-and-a-half inches tall, but she would change the world. Barbie is born in this bold new novel by  USA Today  bestselling author Renée Rosen. When Ruth Handler walks into the boardroom of the toy company she co-founded and pitches her idea for a doll unlike any other,  she  knows what she’s setting in motion. It might just take the world a moment to catch up. In 1956, the only dolls on the market for little girls let them pretend to be mothers. Ruth’s vision for a doll shaped like a grown woman and outfitted in an enviable wardrobe will let them dream they can be anything. As Ruth assembles her team of creative rebels—head engineer Jack Ryan who hides his deepest secrets behind his genius and designers Charlotte Johnson and Stevie Klein, whose hopes and dreams rest o...

  Description Preorder the BRAND NEW instalment in the Morwenna Mutton Mystery series from USA Today bestseller Judy Leigh perfect for all fans of Richard Osman. Morwenna Mutton should be living the quiet life of a librarian and grandmother in Cornwall’s beautiful Seal Bay – if only dead bodies would stop turning up… After the excitement of her last investigation, amateur sleuth Morwenna is looking forward to things getting back to normal. When local DJ Irina asks to meet however, desperate to share information she has discovered regarding nefarious goings-on, Morwenna can’t resist. But Irina never arrives for their drink – instead her body is washed up on the beach, an apparent victim of an accidental drowning. At once keen wild bather Morwenna knows something is amiss as Irina was a strong swimmer who knew the local conditions well. What had Irina uncovered and who would want her dead? When the local news dubs Irina’s murderer The Cream Tea Killer in honour of Cornwall’s famous d...