Crime & Thriller
The Glass House, Rachel Donohue (paperback from August 2025)
£9.99
The window to the past can never be closed... 1963: At the stark and isolated modernist mansion of controversial political philosopher Richard Acklehurst, the glittering annual New Year's Eve party has not gone quite as planned. Considered a genius by some, and something far darker by others, by the end of the evening Acklehurst will be dead in mysterious circumstances, casting a long shadow over the lives of his teenage daughters, Aisling and Stella.
1999: Richard Acklehurst's remains are defiled in the country graveyard where they have lain undisturbed for over thirty years, forcing his daughters to return to their childhood home where they must finally confront the complex and dark dynamic at the heart of their family.
Moving from the West of Ireland to Dublin, London, Florence and back, The Glass House is a captivating and compelling tale of two sisters and their secrets, of love, regret and vengeance. 'Gorgeously atmospheric and darkly brooding' CAROLE HAILEY
The God of The Woods, Liz Moore ( July 25, paperback)
£9.99
When their thirteen-year-old daughter Barbara goes missing at summer camp, all eyes fall on the Van Laar family. They're cold, rich people.
They own the camp. And it's happened to them before. Fourteen years ago their little boy, Bear, vanished without a trace.
Two children lost to the same wilderness. Is it a tragedy… or a crime? ‘Brilliantly plotted and perfectly paced … I can't remember the last time I felt so entangled in a novelist's coils’ Clare Chambers, author of Small Pleasures 'A beguiling novel with a relentless grip. You won't be able to put it down' Claire Fuller, author of Unsettled Ground 'At once an immersive family saga and utterly propulsive mystery.
Can also highly recommend her earlier book, Long Bright River.
The God of the Woods, Liz Moore ( paperback July 2025)
£16.99
SELECTED FOR BARACK OBAMA'S SUMMER 2024 READING LIST
Some said it was tragic, what happened to the Van Laars. Some said the family deserved it. That they never even thanked the searchers who stayed out for five nights in the freezing forest trying to help find their missing son.Some said there was a reason it took the family so long to call for help. That they knew what happened to the boy. Now, fifteen years later, the Van Laars' teenage daughter has gone missing in the same wilderness as her brother.
Some say the two disappearances aren’t connected. Some say they are.
‘Brilliantly plotted and perfectly paced … I can't remember the last time I felt so entangled in a novelist's coils’ Clare Chambers, author of Small Pleasures 'A beguiling novel with a relentless grip.
You won't be able to put it down' Claire Fuller, author of Unsettled Ground 'At once an immersive family saga and utterly propulsive mystery. Beautifully written' Emilia Hart, author of Weyward
Paperback From 31 July 2025 9780008663834
The Last Secret Agent : The Extraordinary Story of a WW2 Spy in Her Own Words by Pippa Latour
£10.99
A rare glimpse into the life of the last surviving SOE agent to have seen action behind enemy lines in France.
Pippa's story is one of immense courage and personal sacrifice... a truly gripping and remarkable wartime service.' -HELEN FRY, author of Women in Intelligence'
The memoir of Pippa Latour - the first and last female secret agent to share her experiences undercover during WW2. In June 1940, a covert new force - the Special Operations Executive (SOE) - was set up to wage a secret war of sabotage and subversion behind enemy lines. Of the 470 agents sent to France only 26 female agents returned and none have ever told their story before. Phyllis "Pippa" Latour was parachuted into France aged 23; she bravely travelled around the rural French countryside, concealing her codes in a hair tie and her Morse key underneath her bicycle seat, and sending crucial information back to Britain in the lead-up to D-Day.
More than once, she came frighteningly close to being discovered. For decades, Pippa told no one - not even her family - of her incredible feats. Now for the first time, her astonishing story can be told in full.
The Lock Up, John Banville ( paperback Jan 2024)
£9.99
1950s Dublin. in a lock-up garage in the city, the body of a young woman is discovered - an apparent suicide.
But pathologist Dr Quirke and Detective Inspector Strafford soon suspect foul play. The victim's sister, a newspaper reporter from London, returns to Dublin to join the two men in their quest to uncover the truth. But, as they explore her links to a wealthy German family in County Wicklow, and to investigative work she may have been doing in Israel, they are confronted with an ever-deepening mystery.
