Book of the month

Eager to clean up his act after his troubled early twenties, Owen has returned to Kentucky to take a job as a groundskeeper at a small college in the Appalachian foothills, one which allows him to enrol on their writing course. It's there that he meets Alma, a Writer-in-Residence, who seems to have everything Owen doesn't - a prestigious position, an Ivy League education, and published success as a writer. They begin a secret relationship, and as they grow closer, Alma, from a supportive, liberal family of Bosnian immigrants, struggles to understand Owen's fraught relationship with his own family and home. / *Join the reading group /  

”I am your maid. I know about your secrets. Your dirty laundry…” Molly the maid is all alone in the world. A nobody. She’s used to being invisible in her job at the Regency Grand Hotel, plumping pillows and wiping away the grime, dust and secrets of the guests passing through. But she is thrown into the spotlight when she discovers Mr Black very dead in his bed. This isn’t a mess that can be easily cleaned up… / * Join the Crime reading group in Göteborg /

In the aftermath of the Great Depression, Elle Ranier marries Simon to escape a life of destitution. She leaves New York City for Lyra, a remote, wooded island off the south-eastern coast of America. There, amid rumours of strange jewels hidden beneath the water, Elle harbours a secret: her guest, Gabriel, is not a cousin but her lover. A mesmerising exploration of the limits of memory, and the people we can never forget. / *Join the reading group /   

Welcome to Roslazny – a sleepy Russian town where intrigue and murder combine to disturb the icy silence... Olga Pushkin, Railway Engineer (Third Class) and would-be bestselling author, spends her days in a little rail-side hut with only Dmitri the hedgehog for company. An intriguing but charming murder mystery packed with psychological depth and wonderfully-drawn characters. / *Join the Crime reading group in Uppsala or Göteborg /

A queen of punk before her time. A duo on the brink of stardom. A night that will define their story for ever. New York city in the 70s. Opal is a fiercely independent young woman pushing against the grain in her style and attitude, a Black punk artist before her time. Despite her unconventional looks, Opal believes she can be a star. So when the aspiring British singer/songwriter Neville Charles discovers her one night, she takes him up on his offer to make rock music together. Longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2022. 

”When a book begins with a dead horse, you know it's going to be good.” A sucker punch noir that is also a powerful and haunting allegory of work, debt, and power. Revelling in its con-artistry and double-crosses, Just Thieves is a nail-biting, noir-ish exploration of the working lives of two unforgettable crooks and the hidden forces that rule and ruin their lives. ”A deep dive into the motivations that propel all of us, thieves and otherwise – family, loyalty, and most of all love. Great fun and profoundly sad at once, which is no mean trick.”

It is 1985, in an Irish town. During the weeks leading up to Christmas, Bill Furlong, a coal and timber merchant, faces into his busiest season. As he does the rounds, he feels the past rising up to meet him – and encounters the complicit silences of a people controlled by the Church. Shortlisted for the 2022 Man Booker Prize!

November 1924. The Endeavour sets sail to New York with 2,000 passengers – and a killer – on board. Can you solve the murder before the ship docks and the killer walks free? A clever whodunnit, a golden age murder mystery set on a 1920s cruise liner. It has been described as ”Agatha Christie meets Titanic”. Tom Hindle’s debut novel was inspired by masters of the crime genre from Agatha Christie to Anthony Horowitz, and has been met with rave reviews.

A faded list. Nine favourite stories. For two strangers, friendship is only a page away… When Mukesh Patel pops to the local library, he has no idea his life’s about to change. He meets Aleisha, a reluctant librarian and the keeper of a curious reading list – just a scrappy piece of paper with the names of 9 stories. It doesn’t seem anything special. Yet something tells her to keep it close… A fresh chance at life, at friendship, wasn’t on the cards for these lonely souls – but every story starts somewhere…

Can you crack the Twyford Code? Edith Twyford was once a world-famous children's author, but now her only legacy is the rumoured existence of the Twyford Code: a series of clues hidden in her books leading to... what? No one knows - but that hasn't stopped the speculation. The Twyford Code hides secrets some would do anything to possess. The race is on to solve the mystery of the century. Could you get there first?