I’m delighted to welcome @ahmedmasoud02 and his wonderful novel A Death in the Old City to @baskervillejmp@johnmurrays
How do you solve a murder in the middle of a war zone? A Death in the Old City is an atmospheric murder mystery set a decade ago on the Gaza Strip.
In 2014, when Ammar Bseiso’s body was found, his death is written off as one of the 2,000 or so casualties of war that year in Gaza. However, Zahra, his wife, is convinced that he was murdered. Zahra spends two years looking for a detective who will agree to take on her case as her family and friends dismiss her suspicions.
When Detective Nouman El Taweel agrees to investigate the crime, Zahra begins to regret it almost immediately as the policeman uncovers the truth behind the murder, along with a network of deception, lies and corruption. A Death in the Old City is a simultaneously warm and deeply poignant mystery novel about love, betrayal and class in a city that has since been largely destroyed.
@ahmedmasoud02 is an extraordinary person and writer and I can’t wait to work with him and see this book fly.
Coming April 2027.
So excited to be publishing The Inn Closes for Christmas by the wonderful Cledwyn Hughes, a lost classic of Welsh literature that has been out of print for almost half a century.
This novella is in the form of a confession and revolves around a dentist murderously obsessed with his wife’s prosthetic leg and the terrible consequences of his obsession. We follow the dentist’s spiral into madness as we walk through his nightmares, visions and thoughts in this profound and macabre tale. It is dark, macabre, and twisted with writing that is so elegant and stylish. A gem!
Hughes was an Anglo-Welsh author of short stories, novels and narrative non-fiction. He wrote for more than 30 years across a wide range of genres including crime, Celtic Noir, children’s and topographical writing. Born in Llansantffraid, Montgomeryshire, he worked as a hospital pharmacist in the north of England before settling down in Wales to write full-time. His work has been featured in magazines such as Suspense as well as in collections like Woodrow Wyatt’s English Story. He was also a regular contributor to the BBC. Hughes’ contemporaries called him a “brilliant young Welshman whose short stories have already established his reputation” (Spectator).
Having lunch with his daughters, who’ve worked through his archive to keep his writing alive was a real highlight and so I can’t wait to do my wee bit to help readers discover Cledwyn Hughes’ work.
The novella along with some other of his short stories will be published by @baskervillejmp@johnmurrays on 6th November 2025!
Very chuffed to welcome the wonderfully talented James Wolff to @baskervillejmp for his new standalone novel SPIES AND OTHER GODS.
James Wolff worked as a British intelligence officer for over ten years, so while the book is a work of fiction it has this amazing sense of authenticity. He grew up in Lebanon and has lived in Syria, Egypt and Turkey and is the author of three novels, all published by Bitter Lemon Press.
In Spies and Other Gods an anonymous whistleblower makes a complaint about a secret service operation. When the government’s intelligence oversight committee use this as an opportunity to put the squeeze on the service, they bring in an external investigator, Aphra McQueen to run the inquiry. Sir William Rentoul, head of the intelligence service, is doing his best to head off the oversight committee and push Aphra’s investigation down a cul-de-sac in a bid to maintain control. But when the complaint turns out to be a hoax, it is a race against time to find out the truth and prevent covers being blown. What follows is a cat-and-mouse chase that goes from London to Paris where pasts are revealed, motives are uncovered, and lives are on the line.
It’s brilliant on geopolitics, the human element of espionage, and the precarious nature of our national institutions.
It’s out in early 2026. Can’t wait for people to read this one!
Buzzing to welcome the brilliantly talented Lucie McKnight Hardy to @johnmurrays . I’ve been a huge admirer of Lucie’s for a long time and can’t wait to publish her exquisitely terrifying new novel Night Babies, next year!
Buzzing that the news is out! So happy to officially welcome the supremely talented Djamel White and his brilliant debut ALL THEM DOGS to @johnmurrays
All Them Dogs follows Tony Ward who has landed back in his west Dublin estate after keeping his head down for five years in England due to crimes committed in the past. But he’s wild, full of anger, and keen to get back on the scene, so falls in with the Lavelle gang’s enforcer, Darren ‘Flute’ Walsh. But as Tony gets knee-deep into the gang and closer to Walsh, feelings from his past stir, retribution for his crimes is just around the corner, and his world feels as fragile as ever.
The raw energy, language, and edge of your seat plot in this book is incredible. Can’t wait for people to read this one. Coming 2026 but you’ll be hearing more about this one way before then.
Here we go . . . A Short History of the Apocalypse by Frankie Boyle and Charlie Skelton is finally off to the printers and audiobook recorded. Out 7th November!
What started as an idea for a short 50,000 word manual on how to survive the apocalypse turned into an 150,000 word tome that is a satirical, speculative, and fictitious portrayal of what is to come, with illustrations from the legendary Frank Quitely, an index (scroll for a taster), a translators note, and a publishers note (which I still have to record for the audiobook)
It is absurd, mad, bizarre, unique, and could only come from the twin headed imagination of Frankie and Charlie. The email and text threads between the three of us alone could make up another book…
Creepy proofs are just in for WILLIAM by Mason Coile!
*An up-all-night slice of Halloween horror, perfect for fans of Stephen King, Black Mirror, and Frankenstein*
Henry, a brilliant but reclusive engineer, has achieved the crowning discovery of his career: he’s created an artificially intelligent consciousness. He names the half-formed robot William.
But there’s something strange about William.
