category: Fiction

Berlin

BERLIN is a fresh, wry, piercingly contemporary novel written by Bea Setton.

A young woman moves to Berlin to turn over a new leaf. Things begin auspiciously: Daphne has means and brains. She rents a flat in fashionable Kreuzberg and starts attending German lessons. She makes friends among the other young people who flock to the city in pursuit of the promised liberal lifestyle, joins a running group, and tries online dating. However, the demons she thought she had left behind have followed her on her German odyssey, and a series of mysterious and violent incidents transform what should have been a chapter in a joyfully misspent youth into a fight for survival. Who is Daphne, and who or what is she running from? Why does she leave people and places suddenly and without warning? Even if she knows the answers, will she face up to them?

In the vein of Otessa Moshfegh’s My Year of Rest and Relaxation, this is a razor-sharp and darkly funny story of a young woman coming of age, coming apart and eventually putting herself back together again.

Bea Setton was born in France and spent her early years in the Parisian suburbs before moving to the USA to study philosophy. Upon graduating, she relocated to Berlin, and the city became the inspiration for her first novel. She is now working on plans for her second novel.

The Three Dahlias

The Three Dahlias is a contemporary country house murder mystery with three beguiling central female characters.  In this thrilling take on golden age crime, three rival actresses’ team up to solve a murder at the stately home of Lettice Davenport, the author whose sleuthing creation, Dahlia Lively, had made each of them famous to a new generation. We’re particularly excited about the potential for three compelling and challenging roles for actresses of varying playing ages – from an ex-child star to a ‘past-her-prime’ national treasure.

Three rival actresses team up to solve a murder at the stately home of Lettice Davenport, the author whose sleuthing creation, Dahlia Lively, had made each of them famous to a new generation. In attendance at Aldermere: the VIP fans, staying at house; the fan club president turned convention organiser; the team behind the newest movie adaptation of Davenport’s books; the Davenport family themselves; and the three actresses famous for portraying Dahlia Lively through the decades. There is national treasure Rosalind King, from the original movies, who’s feeling sensitive that she’s past her prime, TV Dahlia for thirteen seasons, Caro Hooper, who believes she really IS Dahlia Lively, and ex-child star Posy Starling, fresh out of the fame wilderness (and rehab) to take on the Dahlia mantle for the new movie – but feeling outclassed by her predecessors.

Each actress has her own interpretation of the character and her own secrets to hide – but this English summer weekend they will have to put aside their differences as the crimes at Aldermere turn anything but cosy.

Growing up in a family of murder mystery addicts, Katy Watson learned early to look for means, motive and opportunity. After studying English Literature – with a side-line in crime fiction – at Lancaster University, she set about teaching herself to write her own stories, while also experiencing enough of the world to have things to write about. Two careers, a lot of airmiles, one husband, two children, three houses and forty-five published books for children and adults later, lockdown finally gave her the means, motive and opportunity to create her own murder mystery – with the aid of her scientist husband’s knowledge of poisons. Three Dahlias is the result. Katy also writes for adults as Sophie Pembroke, and for teenagers and children as Katy Cannon. Katy is represented by Gemma Cooper at The Bent Agency, and The Three Dahlias will be published by Constable in July 2022.

The Girl Upstairs

The Girl Upstairs is a spine-tingling psychological thriller of grief and obsession, by debut novelist Georgina Lees. It explores the loneliness of London life with two compelling central female characters, and how sometimes it’s our neighbours that know us best of all…

I heard Emily before I saw her. The harsh smack of heels against cheap wooden floorboards. The loud phone calls. The incessant music.

I knew Emily before I met her. Discarded receipts in our communal hallway. Sticky leftovers in the shared food waste bin. Wine shop vouchers in the letterbox. 

Now she’s gone missing, and I’m the only one who can find her. The only one who can save her.

Because I know her best, and I heard everything.

Georgina has been writing since she was little, from scrawling ideas in notepads, to tapping away on keyboards. She studied creative writing and film and has since pursued videogames journalism, writing about some of the most popular games in the world. Georgina draws inspiration from her surroundings from the congested London streets to the raw English countryside. She can be found playing games, writing books, and reading something that makes her equally parts terrified and emotional.

