What to read in February - our choice of the best new books this month
Writing duos dominate this month’s novels, with fiendish plots and devilish humour – plus adventures in time and a farewell from a literary legend.
Writing duos dominate this month’s novels, with fiendish plots and devilish humour – plus adventures in time and a farewell from a literary legend.
RRP £18.99 (Simon & Schuster)
Welcome to the dinner party from hell. After serving nearly 29 years for the murder of his friend, Leo, Tyler Green is out on licence and has demanded a reunion with his old university gang, for whom he has a message. Since he didn’t kill Leo, one of them must've done it. But who? And why?
Before a night of seething tensions is out, another body is found, the police rush to lazy judgement and Tyler is back inside. But it’s all a bit too neat for DI Maud O’Connor, and we’re rooting for her to discover the truth.
The Bonnie and Clyde of crime writers, Nicci Gerrard and Sean French have been on a killing spree since 1997, and they’re real pros.
RRP £16.99 (Century)
For their coursework, student private investigators Jane Pye and Simon Mash are tasked with finding a missing woman, Nellie Thorne. But here’s the thing: she’s the fifth Nellie Thorne to disappear without trace, so what hope have two woefully fashion-challenged rank amateurs of finding her?
A rattling good read from new crime syndicate Jo Dinkin and Catherine Brinkworth.
RRP £16.99 (Harvill)
Jules and Adam have been married for 25 years, and it’s all so stale. Then Adam inserts an old mix tape into his vintage stereo and is wafted back to lost youth.
Soon, they're both hooked on time travel – the music, fashions, erotic frisson – and betraying their promise not to change the past.
A pacy rom-com fraught with ethical dilemmas that bops along to its own catchy playlist.
RRP £22 (Quercus)
Detective Ali Dawson heads a hush-hush police unit looking into the coldest of cold cases via chrono-navigation.
Spirited back to Victorian London, Ali meets Charles Dickens at the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park, loosens her stays for an extratemporal fling, explores the shady world of mesmerism, and narrowly cheats death – but struggles to return to the present.
A gripping sequel to The Frozen People that I could read time and time again.
RRP £18.99 (Vintage Publishing)
"This will definitely be my last book… my final conversation with you."
Here is Barnes marking his 80th birthday, preoccupied as ever with love, loss, morality and memory (itself a form of time travel).
Teasing us to the end, he conflates fact and fiction, weaving a story about playing cupid and caring for geriatric Jimmy the Jack Russell through his wise, witty reflections on life.
Parting is such sweet sorrow!
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