15 New Books To Read This Autumn

Two books from Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club series are in the top 100 bestselling books of the past 50 years, so it’s safe to say the author knows a thing or two about writing a gripping whodunnit. While Netflix is currently filming an adaptation of Osman’s first Thursday Murder Club book (starring David Tennant, Jonathan Pryce and Richard E. Grant, to name a few), the author is about to release the first book in a new murder mystery series: We Solve Murders. Retired Steve Wheeler enjoys a quiet life, while his daughter-in-law Amy thrives on adrenaline as a private security officer. Assigned to protect a famous author, Amy's job takes a dangerous turn, forcing her to call Steve for help. A breakneck race around the world begins, but can Amy and Steve stay one step ahead of a deadly enemy?

Released on 12th September 

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Jacqueline Wilson is about to publish her first adult novel since the 70s – and childhood fans of her Girls books are in for a treat. Think Again revisits the same characters from the series – Ellie, Magda and Nadine – who have grown up and are navigating the highs and lows of adulthood. Being an adult isn’t quite what Ellie Allard dreamed it would be when she was 14 years old. Though she’s got her beautiful daughter Lottie, life-long best friends and her trusty cat Stella, her love life is non-existent, and she feels like she’s been living on autopilot, just grateful to be able to afford the rent on her pokey little flat. But this year, on her 40th birthday, the universe seems to decide it’s time for all that to change – whether Ellie wants it to or not. 

Released on 12th September 

Available at AMAZON.CO.UK

Following the success of his 2023 novel, The Satsuma Complex, comedian Bob Mortimer returns with this follow-up story. In The Hotel Avocado, Gary Thorn is now struggling with a big decision. Should he stay in London, wallowing in the safety of his legal job in Peckham and eating pies with his next-door neighbour, Grace and her dog Lassoo, or should he move to Brighton, where his girlfriend Emily is about to open The Hotel Avocado? Either way, he’d be letting someone down. Sinister forces are closing in, and the arrival of the mysterious Mr. Sequence makes things worse – his life is now at risk. All Gary wants is a happy life, but first, he needs to stay alive to enjoy it.

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Elizabeth Strout is one of America’s most decorated authors, with a Pulitzer Prize to her name for her 2008 book Olive Kitteridge, as well as numerous Booker Prize nominations. Tell Me Everything revisits the world of Olive Kitteridge and the town’s close-knit community. The town lawyer Bob Burgess has become enmeshed in an unfolding murder investigation, defending a lonely, isolated man accused of killing his mother. He has also fallen into a deep and abiding friendship with the acclaimed writer, Lucy Barton, who lives nearby in a house next to the sea. Together, Lucy and Bob talk about their lives, their hopes and regrets, and what might have been. Lucy, meanwhile, befriends one of Crosby’s longest inhabitants, Olive Kitteridge, now living in a retirement community on the edge of town. They spend afternoons together in Olive’s apartment, telling each other stories. Stories about people they have known – ‘unrecorded lives’– reanimating them, and, in the process, imbuing their lives with meaning.

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Inspired by HBO’s Succession, Bella Mackie’s latest novel is about a dysfunctional family with four spoilt children, obsessed with their own inheritance. The patriarch Anthony Wistern is wealthy beyond imagination. He has a beautiful wife, the family he always hoped for, a French chateau, a Cotswolds manor – and a plethora of mistresses. He’s also adept at cutting moral corners and turning a blind eye to the unscrupulous behaviour he’s surrounded by. Unfortunately for him, he’s also dead. Suddenly poised to inherit his fortune, each member of the family falls under suspicion. And that’s when everything comes crashing down…

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Fans of Asako Yuzuki’s Butter will enjoy this debut novel by Mai Mochizuki, a new writer emerging in Japanese fiction. Under a glittering full moon, a Kyoto coffee shop with no fixed location or opening hours appears only where and when it's needed. Serving fragrant teas, the finest coffees and delicious desserts, it is entirely run by – wait for it – talking cats. The Full Moon Coffee Shop attracts customers who have lost their way in their life, from a down-on-her-luck screenwriter and a lovesick TV director to a misunderstood stylist and a failed video game developer. In the middle of the night, the coffee shop's feline guides take them on an astrological journey which forces the characters to face up to the past, to discover their destiny. And as each of them uncovers their purpose, their paths all become somehow intertwined...

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Journalist and author Nell Frizzell’s writing often focuses on ‘the panic years’ (also the title of her first book) – the time in your late twenties and early thirties when you’re still figuring stuff out but feel the pressure to have everything sorted. Her new novel continues the theme with Nancy, whose world is turned upside down at the discovery of a mysterious new sibling. She can’t help but feel curious about Oliver, the stranger who shares her DNA. Her sister Rita, on the other hand, is furious and wants nothing to do with their ‘cuckoo’ brother. To make things even more complicated, Nancy is pregnant. The father – Nancy’s not-quite-boyfriend from her not-quite-relationship – doesn’t want to commit any time soon. He isn’t even in the same continent as her right now. And with her mother and sister in shock about Oliver, Nancy’s struggling to find someone to turn to for support. In a tumult of grief, fear and hope, Nancy pushes herself into an uncertain future as she rethinks what really makes a family. But there’s one more thought in the back of her head – is there space in her family for two more?

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American author Helen Philips has set her latest novel in a dystopian world of dizzying technological advancement. In a city addled by climate change and populated by intelligent robots called ‘hums’, May loses her job to artificial intelligence. In a desperate bid to resolve her family’s debt and secure their future for another few months, she becomes a guinea pig in an experiment that alters her face so it cannot be recognised by surveillance cams. Seeking some reprieve from her recent hardships and from her family’s addiction to their devices, she splurges on passes that allow them three nights’ respite inside the Botanical Garden: a rare green refuge where forests, streams and animals flourish. But her insistence that her son, daughter and husband leave their devices at home proves far more fraught than she anticipated, and the lush beauty of the Botanical Garden is not the balm she hoped it would be. When her children come under threat, May is forced to put her trust in a hum of uncertain motives. 

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American writer Sarah Manguso’s latest novel tells the story of Jane, an aspiring writer who meets filmmaker John Bridges. They both want the same things: to be in love, to live a successful, creative life, and to be happy. When they marry, Jane believes she has found everything she was looking for, including – a few years later – all the attendant joys and labours of motherhood. But it’s not long until Jane finds herself subsumed by John’s ambitions, whims, and ego. As Jane’s career flourishes, their marriage starts to falter. Throughout the upheavals of family life, Jane tries to hold it all together. That is, until John leaves her… This is a book about the realities of domestic life and what happens when a bond of trust is shattered beyond repair. 

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South Korean-American writer Angie Kim’s book is a gripping exploration of family and identity. Mia Parkson's life is turned upside down when her stay-at-home dad, the family's anchor, goes missing. The only witness? Eugene – her younger, nonspeaking teenage brother. As the police struggle for leads, and her mother and twin brother struggle to keep things together at home, Mia gains access to key clues about her father's disappearance. Headstrong, hyper analytical, and with secrets of her own, she decides to try and solve the case. But could Mia's impulsive actions be putting her whole family in danger?

Available at AMAZON.CO.UK