We’ve had so many wonderful new books this year that I have divided them up into fiction and non-fiction. This first instalment covers the best fiction.
I read a lot of fiction and my most memorable reads this year from books we don’t sell, both highly recommended, have been Maggie O’Farrell’s wonderful Hamnet and, a surprise to me, Amor Towles A Gentleman in Moscow. Both are quite unusual and don’t conform to fictional norms.
Some of my personal favourites from the fiction we do sell also fall somewhat outside the usual pattern. Like Hamnet, Queenie of Norwich tells the story of a real person, using fictional licence to bring early 20th century Norwich alive. And This Fearful Thing helps us understand the suffering of persecution by taking the first person role of a woman accused of witchcraft in the 17th century, But I also enjoy crime fiction, and new finds included Heather Peck’s DI Goddard series and Vera Morris’s series set in 70s Suffolk.
Queenie of Norwich
LK Wilde
The fictionalised life of Queenie Read, a real person who was born in Norwich in 1900 as Ellen Hardy, “dragged up” in poverty in the yards of Norwich, spent her teens with a travelling fair, worked in a Norwich factory during the first world war and ran illegal gambling in the twenties.
Queenie of Norwich by LK Wilde
Paperback 302 pages
ISBN 97813999913539: RRP £8.99
This Fearful Thing
The Unnamed
LM West
In This Fearful Thing and The Unnamed, L M West, takes the limited facts available about witch trials in Suffolk and builds them into stories that bring home the true horror of the misogyny and hatred that these women suffered. At times these stories make uncomfortable reading but they are compelling and powerful. Told from the first person perspective of the women, we feel their pain and frustration as they are unable even to plead in their own defence in court.
This Fearful Thing by L M West
Paperback 247 pages
ISBN 9781800496392; RRP £9.99
The Unnamed by L M West
Paperback 308 pages
ISBN 9781800685581; RRP £9.99
Death by the Sea
Vera Morris
This is the latest in the East Anglian Detective series by Vera Morris. Set in the 1970s on various locations along the Suffolk coast, these are classic murder mysteries with some lovely period references in familiar local settings. Start with Some Particular Evil and work your way through.
Death by the Sea by Vera Morris
Paperback 398 pages
ISBN 9781472283689; RRP £9.99
Fires of Hate
Heather Peck
This is the third book in the DI Goddard series set mostly in the Norfolk Broads. This is crime fiction with a social conscience, highlighting contemporary issues (in this case hate crime).
Fires of Hate by Heather Peck
Paperback 308 pages
ISBN 9781800421950; RRP £9.99
Winner of a Talk Radio Firebird Book Award!
Long Gore Hall
David Blake
This is number 8 in the DI Tanner series set around the Broads. Probably our best selling new book this year. If you haven’t read any of these, start with Broadland.
Long Gore Hall by David Blake
Paperback 323 pages
ISBN 9781916347977; RRP £8.99
The Locked Room
Elly Griffiths
The Ruth Galloway series is now up to number 14 and this one is set during lockdown. Always a good read.
The Locked Room by Elly Griffiths
Paperback 396 pages
ISBN 9781529409673; RRP £8.99
Time's Revenge
David Viner
Just arrived, a sequel to David’s clever Time Portals of Norwich. Our hero, Cassie, finds herself flying back through the Norwich’s deep past to bump into Robert Kett again.
Time’s Revenge by David Viner
Paperback 286 pages
ISBN 9781913873066; RRP £8.99
We have good stocks of all of the above books, and will be shipping up to a few days before Christmas. But with current disruption to postal services, please order early, or use our priority courier service.
