FICTION CATALOGUE JANUARY - JUNE 2020 1 Who Did You Tell? From the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Rumour Lesley Kara You thought your darkest secret was safe. You were wrong. The addictive new stand alone psychological thriller from the bestselling author of The Rumour. Every town has its secrets. Lesley Kara knows them all . From the author of 2019's biggest crime thriller debut, The Rumour, comes an addictive new novel . It’s been 192 days, seven hours and fifteen minutes since her last drink. Now Astrid is trying to turn her life around. Having reluctantly moved back in with her mother, in a quiet seaside town away from the temptations and painful memories of her life before, Astrid is focusing on her recovery. She's going to meetings. Confessing her misdeeds. Making amends to those she's wronged. But someone knows exactly what Astrid is running from. And they won't stop until she learns that some mistakes can't be corrected. Some mistakes, you have to pay for . January 2020 9781787630055 Lesley Kara is an alumna of the Faber Academy ‘Writing a £12.99 : Hardback Novel’ course. She lives on the North Essex coast. Her first 400 pages novel, The Rumour, was a Sunday Times Top 10 Bestseller. Her second novel, Who Did You Tell?, is out soon. 2 Mix Tape Jane Sanderson This is a love story to rival the very best. Caught up in the nostalgia for first love and the type of music that they don't make any more, Mix Tape asks the biggest question of all: what if 'what could have been' is still to come? ‘A lovely novel, delicately drawn, with characters that really linger in the mind and memory. A clever and compelling blend of realism and idealism - I got really swept up in it.’ Laura Barnett, author of The Versions of Us You never forget the one that got away. But what if ‘what could have been’ is yet to come? * Daniel was the first boy to make Alison a mix tape. But that was years ago and Ali hasn’t thought about him in a very long time. Even if she had, she might not have called him ‘the one that got away’; after all, she’d been the one to run. Then Dan’s name pops up on her phone, with a link to a song from their shared past. For two blissful minutes, Alison is no longer an adult in Adelaide with temperamental daughters; she is sixteen in Sheffield, dancing in her skin-tight jeans. She cannot help but respond in kind. And so begins a new mix tape. January 2020 9781787631922 Ali and Dan exchange songs – some new, some old – across £12.99 : Hardback oceans and time zones, across a lifetime of different 416 pages experiences, until one of them breaks the rules and sends a message that will change everything… Because what if ‘what could have been’ is yet to come? Jane Sanderson is a writer and journalist. She has worked as a producer for BBC Radio 4, first on the World at One, and then on Woman’s Hour. She lives with her husband and children in rural Herefordshire. 3 The Bear King James Wilde James Wilde brings his epic reimagining of the story of the Pendragon bloodline (and so the most enduring legend of all - of Arthur, King of the Britons) to a nail-biting, cataclysmic conclusion . Bridging the gap between 'Game of Thrones' and Bernard Cornwell comes the third and final chapter in James Wilde's epic adventure of betrayal, battle and bloodshed . AD 375 - The Dark Age is drawing near . As Rome's legions abandon their forts, chaos grows on the fringes of Britannia. In the far west, the shattered forces of the House of Pendragon huddle together in order to protect the royal heir – their one beacon of hope. For Lucanus, their great war leader, is missing, presumed dead. And the people are abandoning them. For in this time of crisis, a challenger has arisen, a False King with an army swollen by a horde of bloody-thirsty barbarians desperate for vengeance. One slim hope remains for Lucanus’ band of warrior-allies, the Grim Wolves. Guided by the druid, Myrrdin, they go in search of a great treasure – a vessel that is supposedly a gift from the gods. With such an artefact in their possession, the people would surely return and rally to their cause? Success will mean a war unlike any other, a battle between two kings for a legacy that will echo down the centuries. And should they fail? Well, then all is lost. In The Bear King, James Wilde’s rousing reimagining of how the myth of King Arthur, Excalibur and Camelot rose out of the fragile pages of history reaches its shattering conclusion . January 2020 James Wilde is a Man of Mercia. Raised in a world of books, the 9781787632165 £16.99 : Hardback author studied economic history at university before travelling the world in search of adventure. He first encountered the great English 400 pages warrior, Hereward, in the pages of a comic. It was while visiting the B & W map haunted fenlands of Eastern England, Hereward's ancestral home, that he became convinced that this legendary figure should be the subject of his first novel. The 'Hereward' series now runs to six novels, the most recent of which is Hereward - The Bloody Crown. James Wilde divides his time between London and the family home in Derbyshire. 