category: Fiction

When Lydia takes a job running the Senior Citizens’ Social Club three afternoons a week, she assumes she’ll be spending her time drinking tea and playing gentle games of cards.

The members of the Social Club, however, are not at all what Lydia was expecting. From Art, a failed actor turned kleptomaniac to Daphne, who has been hiding from her dark past for decades to Ruby, a Banksy-style knitter who gets revenge in yarn, these seniors look deceptively benign—but when age makes you invisible, secrets are so much easier to hide.

When the city council threatens to sell the doomed community center building, the members of the Social Club join forces with their tiny friends in the daycare next door—as well as the teenaged father of one of the toddlers and a geriatric dog—to save the building. Together, this group’s unorthodox methods may actually work, as long as the police don’t catch up with them first.

Clare Pooley graduated from Newnham College, Cambridge and spent twenty years in the heady world of advertising before becoming a full-time writer. Clare’s ‘brutally honest and hilariously funny’ memoir, The Sober Diaries, has helped thousands of people worldwide to quit drinking. Her debut novel, The Authenticity Project, followed and was a BBC Radio 2 Book Club pick, a New York Times bestseller, and the winner of the RNA Debut Novel Award. It has been translated into 30 languages. The People on Platform 5 was published in 202l. Clare lives in Fulham, London with her long-suffering husband, three children, and two border terriers.

Clare is represented by Hayley Steed at Janklow and Nesbit.

To mark the thousandth year of peace in the Empire of Concordia, the emperor’s ship—the Dragon’s Dawn—embarks upon a twelve-day voyage.

Aboard are the illustrious heirs of the twelve provinces of Concordia, each graced with a unique magical ability known as a Blessing. Except one: Ganymedes Piscero—class clown, slacker, and all-round disappointment. If anyone finds out about his missing Blessing, his entire province will be cast out of the empire into the arid wastes beyond. Because if lone heir Ganymedes hasn’t inherited the Blessing, that means one of his forbidden bastard siblings has. But Ganymedes has a plan—offend the league of pretentious assholes enough to be expelled from it before his devastating secret is discovered.

However, Ganymedes is not the only passenger with devious intentions—when a beloved heir is murdered, all the remaining scions are suspects. Stuck at sea and surrounded by powerful people he’s purposefully pissed off, Ganymedes’ odds of survival are slim.

But as the bodies pile higher, he must become the hero he was not born to be and unmask the killer before he ends up the next victim of their bloody crusade.

Frances is a creative writing graduate from Royal Holloway University of London. As well as writing about imaginary events, she also writes about real ones for various publications, with subject matters ranging from Women in Ancient Greece to the US Civil Rights Movement. When she’s not writing, Frances can be found sewing costumes for comic conventions, or performing Shakespeare with her travelling theatre troupe. As a queer writer, Frances is passionate about bringing more LGBTQIA+ representation into fantasy. Frances is represented for publishing by Harry Illingworth at DHH Literary Agency.

Three women give birth in different countries and different decades. In the near future, they become neighbours in a coastal town in Aotearoa New Zealand. Sera is the most recent arrival, having fled ecological devastation in Europe with her husband Adam and two-year-old Aliana. Janet has lived in the neighbourhood long enough to see the demographics change, but she’s never had refugee neighbours before, and isn’t sure how she feels about them. She lives alone until her adult son Conor returns unannounced, spending long hours holed up in Janet’s spare room online instead of finding a job. Single parent Keri has an uneasy friendship with her older neighbour, who likes to bring over produce from the garden and keep an eye what’s happening, but Keri can’t afford to say no to Janet’s gifts of food and she has her hands full with a teenager and a tearaway toddler. Her daughter, Wairere, is a strange and gifted child, always picking up on stuff that isn’t hers to worry about. And suddenly there’s a lot of stuff to worry about – people who have arrived in her world with terror either in their nightmares, in the pasts they’ve left behind, or, frighteningly, in the future they dream of.

