Graeme Macrae Burnet’s BENBECULA advances to the shortlist of the 2026 Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction

Following swiftly on from today’s earlier announcement of its longlisting for the CWA Historical Dagger award, Graeme Macrae Burnet’s BENBECULA continues to attract further awards attention, advancing to the shortlist for this year’s Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction. BENBECULA is published on Polygon’s Darkland Tales list, featuring retellings of Scottish history by some of the nation’s best authors. In the novella Graeme takes readers back to the 19th century Outer Hebrides and a pitch-black tale of murder and madness reminiscent of his own acclaimed HIS BLOODY PROJECT.

‘Thus the stage is set for Macrae Burnet’s powerful, innovative psychological novella, all the more haunting in its brevity,’ wrote the judges in their citation. ‘[BENBECULA] takes its literary lead from the early innovators of the modern novel, James Hogg and Robert Louis Stevenson, with a neat and clever tale that beds its roots firmly in the gothic, with themes of madness, isolation and morality at its dark heart.   What happens when communities are tarred by association, and is it possible to keep the right side of madness when all around you madness abounds?  BENBECULA is as far removed from the recent cosy-crime tradition as it is possible to be: this is claustrophobic crime at its very best, and with so very much to admire.’

The Walter Scott Prize celebrates works of historical fiction, published during the last calendar year, and which are set more than 60 years ago. Graeme and all the shortlisted authors are invited to read at the Borders Book Festival – held at the home of Walter Scott in Abbotsford, Melrose – on 11 June, where the winner will be announced.  The winner – following recent honourees Hilary Mantel, James Robertson, Lucy Caldwell, Kevin Jared Hosein and, last year’s victor, Andrew Miller – will receive £25,000, with each shortlisted author also awarded £1,500.

Shortlisted alongside Graeme are:
THE PRETENDER by Jo Harkin (Bloomsbury)
THE MATCHBOX GIRL by Alice Jolly (Bloomsbury)
ONCE THE DEED IS DONE by Rachel Seiffert (Virago)
SEASCRAPER by Benjamin Wood (Viking)

BENBECULA is published in the UK by Polygon – who will release their paperback edition on 7 May – and in UK audio by WF Howes. It’s also published in Australia by Text Publishing, with a North American edition published by Biblioasis, with audio by Recorded Books. Spanish and Catalan editions are forthcoming from Impedimenta and crims.cat respectively.

Congratulations Graeme!

About BENBECULA

On 9 July 1857, Angus MacPhee, a labourer from Liniclate on the island of Benbecula, murdered his father, mother and aunt. At trial in Inverness he was found to be criminally insane and confined in the Criminal Lunatic Department of Perth Prison.

Some years later, Angus’s older brother Malcolm recounts the events leading up to the murders while trying to keep a grip on his own sanity. Malcolm is living in isolation, ostracised by the community and haunted by this gruesome episode in his past.

From Graeme Macrae Burnet, the Booker-shortlisted author of HIS BLOODY PROJECT, comes a beguiling psychological novel set on a remote Scottish island. Based on a true story and drawing on the documentary evidence of the time, Burnet constructs a gripping narrative about madness, murder and the uncertain nature of the self.

About Graeme Macrae Burnet

Graeme Macrae Burnet was born in Kilmarnock, Ayrshire and now lives in Glasgow. He has also lived in the Czech Republic, France, Portugal and London.

His first novel, THE DISAPPEARANCE OF ADÈLE BEDEAU (Contraband, 2014), received a New Writer’s Award from the Scottish Book Trust and was longlisted for the Waverton Good Read Award. A second Inspector Gorski novel, THE ACCIDENT ON THE A35, was published in 2017, and the trilogy was completed in 2024 with the ‘tragic, cinematic, propulsive' (Martin MacInnes) A CASE OF MATRICIDE, which won the 2025 Ned Kelly Award for Best International Crime Fiction.

