Book of the month

Samson O’Brien has been dismissed from the police force, and returns to his hometown of Bruncliffe in the Yorkshire Dales to set up the Dales Detective Agency while he fights to clear his name. However, the people of Bruncliffe aren’t that welcoming to a man they see as trouble.

An evocative coming of age journey across 60s America. This beautifully written debut novel would not be out of place alongside the work of Steinbeck and Philipp Meyer’s American Rust. Mark Thompson’s Dust is at turns funny, and at others heart-achingly sad, the story unfolds around the honest and frequently irreverent observations of two young people trying to grow up fast in a world that is at times confusing, and at others seen with a clarity only the young may possess.

After thirty years at St Oswald’s Grammar in North Yorkshire, Latin master Roy Straitley has seen all kinds of boys come and go – the clowns, the rebels, the underdogs, and those he calls his Brodie boys. But every so often there’s a boy who doesn’t fit the mould. A troublemaker. A boy capable of twisting everything around him. A boy with hidden shadows inside. A boy who even twenty years on haunts his teacher’s dreams. A boy capable of bad things. The impressively versatile Joanne Harris is in Different Class in her psychological thriller mode, at her darkest and most unsettling. A magnificently plotted and twisty journey to the heart of a 24-year-old crime...

Even a goldfish can dream of adventure… From his enviable view from a balcony on the 27th floor of an apartment block, Ian the Goldfish has frequent – if fleeting – desires for a more exciting life. Until one day, a series of unfortunate events give him an opportunity to escape… Our story begins, however, with the human inhabitants of Ian’s building. And as Ian tumbles perilously downwards, he will witness all their lives, loves, triumphs and disasters… Fishbowl by Bradley Somer is our general fiction Book of the Month. A truly original, philosophically joyful and charming novel with the unlikeliest of heroes. This is Tales of the City as seen by a goldfish.

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."