The wonder of the night train: headlamps ablaze, passengers boarding after sunset and leaving before sunrise, slipping in and out of compartments unseen. For Monisha Rajesh, the singular thrill of sleeper trains inspired a new journey around the world – one filled with moonlit landscapes, cosy compartments and quirky companions. From Austria's Nightjet to Scotland's Caledonian Sleeper and Finland's Santa Claus Express, Rajesh invites us on a multi-year adventure aboard […]

Bombay, 1951. A political rally ends in tragedy when India's first female police detective, Persis Wadia, kills a lone gunman as he attempts to assassinate the divisive new defence minister, a man calling for war with India's new post-Independence neighbours. With the Malabar House team tasked to hunt down the assassin's co-conspirators - aided by agents from Britain's MI6 security service - Persis is quickly relegated to the sidelines. But […]

Filled with wit and verve, Vaseem Khan brings his vibrant and dynamic style to one of Ian Fleming's most beloved characters, Q. Charming, drily humorous, and intelligently crafted, Quantum of Menace, the first in the Q mystery books, will appeal to Bond fans, readers of Murder Before Evensong, The Thursday Murder Club and Slow Horses novels, and those who are looking for a new take on clever crime fiction. Q […]

In a magnetic follow-up to Winter Animals, Ashani Lewis' debut collection takes a kaleidoscopic approach to desire – its obsessions, its grotesque demands and the distance it creates between us – and the strange things we stubbornly, hopefully, desperately expect from our lives. A dying woman dedicates her life to Antarctic ice; an All-American star longs for a romance that defies convention – to the detriment of his carefully curated […]

In the Burning Ghats of Calcutta where the dead are laid to rest, a man is found murdered, his throat cut from ear to ear. The body is that of a popular patron of the arts, a man who was, by all accounts, beloved by all: so what was the motive for his murder? Despite being out of favour with the Imperial Police Force, Detective Sam Wyndham is assigned to […]

Jai dreams of being a dragon rider. He dreams of freedom from the Sabine Empire and a world in which he can lead his people, the Kidara, to freedom. But even though he has his dragon, Winter, she is still growing, just as he’s still growing in his own power. And the road to victory is even more fraught than he had hoped… Because even when he finds a tribe […]

'By normal, you mean like you? A slag with a saviour complex?' Nadia is an academic who's been disowned by her puritanical mother and dumped by her lover, Rosy. She decides to make a getaway, accepting a UN job in Iraq. Tasked with rehabilitating ISIS women, Nadia becomes mired in the opaque world of international aid, surrounded by bumbling colleagues. Sara is a precocious and sweary East Londoner who joined […]

The ritual of chai offers a moment to stop, to inhale, to feel awakened by the heady concoction of tea leaves and spices, to look out of the window and observe, to sit and let thoughts waft into thin air like the steam from the chai, a moment to breathe and sigh, to feel the heat of the spices absorb into the body, to feel the senses awaken from the […]

THE WORLD KNOWS HER AS THE GIRL IN CELL A.Convicted of murder at seventeen, infamous killer and true crime celebrity Orianna Negi has always maintained her innocence.BUT IF SHE DIDN'T KILL GIDEON WYCLERC...Orianna has a blind spot over that fateful day: she can't remember what happened. Forensic psychologist Annie Ledet is tasked with unlocking the truth.....THEN WHO DID?Orianna grew up in Eden Falls, ruled by the insular Wyclerc dynasty and its ruthless […]

In Tonight the Music Seems so Loud, bestselling author Sathnam Sanghera portrays the extraordinary life, and times, of one of Britain's most beloved musical icons – George Michael. Through the lens of George Michael's life, Sathnam Sanghera, the prize-winning author of Empireland, writes a kaleidoscopic story of immigration; homophobia; fame; the 80s and 90s; creative and musical genius; the tabloids; addiction; obsessive fans; shame; and why the love for George […]