category: Fiction

When We Were Silent

Louise Manson is the newest student at Highfield Manor, Dublin’s most exclusive private school. It seems nearly perfect: the high arched window alcoves and tall granite pillars, the overspill of lilac at the front gate and the immaculate playing fields, the giggling students, the dusty, oak-lined library, and the dark, festering secret she has come to expose.

At first, Lou’s working-class status makes her the consummate outsider, though all that changes when she is befriended by the beautiful and wealthy Shauna Power. But Lou finds out that even Shauna is caught up in Highfield’s web, and her time there ends with a lifeless body sprawled at her feet.

Thirty years later, Lou has rebuilt her life after the harrowing events of the so-called “Highfield Affair,” when she gets a shocking phone call. Ronan Power, Shauna’s brother, is a high-profile lawyer bringing a lawsuit against the school. And he needs Lou to testify.

Now with a daughter and career to protect, the last thing Lou wants is for Highfield Manor to be back in her life. But to finally free herself and others, she has to confront her past, go to battle once more, and discover, for once and for all, what really happened at Highfield. Powerful and compelling.

Fiona McPhillips is an Irish journalist, author, and screenwriter. Her work has appeared in The Manchester Review, Hobart and Barren Magazine, among others. Fiona lives in Dublin with her three kids, two cats, and a dog. Fiona is represented by Rachel Neely at Mushens Entertainment.

Young Gothic

First in a series, from the bestselling author of S.T.A.G.S.

Four gifted young creatives win the chance to be a part of the YOUNG GOTHIC programme, and spend a week by the shores of Lake Geneva. Their prize – sponsored by shadowy Diodati Foundation – is an all-expenses-paid retreat to the very same Villa Diodati. Whilst there, they stumble across The Fantasmagoriana… Inspired by a midnight fireside reading each guest confesses their own worst fear in turn, plumbing the darkest depths of their souls. In the coming days the teens’ summer is suddenly beset by mysterious happenings, as the monsters they create begin to clamber out of their minds and into reality. Clinging together against the terrors that besiege them, the group grow closer, but the dynamic is upset when Griffin’s ex-girlfriend, Katsuko, unexpectedly turns up at the villa. Events rise to a horrible climax when, on a dark and stormy night, one of the villa’s guests is found dead…

But who is responsible – one of the teens? Or one of the monsters they brought forth?

M.A. BENNETT is the author of the bestselling YA series S.T.A.G.S. She is represented by Teresa Chris at Teresa Chris Literary Agency.

Publishing date TBC.

Manhattan Down

On the anniversary eve of the 9/11 terror attack, New York swelters under a heat dome of record temperatures. Even the global leaders assembled at the UN HQ are forced to admitthat the climate crisis has reached boiling point and the world’s time is running out.

That same day, at precisely 5:25 p.m., everyone on Manhattan Island – every man, woman and child, including all the world leaders at the UN – falls unconscious. Everyone that is, except for Samantha Rossi, a single mother reeling from devastating personal news and Nick Lockwood, a wounded NYPD detective who wakes from a coma just as the City That Never Sleeps falls into one.

Rossi’s first concern is her daughter. Lockwood’s is his city. As night draws in, they must work together to unravel the mystery of what has happened and why. Each must decide how far they will go and what lines they will cross to save what matters most to them.

Michael Cordy is the author of six novels, including the Sunday Times and international bestseller The Messiah Code (The Miracle Strain). His novels have been translated into several languages and four have been sold to Hollywood. Michael lives in London with wife and daughter and is currently completing his seventh novel. He is represented by Patrick Walsh at PEW Literary Agency.