With relations between the two men increasingly strained, and their investigation taking them back to the final days of the Second World War, can they join the pieces of a hidden puzzle?Praise for the Strafford and Quirke series:'Crime writing of the finest quality, elegant, distinctive and utterly absorbing.' Daily Mail.
The Murder After the Night Before, Katy Brent ( paperback Feb 2024)
£9.99
Something bad happened last night. I've woken up with the hangover from hell, a stranger in my bed, and I've gone viral for the worst reasons. But I can't remember a thing. My best friend Posey is dead.The police think it was a tragic accident. I know she was murdered. There's only one thing stopping me from dying of shame.
I need to find a killer. From the author of How to Kill Men and Get Away With It, don't miss this wickedly witty and utterly addictive novel, perfect for fans of Bella Mackie, Dawn O'Porter and Killing Eve. Praise for The Murder After the Night Before: What a ride! Unflinchingly realistic and raw but somehow also brilliantly funny at times, Brent's novel is a must-read.
The New Wife, JP Delaney ( paperback Jan 2024)
£9.99
When Finn Hensen gets a call from his sister Jess to say their father has died, neither is heartbroken. Their parents divorced many years ago, after which their father, Jimmy, continued to live a bohemian lifestyle in sun-soaked Mallorca. Ownership of his beautiful but dilapidated farmhouse in the mountains now passes to Finn and his sister.The only problem is that Jimmy recently remarried and his new wife, Ruensa, is still living there. The pair agree that Finn should go to Mallorca and tactfully take possession of their inheritance. When he arrives, however, Finn is surprised to find that Finca Siquia has been completely transformed into a chic Mediterranean bolthole by Ruensa and her twenty-seven-year-old daughter, Roze.
The Spanish police, meanwhile, are asking awkward questions about Jimmy's death . . .
Are Ruensa and Roze the helpless victims of circumstance? Or will they stop at nothing to get Finca Siquia for themselves?
The Peacock and the Sparrow, IS Berry ( paperback Oct 2024)
£9.99
WINNER OF THE 2024 EDGAR AWARD FOR BEST FIRST NOVEL
WINNER OF THE 2024 INTERNATIONAL THRILLER WRITERS AWARD FOR BEST FIRST NOVEL - WINNER OF THE 2024 BARRY BEST FIRST MYSTERY OR CRIME NOVEL AWARD - WINNER OF THE 2024 MACAVITY BEST FIRST MYSTERY AWARD
‘Gritty, propulsive, dark and twisty’ David McCloskey, author of Damascus Station
‘It’s fantastic, I loved it’ Steve Cavanagh, author of Thirteen
‘..the most impressive debut of the year to date and a spy novel to rank alongside the best of Mick Herron’s Slough House series.’ The Irish Times
‘Sensational…feels like every inch of the real world of espionage’ Alex Gerlis, author of Every Spy a Traitor
‘I.S. Berry is at the vanguard of a new generation of American spy novelists who have electrified the genre.’ Charles Cumming, author of Judas 62
The thrilling debut from author and former CIA officer I.S. Berry, following an American spy’s last dangerous mission.
Shane Collins, a world-weary CIA spy, is ready to come in from the cold. Stationed in Bahrain for his final tour, he’s anxious to dispense with his mission — uncovering Iranian support for the insurgency. But then he meets Almaisa, an enigmatic artist, and his eyes are opened to a side of Bahrain most expats never experience, to questions he never thought to ask.
When his trusted informant becomes embroiled in a murder, Collins finds himself drawn deep into the conflict, his romance and loyalties upended. In an instant, he’s caught in the crosswinds of a revolution. He sets out to learn the truth behind the Arab Spring, win Almaisa’s love, and uncover the murky border where Bahrain’s secrets end and America’s begin.
The Prey, Yrsa Sigurdardottir (paperback May 2024)
£9.99
Sunday Times Crime Book of the Year 2023
Kolbeinn has been called to his old home. The new owners uncovered some photos, and a muddied child's shoe bearing the name 'Salvor'. A name Kolbeinn doesn't recognise. Soon after, he hears news of his mother's deteriorating health. Her carers say she has been asking for her daughter, his sister: Salvor.
