New fiction books for November 2023
by Brandon King
Looking for a new book to read? Take a look at our latest fiction titles for November 2023.
We publish new recommendations every month. Browse our featured titles.
The Future, by Naomi Alderman
The future is where the money is. The future is a few billionaires leading the world to destruction. The future is a handful of friends hatching a daring plan. The future is the greatest heist ever? Or the cataclysmic end of civilisation. The future is here.
Good Material, by Dolly Alderton
Andy's story wasn't meant to turn out this way. Living out of a suitcase in his best friends' spare room, waiting for his career as a stand-up comedian to finally take off, he struggles to process the life-ruining end of his relationship with the only woman he's ever truly loved. As he tries to solve the seemingly unsolvable mystery of his broken relationship, he contends with career catastrophe, social media paranoia, a rapidly dwindling friendship group and the growing suspicion that, at 35, he really should have figured this all out by now. Andy has a lot to learn, not least his ex-girlfriend's side of the story.
Deadly Game, by Michael Caine
DCI Harry Taylor has no respect for red tape or political reputations - but he's great at catching criminals. And all his unorthodox skills will be needed as an extraordinary situation unfolds on his doorstep: a metal box of radioactive material is found at a dump in Stepney, East London, but before the police can arrive it is stolen in a violent raid.
With security agencies across the world on red alert, it's Harry and his unconventional team from the Met who must hit the streets in search of a lead. They soon have two wildly different suspects, aristocratic art dealer Julian Smythe in London and oligarch Vladimir Voldrev in Barbados. But the pressure is on. How much time does Harry have, and how many more players will join the action, before the missing uranium is lighting up the sky?
Iron Flame, by Rebecca Yarros
Everyone expected Violet Sorrengail to die during her first year at Basgiath War College, Violet included. But Threshing was only the first impossible test meant to weed out the weak-willed, the unworthy, and the unlucky.
Now the real training begins, and Violet's already wondering how she'll get through. It's not just that it's grueling and maliciously brutal, or even that it's designed to stretch the riders' capacity for pain beyond endurance. It's the new vice commandant, who's made it his personal mission to teach Violet exactly how powerless she is - unless she betrays the man she loves.
Although Violet's body might be weaker and frailer than everyone else's, she still has her wits, and a will of iron. And leadership is forgetting the most important lesson Basgiath has taught her: Dragon riders make their own rules.
But a determination to survive won't be enough this year. Because Violet knows the real secret hidden for centuries at Basgiath War College - and nothing, not even dragon fire, may be enough to save them in the end.
Unnatural Death, by Patricia Daniels Cornwell
Chief medical examiner Dr Kay Scarpetta finds herself in a Northern Virginia wilderness examining the remains of two campers wanted by federal law enforcement. The victims have been savaged beyond recognition, and other evidence is terrifying and baffling, including a larger-than-life footprint. After the most frightening body retrievals of her career, Scarpetta must discover who would commit murders this brutal - and why.
The Watchmaker's Hand, by Jeffrey Deaver
Looming over the Manhattan skyline, a lone crane comes crashing down into the city, sending panic radiating across New York City. NY Detective Lon Sellitto believes a political group is behind the sabotage, and turns to Lincoln Rhyme for help. He believes this is just the beginning. Their aim? To have a ruthless killer released from prison. Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Sachs must race to stop further attacks before more chaos is unleashed upon the city. Meanwhile, The Watchmaker has Rhyme in his sights, and is preparing to strike.
Borrow The Watchmaker's Hand →
The Edge, by David Baldacci
Retired from the Army's most prestigious special ops force, Travis Devine is now part of an elite undercover team in Homeland Security. But when he's brought in by DC Emerson Campbell to investigate the murder of a young woman, he quickly learns that this case is more personal than most. Four days earlier Jennifer Silkwell was found dead on the rocks of the Maine coastline. A high ranking analyst for the CIA, she had knowledge of national security secrets that would be valuable to a number of enemies. And her Senator father once saved DC Emerson Campbell's life. Knowing how much is riding on the case, Devine packs his bags and heads for the small town of Potter in Maine. But small towns can harbour big secrets, and not everyone wants to share them with outsiders. Not when there's a killer on the loose.