You Are Fatally Invited

AND THEN THERE WERE NONE meets THE SANATORIUM by way of EIGHT DETECTIVES in this twisty, up-all-night love letter to mystery thrillers. When legendary author J R Alastor hires struggling events co-ordinator Mila del Angél to host a murder mystery writers’ retreat on his private island, she jumps at the chance. On the guest list are six thriller writers, all masters of the genre. Alastor has told them to expect a week of party games, trope-fuelled riddles and maybe a jump-scare or two. But when one of the guests turns up dead, it seems Alastor’s real plan for the week is much more sinister. With a storm cutting off the island and the body count rising, Mila must work out how to escape a killer who knows literally every trick in the book.

Ande began writing stories when she discovered she could actually wield her overactive imagination for good. A lover of stories with teeth, she writes books involving mind games, dark humor, general murder and mayhem, characters pushed to the edge of themselves, and most importantly, finding the hope in the dark. When not reading or writing, she can usually be found dabbling in art, scheming up her next trip, or making constant expeditions to the library. Born in Florida, raised in France, and having left footprints all over the globe, Ande is settled in the Pacific Northwest with her craftsman husband and little son. Ande is represented by Hannah Schofield at LBA Books.

@Gatsby

@GATSBY is the debut novel by journalist Jane Crowther, which explores the cautionary tale through the 21st century lens of social media and cancel culture.

It was pre-empted by The Borough Press and will publish in the UK in Spring 2025, exactly 100 years after the publication of THE GREAT GATSBY – serving as a timely reminder of how pertinent the themes remain.

A solvent young graduate with literary ambitions who takes up a boathouse lease in West Egg, Long Island for the summer, Nic Caraway finds herself tangled in a web of intrigue, media narratives and romance as she befriends her beautiful influencer neighbour, @Gatsby. As the summer melts away, Nic learns about love – lost, adulterous, elusive – as she flits between Gatsby’s infamous parties attended by golfing golden boy Jordan Baker and the home of her cousin, Danny Buchanan and his dominating wife, Tomasina. Looking back on a formative time in her life, Nic considers culpability, courtship and the frayed edges of the American dream as she processes a violent incident that changes all of their lives forever…

Crowther is the editor-in-chief of Total Film magazine, the vice-chair of The London Film Critics’ Circle and a member of BAFTA and the Critics’ Choice Association. Her first non-fiction book, a celebration of cinema, will be published by HarperCollins in December 2024. She is represented by Harry Illingworth at DHH Literary Agency.

Wings of Glory

It’s 1940, and the world is at war. Linus, a swift, has always dreamed of flying with the Royal Bird Force and making a name for himself as a squadron leader. So when he and his sister, Ava, have the opportunity to volunteer, he jumps at the chance.

But it’s a dangerous journey, and Ava goes missing before they manage to reach the airfield for training. Now, Linus has two missions: help the war effort and find his sister.

Linus will face bomber planes, arrogant falcons, and a spy who’s determined to take him down…

He is brave and fast and kind – but can Linus prove that helping win the war is more about the size of your heart than the size of your wings?

Dermot O’Leary is the bestselling author of the five books in the Toto the Ninja Cat series. He started his career on T4 for Channel 4 and has also presented shows for both ITV and the BBC. Dermot presents a Saturday morning show on BBC Radio 2, ‘Saturday Breakfast with Dermot O’Leary’. The show is produced by Ora Et Labora, the production company Dermot co-founded in 2008. Ora Et Labora also produces Rylan’s BBC Radio 2 show, a number of podcasts and the TV show ‘Reel Stories’ for BBC2, looking back at iconic singers’ lives on screen. In 2019, he launched a podcast, ‘People, Just People’ with Audible, featuring guests including Stephen Graham, Ed Miliband and Eni Aluko. He lives in London with his wife Dee, their son Kasper and their cats Socks and, of course, Toto.

Dermot is represented by Jadeen Singh at John Noel Management.

Glorious Exploits

GLORIOUS EXPLOITS featured in the Irish Sunday Independent and was picked as the Bookseller book of the month for its publication in January. US Rights were acquired by Henry Holt & Co, who will publish in March.

It’s 412 BC, and Athens’ invasion of Sicily has failed catastrophically. Thousands of Athenian soldiers are held captive in the quarries of Syracuse, starving, dejected, and hanging on by the slimmest of threads.