The Other Half

The Other Half is a deliciously entertaining mystery that channels the best of classic whodunnit ingenuity through a thoroughly modern cast of characters that readers are guaranteed to love and loathe. Detective Caius Beauchamp – a charming hero with an Empire-sized chip on his shoulder – is tasked with solving the murder of London socialite/social media influencer Clemency O’Hara. The investigation takes him deep into the underbelly of London’s millennial elite, with plenty of surprising twists and turns along the way.

What sort of man hosts a debauched, black-tie dinner party in McDonald’s for their thirtieth birthday? Rupert Beauchamp – member of the landed gentry, failed author, and cad. Who attends? Flicky-haired PR girls, prep-school chums turned insurance brokers, and waspish, bluestocking Nell, who has her own dark, tragic, secrets. Rupert’s girlfriend Clemmie fails to show up to the extravaganza and isn’t found until the following morning when DI Caius Beauchamp, on a post-break up health kick, spots a stiletto poking out from the scrub on his morning run. Caius initially suspects Rupert of the murder – partly because Rupert’s ancestors owned his ancestors – but as the case progresses Caius uncovers a world of upper-class organised crime. Meanwhile Nell finds herself caught in the middle as the conspiracy and danger grow. 

Charlotte Vassell is half Jamaican and half British and grew up in the Midlands in a working-class family. She studied History at the University of Liverpool and completed a Masters in Art History at the School of Oriental and African Studies, before training as an actor at Drama Studio London. Other than treading the boards Charlotte has also worked in advertising, as a head-hunter, and as a purveyor of silk top hats. Charlotte watched an inordinate number of Agatha Christie dramas with her grandmother at a very young age.

The Marmalade Diaries

The Marmalade Diaries by Ben Aitken tells the true story of an unlikely friendship struck up between two unlikely housemates – 35-year-old Ben Aitken and 85-year-old recently widowed Winnie. From the author of The Gran Tour, The Marmalade Diaries tells a story of grief, family, friendship, loneliness, life, love, lockdown and marmalade – reminiscent of the critically acclaimed Lady in the Van. It was signed by Icon Books for a significant 5-figure advance.

“Had I known that a lockdown would commence 10 days after I arrived, I don’t think I would have moved in with a recently widowed 85-year-old.”

One house. Two housemates. Three reasons to worry: Winnie and Ben are separated by 50 years, a gulf in class, and major differences of opinion.           

When hunting for a room in London, Ben Aitken came across one for a great price in a lovely part of town. There had to be a catch. And there was. The catch was Winnie: an 85-year-old widow who doesn’t suffer fools.

Full of warmth, wit and candour, The Marmalade Diaries tells the story of an unlikely friendship during an unlikely time. Imagine an intergenerational version of Big Brother, but with only two contestants. One of the pair a grieving and inflexible former aristocrat in her mid-eighties. The other a working-class millennial snowflake. What could possibly go wrong? What could possibly go right?    

Ben Aitken was born under Thatcher, grew to six foot then stopped, and is an Aquarius. He is the author of Dear Bill Bryson: Footnotes from a Small Island (2015, 2022), A Chip Shop in Poznań: My Unlikely Year in Poland (2019) and The Gran Tour: Travels with my Elders (2020). Ben is represented by Ed Wilson at Johnson and Alcock, and The Marmalade Diaries will be published on 10th March 2022 by Icon Books.

With This Kiss

WITH THIS KISS is the enchanting new love story from the Number One bestselling author, Carrie Hope Fletcher.

If you knew how your love story ends, would you dare to begin?

From the outside, Lorelai is an ordinary young woman with a normal life. She loves reading, she works at the local cinema and she adores living with her best friend. But she carries a painful burden, something she’s kept hidden for years; whenever she kisses someone on the lips, she sees how they are going to die. But she’s never known if she’s seeing what was always meant to be, or if her kiss is the thing that decides their destiny. And so, she hasn’t kissed anyone since she was eighteen.

Then she meets Grayson. Sweet, clever, funny Grayson. And for the first time in years she yearns for a man’s kiss. But she can’t…or can she? And if she does, should she try to intervene and change what she sees?

Carrie Hope Fletcher is an actress, singer, songwriter, vlogger and, thanks to her popular YouTube channel, ‘honorary big sister’ to hundreds of thousands of young people around the world. Carrie’s first book, All I Know Now was a number 1 Sunday Times bestseller and her debut novel, One The Other Side, was published by Spectre in 2016. With This Kiss is her fifth novel. Carrie is currently starring as Cinderella in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s new musical at the Gillian Lynne Theatre, and lives just outside of London with numerous fictional friends that she keeps on bookshelves, just in case.

