Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
Enjoy a day of celebrating Irish heritage and culture with exciting books! I am here again to make your start to St. Paddy’s Day better by listing the new and upcoming releases from Irish authors that you will want on your radar. Take a trip through the Emerald Isle through these insightful and creative writing.
Sláinte!
New Releases
- The Naming of the Birds by Sam Blake
- Where The Heart Should Be by Sarah Crossan
- Nesting by Roisín O’Donnell
- The Glass House by Rachel Donohue
- The Morrigan by Kim Curran
- The Boy From The Sea by Garrett Carr
- The City Changes Its Face by Eimear McBride
- The Stolen Child by Carmel Harrington
The Killing Sense by Sam Blake
Danger is closer than you think…
Single Mum Kate Wilde has escaped an abusive marriage and hasn’t had a holiday in years, so when she wins a five-day trip to Paris to learn about perfume – in a competition she can’t remember entering – it’s a dream come true. Or is it?
Almost as soon as she arrives, Kate’s ex texts with evidence that he’s in Paris too. Kate can feel she’s being watched, and she’s sure someone has been in her apartment. Then she discovers that there’s a killer in the city focusing on red headed women like her. And his kill count is rising.
Who should she fear the most?
All Kate’s senses are on alert. But can her instincts keep her safe? (Credit: Atlantic Books)
Murder At Gulls Nest by Jess Kidd
Expected US Publication Date: April 8
I believe every one of us at Gulls Nest is concealing some kind of secret.
1954: When her former novice’s dependable letters stop, Nora Breen asks to be released from her vows. Haunted by a line in Frieda’s letter, Nora arrives at Gulls Nest, a charming hotel in Gore-on-Sea in Kent.
A seaside town, a place of fresh air and relaxed constraints, is the perfect place for a new start. Nora hides her identity and pries into the lives of her fellow guests. But when a series of bizarre murders rattles the occupants of Gulls Nest it’s time to ask if a dark past can ever really be left behind. (Credit: Atria Books)
Upcoming Books
I Want To Go Home But I’m Already There by Róisín Lanigan
Expected Publication Date: March 27
Renting is a nightmare…
Áine should be feeling happy with her life. She’s just moved in with Elliot. Their new flat is in an affluent neighbourhood, surrounded by bakeries, yoga studios and organic vegetable shops. They even have a garden. And yet, from the moment they move in, Áine can’t shake the sense that there’s something not quite right about the place…
It’s not just the humourless estate agent and nameless landlord: it’s the chill that seeps through the draughty windows; the damp spreading from the cellar door; the way the organic fruit and veg never lasts as long as it should. And most of all, it’s the upstairs neighbours, whose very presence makes peaceful coexistence very difficult indeed.
The longer Áine spends inside the flat – pretending to work from home; dissecting messages from the friends whose lives seem to have moved on without her – the less it feels like home. And as Áine fixates on the cracks in the ceiling, it becomes harder to ignore the cracks in her relationship with Elliott…
There Came A-Tapping by Andrea Carter
Expected Publication Date: March 27
Since losing her parents in a car crash as a teen, Allie has struggled to cope. Meeting Rory finally made things easier. She’s come to rely on him for almost everything, so when he disappears while filming a documentary in the West of Ireland, she fears she’ll come undone. Again.
Tap…
When a couple arrive at the Dublin apartment she and Rory share, claiming to be the new tenants, Allie is distraught. Why did Rory let out their home without telling her? And – where is he?
Tap-tap…
She seeks refuge at the run-down and reputedly haunted Raven Cottage in the Slieve Bloom mountains, where she and Rory were planning to move one day. Allie slowly starts to build a life for herself – and begins to believe that she might manage to make it alone.
Tap-tap-tap…
But then Rory’s car is found submerged at the end of a pier, nowhere near where he was supposed to be – and the body in the driver’s seat isn’t his. Alison starts to revisit her memories of their time together, and begins to question if she can trust them…(Credit: Little, Brown Book Group)
Burn After Reading by Catherine Ryan Howan
Expected Publication Date: April 10
The night Jack Smyth ran into flames in a desperate attempt to save his wife from their burning home, he was, tragically, too late – but hailed a hero. Until it emerged that Kate was dead long before the fire began.
Suspicion has stalked him ever since. After all, there’s no smoke without fire.
