category: Fiction

The Last Murder at the End of the World

Outside the island there is nothing: the world destroyed by a fog that swept the planet, killing anyone it touched. On the island: it is idyllic. 122 villagers and 3 scientists, living in peaceful harmony. The villagers are content to fish, farm and feast, to obey their nightly curfew, to do what they’re told by the scientists.

Until, to the horror of the islanders, one of their beloved scientists is found brutally stabbed to death. And they learn the murder has triggered a lowering of the security system around the island, the only thing that was keeping the fog at bay.

If the murder isn’t solved within 107 hours, the fog will smother the island – and everyone on it.

But the security system has also wiped everyone’s memories of exactly what happened the night before, which means that someone on the island is a murderer – and they don’t even know it.

Stuart is the author of a high-concept crime novel and lives in London with his amazing wife and two little girls, and drinks lots of tea. Stuart’s debut novel, The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, was published in 2018 by Bloomsbury and his second, The Devil and the Dark Water​, in October 2020, which also been under option for Film/TV. He is represented for publishing by Harry Illingworth at DHH Literary Agency. 

Evenfall

Sam is part of an ancient, secret society: an order of quiet heroes who once protected the world. For decades, the Order of the Evening has lain dormant, all but wiped out by those threatened by its existence. But now the Order must rise again. For at the heart of the Order’s lost palace lies a powerful magic; magic that, in the wrong hands, has the power to destroy the world. And an age-old enemy is closing in . . .

Bequeathed with the mysterious seal of the Golden Linnet, Sam must uncover family secrets, face deadly foes and undertake perilous journeys. He will find allies in the most unlikely of places and learn to unlock his true powers. And he will – he must! – prevail.

From Peppa Pig to Hey Duggee, Doctor Who, Pointless (with Richard Osman) and Horrible Histories, he has been creating and telling stories in a variety of capacities for the last two decades. He is represented for publishing by Claire Wilson at RCW Literary Agency.

A Reluctant Spy

*Currently under option*

Jamie Tulloch is a successful exec at a top tech company, a long way from the tough upbringing that drove him to rise so far and so quickly.

But he has a secret…since the age of 23, he’s had a helping hand from the Legend Programme, a secret intelligence effort to prepare impenetrable backstories for undercover agents. Real people, living real lives, willing to hand over their identities for a few weeks in return for a helping hand with plum jobs, influence and access.

When his tap on the shoulder finally comes, it’s swiftly followed by the thud of a body. Arriving at a French airport ready to hand over his identity, Jamie finds his primary contact dead, the agent who’s supposed to step into his life AWOL and his options for escape non-existent.

Pitched into a deadly mission on hostile territory, Jamie must contend with a rogue Russian general, arms dealers, elite hackers, CIA tac-ops and the discovery of a brewing plan for war. Dangerously out of his depth, he must convince his sceptical mission handler he can do the job of a trained field agent while using his own life story as convincing cover.

David is originally from Edinburgh and now lives in East Lothian, by the sea, with his wife and two cats. Sometimes he wanders along the shoreline early in the morning, muttering about spies and spaceships into his dictaphone. He harbours dreams of being a full time shoreline mutterer. For the moment though, he writes short stories and novels very early in the morning and works as a UX designer by day. He’s an enthusiastic member of Edinburgh SFF and the Codex Writers group. When he’s not writing, he can most often be found walking in the Highlands or trying to make a dent in his reading pile. David is represented for publishing by Harry Illingworth at DHH Literary Agency.

 

Seven Days

Your father is on death row. You have seven days to save him. But do you want to?
Alice knows her father is guilty of many things.
He’s guilty of abandoning her.
He’s guilty of being unfaithful to her mother.
But is he guilty of murder?

Now on Death Row, he has seven days to live.
Some people want him released.
Others will kill to keep him just where he is.
Alice has only one chance to save him. But should she?

Robert Rutherford had a random mix of jobs before taking the dive into crime writing; he’s been a bookseller, pizza deliverer, karate instructor, football coach, and HR Manager. He lives on the North East Coast with his wife, children & overly-needy dog, and is a founding member of the Northern Crime Syndicate crime-writers group. WHAT FALLS BETWEEN THE CRACKS, the first in his Porter & Styles series, written under the name Robert Scragg, was a New Writing North pick as one of the 2019 Read Regional books of the year. Rob’s work has also seen him shortlisted for the Lindisfarne Prize for Crime Fiction in 2021, and shortlisted twice for the CWA Short Story Daggers. He is represented by David Headley at DHH Literary Agency.

