By Claire Buss, Deputy Editor, Write On! 

At Write On! and Pen to Print, we want to help connect authors and readers, playwrights and audiences, so we’ve created a Spotlight page on the last Saturday of the month, showcasing some of the exciting new reads and plays available. The curated list is based on books and plays that you send us, so if you’re an author or a playwright and you’d like your book or play in the spotlight, reach out to us at pentoprint@lbbd.gov.uk. Whether you’re an indie author, with a small press or mainstream publisher, established or brand new playwright, we’d love to hear from you and shine a light on your new work.

Write On! offers other opportunities for writers as well. If you’d like us to feature an extract from your book or a short story, please send the extract, book cover and blurb to pentoprint@lbbd.gov.uk with the subject: Write On! Showcase (ensuring you have your publisher’s permission, of course).

Pen to Print are also looking for short videos from people reading a passage from their favourite book, or authors reading extracts from their own books. These videos will be featured on the Pen to Print YouTube channel and across our social media. Please send in your videos or links to pentoprint@lbbd.gov.uk with the subject: Video Stories.

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How To Get Away With Murder by Tam Barnett

 

I’m obsessed with true crime. All the podcasts, the documentaries… I can’t get enough.

And now there’s a murderer on the loose where I live. What a rush!

Of course, some people might wonder if it’s me. Am I an innocent soul with an unhealthy fascination, or a deadly psychopath?

It’s the killer question. After all, I would love to know how to get away with murder…

Available to buy here
Connect with Tam Barnett

 

Poppy’s Choice by Dilly Court

Let The Light In by Jenny Downham & Louis Hill

Dark Times For The Clarks Factory Girls by May Ellis

The Three Lives Of Cate Kay by Kate Fagan

Cate Kay is the most famous author on the planet. But it’s just a name. Somehow, despite her bestselling novels and the record-breaking film franchise, the writer has remained completely anonymous.

Anne Marie Callahan is the name nobody knows. Only the people she left behind. And Annie knows there’s no one there any more who could connect the dots between the girl who ran away all those years ago and the famous novelist.

If you asked, she’d say her name was Cass Ford. That’s what her barista shouts each morning. And it’s how she introduces herself to the woman she’ll eventually call the love of her life.

Three names, three lives. But Cate Kay is finally ready to tell you who she really is.

And when the truth is out, will everyone’s favourite novelist hold on to her place in our hearts or are some betrayals impossible to forgive?

Available to buy here
Connect with Kate Fagan

Season by George Harrison

For ten months of the year, two men are drawn to adjacent seats in a stadium, carrying the burdens of life and pouring all their hopes into their beloved but ailing team.

Fatherless and fretful, the Young Man is trying to nurture a precarious new relationship and to find his place in the world. The Old Man, an increasingly isolated carer for his fading wife, knows he has little left to look forward to. Neither fan is a comfortable talker. However, in a slow-motion play of nods, silences and guarded chats, they strike up a tentative friendship across the generational gap.

Told through 38 hapters – one for each game of the Premier League campaign – Season is a lyrical, hypnotic and gently uplifting study of loneliness and modern masculinity. About much more than football, it celebrates the healing, unifying and maddening role of ritualised sport in the lives of ordinary people.

Available to buy here

Midnight In Paris by Gillian Harvey

Ten years. Two people. One last visit…

Sophie and Tom first visited Paris together as students. During their weekend away in the world’s most romantic city, falling in love – with the place, and each other – was simply inevitable.

They resolved to return every summer and kept their word, until something happened that changed their world forever.

Five years on, Sophie’s travelling to Paris alone to meet Tom again in their special place, on the Pont du Carrousel at midnight.

Because life has torn them apart. And now Sophie has something to tell Tom. Something that will change everything.

Available to buy here
Connect with Gillian Harvey

Thank You, Everything by Icinori

 

What starts as a series of ‘thank yous’ addressed to common objects that inhabit our daily lives gradually builds into a fantastic journey across landscapes, seasons, and inner discoveries.