Edith and Kim

Edith and Kim is a poignant and captivating reconstruction of one of the most important relationships of interwar espionage – that between Kim Philby and Edith Tudor-Hart, the woman who introduced him to his Soviet handler. It is written by Kim’s granddaughter, Charlotte Philby, drawing on letters from the family’s private archives and intertwining the forgotten but fascinating story of Edith.

In June 1934, Kim Philby met his Soviet handler, the spy Arnold Deutsch. The woman who introduced them was called Edith Tudor-Hart. She changed the course of 20th century history.

Then she was written out of it.

Drawing on the Secret Intelligence Files on Edith Tudor-Hart, along with the private archive letters of Kim Philby, this finely worked, evocative and beautifully tense novel – by the granddaughter of Kim Philby – tells the story of the woman behind the Third Man.

Charlotte Philby worked for the Independent for eight years as a columnist, editor and reporter, and was shortlisted for the Cudlipp Prize for her investigative journalism at the 2013 Press Awards. A former contributing editor and feature writer at Marie Claire, she is founder of the online platform Motherland.net, and has contributed to all the major newspapers, as well as the BBC, Channel 4 and numerous magazines and books. Edith and Kim is her fourth novel, which will be published 31st March 2022 by Harper Collins. She is represented by Julia Silk at The Greyhound Agency.

The Windsor Knot

This book is currently under option.

On a perfect Spring morning at Windsor Castle, Queen Elizabeth II will enjoy a cup of tea, carry out all her royal duties . . . and solve a murder.

The morning after a dinner party at Windsor Castle, eighty-nine-year-old Queen Elizabeth is shocked to discover that one of her guests has been found murdered in his room, with a rope around his neck.

When the police begin to suspect her loyal servants, Her Majesty knows they are looking in the wrong place.

For the Queen has been living an extraordinary double life ever since her coronation. Away from the public eye, she has a brilliant knack for solving crimes.

With her household’s happiness on the line, her secret must not get out. Can the Queen and her trusted secretary Rozie catch the killer, without getting caught themselves?

Miss Marple meets The Crown in The Windsor Knot, the first book in the ‘Her Majesty The Queen Investigates’ mystery series by SJ Bennett – for fans of The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman, Agatha Christie and M.C. Beaton’s Agatha Raisin.

‘Hilarious, affectionate, and so well observed . . . I loved it’ – JOANNE HARRIS

‘A total joy’ – NINA STIBBE

‘A highly original and delightfully charming crime series’ – ADELE PARKS

‘Possibly the most adorable crime novel out this year’ – RUTH WARE

‘Charming, cosy and respectful’ – GUARDIAN

‘Gently hilarious and utterly charming‘ – AMANDA CRAIG

Out of Her Depth

Patricia Highsmith meets E. Lockhart in Out of her Depth – a simmering summer thriller about the choices you make as a teenager, and what happens when they go horribly wrong.

There are summers that could change your life.
There are summers that could end it.

Meet Rachel.
An unassuming young woman from a quiet London suburb.

Picture the scene:
A summer job at the beautiful Villa Medici in the Tuscan hills.
A group of glamorous teenagers, used to a life of privilege.
Lavish parties, heady sun-soaked days, backstabbing and bedhopping.

Until someone goes too far.
And nothing will ever be the same.

Voyeur

This book is currently under option.

Summer in Paris. Leah, bored of tedious dead-end jobs, is intrigued to spot a job advert posted by the famous author Michael Young: ‘Writer Seeks Assistant’.

After an unconventional interview, Michael invites Leah to spend summer in the south of France with his family. But as she begins her work transcribing his diaries of his debauched youth in 1960s Soho, the lines of past and present, truth and deceit, begin to blur, and Leah has to question what it is that Michael really sees in her.

A novel that challenges us to both question what we see, and what others see in us.

‘Addictive’ Stylist

‘Sultry’ Elle

‘Shimmers with suspense’ Daily Mail

‘Sizzling’ Esquire

‘A devastatingly compelling new voice in literary fiction‘ Louise O’Neill

‘Devastatingly witty, compulsively readable . . . like Sally Rooney meeting Martin Amis in Paris’ Francine Toon, author of Pine