HIS BLOODY PROJECT (Contraband, 2015) won the Saltire Society Fiction Book of the Year Award and the Vrij Nederland Thriller of the Year, and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, the LA Times Mystery Book of the Year and the European Crime Fiction prize. It has been published in over twenty languages. CASE STUDY was published in 2021 by Saraband (UK), Text (ANZ) and Bolinda (UK audio) to wide critical acclaim. The North American edition was published in 2022 by Biblioasis. It has been longlisted for the Booker Prize 2022 and the Dublin Literary Award, and shortlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize and Ned Kelly International Crime Prize. It has been published in fifteen languages.

Graeme was named Author of the Year in the 2017 Sunday Herald Culture Awards and has appeared at festivals and events in Australia, New Zealand, the US, Canada, Russia, Estonia, Macau, Ireland, Germany, Poland and France, as well as in the UK.

Praise for BENBECULA

‘Graeme Macrae Burnet’s recreation of a macabre incident in 19th-century Hebridean history is unrelentingly disturbing and utterly gripping' – James Robertson

‘Some crime writers are successful at creating fully-formed living, breathing characters; others are more adept at playing games with the reader: to an almost unique degree, Macrae Burnet excels at both.’ – Jake Kerridge, ‘The 21 best crime and thriller novels of 2025’, The Telegraph

‘Burnet’s vivid portrayal of a troubled household by a man attempting to explain the inexplicable is dark, intense and utterly compelling.’ – Laura Wilson, ’The best recent crime and thrillers’, The Guardian

‘Reading a novel by Graeme Macrae Burnet is unnerving because the experience always becomes physical… The more compressed and oppressive and inescapable the lives of his characters become, the tighter his books are wrapped in seeming limitations, the freer you feel as a reader… The way out of the dark hell of your own mind is to imagine yourself into the minds of others. Graeme Macrae Burnet will do anything to help get you there.’ – Ian Brown, Globe and Mail

‘BENBECULA is an elegant, eerie volume… Perhaps the most impressive feature of the novella is the sense of simmering. The bare facts are not really in dispute, but the reasons and motives are deliberately opaque. Rather than any explicit cause, Macrae Burnet conjures an atmosphere of suppression.’ – Stuart Kelly, The Scotsman

Visit Graeme’s website.

Follow Graeme on X (previously Twitter) and Instagram.

Alan Parks’ GUNNER and Graeme Macrae Burnet’s BENBECULA longlisted for the Crime Writers’ Association 2026 Historical Dagger award

We’re delighted that both Alan Parks’ WW2-set trilogy opener GUNNER and Graeme Macrae Burnet’s dark novella BENBECULA have been longlisted for the Historical Dagger award at the 2026 Dagger Awards, the Crime Writers' Association’s annual celebration of the very best in crime writing.

Each novel has already garnered wide acclaim from critics and prize juries alike: this marks BENBECULA’s third longlisting, following mentions by the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction and the Highland Book Prize; while GUNNER was among the contenders for last year’s McIlvanney Prize for Scottish Crime Book of the Year.

The shortlist for the award will be announced on 28 May, ahead of the prize-giving ceremony at the CWA gala dinner in July. Alan and Graeme were nominated alongside longlisted authors Nina Allan, Robin Blake, Kate Foster, Ariel Lawhon, Beth Lewis, Rob McInroy, Donna Moore, SW Perry, Laura Shepherd-Robinson and Sally Smith.

Alan Parks’ GUNNER made its North American debut last month, published by Pegasus Books. It garnered starred reviews from Publishers’ Weekly and Booklist and will soon be followed by Book Two in the trilogy, DECEPTION. Whisking Joseph Gunner from Blitz-torn Glasgow to the streets of 1941 New York, DECEPTION follows Gunner as he is drawn into a Secret Service conspiracy to lead the Americans into the war – no matter what the cost. Baskerville publish in the UK on 2 July, followed by Pegasus Books in North America on 1 September. Rights to GUNNER have also sold in Spain, France, Italy and the Netherlands.