Lampo and Gelon are local potters, young men with no work and barely two obols to rub together. When they take to visiting the nearby quarry, they discover prisoners who will, in desperation, recite lines from the plays of Euripides for scraps of bread and a scattering of olives.

And so an idea is born: the men will put on Medea in the quarry. A proper performance to be sung of down the ages. Because after all, you can hate the Athenians for invading your territory, but still love their poetry.

But as the audacity of their enterprise dawns on them, it becomes increasingly difficult to distinguish between enemies and friends. As the performance draws near, the men will find their courage tested in ways they could never have imagined …

FERDIA LENNON was born in Dublin to an Irish mother and Libyan father. He holds a BA in History and Classics from University College Dublin and an MA in Prose Fiction from the University of East Anglia. His short stories have appeared in publications such as the Irish Times and the Stinging Fly. In 2019 and 2021, he received a Literature Bursary Award from the Arts Council of Ireland. After spending many years in Paris, he now lives in Norwich with his wife and son.

Praise

“Bold and totally unexpected, I loved this book” Douglas Stuart, author of Shuggie Bain

“A very special, very clever, very entertaining novel” Roddy Doyle, author of Paddy Clarke, Ha Ha Ha

“Bold and totally unexpected, I loved this book. A brilliant novel about friendship, the healing power of art, and why we must fight for our dreams. I was hooked from the first page” Douglas Stuart, author of Shuggie Bain

“In At Swims-Two-Birds, Flann O’Brien gave us cowboys riding through Dublin. Now, Ferdia Lennon gives us modern-day Dubliners living among the ancient Greeks. This is a very special, very clever, very entertaining novel!” Roddy Doyle

“As thrilling for me as the first time I picked up a Kevin Barry novel. Glorious Exploits is exuberant, funny, lyrical and profoundly moving. It is, quite simply, a rare beauty” Sarah Winman, author of Still Life

“Glorious Exploits stinks of misery, despair, love, war, poetry, reckless ambition, terrible failure, and glorious triumph. It’s a novel thick with the stuff of the Classics, in other words. A delicious treat of a read. I loved it” Jon McGregor

“With all the blunt humanity of Roddy Doyle, Glorious Exploits is a vividly conjured vision of the past. Madly ambitious, cathartic like all great tragedy, but shockingly funny too, Ferdia Lennon’s outstandingly original début is just glorious” Emma Donoghue, author of Room

“What a voice! What a story! A darkly funny double act from Lampo and Gelon, sandwiched in between the transformative experience of theatre and forgiving your enemies. I loved it from the first line” Claire Fuller

“Sublime. Pitch-perfect dialogue, a fast-moving story that is both dark and lyrically beautiful, tragic and funny in equal measure. Glorious Exploits is an astonishingly original and gripping story of brotherhood, war and art. Ferdia Lennon is a fierce new talent.” Rebecca Stott, author of In the Days of Rain

“A glorious thunderbastard, with a unique, stark voice that is expertly drawn. It is cheeky, contemplative and sly with an outrageous sense of humour and a massive heart. Lennon beats you with a club then whispers you poetry. It is harsh and fun in a way that few other books are … A book like this is long overdue and very welcome. Thank the Gods.” Rory Gleeson, author of Rockadoon Shore

“Glorious Exploits is an agonising exploration of the cost of violence, for both its winners and losers. It is also a reminder of how dangerous and radical the making of art can be, as the attempt to stage Medea with prisoners-of-war in 412 BC comes to represent war’s opposite. This perfect first novel is a tragicomic masterpiece. Ferdia Lennon has created a story worthy of the Athenians: mortal, maddening, heart-mending.” Clare Pollard, author of Delphi

“What a truly magnificent novel this is: in turns riotous, brutal and deeply affecting. I am in no doubt that Ferdia Lennon is the real deal. His captivating storytelling resonates with all the beauty of Euripides’ plays.” Imogen Hermes Gowar, author of The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock

The Mysterious Mrs Hood

Great Yarmouth, September 1900: A young woman is found dead on the beach, a bootlace tied tightly around her neck. She is quickly traced to a lodging house and identified as Mrs Hood, a visitor to the town with her small child. But, despite her death attracting national attention in the press, nobody claims her. Detective Inspector Robert Lingwood of the Great Yarmouth police force is assigned to the case and declares he will not rest until the mystery of the young woman’s death is solved.

