Book of the month

Mark Sanderson – Robin Hood Yard is our british crime book of the month for May. November, 1938. Europe is teetering on the edge of war…Anti-Semitism is on the rise in Britain, and a serial killer is at work in London. Johnny Steadman, investigative journalist, is called to the scene of a gruesome murder – a man has been tied to his bed, mutilated and left to bleed to death. This is the second time the killer has struck, and it won’t be the last. Together with DC Matt Turner, Johnny tries desperately to find a link between the victims.

Luke Brown – My Biggest Lie is our book of the month for May. Liam has it all. A job he enjoys, a glamorous lifestyle and a girlfriend he is madly in love with. But after one night out he loses everything and finds himself on a plane to Buenos Aires. There he hopes to write the world's longest and truest love letter to the one person who still matters to him.

Matthew Frank – If I Should Die is our british crime book of the month for April. Vicious, apparently motiveless attacks begin on down-and-outs in South London. But when someone dies from their wounds, it's murder… For Afghan army veteran and Trainee Detective Joseph Stark, death is all too familiar. Injured in an attack that killed his colleagues, it's enough just trying to recover without enduring the rigours of a murder investigation.When a victim retaliates it becomes clear that there's more at stake than gangs preying on the vulnerable. But with the truth in sight Stark's strength is fading, and his formidable determination to see justice done may not, this time, be enough.

Rufi Thorpe – The Girls From Corona del Mar is our book of the month for April. Mia and Lorrie Ann are lifelong friends: hard-hearted Mia and untouchably beautiful, kind Lorrie Ann. While Mia struggles with a mother who drinks, a pregnancy at fifteen, and younger brothers she loves but can’t quite be good to, Lorrie Ann is luminous, surrounded by her close-knit family, immune to the mistakes that mar her best friend’s life. Then a sudden loss catapults Lorrie Ann into tragedy: things fall apart, and then fall further—and there is nothing Mia can do to help. And as good, brave, fair Lorrie Ann stops being so good, Mia begins to question just who this woman is, and what that question means about them both.

Judith Flanders – A Murder of Magpies is our british crime book of the month for March. You know when you have one of those days at the office? You spill coffee on your keyboard, the finance director goes on an expenses rampage and then, before you know it, your favourite author is murdered. Don't you just hate when that happens? Introducing the much-anticipated debut novel by Judith Flanders, acclaimed author of the non-fiction bestsellers A Circle of Sisters and The Victorian House. Drawing on her past experience as editor at prestigious publishing houses, this pitch-perfect crime caper offers a witty, intelligent and entertaining glimpse into the publishing world.

Laline Paull – The Bees is our book of the month for March. Born into the lowest class of her society, Flora 717 is a sanitation bee trained to accept, obey and serve. But Flora is not like other bees, and she will break the most sacred law of all.

Susan Elia MacNeal – Mr Churchill's Secretary (Maggie Hope #1) is our british crime book of the month for February. Maggie Hope, a young American in London during the second world war, finds herself being drawn into a secretive world of spies, code-breaking and betrayal.

Dinaw Mengestu – All Our Names  is our book of the month for February. An unforgettable tale of love, friendship and revolution set between Africa and America, by the winner of the Guardian First Book Award. Two young friends join an uprising against Uganda's corrupt regime in the early 1970s. As the line blurs between idealism and violence, one of them flees for his life. In a quiet Midwestern town in the aftermath of the Vietnam War, an African student falls for the woman who helps him settle in. Prejudice overshadows their relationship, yet it is equally haunted by the past. Both men are called Isaac. But are they one and the same?

Matt Haig – The Humans is our book of the month for January. Nominated for the 2014 Edgar AwardAfter an 'incident' one wet Friday night where Professor Andrew Martin is found walking naked through the streets of Cambridge, he is not feeling quite himself. Food sickens him. Clothes confound him. He feels lost amongst a crazy alien species and hates everyone on the planet. Everyone, that is, except Newton, and he's a dog.

Ann Granger – The Testimony of the Hanged Man is our british crime book of the month for January. Victorian London is brought vividly to life in Ann Granger's fifth historical crime novel to feature Scotland Yard's Inspector Ben Ross and his wife Lizzie. A hanged man would say anything to save his life. But what if his testimony is true? When Inspector Ben Ross is called to Newgate Prison by a man condemned to die by the hangman's noose he isn't expecting to give any credence to the man's testimony. But the account of a murder he witnessed over seventeen years ago is so utterly believeable that Ben can't help wondering if what he's heard is true.