Graeme Macrae Burnet’s BENBECULA is soon to be available in paperback in the UK, with Polygon publishing on 7 May. The book was named among the best of the year by both the The Times, The Telegraph and Canada’s Globe and Mail, where it was published by Biblioasis. The standalone book joins Polygon’s exceptional Darkland Tales series – where Scotland’s best writers (including Val McDermid, Denise Mina, Alan Warner and others) re-imagine true stories from the country’s past, each bringing the tales up to date with their own unique voice and identity.

Congratulations Alan and Graeme!

About GUNNER

‘Great storytelling… I loved it’ – Peter James

‘Great stuff… a vivid sense of place and time and what a main character!’ – Ian Rankin

‘In this superb historical espionage thriller, Parks excels at capturing the brutality of war… Gunner, meanwhile, is a clever, endearing hero whose personal and professional baggage have enough heft to sustain future instalments. This is a winner.’ – starred review, Publishers’ Weekly

Credit: Euan Robertson

March, 1941. Joseph Gunner is back on the streets of Glasgow after being wounded on the front lines in France.

Keeping the pain in his leg at bay with the help of morphine, Gunner, a former detective, is hoping to keep his head down as the Luftwaffe begin bombing Glasgow.

But when he runs into his old boss Drummond, he is persuaded to help examine a body found in the wreckage. When the body turns out to be that of a German, mutilated to disguise his identity, Gunner reluctantly agrees to investigate.

As Gunner begins to hunt for the truth he runs into old flames, bitter enemies, before finding himself embroiled in a high-level conspiracy that reaches far beyond his hometown of Glasgow.

Partly inspired by the true story of Rudolph Hess's secret mission to broker appeasement with Britain during WWII, GUNNER is an atmospheric and addictive new thriller from one of Britain's best-loved writers.

About BENBECULA

‘Unrelentingly disturbing and utterly gripping' – James Robertson

‘Some crime writers are successful at creating fully-formed living, breathing characters; others are more adept at playing games with the reader: to an almost unique degree, Macrae Burnet excels at both.’ – Jake Kerridge, ‘The 21 best crime and thriller novels of 2025’, The Telegraph

‘Burnet’s vivid portrayal of a troubled household by a man attempting to explain the inexplicable is dark, intense and utterly compelling.’ – Laura Wilson, ’The best recent crime and thrillers’, The Guardian

Credit: Euan Anderson

On 9 July 1857, Angus MacPhee, a labourer from Liniclate on the island of Benbecula, murdered his father, mother and aunt. At trial in Inverness he was found to be criminally insane and confined in the Criminal Lunatic Department of Perth Prison.

Some years later, Angus’s older brother Malcolm recounts the events leading up to the murders while trying to keep a grip on his own sanity. Malcolm is living in isolation, ostracised by the community and haunted by this gruesome episode in his past.

A beguiling psychological novel set on a remote Scottish island, based on a true story and drawing on the documentary evidence of the time, Burnet constructs a gripping narrative about madness, murder and the uncertain nature of the self.

BENBECULA by Graeme Macrae Burnet on the longlist for the Highland Book Prize 2025

Graeme Macrae Burnet has made it two prize nominations in as many weeks – following last Thursday’s announcement by the Walter Scott Prize – for his novel BENBECULA, as it is named among the longlist for the 2025 Highland Book Prize, awarded by the Highland Society of London and Moniack Mhor, Scotland’s Creative Writing Centre.

This annual award celebrates literature that comes from the rich landscape and culture of the Scottish Highlands and Islands, and is open to books of any genre – including fiction, non-fiction and poetry – written by authors who live in the Highlands or were born there, as well as books whose content is Highland themed. This year’s judges are poet and essayist Jen Hadfield; fiction writer Cynan Jones; and Scotland’s Makar Peter Mackay. A shortlist will be announced in May, followed by the winner in June 2026.

