This month, bestselling author and MBE Adele Parks shares the books she’s reading, including two very different novels that both examine the power of healing, a true story about ancient Roman high society, and a tense family thriller.
BREAKING THE DARK by Lisa Jewell (£20, Century)
This is something new for bestseller Lisa Jewell. Breaking The Dark is the first book in the brand-new Marvel Crime series, introducing fans to a grittier side of the Marvel Universe. Don’t panic if you’re not a Marvel fan. Bear with, as Jewell has delivered a book that negotiates the complex feat of being at once completely Marvel-appropriate—steeped in all that incredible, imaginative extraordinariness of super beings and super villains—but she has also delivered a novel that is completely her too.
Twisty, authentic, gripping. Jessica Jones is a private investigator and retired superhero based in New York. A loner, she drifts from job to job, drink to drink, lost in self-loathing. Then wealthy Amber Randall appears. Amber is concerned about her twin 16-year-olds, who are materially changed since they returned from visiting their British father in the UK. This case ultimately leads Jessica to uncovering an epic threat that endangers a generation. With themes of troubled teens, motherhood, social media, and a quest for impossible perfection, Jewell delivers her usual thrill and challenge in this superhero-charged plot.
★★★★★
THE GOD OF THE WOODS by Liz Moore (£16.99, HarperCollins)
This crafted, immersive, and enthralling thriller is a masterful exploration of all the joy and sorrow that families can present. Fifteen years ago, Van Laars went missing in the woods. At the time, everyone had an opinion on the tragedy. Some said it was heartbreaking, others thought he deserved his end.
The searchers, who stayed out for five nights in the freezing forest trying to find him, were not thanked by his parents. Parents who had taken their time to raise the alarm; did they already know what had happened to him? Now, 15 years later, their daughter has gone missing in the same wilderness as her brother. That’s not a coincidence. A taut thriller looking at complex family dynamics.
★★★★
COSTANZA by Rachel Blackmore (£20, Dialogue)
I was totally immersed in this intense, lusty, evocative novel set on the scorching, gossipy streets of Rome in 1636. Costanza Piccolomini is a respectable young wife until she meets Gian Lorenzo Bernini, the famed sculptor and star of Roman society. Their instant attraction quickly develops into a dangerous, passionate affair. Controlling, obsessed Bernini wants to make Costanza immortal but by unveiling his sculpture of her, he exposes her as his lover and creates a seismic scandal.
Deceived, deserted and disproportionately punished, Costanza must find a way to survive. It’s interesting to know that this dizzying, sensual novel is based on a true story. Meticulously researched and atmospheric, I really enjoyed this fierce feminist tale of obsession, revenge, and ultimately, resilience.
★★★★
SHY CREATURES by Clare Chambers (£20, Orion Publishing)
Set in Croydon in 1964, Helen Hansford is an art therapist in a psychiatric hospital. She’s having an unsatisfactory long-term affair with Gil, a charismatic doctor; but she’s not part of the glittering “Swinging Sixties”, she’s a woman looking on from the margins. Until a 37-year-old man called William Tapping, with a beard down to his waist, is discovered along with his elderly aunt in a derelict home.
He has been incarcerated in the house for decades. It emerges that William is a talented artist and Helen wants to help and heal him. Inevitably, professional boundaries are crossed. A life-affirming novel examining how we can be confined and the joy of discovering personal freedom. From the author of hit Small Pleasures.
★★★★
EDDIE WINSTON IS LOOKING FOR LOVE by Marianne Cronin (£16.99, Harper Perennial)
This funny, gentle, uplifting story about the unique power of intergenerational friendship is, I believe, an ideal summer read. I was totally enchanted by 90-year-old Eddie Winston, an incurable romantic, who is yet to be kissed! Eddie volunteers at a charity shop, where he likes to sort and preserve love letters and tokens of the living and the dead.
There, he meets 24-year-old Bella; she’s reeling from having just lost the love of her life. On discovering that Eddie has never been kissed, Bella makes it her mission to help him finally find love. Together they embark on an unexpected, healing adventure. A tale of kindness that delivers two heart-warming messages: love is never wasted and it’s never too late.
★★★★
WITNESS 8 by Steve Cavanagh (£16.99, Headline)
Twenty-two-year-old Ruby Johnson is a trusted nanny and maid to wealthy families in Manhattan’s West 74th Street. Her position means that she knows her employers’ intimate routines and secrets. One night, Ruby witnesses a murder. She knows both the victim and the killer so she makes an anonymous call to the police and names the murderer.
However, she does not tell the truth. Eddie Flynn, conman turned trial lawyer, must defend an innocent man accused. It soon becomes apparent that there’s something very wrong with Ruby. I found the idea that the witness might be more twisted than the killer to be such a great hook. A gripping, tense, hard-hitting crime thriller.
★★★
Adele Parks MBE is the author of 24 bestselling novels, including number one Sunday Times Bestsellers Just My Luck and Lies Lies Lies. Her latest novel, First Wife’s Shadow, is a twisty psychological thriller about jealousy and greed. Adele has sold over 5 million books in the UK editions and her work has been translated into more than 30 different languages.
She is dedicated to spreading the love of reading and is a proud ambassador of The National Literacy Trust and The Reading Agency. She loves hearing from readers so keep in touch via Twitter @adeleparks and Instagram @adele_parks.
Need more inspiration? See our June picks!