An Idle Woman: gaslighting in the nineteenth century

1838, England: When eighteen-year-old Frances Dickinson impulsively marries Lieutenant John Geils, all her hopes for her future are quickly shattered as she finds there is much about her husband she did not know. A cruel and violent man, John keeps Frances in isolation on his family’s estate, while spending her fortune and preying upon their maids.

Frances yearns to break free from her marriage but the law is not on her side. Only when John’s abuse escalates can she set in motion a daring plan to secure her freedom.

A story of gaslighting, control and one woman’s fight, An Idle Woman is the true story behind one of the most sensational divorce trials of the nineteenth century.

Wendy Parkins is from Sydney and has held academic posts at universities in Australia, New Zealand, and the UK, most recently as Professor of Victorian Literature at the University of Kent. She decided to leave academia at the end of 2018 to return to New Zealand to pursue writing full-time. My memoir, Every Morning, So Far, I’m Alive, was published in 2019. In 2018, Parkins moved back to New Zealand to focus on her writing and is currently teaching English Literature and Creative Writing part-time at the University of Otago, Dunedin, and reviews books for leading New Zealand journals and magazines.

Secrets of Malta

An escapist historical novel of women, spies and a world at war

Malta, 1943.

The war in the air above Malta is over, but the battle for Europe is about to begin. Margarita, a young singer in a Valletta nightclub, has not seen her former lover Henry Dunn since breaking off their affair. His wife Vera, an enigmatic archaeologist, arrives at the club to tell her that Henry has disappeared, presumed dead.

While investigating, Margarita stumbles upon the hunt for a notorious and dangerous Nero. As an unlikely bond develops between the two women, and strange secrets emerge, an urgent quest to unmask Nero starts – before he can enact a deadly plan that may threaten the course of the war.

Cecily Blench is a freelance writer and editor with a particular interest in travel writing, wartime history, intrepid women and Southeast Asia. She grew up in Herefordshire, attended the University of York, and now lives in London. She has written for a number of publications including Reader’s Digest, Slightly Foxed, The London Magazine, and Hinterland. Her first novel won the 2019 Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize and is under contract with Bonnier Zaffre.

Her first novel, The Long Journey Home, is a historical adventure set in Burma during the Second World War and will be published by Bonnier Books in June 2021. Her new novel, a WW2 espionage thriller, is being published by Bonnier Books in 2024.

Flowers from the Void

Grotesquely gothic short stories to keep you awake all night

Addictively strange and disturbing, Flowers From the Void is a collection of delectably uncanny tales. A reaper readies herself for her next gruesome assignment and a bereaved African witch prepares for a showdown with a rigidly traditional white Salem coven while an outcast teenage boy is lured into a pact with a schoolfriend that will cost him far more than he ever imagined.

Hauntingly macabre and piercingly insightful about loss and loneliness, these gothic short stories lead us into a labyrinth of other possible worlds, each one darker than the last and yet all fearfully close to our own. Living dolls serve as imperfect replacements for the deceased, a girl without a shadow finds her soulmate and spurned lovers’ bodies begin falling to pieces. In this scintillating debut collection Gianni Washington explores the limit of intimacy and empathy with the vivid intensity of your worst nightmare.

Gianni Washington’s writing has been published in The Fat City Review online, LitroNY.com, the horror anthology Brief Grislys and read aloud on the Great American Folk Show. She is a monthly contributor to the Chicago Review of Books and holds a PhD in Creative Writing from The University of Surrey. She worked for many years as a bookseller in London but is currently based in North Carolina

Poor Artists

A moving, eye-opening journey through the world of contemporary art from one of the most innovative voices in the field

At a moment in which working as a professional artist is an increasingly unattainable luxury, art criticism duo The White Pube investigate why so many artists try anyway. Labelled “the Diet Prada of the art world” by British Vogue, in Poor Artists writers Gabrielle de la Puente and Zarina Muhammad ridicule a contemporary art world that has turned art into artworks, art schools into art universities, and creative expression into cut-throat competition.

