Portobello Book Blog

I thought I’d round off this year with a quick look at some books being published in 2018 I’m looking forward to reading.

 

Peter May – I’ll Keep You Safe 

I loved Peter May’s Lewis trilogy as well as Exit Island and Coffin Road. Looking forward to reading this one also set on Lewis and Harris. To be published by Riverrun on 11th January.

WHATEVER HAPPENS

Niamh and Ruairidh Macfarlane co-own the Hebridean company Ranish Tweed. On a business trip to Paris to promote their luxury brand, Niamh learns of Ruairidh’s affair, and then looks on as he and his lover are killed by a car bomb. She returns home to Lewis, bereft.

I’LL ALWAYS BE THERE FOR YOU

Niamh begins to look back on her life with Ruairidh, desperate to identify anyone who may have held a grudge against him. The French police, meanwhile, have ruled out terrorism, and ruled in murder – and sent Detective Sylvie Braque to shadow their prime suspect: Niamh.

I’LL KEEP YOU SAFE, NO MATTER WHAT

As one woman works back through her memories, and the other moves forward with her investigation, the two draw ever closer to a deadly enemy with their own, murderous, designs.

 

 

Sarah Vaughan – Anatomy of a Scandal

I have actually already read this and it is superb! Due to be published on 11th January by Simon & Schuster. 

Anatomy of a Scandal centres on a high-profile marriage that begins to unravel when the husband is accused of a terrible crime. Sophie is sure her husband, James, is innocent and desperately hopes to protect her precious family from the lies which might ruin them. Kate is the barrister who will prosecute the case – she is equally certain that James is guilty and determined he will pay for his crimes.

 

 

Jo Spain – The Confession

Another due for publication on 11th January (by Penguin), obviously a popular date with publishers! I have really enjoyed all Jo Spain’s DI Tom Reynolds books and this sounds another cracking read!

Late one night a man walks into the luxurious home of disgraced banker Harry McNamara and his wife Julie. The man launches an unspeakably brutal attack on Harry as a horror-struck Julie watches, frozen by fear.

Just an hour later the attacker, JP Carney, has handed himself in to the police. He confesses to beating Harry to death, but JP claims that the assault was not premeditated and that he didn’t know the identity of his victim. With a man as notorious as Harry McNamara, the detectives cannot help wondering, was this really a random act of violence or is it linked to one of Harry’s many sins: corruption, greed, betrayal?

This gripping psychological thriller will have you questioning, who – of Harry, Julie and JP – is really the guilty one? And is Carney’s surrender driven by a guilty conscience or is his confession a calculated move in a deadly game?

 

 

Jojo Moyes – Still Me

Very excited to have a proof copy of this to read and so looking forward to following Lou on her New York adventure. Also due to be published in January which is shaping up to be a great reading month but this one is published a little later in the month on 25th by Penguin Books. 

Lou Clark knows too many things . . .

She knows how many miles lie between her new home in New York and her new boyfriend Sam in London.

She knows her employer is a good man and she knows his wife is keeping a secret from him.

What Lou doesn’t know is she’s about to meet someone who’s going to turn her whole life upside down.

Because Josh will remind her so much of a man she used to know that it’ll hurt.

Lou won’t know what to do next, but she knows that whatever she chooses is going to change everything.

 

 

Claire Mackintosh – Let Me Lie

The latest from the author of the incredible I Let You Go and I See You is back with a book published on 8th March by Sphere and it sounds amazing.

The police say it was suicide.
Anna says it was murder.
They’re both wrong.

One year ago, Caroline Johnson chose to end her life brutally: a shocking suicide planned to match that of her husband just months before. Their daughter, Anna, has struggled to come to terms with their loss ever since.

Now with a young baby of her own, Anna misses her mother more than ever and starts to ask questions about her parents’ deaths. But by digging up the past, is she putting her future in danger? Sometimes it’s safer to let things lie . . .

 

 

   

 

Amanda Prowse – Anna and Theo

Not one but two books to look forward to from Amanda Prowse, Anna is due to be published on 8th March by Head of Zeus with the other side of the story, Theo, to be published on 5th April.

There are two sides to every love story…

Anna Cole grew up in care, and wants to start a family of her own. Theo Montgomery had a loveless childhood, and wants to find his soulmate.

Then, one day, Theo meets Anna, and Anna meets Theo.

Each shows the other how to love. And each shows the other what heartbreak feels like…

 

 

Kit de Waal – The Trick to Time

I so enjoyed My Name is Leon, Kit de Waal’s debut novel and this sounds amazing too. And just how beautiful is that cover? The Trick to Time will be published by Penguin on 29th March.

Mona is a dollmaker. She crafts beautiful, handmade wooden dolls in her workshop in a sleepy seaside town. Every doll is special. Every doll has a name. And every doll has a hidden meaning, from a past Mona has never accepted.

Each new doll takes Mona back to a different time entirely – back to Birmingham, in 1972. Back to the thrill of being a young Irish girl in a big city, with a new job and a room of her own in a busy boarding house. Back to her first night out in town, where she meets William, a gentle Irish boy with an easy smile and an open face. Back to their whirlwind marriage, and unexpected pregnancy. And finally, to the tragedy that tore them apart.

 

Faultlines by Doug Johnstone

This is another I’ve been lucky enough to have a very early copy of. This latest novel from local author Doug Johnstone will be published by Orenda Books on 22nd May and I think it’s his best yet! As my house overlooks the Firth of Forth where, in the book, a new volcanic island has emerged, I am wondering whether I need to think about moving….

In a reimagined contemporary Edinburgh, in which a tectonic fault has opened up to produce a new volcano in the Firth of Forth, and where tremors are an everyday occurrence, volcanologist Surtsey makes a shocking discovery. On a clandestine trip to The Inch – the new volcanic island – to meet Tom, her lover and her boss, she finds his lifeless body. Surtsey’s life quickly spirals into a nightmare when someone makes contact – someone who claims to know what she’s done…

 

 

Kate Atkinson – Transcription

Looking much further ahead, Kate Atkinson’s new novel Transcription will be published by Doubleday on 6th September 2018. I am a huge fan of this author and have no doubt I’ll enjoy this too. (Secretly I keep hoping for another Jackson Brodie novel!)

Transcription is a bravura novel of extraordinary power and substance. Juliet Armstrong is recruited as a young woman by an obscure wartime department of the Secret Service. In the aftermath of war she joins the BBC, where her life begins to unravel, and she finally has to come to terms with the consequences of idealism.

 

 

Patrick Gale – Studies for Resilience

As you can see, the cover for Patrick Gale’s new novel is yet to be revealed. He is one of my all time favourite authors so I am very excited to read his latest, due to be published on 6th September by Tinder Press.

1970s Weston-Super-Mare and ten-year-old oddball Eustace, an only child, has life transformed by his mother’s quixotic decision to sign him up for cello lessons. Music-making brings release for a boy who is discovering he is an emotional volcano. He laps up lessons from his young teacher, not noticing how her brand of glamour is casting a damaging spell over his frustrated and controlling mother.

When he is enrolled in holiday courses in the Scottish borders, lessons in love, rejection and humility are added to daily practice.

Drawing in part on his own boyhood, Patrick Gale’s new novel explores a collision between childish hero worship and extremely messy adult love lives.

 

So there you have just a selection of what I am looking forward to reading next year. I wonder what other amazing books I will read over the next few months? Do you have any you are looking forward to? Let me know in the comments. Happy New Year to all my readers!