Also on the longlist this year are:

• An Staran by Petra Johana Poncarová (Acair, Gaelic Poetry & Prose)

• Drifting North by Dominic Hinde (Manchester University Press, Non-fiction)

• Dwell Time by Taylor Strickland (Tapsalteerie, Poetry)

• The Edge of Silence by Neil Ansell (Birlinn, Non-fiction)

• Fo Fhasgadh Beinn Chianabhail by Mòrag Anna NicNèill (Acair, Gaelic Fiction)

• Fower Pessoas by Colin Bramwell (Carcanet, Poetry)

• The Highland Cow and the Horse of the Woods by Roy Dennis (Porto Press, Non-fiction)

• Looking Down at the Stars by Christina Riley (Saraband, Non-fiction)

• The Lost Elms by Mandy Haggith (Headline, Non-fiction)

• Pathfinding by Kerri Andrews (Elliott and Thomson, Non-fiction)

• The Shapeshifter’s Daughter by Sally Magnusson (John Murray Press, Fiction)

BENBECULA was published in the UK by Polygon and WF Howes, and in Australia by Text Publishing in October 2025; a North American edition, published by Biblioasis and Recorded Books, followed in November 2025. Spanish and Catalan editions are forthcoming from Impedimenta and crims.cat respectively.

Congratulations Graeme!

About BENBECULA

On 9 July 1857, Angus MacPhee, a labourer from Liniclate on the island of Benbecula, murdered his father, mother and aunt. At trial in Inverness he was found to be criminally insane and confined in the Criminal Lunatic Department of Perth Prison.

Some years later, Angus’s older brother Malcolm recounts the events leading up to the murders while trying to keep a grip on his own sanity. Malcolm is living in isolation, ostracised by the community and haunted by this gruesome episode in his past.

From Graeme Macrae Burnet, the Booker-shortlisted author of HIS BLOODY PROJECT, comes a beguiling psychological novel set on a remote Scottish island. Based on a true story and drawing on the documentary evidence of the time, Burnet constructs a gripping narrative about madness, murder and the uncertain nature of the self.

Credit: Euan Anderson

About Graeme Macrae Burnet

Graeme Macrae Burnet was born in Kilmarnock, Ayrshire and now lives in Glasgow. He has also lived in the Czech Republic, France, Portugal and London.

His first novel, THE DISAPPEARANCE OF ADÈLE BEDEAU (Contraband, 2014), received a New Writer’s Award from the Scottish Book Trust and was longlisted for the Waverton Good Read Award. A second Inspector Gorski novel, THE ACCIDENT ON THE A35, was published in 2017, and the trilogy was completed in 2024 with the ‘tragic, cinematic, propulsive' (Martin MacInnes) A CASE OF MATRICIDE, which won the 2025 Ned Kelly Award for Best International Crime Fiction.

HIS BLOODY PROJECT (Contraband, 2015) won the Saltire Society Fiction Book of the Year Award and the Vrij Nederland Thriller of the Year, and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, the LA Times Mystery Book of the Year and the European Crime Fiction prize. It has been published in over twenty languages. CASE STUDY was published in 2021 by Saraband (UK), Text (ANZ) and Bolinda (UK audio) to wide critical acclaim. The North American edition was published in 2022 by Biblioasis. It has been longlisted for the Booker Prize 2022 and the Dublin Literary Award, and shortlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize and Ned Kelly International Crime Prize. It has been published in fifteen languages.

Graeme was named Author of the Year in the 2017 Sunday Herald Culture Awards and has appeared at festivals and events in Australia, New Zealand, the US, Canada, Russia, Estonia, Macau, Ireland, Germany, Poland and France, as well as in the UK.