Deceptively simple, each page acknowledges the contributions of a different object (spoon, rock, beasts) or concept (summer, slumber, surprise), with each image building on the next to create a dazzling narrative that invites readers to puzzle and play, explore and discover, appreciate and marvel.

Available to buy here
Connect with Icinori

 

What The Wife Knew by Darby Kane

Dr Richmond Dougherty is a renowned pediatric surgeon, an infamous tragedy survivor, and a national hero. He’s also very dead—thanks to a fall down the stairs.

His neighbours angrily point a finger at the newest Ms Dougherty, Addison. The sudden marriage to the mysterious young woman only lasted 97 days, and he’d had two suspicious ‘accidents’ during that time. Now Addison is a very rich widow.

As law enforcement starts to circle in on Addison and people in town become increasingly hostile, sides are chosen with Kathryn, Richmond’s high school sweetheart, wife number one, and the mother of his children, leading the fray. Despite rising tensions, Addison is even more driven to forge ahead on the path she charted years ago.

Determined at all costs to unravel Richmond’s legacy, she soon becomes a target — with a shocking note left on her bedroom wall: You will pay. But it will take a lot more than faceless threats to stop Addison. Her plan to marry Richmond then ruin him may have been derailed by his unexpected death, but she’s not done with him yet.

Available to buy here
Connect with Darby Kane

The Cursed Tomb by Iszi Lawrence

It’s 1249 BCE in ancient Egypt and 11-year-old Henut is sceptical of just about everything, even the gods.

But a mysterious break-in, an unsettling dream and a strangely familiar shadowy figure lead her into a dangerous quest she could never have imagined. Will she really venture into a tomb in the Valley of Kings? She might not have a choice.

Packed with real historical details of the rule of Pharaoh Rameses II, mummification, hieroglyphs, historical figures and the pyramids of Giza, this page-turning thriller about the myths and magic of ancient Egypt will have readers gripped.

Available to buy here
Connect with Iszi Lawrence

 

Inkbound: Meticulous Jones And The Skull Tattoo by Philippa Leathley

On her tenth birthday, Meticulous ‘Metty’ Jones receives her fate, as all children do, in the form of a magical tattoo on her hand.

She hopes that her tattoo will reveal an exciting destiny: travel, discovery or adventure. What appears is a skull in the palm of a violet glove – Metty’s fate is to be a murderer.

When Metty’s father disappears in mysterious circumstances, Aunt Magnificent takes her to the glittering city of New London, filled with magic, wonder and enchantment. But when Metty hears rumours of a shadowy organisation known as the Black Moths, she begins to suspect they are connected to her own dark fate.

Available to buy here
Connect with Philippa Leathley

The Cream Tea Killer by Judy Leigh

Morwenna Mutton should be living the quiet life of a librarian and grandmother in Cornwall’s beautiful Seal Bay – if only dead bodies would stop turning up…

After the excitement of her last investigation, amateur sleuth Morwenna is looking forward to things getting back to normal. When local DJ Irina asks to meet, however, desperate to share information she has discovered regarding nefarious goings-on, Morwenna can’t resist.

But Irina never arrives for their drink. Instead, her body is washed up on the beach, an apparent victim of an accidental drowning. At once, keen wild bather Morwenna knows something is amiss, as Irina was a strong swimmer who knew the local conditions well. What had Irina uncovered and who would want her dead?

When the local news dubs Irina’s murderer ‘The Cream Tea Killer’ in honour of Cornwall’s famous delicacy, the clock starts ticking. Now the murderer knows Morwenna is on their trail, no one in her family is safe. She must get to the truth before the killer gets to her.

Available to buy here
Connect with Judy Leigh

One Day And Forever by Shari Low

As dawn breaks, four people are planning journeys that could change their lives forever.

Kara McIntyre is supposed to be jetting off to her destination wedding in Hawaii. However, a last-minute hitch appears to have left her without a job, home and, more importantly, a fiancé.