THE SECOND TRACKS TWO MISSING COUPLES. Jóhanna is working with the search and rescue team in Höfn to find two couples from Reykjavik. Their phones' last location has been pinpointed to the road leading up into the highlands.
In a harsh winter, the journey is treacherous, and they soon find the first body. More troubling, Johanna senses her team is being tracked through the snow.
A THIRD FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE? Hjörvar works at the Stokksnes Radar Station in the highlands.
He's alone when the phone connected to the gate rings: the first time it's done so since he began working there five months ago. When he answers, he can only hear interference, and what sounds like a child's voice asking for her mother. How are these events connected? And what may be searching for its prey out on the ice?
The Psychology of Secrets : BY Andrew Gold ( paperback from May 2025)
£10.99
Take a deep dive into the bizarre psychology of secrecy with Andrew Gold, award-winning investigative journalist and host of Heretics.
We all keep secrets. 97 per cent of us are hiding a secret right now, and on average we each hold thirteen at any one time. There’s a one-in-two chance that those secrets involve a breach of trust, a lie or a financial impropriety.
They are the stuff of gossip, of novels and of classic dramas; secrets form a major part of our hidden inner lives. Andrew Gold knows this better than anyone. As a public figure, he has found himself the unwitting recipient of hundreds of strangers' most private revelations.
This set him on a journey to understand this critical part of our societies and lives. Why do we keep secrets? Why are we fascinated by those of others? What happens to our mind when we confess?Drawing from psychology, history, social science, philosophy and personal interviews, The Psychology of Secrets is a rollicking journey through the history of secrecy. --'Andrew Gold is - but should not be - one of our culture’s best kept secrets.
He is a truly edgy journalist, broadcaster and writer' - David Baddiel, bestselling author of The God Desire
note paperback image is similar but cover is red *
The Returned, Amanda Cassidy ( paperback Feb 2024)
£9.99
When she re-lives this night, over and over, Nancy will wonder if she’d just gone upstairs a few minutes earlier, what might have been…A devastating fire. A grieving mother.A picture-perfect village full of dark secrets. And now, a son who has seemingly come back from the dead. A detective called back to her hometown, back to the memories she thought she’d left behind…An electrifying novel from a compelling new voice in Irish crime fiction, perfect for fans of Liz Nugent and Claire Mackintosh.
The Sleepwalkers, Scarlett Thomas ( paperback July 2025)
£16.99
Still reeling from the chaos of their wedding, Evelyn and Richard arrive on an idyllic Greek island for their honeymoon. It’s the end of the season and out at sea a storm is brewing. They check in to an exclusive hotel, the Villa Rosa, where the proprietor Isabella — a strangely intense woman of indeterminate accent — flirts outrageously with Richard while treating Evelyn with a rudeness bordering on contempt.
Isabella tells them the story of 'the sleepwalkers': a couple who stayed at the hotel the year before and drowned in a tragic and unexplained accident. It starts to feel like the entire island is obsessed with 'the sleepwalkers', but what at first seems like a fun tale to tell before bed quickly evolves into a living nightmare. Caught in a web of deception and intrigue, where nothing and nobody are quite what they seem, Evelyn and Richard discover that their island paradise may in fact be hell on earth and that their only means of escape is to confront dark truths about themselves and those they love.
Exhilarating, suspenseful, and subversively funny, in The Sleepwalkers Thomas takes elements on Daphne Du Maurier and Patricia Highsmith and blends them with her own unique sensibility to create an unforgettable thriller of rare intelligence that cements her reputation as the most exciting and original author of her generation.
A dark, twisty, savagely humorous plunge into a cauldron of toxic relationships . . .as well as a mystery loaded with menace, this is a smart, layered, stinging look at power and its abuse.' The Times
The System, Ryan Gattis ( paperback,August 2021)
£9.99
Longlisted for the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger 2021
'Excellent, lucid, intelligent and gripping' - Scotsman
December 1993. A drug dealer called Scrappy is shot and left for dead on her mother's lawn in South Central Los Angeles. Two local gang members, Wizard and Dreamer, are arrested.
