Must Read Fiction for November 2024 - Jonathan Ball Publishers (2024)

A storm lies ahead of her. Freedom lies beyond it …

ONE NIGHT

It is a wild night in the middle of December, and GP Enya is crouched over a teenage boy, performing CPR in the rain.

ONE MOMENT

The boy survives, but Enya’s life splinters in two. Trapped in a loveless marriage, the storm propels her to break free.

ONE CHANCE TO BE FREE

But even in the remote country town that becomes her sanctuary, Enya is haunted by the night in the rain.

Beneath the boughs of an ancient tree that tells a thousand stories, can she find the courage to face her own?

The #1 Sunday Times bestseller is back with a festive winter treat, set in the world of the bestselling Caraval series! With gorgeous interior illustrations by Rosie Fowinkle.

Snowflakes are falling. Invitations are arriving. And holiday magic is swirling in the Capital City of the Meridian Empire.

It’s Great Holiday Eve Eve. Scarlett Dragna is planning a spectacular Holiday celebration for the city. Donatella is searching for the perfect gift. Julian is looking ridiculously handsome in green. And Legend . . .

Well, sadly Legend is not a fan of the Great Holiday. Tella is hoping her perfect gift will change his mind. Unfortunately, she hasn’t found this perfect gift just yet. But it is Great Holiday Eve Eve . . . surely there’s some holiday magic swirling around.

Welcome, welcome back to the world of Caraval, where even holidays are not as they seem.

Set after Stephanie Garber’s #1 New York Times bestselling Caraval series, this delightful novella will take readers on the ultimate holiday adventure, full of clockwork boys, poisoned candy, impish snow globes, merriment, and-if Tella gets her way-love.

Complete with gorgeous illustrations, this is the perfect edition for collectors, readers, dreamers, and lovers of holiday magic.

Don’t miss the next captivating page-turner from Sunday Times bestseller Susan Lewis!

A triple murder.

A mother, her daughter and a family friend, are brutally killed at Kellon Manse one quiet summer’s day.

A young girl disappears and has not been seen since.

One suspect.

All fingers point to the husband of one of the victims. Yet he still walks free.

An unsolvable crime.

Cristy Ward has discovered the perfect next feature for her true crime podcast. Who really killed the three women at Kellon Manse?

And is there a chance the missing girl is still alive?

The brilliant new historical thriller from the acclaimed author of CHILD OF THE RUINS.

If you were given the opportunity to disappear and start your life again, would you take it?

Paris 1933. Four people’s lives are dramatically torn apart by a single terrifying event. Two days before Christmas the express train to Strasbourg crashes into a local train in the winter darkness outside Paris. On board is Gilles Malroux, a man with a shady past and a strong reason to avoid the police. In the mayhem of the crash he is badly injured but to avoid capture by the police he swaps identity papers with one of the other victims of the impact. Gilles tries to flee in the dark but finds himself taken to the house of a woman he doesn’t know but who calls him Davide. She nurses him. But is the bitter medicine in the spoon she puts to his lips healing him or harming him?

Camille Malroux is Gilles’ sister. She works for the French Civil Service and is trying to climb the ladder of respectability after a childhood in poverty. When she is informed by police that her brother is seriously injured in hospital, she rushes to his bedside, only to discover it is not Gilles. It is a heavily bandaged stranger. He is unconscious and has her brother’s identity papers in his locker. Only by digging to discover the true identity of the bandaged man in the hospital bed can she hope to trace Gilles.

But Gilles is sinking into further danger. He is drugged. A priest and a doctor hover over him, as if waiting for him to die, and constantly the woman who calls him Davide is at his side. What is it she wants from him?

The Crash is thrilling historical fiction about identity, revenge and survival.

Santiago

One mistake destroys my career. I go from most eligible bachelor to monster, hiding from the world. At least until Chloe breaks into my home. My new fake girlfriend is a temporary fix to my biggest problem. But as our game changes, so do my feelings. There’s only one issue stopping me from claiming her. Me.

Chloe

It all started with a birthday wish, some vodka, and an ancestry kit. That’s how I end up in Italy, finding my long-lost father. But one decision lands me a fake boyfriend I don’t want. The more we pretend, the easier our ruse becomes. I told myself not to fall in love with a liar like Santiago. I should have listened.

Redeemed is a steamy standalone romance in the Dirty Air world. Recommended for mature audiences.

The brand new Ballard and Bosch thriller from the global bestseller Michael Connelly.

LAPD Detective Renée Ballard tracks a terrifying serial rapist whose trail has gone cold with the help of the newest volunteer to the Open-Unsolved Unit: Patrol Officer Maddie Bosch, Harry’s daughter.