Praise for BENBECULA

‘Graeme Macrae Burnet’s recreation of a macabre incident in 19th-century Hebridean history is unrelentingly disturbing and utterly gripping' – James Robertson

‘Some crime writers are successful at creating fully-formed living, breathing characters; others are more adept at playing games with the reader: to an almost unique degree, Macrae Burnet excels at both.’ – Jake Kerridge, ‘The 21 best crime and thriller novels of 2025’, The Telegraph

‘Burnet’s vivid portrayal of a troubled household by a man attempting to explain the inexplicable is dark, intense and utterly compelling.’ – Laura Wilson, ’The best recent crime and thrillers’, The Guardian

‘Reading a novel by Graeme Macrae Burnet is unnerving because the experience always becomes physical… The more compressed and oppressive and inescapable the lives of his characters become, the tighter his books are wrapped in seeming limitations, the freer you feel as a reader… The way out of the dark hell of your own mind is to imagine yourself into the minds of others. Graeme Macrae Burnet will do anything to help get you there.’ – Ian Brown, Globe and Mail

‘BENBECULA is an elegant, eerie volume… Perhaps the most impressive feature of the novella is the sense of simmering. The bare facts are not really in dispute, but the reasons and motives are deliberately opaque. Rather than any explicit cause, Macrae Burnet conjures an atmosphere of suppression.’ – Stuart Kelly, The Scotsman

Visit Graeme’s website.

Follow Graeme on X (previously Twitter) and Instagram.

Graeme Macrae Burnet’s BENBECULA longlisted for the 2026 Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction

Booker-shortlisted author Graeme Macrae Burnet’s latest novel BENBECULA has garnered its first prize nomination – a longlisting for this year’s Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction. BENBECULA is published on Polygon’s Darkland Tales list, featuring retellings of Scottish history by some of the nation’s best authors. In the novel Graeme takes readers back to the 19th century Outer Hebrides and a pitch-black tale of murder and madness reminiscent of his own acclaimed HIS BLOODY PROJECT.

The Walter Scott Prize celebrates works of historical fiction, published during the last calendar year, and which are set more than 60 years ago. A shortlist will be announced in April ahead of the prizegiving at the Borders Book Festival – held at the home of Walter Scott in Abbotsford, Melrose – in June. The winner will receive £25,000, with each shortlisted author also awarded £1,500. Recent winners include Hilary Mantel, James Robertson, Lucy Caldwell, Kevin Jared Hosein and, last year’s victor, Andrew Miller (THE LAND IN WINTER).

The Abbotsford Trust, the independent Scottish charity dedicated to preserving the legacy and extraordinary home of Sir Walter Scott, said that this year’s nominees each ‘pays fitting tribute to its namesake [Walter Scott] and encompasses all the variety of story, tone and drama that, in the hands of first-class novelists, history has to offer.’ The judging panel this year comprises of Katie Grant (Chair), Rosi Byard-Jones, Rosamund de la Hey, Elizabeth Laird, James Holloway and James Naughtie.

Also on the longlist this year are:
VENETIAN VESPERS by John Banville (Faber & Faber)
THE TWO ROBERTS by Damian Barr (Canongate)
EDEN’S SHORE by Oisín Fagan (John Murray Press)
HELM by Sarah Hall (Faber & Faber)
THE PRETENDER by Jo Harkin (Bloomsbury)
BOUNDARY WATERS by Tristan Hughes (Parthian Books)
THE MATCHBOX GIRL by Alice Jolly (Bloomsbury)
EDENGLASSIE by Melissa Lucashenko (Oneworld Publications)
ONCE THE DEED IS DONE by Rachel Seiffert (Virago)
THE ARTIST by Lucy Steeds (John Murray Press)
SEASCRAPER by Benjamin Wood (Viking)

BENBECULA was published in the UK by Polygon and WF Howes, and in Australia by Text Publishing in October 2025; a North American edition, published by Biblioasis and Recorded Books, followed in November 2025. Spanish and Catalan editions are forthcoming from Impedimenta and crims.cat respectively.

Congratulations Graeme!

About BENBECULA

On 9 July 1857, Angus MacPhee, a labourer from Liniclate on the island of Benbecula, murdered his father, mother and aunt. At trial in Inverness he was found to be criminally insane and confined in the Criminal Lunatic Department of Perth Prison.