The problem is: one is guilty, the other wasn't even there. It had to be a frame-up. And the cops had to be responsible, didn't they? Narrated by the characters involved - the suspects, the victim, the families who love them, and those simply doing their jobs - The System tells the story of one crime, from the moments before shots are fired to the verdict and its violent aftershocks.
It's a breakneck journey through the American criminal justice system. A system that can save you, or break you.
The Trading Game, Gary Stevenson ( paperback 30 Jan 2025)
£10.99
An unforgettable story of greed, financial madness and moral decay' Rory Stewart
'Hilarious, shocking and deeply sad — often in the same sentence' Sunday Times
An outrageous, white-knuckle journey to the dark heart of an intoxicating world - from someone who survived the trading game and then blew it all wide open'If you were gonna rob a bank, and you saw the vault door there, left open, what would you do? Would you wait around?Ever since he was a kid, kicking broken footballs on the streets of East London in the shadow of Canary Wharf's skyscrapers, Gary wanted something better. Something a whole lot bigger. Then he won a competition run by a bank: 'The Trading Game'.
The prize: a golden ticket to a new life, as the youngest trader in the whole city. A place where you could make more money than you'd ever imagined. Where your colleagues are dysfunctional maths geniuses, overfed public schoolboys and borderline psychopaths, yet they start to feel like family.
Where soon you're the bank's most profitable trader, dealing in nearly a trillion dollars. A day. Where you dream of numbers in your sleep - and then stop sleeping at all.
But what happens when winning starts to feel like losing? When the easiest way to make money is to bet on millions becoming poorer and poorer - and, as the economy starts slipping off a precipice, your own sanity starts slipping with it? You want to stop, but you can't. Because nobody ever leaves. Would you stick, or quit? Even if it meant risking everything?
The Whispers, Ashley Audrain ( paperback from 04 July 2024)
£9.99
The whispers started long before the accident on Harlow Street .
. . Was it at the party, when Whitney screamed blue murder at her son?Or after neighbour Blair started prowling Whitney's house, uninvited?Or once Rebecca and Ben's childlessness finally puts a crack in their marriage?But on the terrible night of the accident, the whispers grow louder, more insistent.
Neighbours gather round. Questions are asked. Secrets are spilled.
And the gloss on everything begins to rub off. Everyone is drawn into the darkness. Because there's no smoke without fire.No friendship without envy.And no lie that does not conceal a devastating truth .
The captivating new novel from the author of the explosive Sunday Times bestseller, THE PUSH'Spellbinding, a shimmering, visceral ride through the dark side of family' LISA JEWELL
The Wonderful Discovery of Elizabeth Sawyer, Jonathan Vischer
£9.99
The year is 1621: a time of paranoia following the English Reformation. In London's Newgate prison, Elizabeth Sawyer, the mother of eleven children, lies shackled in her cell. Denounced as a witch by her woodland neighbours and condemned to death by the court, Elizabeth has one last chance to make her peace with this world.
By way of confession, she tells the prison chaplain three stories about her life. Chaplain Goodcole at first responds with revulsion. Like the court he condemns Elizabeth as wicked and depraved but as her execution draws near, his opinion shifts.
Does this 'ignorant' countrywoman know something that he doesn't? Has she indeed made a wonderful discovery, or has he, as his colleagues suspect, fallen under the spell of a wily and malign witch?Based on a true story, this novel is rooted in the struggles of rural women 400 years ago. Exploring different types of power, it unravels the fear and superstitions surrounding any girl or woman who spoke her mind.
Copies are usually signed !
Time of the Flies, Claudia Piniero ( paperback August 2024)
£12.99
Life after crime from the International Booker-shortlisted author of Elena Knows.
Fifteen years after killing her husband’s lover, Inés is fresh out of prison and trying to put together a new life. Her old friend Manca is out now too, and they’ve started a business – FFF, or Females, Fumigation, and Flies – dedicated to pest control and private investigation, by women, for women. But Señora Bonar, one of their clients, wants Inés to do more than kill bugs – she wants her expertise, and her criminal past, to help her kill her husband’s lover, too. Crimes against women versus crimes by women; culpability, fallibility, and our responsibilities to each other—this is Piñeiro at her wry, earthy best, alive to all the ways we shape ourselves to be understandable, to be understood, by family and love and other hostile forces.