Renée Ballard and the LAPD’s Open-Unsolved Unit get a hot shot DNA connection between a recently arrested man and a serial rapist and murderer who went quiet twenty years ago. The arrested man is only twenty-three, so the genetic link must be familial. It is his father who was the Pillowcase Rapist, responsible for a five-year reign of terror in the city of angels. But when Ballard and her team move in on their suspect, they encounter a baffling web of secrets and legal hurdles.

Meanwhile, Ballard’s badge, gun, and ID are stolen-a theft she can’t report without giving her enemies in the department the ammunition they need to end her career as a detective. She works the burglary alone, but her solo mission leads her into greater danger than she anticipates. She has no choice but to go outside the department for help, and that leads her to the door of Harry Bosch.

Finally, Ballard takes on a new volunteer to the cold case unit. Bosch’s daughter Maddie wants to supplement her work as a patrol officer on the night beat by investigating cases with Ballard. But Renée soon learns that Maddie has an ulterior motive for getting access to the city’s library of lost souls.

A dark and beguiling tour through the streets of a magical London by the Sunday Times bestselling master of modern fantasy, Alan Moore.

The year is 1949, the city London. Dennis Knuckleyard is a hapless eighteen-year-old who works and lives in a second-hand bookstore. One day, on an errand to retrieve rare books, Dennis discovers that one of them does not exist. It is a fictitious book, yet it is physically there in his hands nonetheless. How? It comes from the Great When, a dark and magical version of the city that is beyond time. There, epochs blend and realities and unrealities blur. If Dennis does not take this book back to the other London, he will be killed.

So begins a journey delving deep into the city’s occult underbelly and tarrying with an eccentric cast of sorcerers, gangsters, and murderers, many of whom have their own nefarious intentions. Soon Dennis finds himself at the center of an explosive series of events that may alter and endanger both Londons.

Mystical, magnificently written and hilarious, The Great When is Moore’s most imaginative work yet and the first in the fantastic new Long London series.

The brand new novel from the queen of crime and iconic No. 1 bestseller Martina Cole.

It’s time to confess their sins.

Steph Barker can’t forget her past. A single mother, Steph runs a women’s shelter for local prostitutes while coming to terms with a tragic loss. And it’s people like Joseph Potter, battling with his own grief, who keep her going.

When Hennie, one of her friends from the shelter, goes missing, Steph’s convinced Hennie’s violent pimp Artie Rogers has something to do with it. Steph and Artie go way back, but his reign of terror throughout the Medway towns is out of control and even she can’t do anything to stop him. Then another prostitute disappears and it’s time to find out who’s guilty.

Everyone has their secrets – but one them is getting away with murder.

Fear never dies…

These stories from eighteen masters of the craft will curdle your blood, haunt your dreams and redefine terror.

An exploited child worker in the silver mines of Bolivia an ally – but at what cost? A young woman’s workplace affair has terrifying repercussions when her lover’s wife dies. A sailor’s wife takes her communion with Nature a little too far…

From a hungry young woman who is not what she seems, to a boy who has taken his mother’s advice a touch too seriously; from disfigured girls willing to pay any price to fit in, to an immigrant who cannot escape his tormentor; from a new home with a sinister secret, to the discovery that a long-dead parent’s corpse is perfectly preserved decades later; this collection plumbs the depths of the psyche and dredges up some very modern horrors.

Featuring stories by: Susan Barker, J K Chukwu, Bridget Collins, Mariana Enríquez, Michel Faber, Lewis Hancox, Emilia Hart, Ainslie Hogarth, Robert Lautner, Adorah Nworah, Irenosen Okojie, Lucy Rose, Lionel Shriver, James Smythe, Lavie Tidhar, Francine Toon, Evie Wyld and Louisa Young.

The 120-million-copy bestseller returns with a gripping new thriller. Autopsies can reveal the dead’s secrets, and this victim is sending Kay Scarpetta a message…

Summoned to an unnerving, abandoned theme park to retrieve a body, Dr Kay Scarpetta is devastated to learn that the victim is a man she once loved. While teaching in Rome during the early days of her career, Scarpetta had an intense love affair with Sal Giordano that led to a lifelong friendship.

The murder scene is bizarre, with a crop circle of petals around the body, and Giordano’s skin is strangely red. Scarpetta’s niece Lucy believes he was dropped from an unidentified flying craft. Scarpetta knows an autopsy can reveal the dead’s secrets, but she is shocked to find her friend seems to have deliberately left her a clue.

As the investigators are torn between suspicions of otherworldly forces, and of Giordano himself, Scarpetta detects an explanation closer to home that, in her mind, is far more evil . . .

The richly atmospheric new Strafford and Quirke mystery, from the Sunday Times bestselling author of Snow.

‘He had seen drowned people. A sight not to be forgotten.’