Some years later, Angus’s older brother Malcolm recounts the events leading up to the murders while trying to keep a grip on his own sanity. Malcolm is living in isolation, ostracised by the community and haunted by this gruesome episode in his past.

From Graeme Macrae Burnet, the Booker-shortlisted author of HIS BLOODY PROJECT, comes a beguiling psychological novel set on a remote Scottish island. Based on a true story and drawing on the documentary evidence of the time, Burnet constructs a gripping narrative about madness, murder and the uncertain nature of the self.

Credit: Euan Anderson

About Graeme Macrae Burnet

Graeme Macrae Burnet was born in Kilmarnock, Ayrshire and now lives in Glasgow. He has also lived in the Czech Republic, France, Portugal and London.

His first novel, THE DISAPPEARANCE OF ADÈLE BEDEAU (Contraband, 2014), received a New Writer’s Award from the Scottish Book Trust and was longlisted for the Waverton Good Read Award. A second Inspector Gorski novel, THE ACCIDENT ON THE A35, was published in 2017, and the trilogy was completed in 2024 with the ‘tragic, cinematic, propulsive' (Martin MacInnes) A CASE OF MATRICIDE, which won the 2025 Ned Kelly Award for Best International Crime Fiction.

HIS BLOODY PROJECT (Contraband, 2015) won the Saltire Society Fiction Book of the Year Award and the Vrij Nederland Thriller of the Year, and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, the LA Times Mystery Book of the Year and the European Crime Fiction prize. It has been published in over twenty languages. CASE STUDY was published in 2021 by Saraband (UK), Text (ANZ) and Bolinda (UK audio) to wide critical acclaim. The North American edition was published in 2022 by Biblioasis. It has been longlisted for the Booker Prize 2022 and the Dublin Literary Award, and shortlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize and Ned Kelly International Crime Prize. It has been published in fifteen languages.

Graeme was named Author of the Year in the 2017 Sunday Herald Culture Awards and has appeared at festivals and events in Australia, New Zealand, the US, Canada, Russia, Estonia, Macau, Ireland, Germany, Poland and France, as well as in the UK.

Praise for BENBECULA

‘Graeme Macrae Burnet’s recreation of a macabre incident in 19th-century Hebridean history is unrelentingly disturbing and utterly gripping' – James Robertson

‘Some crime writers are successful at creating fully-formed living, breathing characters; others are more adept at playing games with the reader: to an almost unique degree, Macrae Burnet excels at both.’ – Jake Kerridge, ‘The 21 best crime and thriller novels of 2025’, The Telegraph

‘Burnet’s vivid portrayal of a troubled household by a man attempting to explain the inexplicable is dark, intense and utterly compelling.’ – Laura Wilson, ’The best recent crime and thrillers’, The Guardian

‘Reading a novel by Graeme Macrae Burnet is unnerving because the experience always becomes physical… The more compressed and oppressive and inescapable the lives of his characters become, the tighter his books are wrapped in seeming limitations, the freer you feel as a reader… The way out of the dark hell of your own mind is to imagine yourself into the minds of others. Graeme Macrae Burnet will do anything to help get you there.’ – Ian Brown, Globe and Mail

‘BENBECULA is an elegant, eerie volume… Perhaps the most impressive feature of the novella is the sense of simmering. The bare facts are not really in dispute, but the reasons and motives are deliberately opaque. Rather than any explicit cause, Macrae Burnet conjures an atmosphere of suppression.’ – Stuart Kelly, The Scotsman

Visit Graeme’s website.

Follow Graeme on X (previously Twitter) and Instagram.

Blake Friedmann Best of 2025

We’re proud of all our authors and thrilled to see the praise and prizes announced in 2025. Here’s a glimpse of the news in the media – and congratulations to all our writers on their many and varied achievements!