Poor Artists follows aspiring artist Quest Talukdar as she embarks on a surreal journey into the creative industry, where she must decide whether she cares more about success or staying true to herself. Featuring dialogue from anonymous interviews with real people who have all had to ask themselves the same question – including a Turner Prize winner or two, a recluse, a Venice Biennale fraudster, a communist messiah, a ghost, and a literal knight – The White Pube tell the story of art like never before.

The White Pube is the collaborative identity of UK-based critics Gabrielle de la Puente and Zarina Muhammad. They have been turning heads since 2015 when the pair began publishing provocative art reviews and essays online from their art school studios and have earned themselves an international cult following due to their innovative writing style, their honesty and irreverence, and their willingness to challenge the pale, male, stale art establishment. The White Pube have worked with art schools, galleries and museums in the US, Canada, Australia, India, Cyprus, South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Indonesia, the United Arab Emirates, Norway, and across Europe with organisations in Portugal, Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Sweden and Ireland. Poor Artists is their first book.

Blessings

“A moving debut about love and loneliness” – Sunday Times

“A sublime coming-of-age tale… an extraordinarily composed and deeply felt debut – Guardian”

“Both a brutal and tender coming-of-age story, marking Ibeh as a major new literary voice.” – The i

“A magnificent debut…” – Daily Telegraph

“Chukwuebuka Ibeh’s writing has a certain delicacy to it, so wonderfully observant, and so beautiful” – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

An exquisite story of love and loneliness and coming of age that asks how we can live freely when politics reaches into our hearts and lives, as well as deep into our consciousness.

When Obiefuna’s father witnesses an intimate moment between his teenage son and the family’s apprentice, newly arrived from the nearby village, he banishes Obiefuna to a Christian boarding school marked by strict hierarchy and routine, devastating violence. Utterly alienated from the people he loves, Obiefuna begins a journey of self-discovery and blossoming desire, while his mother Uzoamaka grapples to hold onto her favourite son, her truest friend.

Interweaving the perspectives of Obiefuna and his mother Uzoamaka, as they reach towards a future that will hold them both, BLESSINGS is an elegant and exquisitely moving story of love and loneliness. Asking how we can live freely when politics reaches into our hearts and lives, as well as deep into our consciousness, it is a stunning, searing debut.

Chukwuebuka Ibeh is a writer from Port Harcourt, Nigeria, born in 2000. His writing has appeared in McSweeneys, The New England Review of Books and Lolwe, amongst others, and he is a staff writer at Brittle Paper. He was the Runner-up for the 2021 J.F Powers Prize for Fiction, a finalist for the Gerald Kraak Award and Morland Foundation Scholarship and was profiled as one of the “Most Promising New Voices of Nigerian Fiction” in Electric Literature. He has studied creative writing under Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Dave Eggers and Tash Aw. He is a student on a fully funded MFA programme at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, until 2024.

The Artist

The year is 1920. The place is a remote farmhouse in Provence, home to the reclusive painter Edouard Tartuffe and his niece, Ettie. Into this strange, silent house walks Joseph: a young journalist hoping to write an article about Tartuffe. But the more he entangles himself in the peculiar household, the more Joseph’s curiosity grows…

Ettie cooks and cleans for her uncle. She prepares his studio, scrubs his paintbrushes, and creates the perfect environment for him to work. She has never gone further than the local village. She is sharp-eyed and watchful. But beneath her cool exterior, Joseph senses something simmering. Ettie, Joseph and Tartuffe circle each other throughout the hot, crackling summer, until finally they collide.

Lucy Steeds is 29 years old and a graduate of both the Faber Academy and the London Library Emerging Writers Programme. She began writing the novel while living in France and currently splits her time between London and Amsterdam. THE ARTIST has — in manuscript form — already been listed for the BPA First Novel Award, the Yeovil Literary Prize, the Page Turner Awards, the Fiction Factory First Chapter Competition, and was a Finalist in the Spotlight First Novel Award and the Moniack Mhor Emerging Writer Award. Lucy herself has synaesthesia and uses this to play with ways of translating images into words. She has a BA in English Literature and a Masters in World Literatures from the University of Oxford.

Lucy is represented by Eleanor Birne at RCW Literary Agency.