1950s, rural Ireland. A loner comes across a mysteriously empty car in a field. Knowing he shouldn’t approach, but unable to hold back, he soon finds himself embroiled in a troubling missing person’s case, as a husband claims his wife may have thrown herself into the sea.

Called in from Dublin to investigate is Detective Inspector Strafford, who soon turns to his old ally – the flawed but brilliant pathologist Quirke – a man he is linked to in increasingly complicated ways.

Gladiator meets Throne of Glass in this dark fantasy series full of epic battles and forbidden romance!

One hundred years. Tens of thousands of gladiators. And today, only one will rise…

Everything in the Kingdom of Arrow is a lie.

Leith of Grey has nothing left, except his dying sister and his battle scarred human body, fuelled by rage and hardened by years of fighting.

So when the chance comes to fight as a gladiator in a vicious, bloodthirsty tournament, he seizes it with both hands. Winning will earn him the coveted title of Bloodguard, his freedom, and his sister’s life. But only if he survives.

Then Leith meets Maeve, an elven royal who is everything he despises. Until the alluring princess offers him the one thing he needs most: victory.

But in a kingdom built on secrets and lies, hope doesn’t come cheap.

Nor will his revenge . . .

She’ll save Christmas just to spite him…

There’s only one thing standing in the way of Cat King saving a small town’s Christmas festival: Grumpy town manager Noah Yates.

Single dad Noah takes his responsibilities seriously. When a late season hurricane turns Merry, Connecticut, into a disaster, he’s left scrambling to pick up the pieces of the town he loves.

At least, until home renovation expert and smoking hot reality TV star Catalina King arrives with a camera crew and a budget big enough to put the town back together again. But Noah doesn’t want a celebrity diva capitalizing on their tragedy or filling his daughter’s head with visions of glitz and glam.

Blonde bombshell Cat is used to being underestimated, but Noah has an uncanny knack for getting under her skin. They can’t be in a room together without rubbing each other the wrong way…except that time in the dark alley where the rubbing was just right. Can these enemies work together to pull off a Christmas miracle or will their fighting leave them both on the naughty list?

Author’s Note: These enemies-to-lovers deliver the holiday feels with a dirty talking hero, ballsy blonde who never backs down, steamy hot break-the dining-room-table sexy times, and a small town that still believes in the magic of Christmas.

A small-town faking dating romance from the bestselling author ofFlawlessandWild Love.

Stefan Dalca is infuriatingly handsome and annoyingly persistent. We’re supposed to hate each other, but apparently he didn’t get the memo, because he’s been asking me out for years. And I always say no. Until today.

Today he has something that I desperately need – today, he’s my saviour. Our time together starts out as a simple transaction: three dates, no touching, no telling anyone – and definitely no falling in love.

But with every intimate conversation, and each stolen glance, the tension between us builds. The way he looks at me gives me butterflies. And when he finally touches me? We sizzle. Stefan makes me feel seen in a way no other person has before. He cherishes my words as passionately as my body. He makes me laugh, he makes me blush. He’s not the villain he’s been made out to be.

And suddenly I find myself longing for him in a way the people closest to me wouldn’t approve of or understand. Giving in to Stefan Dalca is playing with fire. But with him I don’t even mind the heat.

From the no.1 international bestselling author of The Reader, a masterful new novel about German reunification.

In search of love and freedom, Birgit flees to Kaspar in West Berlin. It is only after her death that Kaspar discovers the price she paid to get there. He sets out to uncover her secrets in the East, meeting those she cared about, witnessing their oppression and determination first-hand.

His search leads him to a rural community of neo-Nazis, and to a young girl who comes to think of him as a grandfather. Their worlds could not be more different – but he is determined to fight for her. He, too, considers her a granddaughter.

From the author of the no.1 international bestseller The Reader, The Granddaughter is a gripping and transportive novel that asks what might be found when it seems like all is lost.

Translated from the German by Charlotte Collins

WINNER OF THE 2024 EDGAR AWARD FOR BEST FIRST NOVEL

WINNER OF THE 2024 INTERNATIONAL THRILLER WRITERS AWARD FOR BEST FIRST NOVEL

The thrilling debut from author and former CIA officer I.S. Berry, following an American spy’s last dangerous mission.

Shane Collins, a world-weary CIA spy, is ready to come in from the cold. Stationed in Bahrain for his final tour, he’s anxious to dispense with his mission — uncovering Iranian support for the insurgency. But then he meets Almaisa, an enigmatic artist, and his eyes are opened to a side of Bahrain most expats never experience, to questions he never thought to ask.

When his trusted informant becomes embroiled in a murder, Collins finds himself drawn deep into the conflict and his romance is upended. In an instant, he’s caught in the crosshairs of a revolution. He must navigate a bloody uprising, win Almaisa’s love, and uncover the murky border where Bahrain’s secrets end and America’s begin.