A year on, he’s signed a book deal. He wants to tell his side of the story, to prove his own innocence in print. He just needs someone to help him write it.
Emily has never ghostwritten anything before, but she knows what it’s like to live with a guilty secret. And she’s about to learn that there are some stories that should never be told . . .(Credit: Transworld Publishers Ltd)
Fair Play by Louise Hegarty
Expected Publication Date: April 2
Expected US Publication Date: April 22
A group of friends gather at an Airbnb on New Year’s Eve. It is Benjamin’s birthday, and his sister Abigail is throwing him a jazz-age Murder Mystery themed party. As the night plays out, champagne is drunk, hors d’oeuvres consumed, and relationships forged, consolidated or frayed. Someone kisses the wrong person; someone else’s heart is broken.
In the morning, all of them wake up—except Benjamin.
As Abigail attempts to wrap her mind around her brother’s death, an eminent detective arrives determined to find Benjamin’s killer. In this mansion, suddenly complete with a butler, gardener and housekeeper, everyone is a suspect, and nothing is quite as it seems.
Will the culprit be revealed? And how can Abigail, now alone, piece herself back together in the wake of this loss? (Credit: Harper)
These Days by Lucy Caldwell
Expected Publication Date: April 8
April 1941: Belfast has escaped the worst of the Second World War–so far. Over the next two months, it will be so destroyed from above that people will say, in horror, “My God, Belfast is finished.” Many won’t make it through, and those who do will be forever changed.
Living amid the rubble are sisters Emma and Audrey. One is engaged to be married; the other is in a secret relationship with another woman. As the bombs fall, and tomorrow feels further and further away, these young women must grapple with the cultural expectations standing firm around them, and try to seize control of their destinies. After all, Emma thinks, if one is to survive, one must survive for something.(Credit: Zando – Sjp Lit)
The Wildelings by Lisa Harding
Expected Publication Date: April 15
Jessica and Linda have been best friends since the first day of school. Both girls are from very different broken homes – and beautiful, wilful Jessica has always ensured their survival. Now eighteen, the two have come to Wilde – an elite university in the heart of Dublin, far away from their troubled childhoods. Jessica thrives immediately, and, with the faithful Linda at her side, finds herself at the heart of a new circle of friends.
But then Mark enters the picture. A philosophy student a few years older than them, he has strange and compelling ideas about self-discovery. When Linda and Mark start dating, Jessica is disturbed by the change in her friend – and how quickly she seems to have fallen under the charismatic man’s control.
It turns out that Mark’s influence is not limited to Linda alone; and Jessica soon finds out that her whole group of friends are keeping secrets for him…and it will culminate in ways that will change their lives forever. Years later, Jessica is still grappling with her guilt over what happened at Wilde. And when Mark resurfaces to write his version of events, she knows she owes it to herself – and Linda – to set the record straight once and for all. (Credit: HarperVia)
Matched Up by Jenny Ireland
Expected Publication Date: April 17
When Lexie sees Shane for the first time, she’s blown away. Not only by the way he plays football (although that is great), but by his looks, and how he’s not like the other boys. Best of all, he feels the same way about her. Electricity at first sight.
But there’s a problem.
New in town, Shane has taken the position in Westing FC’s starting 11 that Lexie’s brother, Niall, had set his sights on. Now, they must be each other’s biggest secret. Shane’s family situation is complicated, so there isn’t much space for a girlfriend… or is there?
At first, the sneaking around is exciting: after practice, meeting on the beach, hiding from Niall. But things are about to get complicated…(Credit:Penguin Random House Children’s UK)
Eat The Ones You Love by Sarah Maria Griffin
Expected Publication Date: April 22
“Do you mind me asking—what kind of help do you need?”
After losing her job and her fiancé and moving back from the city to live with her parents, Shell Pine needs some help. And according to the sign in the window, the florist shop in the mall does too. Shell gets the gig, and the flowers she works with there are just the thing she needs to cheer up. Or maybe it’s Neve, the beautiful shop manager, who is making her days so rosy?
But you have to get your hands dirty if you want your garden to grow—and Neve’s secrets are as dark and dangerous as they come. In the back room of the flower shop, a young sentient orchid actually runs the show, and he is hungry . . . and he has a plan for them all.
When the choices are to either bury yourself in the warmth of someone else’s fertile soil, or face the cold and disappointing world outside—which would you choose? And what if putting down roots came at a cost far higher than just your freedom?