Behind these characters is a narrator who runs through all their lives, under their homes, into their pasts and futures. Layers of history are never far from under the characters’ feet as they make their own small journeys and marks on the land. Though they cross paths with forebears unknowingly, the narrator sees the people who have gone before and the devastating change that has already been wrought on a place that was once entirely wetlands.

Tina Makereti writes novels, short fiction and creative non-fiction. Her debut story collection, Once Upon a Time in Aotearoa (Huia Publishers 2010)won the Ngā Kupu Ora Māori Book Award for Fiction in 2011. In 2016 her story Black Milk won the Commonwealth Writers Short Story Prize for the Pacific Region. Her first novel, Where the Rēkohu Bone Sings (Vintage NZ, 2014) was longlisted for the Dublin Literary Award 2016 and also won the 2014 Ngā Kupu Ora Aotearoa Māori Book Award for Fiction. In 2009 she was the recipient of the Royal Society of New Zealand Manhire Prize for Creative Science Writing (non-fiction), and in the same year received the Pikihuia Award for Best Short Story Written in English. Tina’s second novel, The Imaginary Lives of James Pōneke, is about a young Māori man who was exhibited in the Egyptian Hall in London in the 1840s. Film rights have been optioned by Piki Films, the producers of Jojo Rabbit and Hunt for the Wilderpeople. Tina has been writer in residence at Randall Cottage, Wellington, and Weltkulturen Museum, Frankfurt. She is of Te Ātiawa, Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Ngāti Rangatahi-Matakore and Pākehā descent.

89-year-old Margaret has lived on Garnon Crescent all her life, except for those few years she never talks about. She knows all the neighbours; their hopes, their heartbreaks.

Only recently, Margaret’s memory isn’t what it used to be. She is sure Barbara, her best friend and neighbour, told her something important. Something she was supposed to remember.

When Barbara is found dead, Margaret determines to recover her missing memory. She and her grandson James begin to investigate, but soon strange incidents occur in her home. Margaret’s daughter thinks her memory is getting worse, but Margaret knows somebody wants her out of the way.

Because Margaret holds the key to solving this crime. If only she could remember where she put it.

Richard Hooton was born and brought up in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, and studied English Literature at the University of Wolverhampton before becoming a journalist and communications officer. He has won prizes in numerous short story and flash fiction competitions and has been highly commended in the Bath Flash Fiction Awards and shortlisted in the Bridport Prize and Cambridge Prize. Richard lives near Manchester. He is represented by Sam Copeland at RCW Literary Agency.

Two years ago, thirty-year-old receptionist Millie Chandler had her heart spectacularly broken in public. Ever since, she has been a closed book, vowing to keep everything to herself–her feelings, her truths, even her dreams–in an effort to protect herself from getting hurt again.

 But Millie does write emails–sarcastic replies to her rude boss, hard truths to her friends, and of course, that one-thousand-word love declaration to her ex who is now engaged to someone else. The emails live safely in her drafts, but after a server outage at work, Millie wakes up to discover that all her emails have been sent. Every. Single. One.

 As every truth, lie, and secret she’s worked so hard to keep only to herself are catapulted out into the open, Millie must fix the chaos her words have caused, and face everything she’s ever swept under the carpet.

Lia Louis lives in the United Kingdom with her partner and three young children. Before raising a family, she worked as a freelance copywriter and proofreader. She was the 2015 winner of Elle magazine’s annual writing competition and has been a contributor for Bloomsbury’s Writers and Artists blog for aspiring writers. She is the author of Somewhere Close to Happy, Dear Emmie Blue, Eight Perfect Hours, and The Key to My Heart. Lia is represented by Juliet Mushens at Mushens Entertainment.

