The Stone Sky

CHOSEN AS BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE GUARDIAN, OBSERVER, TELEGRAPH, NEW STATESMAN, EVENING STANDARD, SUNDAY TIMES AND IRISHTIMES'Terrific, page-turning, slyly funny' India Knight'As satisfying a novel as I have read in years' Sarah Perry'Amanda Craig is one of the most brilliant and entertaining novelists now working in Britain' Alison LurieQuentin and Lottie Bredin, like many modern couples, can't afford to divorce. Having lost their jobs in the recession, they can't afford to go on living in London; instead, they must downsize and move their three children to a house in a remote part of Devon. Arrogant and adulterous, Quentin can't understand why Lottie is so angry; devastated and humiliated, Lottie feels herself to have been intolerably wounded.Mud, mice and quarrels are one thing - but why is their rent so low? What is the mystery surrounding their unappealing new home? The beauty of the landscape is ravishing, yet it conceals a dark side involving poverty, revenge, abuse and violence which will rise up to threaten them.Sally Verity, happily married but unhappily childless knows a different side to country life, as both a Health Visitor and a sheep farmer's wife; and when Lottie's innocent teenage son Xan gets a zero-hours contract at a local pie factory, he sees yet another. At the end of their year, the lives of all will be changed for ever. A suspenseful black comedy, this is a rich, compassionate and enthralling novel in its depiction of the English countryside, and the potentially lethal interplay between money and marriage.

'Murdered people don't kill themselves . . .'A quiet night on a country road. The stillness shattered by a car engulfed in flames, and a burned body discovered in the driver's seat. As the investigation unfolds, DCI Carol Jordan and psychological profiler Tony Hill quickly realise that this is more than just a tragic accident. And so begins the hunt for a truly terrifying killer, someone who believes he is invisible, untraceable and untouchable.As other victims are found to have met the same terrible fate, and with more women at risk, Tony and Carol are drawn into a dark and twisted web of fear and revenge that will force them to question their own ideas of justice . . .Discover the pulse-pounding new novel from the inimitable queen of crime and number one bestseller, Val McDermid, featuring two of the most iconic and unforgettable characters in crime fiction: Tony Hill and Carol Jordan

'One of the most stunning debuts I've ever read...Read it!' David BaldacciWINNER OF THE CWA GOLD DAGGER AWARD 2017AMAZON.COM'S #1 PICK FOR BEST MYSTERY & THRILLER OF THE YEAR 2017The Gold Australian Book Industry Award for Book of the Year Australian Book Industry Award for Fiction Book of the Year WATERSTONES THRILLER OF THE MONTHTHE SIMON MAYO RADIO 2 BOOK CLUB CHOICESUNDAY TIMES CRIME THRILLER OF THE MONTH'Packed with sneaky moves and teasing possibilities that keep the reader guessing...The Dry is a breathless page-turner' Janet Maslin, New York TimesWHO REALLY KILLED THE HADLER FAMILY?I just can't understand how someone like him could do something like that.Amid the worst drought to ravage Australia in a century, it hasn't rained in small country town Kiewarra for two years. Tensions in the community become unbearable when three members of the Hadler family are brutally murdered. Everyone thinks Luke Hadler, who committed suicide after slaughtering his wife and six-year-old son, is guilty.Policeman Aaron Falk returns to the town of his youth for the funeral of his childhood best friend, and is unwillingly drawn into the investigation. As questions mount and suspicion spreads through the town, Falk is forced to confront the community that rejected him twenty years earlier. Because Falk and Luke Hadler shared a secret, one which Luke's death threatens to unearth. And as Falk probes deeper into the killings, secrets from his past and why he left home bubble to the surface as he questions the truth of his friend's crime.And if you loved The Dry, don't miss Jane Harper's second novel Force of Nature, now available

From the award-winning, million-selling author of Black Widow comes a twist-filled story of secrets and lies.What if your deepest secret was revealed?Sam Morpeth is growing up way too fast, left to fend for a younger sister when their mother goes to prison and watching her dreams of university evaporate. But Sam learns what it is to be truly powerless when a stranger begins to blackmail her.Who would you turn to?Meanwhile, reporter Jack Parlabane has finally got his career back on track, but his success has left him indebted to a volatile, criminal source. Now that debt is being called in, and it could cost him everything. What would you be capable of?Thrown together by a vindictive and mysterious mutual enemy, Sam and Jack are about to discover they might be each other's only hope.

'A beautiful and bold debut' M.J. Hyland, author of the Man Booker-shortlisted Carry Me DownIt's a long time since I've enjoyed any debut novel as much as English Animals. Its command of tone, narrative and character is so assured, and both its wit and perceptiveness about a certain kind of English life make it a joy to read' Amanda CraigEnglish Animals is a brilliantly assured debut that fans of Nina Stibbe's writing will love.I opened my mouth to say something but she ran up the steps and into the house. I had imagined arriving at the house so many times, but it was never like this. I realised I knew nothing about these people. Richard and Sophie sounded like good names for good people. But they could be anything, they could be completely crazy.When Mirka gets a job in a country house in rural England, she has no idea of the struggle she faces to make sense of a very English couple, and a way of life that is entirely alien to her. Richard and Sophie are chaotic, drunken, frequently outrageous but also warm, generous and kind to Mirka, despite their argumentative and turbulent marriage.Mirka is swiftly commandeered by Richard for his latest money-making enterprise, taxidermy, and soon surpasses him in skill. After a traumatic break two years ago with her family in Slovakia, Mirka finds to her surprise that she is happy at Fairmont Hall. But when she tells Sophie that she is gay, everything she values is put in danger and she must learn the hard way what she really believes in. English Animals is a funny, subversive, poignant and beautifully written novel about a doomed love affair, a certain kind of Englishness and prejudice.

The first novel in the New York Times bestselling Mercy Thompson series - the major urban fantasy hit of the decade'I love these books!' Charlaine HarrisThe best new fantasy series I've read in years' Patricia BriggsMERCY THOMPSON: MECHANIC, SHAPESHIFTER, FIGHTERI didn't realize he was a werewolf at first. My nose isn't at its best when surrounded by axle grease and burnt oil . . .'Mercedes Thompson runs a garage in the Tri-Cities. She's a mechanic, and a damn good one, who spends her spare time karate training and tinkering with a VW bus that happens to belong to a vampire. Her next-door neighbour is an alpha werewolf - literally, the leader of the pack. And Mercy herself is a shapeshifter, sister to coyotes. As such, she's tolerated by the 'wolves but definitely down the pecking order. As long as she keeps her eyes down and remembers her place, the pack will leave her in peace.

As a child, Destiny saw her family butchered by a vampire who then attacked her and turned her into a creature of the night. The only thing that saved her sanity was a strange psychic connection with a soothing male voice that gave her hope and taught her how to survive. Nicolae Von Shrieder is an ancient Carpathian vampire hunter, and it is he who has been helping Destiny. Convinced she is his lifemate, he has been desperately searching for her, as only she can save him from turning into the very abomination he hunts. Destiny however, does not recognise any difference between Carpathians and vampires and repeatedly refuses his advances.But, for the first time, vampire forces are gathering together in a deadly unified plot against the Carpathians. Nicolae must find a way to earn Destiny's trust, and fast, as they may be the only ones able to unravel the secret that could save the Carpathian race from total destruction.