5 new books to read this week

This week’s top picks feature everything from dark thrillers to historical fiction…

Fiction

1. Cherry by Rose Wilding is published in hardback by Baskerville, priced £22 (ebook £12.99). Available November 5

Following her highly praised debut Speak Of The Devil, Rose Wilding returns with a dark thriller about obsession, despair and the perils of starting over. The story opens in 1999, when we meet nanny Isobel and her employer Ally in suburban London, alongside grieving Gifty, who is desperate for answers. It then flashes back to the scandalous world of musician Cherry and as the story unfolds, the links between past and present emerge, and we see how these women’s lives have become intertwined. With complex, flawed characters, interweaving timelines and provocative subject matter, Wilding builds a tantalising world that is hard to put down. Unsettling and absorbing, this is another feminist triumph from the author.
9/10
(Review by Holly Cowell)

2. Royal Witch by Philippa Gregory is published in hardback by HarperCollins, priced £25 (ebook £12.99). Available now

Philippa Gregory’s passion for putting forgotten women from history at the centre of the narrative has long been celebrated, through her novels such as The Other Boleyn Girl and The White Queen. While she is best known for her books about the Tudors, her range of historical fiction is expansive and her latest, Royal Witch, is set in 1420, when Eleanor Cobham arrives in the court of Henry V, hoping for an advantageous marriage. She used her relatively lowly place to chart an impressive rise – first in the household of a Countess who commands her own army, and then on to become a duchess, just one step from the throne. But as Gregory so frequently shows us, the ambition of women is rarely rewarded in history, and Royal Witch charts how Eleanor’s dreams of rising further and her interest in witchcraft and the darker arts led to her downfall as England’s first and only convicted royal witch. Gregory’s work is always eminently readable and while this might not have the blockbuster appeal of some of her books, it’s a worthy and welcome addition to her bibliography.
7/10
(Review by Laura Harding)

3. Peck & Peck by Bonnie Garmus is published in hardback by Manilla Press, priced £22 (ebook £16.99). Available now

Bonnie Garmus has returned with a new novel following the success of global bestseller Lessons In Chemistry. Peck & Peck centres on Batter Gray, a college graduate whose extraordinary skill for finding good poetry leads him to a job at the world’s most prestigious journal run by two brothers. Like Elizabeth Zott in Lessons In Chemistry, Batter is a strong-willed protagonist with a habit of speaking his mind and challenging the status quo, which frequently gets him into trouble and unintentionally unravels a web of secrets and lies at the family-run publication. While Garmus has created another original story with clever plot twists, unlike her debut, Peck & Peck feels less convincing and more bewildering to follow. Many of the characters feel cartoonish rather than eccentric, and the plotline, once it starts to thicken, goes in outlandish directions.
6/10
(Review by Anna Wise)

Non-fiction

4. Fictional Selves by Kyle MacLachlan is published in hardback by Century, priced £25 (ebook £10.99). Available now

Actor Kyle MacLachlan’s memoir tracks his life through the key roles he’s played – from collaborations with director David Lynch (Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks), then complex roles in female-focused series Sex And The City and Desperate Housewives, through to more recent shows like the video game adaptation Fallout. It’s a somewhat unique autobiography for an actor, because MacLachlan doesn’t shy away from the failures along the way – including starring in the critically panned Dune, missing out on some huge roles, and never quite making leading man status – instead, falling into characters who were weird and complex. His relationship with Lynch dominates the book, with moving parts about his family – particularly losing his mother to ovarian cancer. MacLachlan is a likeable and realistic character in his own tale, with a readable writing style that will appeal to any film or TV buffs.
8/10
(Review by Prudence Wade)

Children’s book of the week

5. Would You Still Love Me If I Was A Worm? by Meghan Sullivan, illustrated by Ludi Copper, is published in paperback by Little Tiger, priced £8.99 (no ebook). Available November 5

Would you still love me if I was a worm? Not a question most of us would hear from a loved one, but that is the story of author Meghan Sullivan and illustrator Ludi Cooper’s charming tale for curious kids. Starting with a worm, we go through a gamut of scary, slimy, stinky and squishy things such as trolls, ghosts, gloop, fungus and more, each posing the same question to see just how far the love between a parent and child goes. The answer, of course, is always yes, as any mum or dad would agree. This beautifully designed book is a perfect bedtime read for kids, with playful and imaginative rhyming that makes it a fun and fast-flowing read. The story celebrates the heartwarming connection between any parent and child, highlighting the beauty and importance of reading as a family.
10/10
(Review by Christopher Henry-Reeve)

BOOK CHARTS FOR THE WEEK ENDING OCTOBER 24

HARDBACK (FICTION)
1. Chain Reaction by Lee Child & Andrew Child
2. Royal Witch by Philippa Gregory
3. With Hearts Of Flame by Briar Boleyn
4. Threshing Day (Limited Deluxe Edition) by Rebecca Yarros
5. The Bishop Of Durham Attempts To Surrender The City by Susanna Clarke
6. Watch The Quiet Snow by Mick Herron
7. The Heights by Ian Rankin
8. The Mirror Of Infinite Endings by Stephanie Garber
9. Adam And Eve by Jeffrey Archer
10. In One Brief Moment All Eternity by Elif Shafak
(Compiled by Waterstones)

HARDBACK (NON-FICTION)
1. Fictional Selves by Kyle MacLachlan
2. Grand: The Autobiography Of Gromit by Nick Park & Gromit
3. Drive by Christian Horner
4. Is It Too Late To Make A Run For It? by Judi Dench
5. Firstborn Daughter by Katherine Ryan
6. Devil On My Shoulder by Alice Cooper
7. Hello Boys And Girls! by Nicko McBrain
8. Things I Took From The Dark by Reece Shearsmith
9. The Teenage Diaries Of A Stand-Up Comedian by Jon Richardson
(Compiled by Waterstones)

AUDIOBOOKS (FICTION AND NON-FICTION)
1. The Witch by Freida McFadden
2. Chain Reaction by Lee Child & Andrew Child
3. We Chase Shadows by Richard Osman
4. Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman
5. The Steps by Sylvester Stallone
6. Adam And Eve by Jeffrey Archer
7. Bram Stoker’s Dracula by Bram Stoker, Robyn Ahern – adaptation
8. Threshing Day [Dramatized Adaptation] by Rebecca Yarros
9. Threshing Day (Wing and Claw Collection) by Rebecca Yarros
10. London Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe
(Compiled by Audible)