This is a story about desire, dreams, decay—and working retail at the end of the world. (Credit: Tor Books)
Fun and Games by John Patrick McHugh
Expected Publication Date: April 23
Seventeen-year-old John Masterson has no idea what he wants. It’s his last summer on the small island where he has grown up and he should be enjoying the weeks until his exam results come through. Instead, he’s working mind-numbing shifts at the local hotel and trying to keep his head down after his mother’s nude sext to another man was leaked to the whole island.
As John joins the local senior football team, gets caught up in fights and parties, and embarks on a tentative relationship with his slightly older co-worker Amber that he feels both proud and ashamed of, he can almost pretend that this summer will last forever. But soon John must face up to the choices before him: to stay or leave, to stand out or fit in, and whether to love and let himself be loved, despite or perhaps because of, the flaws that make us all human. (Credit: HarperCollins)
The Secret Room by Jane Casey
Expected Publication Date: April 23
A closed door. An impossible murder.
2:32 p.m. Wealthy, privileged Ilaria Cavendish checks into a luxury London hotel and orders a bottle of champagne. Within the hour, her lover discovers her submerged in a bath of scalding water, dead.
At first glance it looks like an accident. No one went in with her. No one came out. But all the signs point to murder.
For DS Maeve Kerrigan, the case is a welcome distraction. But when shock news hits close to home, affecting her partner, DI Josh Derwent, she faces the toughest challenge of her career. And if she fails her world will never be the same again…(Credit: HarperCollins)
Ordinary Saints by Niamh Ni Mhaoileoin
Expected Publication Date: April 23
‘Can you imagine it? I’d say to them. Can you imagine me there in the front row in Saint Peter’s Square? The lesbian sister of a literal saint.’
Brought up in a devout household in Ireland, Jay is now living in London with her girlfriend, determined to live day to day and not think too much about either the future or the past. But when she learns that her beloved older brother, who died in a terrible accident, may be made into a Catholic saint, she realises she must at last confront her family, her childhood and herself . . .
Inspired by the author’s own devout upbringing, Ordinary Saints is a brilliant debut novel from a fresh, exciting new voice which asks – who gets to decide how we are remembered – and who we will become? (Credit: Bonnier Books)
It Should Have Been You by Andrea Mara
Expected Publication Date: May 8
Look what you started.
You press send and your message disappears. Full of secrets about your neighbours, it’s meant for your sister. But it doesn’t reach her – it goes to the entire local community WhatsApp group instead.
Now everyone knows what you did.
As rumour spreads like wildfire through the picture-perfect neighbourhood, you convince yourself that people will move on, that this will quickly be forgotten. But then you receive the first death threat.
And someone wants you dead.
The next day, a woman has been murdered. And what’s even more chilling is that she had the same address as you – 26 Oakpark – but in a different part of town. Did the killer get the wrong house? It won’t be long before you find out… (Credit: Transworld Publishing)
Heart, Be At Peace by Donal Ryan
Expected Publication Date: May 20
“I said it before. Madness comes circling around. Ten-year cycles, as true as the sun will rise. . .”
In a small town in Ireland, the local people have weathered the storm of economic collapse and now look to the future: The jobs are back, the dramas of the past seemingly lulled, and although the town bears the scars of its history, new stories have begun to unfold.
But an insidious menace now creeps through back-alley shadows and into the lives of the townspeople. Old grudges fester and new ones arise. Young people are lured by the promise of fast money while the generation above them tries to hold back the tide of an enemy beyond their control. And the peace of this town is about to be shattered in an unimaginable way. (Credit: Viking)
Let Me Go Mad in My Own Way by Elaine Feeney
Expected Publication Date: May 28
Claire O’Connor’s life has been on hold since she broke up with Tom Morton and moved from cosmopolitan London back home to the rugged West of Ireland to care for her dying father. But snatches of her old life are sure to follow her, when Tom unexpectedly moves nearby for work. As Claire is thrown back into a love she thought she’d left behind, she questions if Tom has come for her or for himself.
Living in her childhood home brings its own challenges. While Claire tries to maintain a normal life – obsessing over the internet, going to work and minding her own business – Tom’s return stirs up haunting memories trapped within the walls of the old family house. (Credit: Vintage Publishing)
Skipshock by Caroline O’Donoghue
Expected Publication Date: June 3
Margo is a troubled schoolgirl. After the death of her father, she’s on her way to a new boarding school in a new city.
