How to… books are all the rage it seems. Essential tips for living. Last week we brought you How to Make a Killing, and this week it’s How to Survive a Horror Story that gets us underway. Mallory Arnold’s tricksy caper starts off in the best way possible with the reading of a will, but will you be reading it? Hmmm? We’ve also got some fascinating debuts and indie releases to keep readers, and the genre in general, on their toes.
How to Survive a Horror Story by Mallory Arnold
Ooh, a will reading – such great fodder for an author! One of their own has died, and as a band of writers gather at a grand manor to hear the last wishes of horror luminary Mortimer Queen, each has reason to expect a share in his huge fortune. Some have well known links to the literary icon, while others have kept their connections under wraps. But all will be revealed when they are invited to play a game. The rules are simple, solve the riddle and progress to the next room. If they don’t, the manor will take one of them for itself… Who will make it to the end? Find out when How to Survive a Horror Story by Mallory Arnold is published on 8 July.
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Welcome to Cottonmouth by Jay S Bell
Let’s head to a little town in the pine woods of East Texas for Jay S Bell’s Welcome to Cottonmouth, out on 8 July. It’s a bit like a US version of Slough House, a place where government spies and special operators are retired to when their services are no longer required, in the belief that they’ll cause no trouble. However, the peace of Cottonmouth is threatened by a pair of women who are on the run from a vicious criminal. This means that de facto mayor Devlin Mahoney – the man tasked with looking after the town’s unusual residents – is forced to choose between doing what’s right and doing what he’s told.
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The Other Boy by Heidi Field
The Bagbys are a happy family. Scott, Blair, teenage son Jamie and their Great Dane live contentedly in the suburbs. A knock on the door one day changes everything. It’s a a police inspector, asking if their son is home. Bodies have been found buried deep in Peasedale forest and the detective suspects one is Jamie, the final victim of a brutal and prolific serial killer. As the investigation unfolds, Scott and Blair begin to realise that they may not have known their beloved son at all… The Other Boy by Heidi Field is out now.
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The Night Watcher by Daphne Woolsoncroft
Nola Strate is a late night radio host in Portland, Oregon. She spends the wee dark hours listening to people’s tales of hauntings and unexplained sightings. As a child, she managed to escape from the notorious Hiding Man, a serial killer who terrorised the people of the Pacific Northwest, and she’s battled to deal with the trauma ever since. Then one night a caller’s story triggers memories of what happened all those years ago. Is the Hidden Man back, and is he out to get Nola? We need to wait until 8 July, when the The Night Watcher by Daphne Woolsoncroft is released, to find out.
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Dead as Gold by Bonnie Burke-Patel
Time for some modern gothic crime with Bonnie Burke-Patel’s Dead as Gold, released on 3 July. Goldsmith Adam Conlan was a wild one in his younger days, but now he’s settled down and plying his trade in Morrow-on-Sea. It’s there that he encounters writer Ophelia Richards, who wants him to buy her gold. They are kindred spirits – both sad and lonely – and there’s an immediate connection between the pair. Then strange things begin to happen. Faces appear at the studio window, an unwelcome gift arrives in the post, gold goes missing… and a death brings DI William Kent to Adam’s door.
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Barley Sugar by Jack Charles
Teddy Boy gang fights, rock n roll romance in the dancehalls and daring heists feature in Barley Sugar by debut author Jack Charles, out on 7 July, and set in London in the 1950s. Career criminal Francis Coles is asked to take on an unusual role when his teenage grandson starts getting in trouble with the police. Lewis’s widowed mother wants someone to talk sense into her son and she has no one else to turn to. But as Francis warms to the task, he begins to tell stories of vendettas, revenge and murder – and the high price of survival.
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