A disappearance. A missing brother. A lawyer asking questions. And a vast forest in the mountains—the western woods—where the trees huddle close together emanating a crushing darkness and a chill dampness fills the air. The ranger, In-su Park, who lives nearby with his family, is a recovering alcoholic. He claims no knowledge of the man who disappeared, even though the missing man had worked as the ranger just before him. In the little village down the mountain, the shopkeepers will do the same and deny they ever saw or knew the man, though they’re less convincing; and his former supervisor at the Forestry Research Center, Professor Jin, dismisses his importance. But when an accident and a death derail the investigation and someone attempts to break into his office, In-su Park finds himself conducting his own inquiry into the goings-on deep in the heart of the western woods—spurred by the mysterious words he discovers on a piece of paper beneath his desk: “In the forest the owl cries.”

From award-winning author of THE HOLE, which is currently under option.

It is 5:30 am on Clio’s forty-fifth birthday and her hated ex is lying dead on her doorstep. Even worse, this is no accident. Someone’s killed him… When single mum Clio ’s ex Gary turns up dead on the doorstep of her caravan – the one she’s been forced to live in ever since he stole every penny she had – there’s only one suspect. Her. What’s more, she doesn’t remember much about the night he was killed – not just because of the forgetfulness that’s been plaguing her along with the hot flushes – but because she definitely had one too many cocktails with her two best friends Amber and Jeanie . Clio does remember them talking about how much they all hated him though. And, in the frame for murder, she has to ask herself – if she didn’t kill Gary, who did? One of his many enemies? Or someone a little closer to home? And can she and her friends find the real killer before it’s too late?

Katie Marsh wrote romantic fiction before turning to crime. Her debut novel was a World Book Night pick and her books are published in ten languages. She lives in the countryside and loves strong coffee and pretending she is in charge of her children.

Welcome to the Grand Abeona Hotel: home of the finest food, the sweetest service, and the very best views the galaxy has to offer. All year round it moves from planet to planet, system to system, pampering guests across the furthest reaches of the milky way. The last word in sub-orbital luxury – and an absolute magnet for intrigue. Intrigues such as:

Why are there love poems in the lobby in-tray? 

How many Imperial spies are currently on board?

What is the true purpose of the Problem Solver’s conference?

And perhaps most pertinently – who is driving the ship?

Each guest has a secret, every member of staff a universe unto themselves. At the centre of these interweaving lives and interlocking mysteries stands Carl, one-time stowaway, long-time manager, devoted caretaker to the hotel. It’s the love of his life and the only place he’s ever called home. But as forces beyond Carl’s comprehension converge on the Abeona, he has to face one final question: when is it time to let go?

Grace Curtis has written on video games for magazines like Eurogamer and Edge, and she has a wonderful day job at an indie game publisher called Future Friends. When not writing she can usually be found up a hill somewhere, climbing or hiking or lolling idly in the grass. Her first book, FRONTIER, was published in spring 2023 (Hodderscape/UK, Solaris/US). Grace is represented by Zoe Plant at The Bent Agency.

Nigeria, 2021. Three days after her father’s burial, 20-year-old Temi and her family gather for the reading of his will. There, before her grieving relatives, she announces her plan to get a Brazilian butt-lift and relocate to Lagos to finally live her dream life. Young women everywhere are transforming their bodies, so, why shouldn’t she?

Stunned and appalled by Temi’s outburst, the family scramble for help from the community that helped raise her: aunties Jummai and Big Mommy, the family doctor, a prophet – anyone who might help the girl see sense. In the midst of this pandemonium, each woman in the family is forced to reckon with her own body shape and how looks have determined her path in life. As they embark on their journey to cure Temi of her seeming madness, a few family secrets are spilled, and in the end, it seems that Temi may in fact be the sanest of them all…

Damilare Kuku has worked as a radio presenter, scriptwriter, film producer, actor and director. She holds bachelors and masters degrees in the arts, has lectured at universities on feminism and the art of storytelling through pictures, and has spoken at mentorship events organized by the United Nations for young girls in Lagos. Her debut collection of stories, Nearly All The Men In Lagos Are Mad, was a runaway bestseller in her native Nigeria, named by Rovingheights Bookstore as the bestselling fiction title of 2022. She is represented by Charlotte Seymour at Johnson and Alcock.