TV sensation Ollie Chiles and Kara always have each other’s backs. But when his wife goes viral in a compromising clinch with another man, Ollie must choose between supporting his best friend in her hour of need or going home to save his marriage.

Alice Brookes is flying away to a new life after surviving a horrendous marriage and a very public scandal, until a stranger brings a letter from the past that could change everything.

After saying goodbye to someone he loves, Zac Conlan should be heading back to Dublin. Now, a shocking discovery is threatening to change his plans and his future.

When weather delays their flights, Kara, Ollie, Alice and Zac discover that storms are brewing… and the turbulence is about to shake their worlds.

Available to buy here

Foxglovewise by Ange Mlinko

Foxglovewise is complex but inviting, profound but wry.

It’s firmly contemporary while also being in lively conversation with deep histories: “Where do stargazers go in a city of light?”

Mlinko takes us from a Scottish cemetery to a mangrove in Florida via a supercell storm in Texas. Along the way, her use of form and rhyme is as light as it is enlightening as she probes our all-too-human nature and pays careful attention to the quiet marvels to be found by looking carefully at right where we happen to be.

Available to buy here

 

Have I Told You Lately by Beth Moran

One photo and a handful of letters can change everything.

Emmie Brown has always known she was adopted. Nellie Brown sacrificed everything to make their life together comfortable and, while not the most demonstrative or warm woman, Emmie never doubted her devotion. But when Emmie finds a stash of letters and a hidden photo after her mother’s death, everything she has believed changes in an instant. And she won’t be able to rest until she finds the mysterious ‘G’ who sent the letters.

Emmie’s quest takes her to the breathtakingly beautiful Isle of Siskin and into the home of the gregarious, fiercely loyal Hawkins family. After an isolated and introverted life, the burst of colour and noise is overwhelming. But soon Emmie feels her heart begin to open, her mind begin to dream. And as her friendship with kind and gorgeous islander Pip Hawkins gets closer, endless possible futures draw into focus.

But the discovery of ‘G’s true identity will mean Emmie has to choose. One of her choices would mean revealing secrets hidden for decades, one could lead to happiness, but both will need Emmie to be braver than she’s ever been.

Available to buy here
Connect with Beth Moran

Ice Apprentices by Jacob North

Tundra is the last settlement in a world of ice.

Oswin Fields is its only stray, rescued from the Endless Expanse. So, when he’s summoned to the school for ice apprentices, he sets out to prove his worth.

But all isn’t as it seems in this enchanted place. When the beasts begin to strike, Oswin has to risk everything he holds dear.

Can he look deep within himself to find the strength to prove that he belongs?

Available to buy here
Connect with Jacob North

 

The Year Of What If by Phaedra Patrick

Can the future be rewritten?

On the verge of her second marriage, Carla Carter knows she’s finally found the one. She and her fiancé, Tom, met through Logical Love, a dating agency she founded for the pragmatically minded and she’s confident that, together, they will dispel an old family curse claiming Carter women are unlucky in love.

But Carla’s highly superstitious family insists she visit a fortune teller before her big day, and the tarot cards reveal that a different man holds the key to Carla’s happiness – someone she met while travelling during a gap year, 21 years ago. This startling information spurs Carla to trace and revisit the ex-boyfriends she met during that time before she walks down the aisle.

From Barcelona to Amsterdam, Turkey to Paris, will Carla find her perfect match? And can a face from her past help her rewrite her entire family history, forever?

Available to buy here
Connect with Phaedra Patrick

Why We Remember: Revealing The Hidden Power Of Memory by Dr Charan Ranganath

Memory is far more than an archive of the past. This groundbreaking book by a pioneering Professor of Neuroscience and Psychology, Dr Charan Ranganath, reveals the powerful role memory plays in nearly every aspect of our lives.

Combining fascinating tales of the peculiarities of memory as well as cutting-edge science, Dr Ranganath shows the surprising ways our brains record the past and how we use that information to understand who we are in the present and to imagine and guide our futures. Memory shapes how we experience the world and it does that in often invisible, active and sometimes destructive ways. Dr Ranganath argues that we can use this knowledge to make better use of our flawed memories, whether in daily tasks like finding our keys or dealing with memory loss as we age. What’s more, when we work with the brain’s ability to learn and reinterpret past events, we can shed our biases, learn faster and heal after grief or trauma. This is a vital, accessible guide to understanding memory’s quirks – and its power.