It’s not that his skin feels like balloon rubber and is the colour of curdled milk, nor is it his thick gurgling laugh or the way his tongue curls towards his crooked top teeth. It is the way he looks at Henry’s wife, Lily.
Henry created William but he is starting to lose control of him. As William’s fixation with Lily grows and threatens to bring harm to their house, Henry has no choice but to destroy William.
But William isn’t gone. Filled with jealousy for humanity, for its capacity to love and create life, William starts to haunt the house.
He lurks behind each locked door. You can hear him muttering in the eaves of the attic. He is whispering in Henry’s head. And he will be the one to take control . . .
William is a new kind of ghost story, where the haunting is not from another world, but from inside your home. Inside your head . . .
Coming October 2024 from @baskervillejmp
Hardbacks of Cinema Love by @ajiamingtang are in! They look incredible thanks to design supremo @sofiahericson
Not long now until it is out 9th May from @johnmurrays
This beautiful and tender novel is getting so much love
‘Cinema Love is not just an extraordinary debut but a future classic’ Jessamine Chan
‘I loved it. Cinema Love fizzes with energy. The characters are rich and warm and the prose is perfect. Jiaming Tang is a remarkable new voice’ Fiona Mozley
‘A tender and enrapturing feat of storytelling’ Vanessa Chan
‘A staggering feat of storytelling, epic in its reach yet so intimate and nuanced in its ability to break the heart of its reader’ Wiz Wharton
‘Exceptional, moving, and not to be missed’ Alice Hoffman
‘This is the unforgettable work of a patient master’ Robert Jones, Jr
‘Masterful . . . Cinema Love is a tender, deeply compassionate debut’ Grace D. Li
‘Cinema Love announces Jiaming Tang as an essential new voice in literature. I absolutely loved this book’ Emily Habeck
‘Hear me now: this is a book that’ll stay with you long after the last page’ Mateo Askaripour
🎥
I cannot wait to publish the sensational Cinema Love, the phenomenal debut novel by the incredible @ajiamingtang
It is the story of gay men in rural China, the cinema where they cruise for love, and the women who are married to them. Spanning post-socialist China, 1980s Chinatown and contemporary New York, Cinema Love is a tender epic about forbidden love, unspoken desires, and ghosts from the past.
The response has been incredible so far, to name a few:
‘Cinema Love is not just an extraordinary debut but a future classic’ @jessamine.chan
‘A tender and enrapturing feat of storytelling’ @vanjchan
‘Epic in its reach yet so intimate and nuanced in its ability to break the heart of its reader’ @wizwharton
‘I loved it. Cinema Love fizzes with energy. The characters are rich and warm and the prose is perfect. Jiaming Tang is a remarkable new voice’ @fionamozley
Release date: May 9th 2024
From: @johnmurrays
🎥: @efpbailey
Cover: @sofiahericson
The Lady Joker set is complete.
With the paperback of Lady Joker: Volume 2 just in from the printers and out next month, the deck is finally complete and they look incredible.
But this is all down to the amazing work of @lookbird who has conjured up 4 brilliant jackets. From their looks alone they’ve graced the tables and window displays of many a bookshop. And they are so beautiful they’ve appeared at the Oscars and the #Barbie premiere (see pics 3/4 and thanks @waterstones #looksforbooks)
Thanks to all the reviewers, booksellers, and fans and readers who’ve jumped into this 1200 page heist/odyssey that is a true classic of Japanese fiction.
It’s been amazing to bring Lady Joker and Kaoru Takamura to the UK and publish her astounding work beautifully translated by Marie Iida and Allison Markin Powell on @baskervillejmp@johnmurrays 🃏
Buzzing to have acquired Daemon by Mason Coile, a short wee thriller that is Black Mirror and Frankenstein in the world of Stephen King.
Set over the course of one Halloween, it shifts from psychological thriller and cyber-noir to haunted house horror and locked-box mystery. The writing is just off the scale good.
It begins with Henry, a brilliant but agoraphobic robotics engineer, who has achieved the crowning discovery of his career: he’s created an artificially intelligent consciousness. He names the half-formed robot William. But all is not right with William. The AI is filled with jealousy for humanity, for its capacity to love and create life.
Henry is uneasy at first, then terrified when William develops an unsettling fixation on Henry’s pregnant wife Lily. Left with no other choice, he is forced to terminate the AI but somehow William’s consciousness survives.
Henry and his wife wired their home to be the smartest of smart homes, a decision that may prove fatal since a vengeful William has now seized control of the house and its inhabitants.
Essentially, William is what happens when Alexa goes bad and makes you wish you were on airplane mode...
Hopefully out next year on the amazing @baskervillejmp
It’s publication day for Lady Joker: Volume 2 🃏
This is the gripping conclusion to this enthralling epic. It’s been very cool to bring this beast of a novel to the UK, 25 years after it was first published in Japan. Kaoru Takamura is an amazing writer and this is her masterpiece.
Stunning design by @lookbird
Published by the brilliant team @baskervillejmp
Translated (it took 7 years!) by Allison Markin Powell and Marie Iida
Five men who meet at a Tokyo racetrack every week carry out a heist. They have kidnapped the CEO of Japan's largest beer company to extract blood money from the company's corrupt financiers.
Inspired by the real-life Glico-Morinaga kidnapping, an unsolved case that terrorized Japan for two years, Lady Joker reimagines this watershed episode in modern Japanese history.
#japan #japanesefiction #translatedfiction #womenintranslation #crimefiction #thrillers