Resurrection Walk, by Michael Connelly
Defense attorney Mickey Haller is back, taking the long shot cases, where the chances of winning are one in a million. He agrees to represent a woman in prison for killing her husband, a sheriff's deputy. Despite her conviction four years earlier, she still maintains her innocence. Haller enlists his half brother, retired LAPD Detective Harry Bosch, as investigator. Reviewing the case, Bosch sees something that doesn't add up, and a sheriff's department intent on bringing a quick search for justice in the killing of one of its own. The path to justice for both the lawyer and his investigator is fraught with danger from those who don't want the case reopened. And they will stop at nothing to keep the Haller-Bosch dream team from uncovering what the deputy's killing was really about.
Shot With Crimson, by Nicola Upson
September, 1939, and the worries of war follow Josephine Tey to Hollywood, where a different sort of battle is raging on the set of Hitchcock's Rebecca. Then a shocking act of violence reawakens the shadows of the past, with consequences on both sides of the Atlantic, and Josephine and DCI Archie Penrose find themselves on a trail leading back to the house that inspired a young Daphne du Maurier - a trail that echoes Rebecca's timeless themes of obsession, jealousy and murder.
The Door-to-Door Bookstore, by Carsten Henn
Carl may be 72 years old, but he's young at heart. Every night he goes door-to-door delivering books by hand to his loyal customers. He knows their every desire and preference, carefully selecting the perfect story for each person. One evening as he makes his rounds, nine-year-old Schascha appears. Loud and precocious, she insists on accompanying him - and even tries to teach him a thing or two about books. When Carl's job at the bookstore is threatened, will the old man and the girl in the yellow raincoat be able to restore Carl's way of life, and return the joy of reading to his little European town?
Borrow The Door-to-Door Bookstore →
Baumgartner, by Paul Auster
Baumgartner's life has been defined by his deep, abiding love for his wife, Anna. But now Anna is gone, and Baumgartner is embarking on his seventies whilst trying to live with her absence. Rich with compassion, wit and Auster's keen eye for beauty in the smallest, most transient episodes of ordinary life, 'Baumgartner' is a tender late masterpiece of the ache of memory. It asks: why do we find such meaning in certain moments, and forget others?
A Well-Earned Death, by L.C. Tyler
In 1671 there are fortunes to be made in Barbados, owning slaves and planting sugar cane. But drought, floods, locusts and his own incompetence have brought Hubert Umfraville down and caused him to flee the island in the most humiliating fashion. Now back in England, he hopes to restore his fortunes through extortion. In Barbados he has discovered a secret that people here may pay him to keep quiet about. When his body is found in the orchard of the house he has just rented in Essex, there is no shortage of suspects.
Has his intended blackmail victim preempted him? Or has one or other of his old crimes caught up with the failed plantation owner? John Grey finds himself investigating what seems to be the well-merited death of a former slave owner. But as the list of suspects grows, Grey is forced to question the nature of justice and what any of us is entitled to do to gain our freedom.
The Fake Wife, by Sharon Bolton
You're not who you say you are. But neither is she. In a hotel restaurant, a stranger sits down at Olive Anderson's dinner table and pretends to be her wife. But as much as the fake wife has her secrets, Olive just might have more.
A Game Called Malice: a Rebus Play, by Ian Rankin and Simon Reade
A new playscript by Ian Rankin and Simon Reade.
A delicious, and somewhat drunken, dinner party segues into a murder mystery game created by the hostess. However, the parlour game may hold clues about the dark truths hiding just under the surface of this genteel gathering. As suspects, clues and red herrings are sifted - it seems one of the guests has an unfair advantage: John Rebus, an ex-detective who used to do this for a living. But is he playing another game, one to which only he knows the rules, that will soon be revealed? As the tension rises, one by one, all their secrets will come out - and there is a shocking discovery that awaits them all.