by Tana French — The finale of a wonderful series featuring ex-cop Cal Hooper in rural Ireland. Excellent contemporary fiction and superb crime writing.
Author: Nanni
Margaret Oliphant – Victorian domestic realism
Margaret Oliphant Wilson Oliphant (born Margaret Oliphant Wilson; 4 April 1828 – 20 June 1897) was a Scottish novelist and historical writer, who usually wrote as Mrs. Oliphant. Her fictional works cover “domestic realism, the historical novel and tales of the supernatural”. (Source: Wikipedia) Margaret Oliphant
Unspeakable
by Dr Gwen Adshead and Eileen Horne — A psychiatrist/psychotherapist explores trauma responses and the psychotherapeutic process that helps patients verbalise and process trauma.
Entheóphage
by Drema Deòraich — A thought-provoking speculative novel warning of the urgency of acting to prevent environmental collapse.
Assembling Ailish
by Sharon Guard, narrated by Shelley Atkinson — an intimate, visceral and insightful novel of an Irish woman looking back on the events that have shaped her life.
My Inner Child Wants to Murder Mindfully
by Karsten Dusse — Bjorn connects with his inner child to get through the stresses of being a gangsters’ lawyer!
The Square of Sevens
by Laura Shepherd-Robinson — A gripping story with all the trappings of the best gothic novels: suspense, inheritance fraud, hidden documents…
The Art of a Lie
by Laura Shepherd-Robinson — A beautifully written, delectable 18th century mystery. Can anyone be trusted?
Drayton and Mackenzie
by Alexander Starritt — A Trollopian saga revealing a haunting, inner hollowness within a tale of finance, greentech startup and visionary ambition.
No Women Were Harmed
by Heather Mottershead — is crime justified when it is in response to a society that is inherently unfair in its fundamental workings?
The Greatest Possible Good
by Ben Brooks — A well-off family is ripped apart when the father has an epiphany and decides to give all his money away.
One Yellow Eye
by Leigh Radford — London is recovering from a zombie apocalypse after all the zombies have been killed. Or have they? Can a cure be found in case it resurfaces?
Top 10 novels of 2025
Looking for a really great read among novels published in 2025? Here (in no particular order) are my top 10 favourites. Covering a range of fiction genres — literary, speculative, historical, crime and fantasy — they are all guaranteed great
The Last Woman on Earth
by Bex Benjamin — Strong world-building, plotting and dialogue, and a love/lust romance that adds heart to this pacy post-apocalyptic thriller.
Havoc
by Rebecca Wait — An absorbing, moving story set in an English boarding school where the social cohesion is crumbling even faster than the damp bricks.
Circle of Days
by Ken Follett — A sweeping, epic tale of daily life, tribal hardships and struggles, and of the building of a timeless stone monument, set in 2500 BC.