4 Pine Francine Toon Dark secrets lie at the heart of this haunting and powerful novel set in an isolated village in the Scottish Highlands. 'It's both eerie and thrilling at once, and had me under its spell until the end.' Sophie Mackintosh, author of The Water Cure They are driving home from the search party when they see her. The trees are coarse and tall in the winter light, standing like men. Lauren and her father Niall live alone in the Highlands, in a small village surrounded by pine forest. When a woman stumbles out onto the road one Halloween night, Niall drives her back to their house in his pickup. In the morning, she’s gone. In a community where daughters rebel, men quietly rage, and drinking is a means of forgetting, mysteries like these are not out of the ordinary. The trapper found hanging with the dead animals for two weeks. Locked doors and stone circles. The disappearance of Lauren’s mother a decade ago. Lauren looks for answers in her tarot cards, hoping she might one day be able to read her father’s turbulent mind. Neighbours know more than they let on, but when local teenager Ann-Marie goes missing it’s no longer clear who she can trust. January 2020 In the shadow of the Highland forest, Francine Toon captures 9780857526700 the wildness of rural childhood and the intensity of small-town £12.99 : Hardback claustrophobia. In a place that can feel like the edge of the 288 pages word, she unites the chill of the modern gothic with the pulse of a thriller. It is the perfect novel for our haunted times. Francine Toon grew up in Sutherland and Fife, Scotland. Her poetry, written as Francine Elena, has appeared in The Sunday Times, The Best British Poetry 2013 and 2015 anthologies (Salt) and Poetry London, among other places. Pine was longlisted for the Deborah Rogers Foundation Writers Award. She lives in London and works in publishing. 5 Hold Your Tongue Deborah Masson He'll silence them all - unless she can stop him . The first novel in an exciting new detective series from a fresh talent in crime writing. A brutal murder. A young woman’s body is discovered with horrifying injuries, a recent newspaper cutting pinned to her clothing. A detective with everything to prove. This is her only chance to redeem herself. A serial killer with nothing to lose. He’s waited years, and his reign of terror has only just begun . Introducing DI Eve Hunter, HOLD YOUR TONGUE is your new obsession. ***** Readers can't stop talking about HOLD YOUR TONGUE: 'A brilliant debut' '[Deborah Masson] has a long and bright future ahead if this book is anything to go by' 'Hold Your Tongue is incredible . You're in for a treat!' 'Wow, what a page-turner!' 'I can't wait to read more of this series' Deborah Masson was born and bred in Aberdeen, Scotland. Always restless and fighting against being a responsible adult, January 2020 she worked in several jobs including secretarial, marketing, 9780552176521 reporting for the city's freebie newspaper and a stint as a £7.99 : Paperback postie - to name but a few. 400 pages Through it all, she always read crime fiction and, when motherhood finally settled her into being an adult (maybe even a responsible one) she turned her hand to writing what she loved. Deborah started with short stories and flash fiction whilst her daughter napped and, when she later welcomed her son into the world, she decided to challenge her writing further through online courses with Professional Writing Academy and Faber Academy. Her debut novel, Hold Your Tongue, is the result of those courses. 6 Unexpected Lessons in Love Lucy Dillon Lucy Dillon's books make your world better. The thought-provoking, romantic and ultimately uplifting new novel from the Sunday Times bestselling author of Where the Light Gets in and All I Ever Wanted. From the SUNDAY TIMES bestselling author of Where the Light Gets in and All I Ever Wanted 'Real, heart-breaking - I loved it' Katie Fforde What happens when 'I do' turns into 'I don't know'? Jeannie always wanted to fall in love, and now she’s finally got the whirlwind romance she dreamed of.