The curious case of Mrs Hood is decreed a ‘Sherlock Holmes mystery’ in the scandal-hungry, crime-obsessed press. Only once the case has been referred to Scotland Yard do the layers of mystery start to peel away…

‘Mrs Hood’ was in fact Mary Jane Bennett, and this is her story.

Following clues, tracking red herrings and discovering leads delivers to the police, finally, the dead woman’s true identity, and the evidence to close in on their one and only suspect. The scene was set for one of the most eagerly anticipated trials of the early twentieth century. With dramatic speeches by the defence, a surprise alibi at the last minute and newspapers interviewing witnesses before they had spoken in court, one could question whether the circus around the case sent an innocent man to his death. With an identical murder happening a few years later, do we know the whole truth?

Kim Donavan is Mary Jane Bennett’s great, great niece. She is Head of Library Academic Engagement at the University of Brighton, where she leads the Librarian teams in their support of learning and teaching. When she isn’t working, she’s rooting around in archives and libraries, infected with what Wilkie Collins famously described as ‘the detective-fever’. Kim is represented by Hannah Schofield at LBA Books.

 

The Unspeakable Acts of Zina Pavlou

They say she’s a murderer. She says nothing.

London, 1954. Eva Georgiou has just returned from her shift at the glamorous Café de Paris, when she’s summoned to her second job: Greek interpreter for the Metropolitan Police. There, she is tasked with representing Zina Pavlou, a Cypriot woman who has been accused of the brutal murder of her daughter-in-law who has been bludgeoned, strangled and then set alight.

Eva gets to work as Zina’s translator, but her concern grows that the case may be more complicated than it seems. Then Zina changes everything when she reveals she’s been accused of murder once before, years ago in Cyprus.

While Eva’s obsession with the case deepens, so does her bond with Zina. And soon she will discover that when you lend your voice to an accused murderer, it comes at a devastating cost.

Eleni Kyriacou was born and raised in London to Greek Cypriot parents. She’s an award-winning editor and journalist and she has appeared in publications such as the Guardian, the Observer, Marie Claire, Red and Stella. She’s written on a wide range of topics including adoption, relationships, travel, self-development, the arts and women’s health. Her first novel She Came to Stay was published by Hodder in 2020. She is represented by Abi Fellows at DHH Literary Agency.

The Year of the Cat

I looked around at my flat, at the woodchip wallpaper and scuffed furniture, and realised that I did have a life after all. What it didn’t have in it was a cat.

When Rhiannon fell in love with, and eventually married her flatmate, she imagined they might one day move on. But this is London in the age of generation rent, and so they share their home with a succession of friends and strangers while saving for a life less makeshift. The desire for a baby is never far from the surface, but can she be sure that she will ever be free of the anxiety she has experienced since an attack in the street one night? And after a childhood spent caring for her autistic brother does she really want to devote herself to motherhood?

Moving through the seasons over the course of lockdown, The Year of the Cat nimbly charts the way a kitten called Mackerel walked into Rhiannon’s home and heart, and taught her to face down her fears and appreciate quite how much love she had to offer.

Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett writes columns and reviews fiction for the Guardian, and has also written for the Observer Magazine, i newspaper, Vogue, TIME, the New Statesman, Stylist, Elle, and many other publications. She is the author of a novel, The Tyranny of Lost Things. Raised in Wales, she now lives in north London. She is represented by Eleanor Birne at PEW Literary Agency.