Twist, Colum McCann ( hardback Feb 2025)
£18.99
Fennell, a journalist, is in pursuit of a story buried at the bottom of the sea: the network of tiny fibre-optic tubes that carry the world’s information across the ocean floor - and what happens when they break. So he has travelled to Cape Town to board the George Lecointe, a cable repair vessel captained by Chief of Mission John Conway. Conway is a talented engineer and fearless freediver - and Fennell is quickly captivated by this mysterious, unnerving man and his beautiful partner, Zanele.
As the boat embarks along the west coast of Africa, Fennell learns the rhythms of life at sea, and finds his place among the band of drifters who make up the crew. But as the mission falters, tensions simmer - and Conway is thrown into crisis. A terrible, violent tragedy is unfolding in the life he has left behind on land; and, trapped out at sea, it seems as if the vast expanse of the ocean is closing in.
Then Conway disappears; and Fennell must set out to find him. As taut and propulsive as a thriller, and a timeless exploration of narrative and truth, Twist is the work of a master storyteller at the height of his powers.
Named a 2025 book to look out for by the Observer, Financial Times, Irish Times and New European**‘Urgent and utterly compelling’ KEVIN BARRY
Two Kinds of Stranger, Steve Cavanagh ( hardback 31 July 2025)
£16.99
Ellie Parker had everything. Perfect husband.
Perfect apartment. Perfect friends and the perfect job. As an internet celebrity - famed for her random acts of kindness - everyone knew it.
So when a betrayal causes her to lose it all, millions of people are watching. But even at her lowest, Ellie will always help someone in need. Which makes her the perfect target for a sadistic game.
Because as she soon learns, you can never trust a stranger - and a seemingly random encounter plunges her into a nightmare worse than she ever imagined. The only person she can turn to is conman turned trial lawyer Eddie Flynn, who must take on a case where nothing is what it seems. With the most cruelly ingenious mind manipulating events from the shadows, everyone is in danger - including Eddie and his family.
The award-winning, Sunday Times Top Five bestseller returns with a brand new thriller featuring the unforgettable Eddie Flynn. 'This crime thriller is fast and relentless and the plot throws some real shockers.
Two Nights in Lisbon, Chris Pavone ( paperback April 2023)
£9.99
A woman wakes up to discover her new husband is missing and sets out on a wild race of power, politics, and revenge in this international thriller from New York Times bestselling author Chris Pavone. You think you know a person... Ariel Pryce wakes up in Lisbon, alone.Her husband is gone - no warning, no note, not answering his phone. Something is wrong. She starts with hotel security, then the police, then the US embassy, at each confronting questions she can't fully answer: What exactly is John doing in Lisbon? Why would he drag her along on his business trip? Who would want to harm him? And why does Ariel know so little about her new husband?The clock is ticking.
Ariel is running out of time. But the one person in the world who can help her is the one person she doesn't want to ask... An intelligent, multi-layered thriller, Two Nights in Lisbon is filled with twists, turns, husbands, wives, secrets and lies - and it will linger long after you turn the surprising final page.
Victorian Psycho, by Virginia Feito ( paperback Feb 2025)
£12.99
Winifred Notty arrives at Ensor House prepared to play the perfect Victorian governess. She’ll dutifully tutor her charges, Drusilla and Andrew, tell them bedtime stories, and only joke about eating children.
But the longer Winifred spends within the estate’s dreary confines and the more she learns of the perversions and pathetic preoccupations of the Pounds family, the more trouble she has sticking to her plan. Whether creeping across the moonlit lawns in her undergarments or gently tormenting the house staff, Winifred struggles at every turn to stifle the horrid compulsions of her past until her chillingly dark imagination breaches the feeble boundary of reality on Christmas morning. Wielding her signature sardonic wit and a penchant for the gorgeously macabre, Virginia Feito returns with a vengeance in Victorian Psycho.
Jane Eyre meets American Psycho. Gloriously outrageous, sensationally unhinged' SUNDAY TIMES ‘Simmering with rage, propulsive and laugh-out-loud funny' CATRIONA WARD