Available to buy here
Connect with Dr Charan Ranganath

Girl, Ultra-Processed by Amara Sage

New year, new me!

That’s what Saffron Saldana tells herself as the clock strikes midnight on New Year’s Eve. Her resolution is the same every year: lose weight. Because Saffron has it hard-wired that weight loss equals happiness. It’s what she’s been told her whole life: online, in magazines and especially by her own diet-obsessed mother. But dieting is hard.

So to escape her own reality, Saffron creates Sydney, a super-slim, AI-generated ‘perfect’ version of herself. Boys online love Sydney and for Saffron, it’s just a bit of harmless fun.

Until the boundaries of her life online and offline begin to blur. And one boy in particular makes her question her desire to be someone she’s not.

Can Saffron find a way back to herself, and learn to love who she actually is?

Available to buy here
Connect with Amara Sage

The Bookseller by Tim Sullivan

The Setting
The body of a bookseller is discovered, lying in a pool of blood in his Bristol bookshop. Police have one question: how did the man meet such a violent, murderous end in this peaceful place?

The Conflict
DS Cross’s ability to dismiss red herrings is challenged by a worrying development in his personal life. Hopelessly distracted, he needs to rely on those around him in a way he has never been comfortable doing before.

The Murder Plot
It may be a quiet profession, but it’s full of passionate, ambitious characters who know the value of a rare book. Their extensive reading means they also know how to get away with murder.

But is that enough to fool the tenacious DS George Cross?

Available to buy here
Connect with Tim Sullivan

Loverboy by Ben Tomlinson

Alfie thinks Maya might be the One, and he’s desperate to tell her … until she reveals she’s got a new, cooler boyfriend.

Crushed, Alfie starts hanging out with Maya’s shy best friend Gwen and develops feelings for her. But Gwen’s hiding something and Alfie’s confused.

As Alfie looks for love within his friendship group, things get complicated, until he makes a big mistake. Can he score with the girl of his dreams,  or is he onto a losing streak?

A sweetly funny romance about a boy looking for love in all the wrong places.

Available to buy here

A New Chapter At The Little Penguin Bookshop by Joanna Toye

Carrie Anderson’s business selling books at her local train station is thriving and, with her beloved Mike returned from war, everything feels as though it’s falling into place. That is, until Mike is sent to Washington as a liaison between Britain and America.

When her twin brother, Johnnie, a fighter pilot, is injured, and her bookstall falls on hard times, Carrie misses the sage advice and comfort of Mike more than ever.

Bolstered by her supportive station community, can Carrie battle through this challenging new chapter and reach the happy ending she deserves?

Available to buy here
Connect with Joanna Toye

 

Remember, if you’re an author and you’d like to see your book in our Saturday Spotlight, email: pentoprint@lbbd.gov.uk and send us the details of your new novel.

For details of Penguin RandomHouse new releases, visit their website here.
For details of Hachette new releases, visit their website here.
For details of HarperCollins new releases, visit their website here.
For details of PanMacmillan new releases, visit their website here.
For details of Simon & Schuster new releases, visit their website here.

Disclaimer: Amazon links are given for ease but please remember there are a number of other online retailers operating, including hive (which helps to support independent book shops), Kobo, Apple Books, Google Play and Nook as well as online stores for bookstores such as Waterstones, Barnes & Noble and WHSmiths. 

Issue 23 of Write On! is out now and you can read it online here. Find it in libraries and other outlets. You can find previous editions of our magazines here.

You can hear great new ideas, creative work and writing tips on Write On! Audio. Find us on all major podcast platforms, including Apple and Google Podcasts and Spotify. Type Pen to Print into your browser and look for our logo, or find us on Podcasters.Spotify.com.