Moon is a salesman. He makes his living traveling through a series of interconnected worlds on a network of barely used train lines.
They never should have met. But when Margo suddenly appears one day on Moon’s train, their fates become inextricably linked. If Margo wants to survive, she has to pass as a traveling salesman, too—except it’s not that easy.
Move north on the train line and time speeds up, a day passing in mere hours. Move south and time slows down—a day can last several weeks. Slow worlds are the richest ones: you live longer, your youth lasting decades. Fast worlds are sharp, cruel, and don’t have time for pleasantries. Death is frequent. Salesmen die young of skipshock. That is, if they’re not shot down by the Southern Guard first.
As Margo moves between worlds and her attachment to Moon intensifies, she feels her youth start to slip between her fingers. But is Moon everything he seems? Is Margo? (Credit: Walker Books US)
The Benefactors by Wendy Erskine
Expected Publication Date: June 18
In The Benefactors we meet Frankie, Miriam and Bronagh – very different women but all mothers to 18-year-old boys. Glamorous Frankie, now married to a wealthy, older man, grew up in care. Miriam has recently lost her beloved husband Kahlil in ambiguous circumstances. Bronagh, the CEO of a children’s services charity, loves the celebrity and prestige this brings her.
They do not know each other yet, but when their sons are accused of sexually assaulting Misty Johnston, whose family lacks the wealth and social-standing of their own, they’ll leverage all the power of their position to protect their children. (Credit: Hodder & Stoughton)
The Compound by Aisling Rawle
Expected Publication Date: June 24
Lily—a bored, beautiful twenty-something—wakes up on a remote desert compound, alongside nineteen other contestants competing on a massively popular reality show. To win, she must outlast her housemates to stay in the Compound the longest, while competing in challenges for luxury rewards like champagne and lipstick, plus communal necessities to outfit their new home, like food, appliances, and a front door.
Cameras are catching all her angles, good and bad, but Lily has no desire to leave: why would she, when the world outside is falling apart? As the competition intensifies, intimacy between the players deepens, and it becomes increasingly difficult to distinguish between desire and desperation. When the unseen producers raise the stakes, forcing contestants into upsetting, even dangerous situations, the line between playing the game and surviving it begins to blur. If Lily makes it to the end, she’ll receive prizes beyond her wildest dreams—but what will she have to do to win? (Credit: Random House)
The Rebel and the Rose: The City of Fantome by Catherine Doyle
Expected Publication Date: September 11
US Publication Date: December 2
‘The path of destiny burns with love, magic and betrayal.’
From a remote hilltop haven, far from the city of Fantome, Seraphine Marchant and her Order of Flames plot to eradicate shade magic with lightfire. But as Sera struggles to control her blooming powers, destiny calls her back to Fantome, and to the assassin who haunts her dreams.
Ransom Hale can’t get Sera out of his head. As their rivalry grows and he grapples with the responsibility of leading the Order of Daggers, he feels himself slipping further from who he wants to be. Is he doomed to a life in the shadows? Or can he forge another path?
Meanwhile, rebellion is stirring in the kingdom and a dangerous prince grows in power. Forced to work together by order of the king, Sera and Ransom’s conflicted hearts are tested to their limits. And all the while, an ancient prophecy is unfolding that will change the fate of Valterre forever. (Credit: Simon & Schuster)
Venetian Vespers by John Banville
Expected Publication Date: October 7
Everything was a puzzle, everything a trap set to mystify and hinder me . . .
1899. As the new century approaches, struggling English writer Evelyn Dolman—a hack, by his own description—marries Laura Rensselaer, daughter of an American oil tycoon. Evelyn anticipates that he and Laura will inherit a substantial fortune and lead a comfortable, settled life. But his hopes are dashed when a mysterious rift between Laura and her father, just before the patriarch’s death, leads to her disinheritance.
The unhappy newlyweds travel to Venice to celebrate the New Year at the Palazzo Dioscuri, ancestral home of the charming but treacherous Count Barbarigo. From their first moments in the mist-blanketed floating city, otherworldly occurrences begin to accumulate. Evelyn’s already jangled nerves fray further. Where has Laura disappeared to? How to explain the increasingly sinister circumstances closing around him? Could he be losing his mind?(Credit: Knopf)
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