Books that are out this summer that aren’t necessarily summer books

I read these books a month or so ago before succumbing to a reading slump, the likes of which I have rarely known. I haven’t been able to settle to anything other than torrid and problematic Mills&Boons from the early 80’s and now I’m bored with them too. I’ve started and discarded so many books and largely, it was me and not them. (Though sometimes it was very much them and not me.) Even a backlist Annabel Monaghan title couldn’t pull me out. I don’t even want to read any dark mafia romance and I can’t wait for this slump to be gone. In the meantime…

The fourth book in this brilliant police procedural series (paid link,) which far too many people are sleeping on. DI Caius Beauchamp, of Irish Jamaican descent, is on the hunt for the killer of a fusty academic in his fusty and macabre museum in Camden. This isn’t just a very deft, very twisty crime novel, these books use the whodunnit to ask the why and the why is about the state of the nation; class, politics, society. Which sounds very grandiose but never fear, this book, and the whole series, is exquisitely funny and keenly observed, I love the piss-takey vibe between Caius and his team, Matt and Amy, and even with his girlfriend, Callie who he clearly adores. If you’re looking for a little reading project this summer, then this (so far) four book series is the perfect candidate. Also you will fall in love with Caius, who is second only to Josh Derwent when it comes to my detective book boyfriends. (I think they’d respect each other but not like each other.)

Buy A Fatal Legacy here (paid link)

Talking of DI Josh Derwent (fans self,) his creator Jane Casey gives us, sadly, not another book featuring Maeve Kerrigan and Josh (paid link,) but a standalone, Everything She Didn’t Say, which happily, is the most fiendish of thrillers. Set mostly in rural Ireland, there is a bloody crime scene at a desolate house but no body and a traumatised woman, Ruth, who claims to have been staying there with her friend, Maura. Where is Maura? Who is Maura? Does Maura even exist? You’ll tear through this book, desperate to know the truth, and when the last almighty twist reveals itself, you’ll wish that you’d taken it more slowly and savoured every page. This is a writer at the peak of her powers.

Buy Everything She Didn’t Say here (paid link)

I really loved Jenny Jackson’s debut Pineapple Street (paid link) and in this second novel, she continues with one of my favourite niche literary sub-genres, monied people behaving lowkey terribly in an East Coast setting. (I said it was niche!) The Shampoo Effect is set in a small New England town where literary nepo baby Caroline scores a writer in residence gig and falls in love with Van, a crunchy granola, outdoorsy dude, which means she has to hang out with his insufferable friend group, including the beautiful Bailey, Van’s FWB who just so happens to be PWHC, (pregnant with his child.) Told from the POV of the women, Bailey, Augusta and Fran who are both juggling children, family and husbands with secrets, plus Caroline, The Shampoo Effect details the splintering of this friend group, who are awful en masse but individually tug at your heart strings. If you like a beach read with edge, then this will be your vibe.

Buy The Shampoo Effect here (paid link)

Well, I adore Georgette Heyer and I also think Sophie Irwin’s Regency romances are note perfect so I was delighted that Sophie was chosen by the Heyer estate to write a continuation novel. Using a couple of short stories from the Snowdrift (paid link) collection as inspiration, we have Henrietta, a charming and delicious adventure of missed chances and romantic scheming during the height of the London season. Hetty is the perfect heroine, full of depth and a charm that she’s unaware of, and Arthur, who she’s loved for as long as she can remember, is the quintessential Heyer hero; upstanding, dependable but swoonworthy. In fact, all of the characters, especially the incorrigible Allertons, were so deftly drawn that I’d have been happy if the book had been twice as long. Henrietta is an absolute balm for the soul and Georgette Heyer’s legacy is in safe hands with Sophie Irwin, who treats the responsibility with respect but her own considerable flair.

Preorder Henrietta here (paid link)

Another darkly funny, crime caper set in a North London that I know very well and full of North London types that I also know very well. Diana Leyland is a merry widow with three husbands dead in mysterious circumstance, each one richer than the last. So when she sets her sights on David Farrand with his five storey Hampstead house and his considerable social cachet, Diana is determined to make him husband number four. But his daughter Cat is going to do everything in her power to ensure that doesn’t happen. Like, A Fatal Legacy, Claws Out! is as much a social document as it is a wicked romp where everyone is some shade of villain so you end up rooting for the most unlikely of ‘heroes’. Something else I really relished was the frequent breaking of the fourth wall, which made it feel like I was in on the joke even though I fear that I too am a North London type.

Preorder Claws! Out here. (Paid link)

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My latest novel, The Love Library, an enemies-to-lovers literary romcom, is out now and is also an excellent summer read. (paid link)