Book of the month

Jem Lester – Shtum is our book of the month for February. Ben Jewell has hit breaking point. His ten-year-old son, Jonah, has never spoken.So when Ben and Jonah are forced to move in with Ben's elderly father, three generations of men - one who can't talk; two who won't – are thrown together. As Ben battles single fatherhood, a string of well-meaning social workers and his own demons, he learns some difficult home truths. Jonah, blissful in his ignorance, becomes the prism through which all the complicated strands of personal identity, family history and misunderstanding are finally untangled.

Jackie Kabler – The Dead Dog Day is our british crime book of the month for February. When your Monday morning begins with a dead dog and ends with a dead boss, you know it's going to be one of those days. And breakfast TV reporter Cora Baxter has already had the weekend from hell, after the man she'd planned a fabulous future with unceremoniously dumped her. Now Cora's much-hated boss has been murdered - the list of suspects isn't exactly short, but as the enquiry continues the trail leads frighteningly close to home. Why is Cora's rival, glamorous, bitchy newsreader Alice Lomas, so devastated by their boss's death? What dark secrets are Cora's camera crew hiding? And why has her now ex-boyfriend vanished? The race to stop the killer striking again is on...

Charlotte Wood – The Natural Way of Things is our book of the month for January. A horror parable about a group of women who awaken from a drugged sleep to find themselves imprisoned and forced to do hard labour. Powerfully explores contemporary misogyny and corporate control.

Andrew Martin – The Yellow Diamond is our british crime book of the month for January. India, 1923. On the broiling Night Mail from Calcutta to Jamalpur, a man is shot dead in a first class compartment. Detective Inspector Jim Stringer was sleeping in the next compartment along. Was he the intended target?

Jenni Fagan – The Sunlight Pilgrims is our book of the month for December. Set in a Scottish caravan park during a freak winter – it is snowing in Jerusalem, the Thames is overflowing, and an iceberg separated from the Fjords in Norway is expected to arrive off the coast of Scotland – The Sunlight Pilgrims tells the story of a small Scottish community living through what people have begun to think is the end of times…

William Brodrick – The Silent Ones is our british crime book of the month for December. "All you have to do is find out why Harry is prepared to blame an innocent man. That's the thread. Follow it. You'll reach the Silent Ones. This is your way - our way - of making a difference."

L. C. Tyler – The Herring Seller's Apprentice is our british crime book of the month for November. His latest novel is going nowhere, a mid-life crisis is looming and he’s burdened by the literary agent he probably deserves: Elsie Thirkettle, a diminutive but determined individual who claims to enjoy neither the company of writers nor literature of any sort. But however bad things look, they can always get worse, as Ethelred discovers when his ex-wife, Geraldine, vanishes close to his Sussex home. When the disappearance becomes a murder enquiry, the police quickly decide that Geraldine Tressider has been the victim of a local serial killer.

Susan Abulhawa – The Blue Between Sky and Water is our book of the month for November. Spanning generations and continents, The Blue Between Sky and Water is a story of powerful, flawed women; of relocation, separation and heartache; of renewal, family, endurance, and love. Susan Abulhawa brings a raw humanity and delicate authority to the story of Palestine in this devastatingly beautiful tale.

Jonathan Coe – Number 11 s our book of the month for October. This is a novel about the hundreds of tiny connections between the public and private worlds and how they affect us all. It's about the legacy of war and the end of innocence. It's about how comedy and politics are battling it out and comedy might have won. It's about how 140 characters can make fools of us all. It's about living in a city where bankers need cinemas in their basements and others need food banks down the street. It is Jonathan Coe doing what he does best ­- showing us how we live now.

Steve Burrows – A Siege of Bitterns is our british crime book of the month for October. Newly appointed police inspector Domenic Jejeune doesn't mind ruffling a few feathers to flush out suspects in the brutal murder of a renowned ecological activist.