A WOMAN LIKE ME by Diane Abbott

Shortlisted for the 2025 RSL Christopher Bland Prize

A Guardian ‘Best Paperback’, March 2025

One of The i’s ‘Best New Paperbacks’, March 2025

WHO WILL REMAIN by Kasim Ali

A Spotify ‘Best Fiction Audiobook of 2025’

One of New Arab’s ‘25 standout books of 2025’

One of The i’s ‘Best New Books, July 2025’

A Spotify Editor’s Pick – August 2025

‘Kasim Ali’s second novel WHO WILL REMAIN also left a lasting impression. I was captivated by Amir’s journey navigating, societal and familial pressure within Alum Rock’s Pakistani community. The father-son relationship was depicted incredibly well and left me pondering. We really need more books written by men of colour that tackle themes this poignant – pick this up.’ – Linda Malek, The Candid Book Club

RECIPES TO DIE LIVE FOR by Sally Andrew

Winner of a 2025 Gourmand World Cookbook award in the Acknowledgements category

AGIMAT by Romalyn Ante

Longlisted for the Jhalak Prize for Poetry

THE MEMORY OF US by Dani Atkins

Shortlisted for the Romantic Novelists’ Association’s 2025 Romantic Thriller Award

SWEET HEAT by Bolu Babalola

One of Time’s ‘100 Must-Read Books of 2025’

One of Oprah Daily’s ‘Books That Got Us Through 2025’

Amazon Editors; Picks: Best Romance books of September

A Kobo Best of Romance, September 2025

One of The i’s ‘Best New Books’, July 2025

A New York Times ‘Best Novel Coming in Fall 2025’

‘Previously a Reese Witherspoon book club pick for her 2022 novel HONEY & SPICE, Babalola continues to show why with this gorgeous, lush new book… It’s witty, obviously, but there’s a warmth and real depth to the characterisation and the issues affecting the young Londoners it portrays. Will you see what’s coming a mile off? Definitely. Will you enjoy the journey? Every bit of it.’ – Jenny Colgan, The Guardian, ‘The Five Best Romance Books of 2025’

‘Stunning… It’s a joy to witness the former flames rediscover their passion in this emotional second-chance romance. Brilliantly narrated by Weruche Opia, SWEET HEAT is a transcendent listen that delivers pure magic.’ – Audible UK’s Best of the Year 2025 – Top 20 Pick

‘SWEET HEAT lives up to the high expectations set with its predecessor… Deliciously smart, humorous, and sexy… This is a sweet second-chance love story with a kick.’ – Lauren Puckett-Pope, ELLE, ‘The Best Books of Fall 2025’

‘Babalola writes romance stories that tug at your heartstrings. The banter feels natural, and she isn’t afraid to turn up the heat. Fans of her other books will enjoy this new entry.’ – Adaora Obeleagu, Zikoko ‘The Best Nigerian Books of 2025’

‘There’s this beautifully layered tension, this wave of emotion, romance and personal reflection that runs through the whole story. SWEET HEAT is the book that comes after the coming-of-age story, it speaks to that weird messy in between time that sometimes comes after college, when you're figuring out who you are, what you want, and how to move forward. Babalola’s writing is stunning. She does a wonderful job of weaving words together in a way that makes you connect with the characters and whatever they're going through. SWEET HEAT is a must-read for anyone navigating the chaos of adulthood, love, and identity, especially when everything feels uncertain.’ – Chicago Public Library, Books of the Year

‘Underneath the fun and banter-filled second-chance romance lies a profound (okay, profound-ish) meditation on love and forgiveness.’ – Melissa Locker, Portland Mercury, ‘10 Favorite Romance (and Romantasy) Books of 2025’

COSTANZA by Rachel Blackmore

Longlisted for the Historical Writers’ Association Debut Crown Award 

Kenny Boyle

Scottish TikToker of the year

BENBECULA by Graeme Macrae Burnet

One of ‘The Globe 100: The 100 Best Books of 2025’, Globe and Mail 

A CASE OF MATRICIDE by Graeme Macrae Burnet 

Winner of the Ned Kelly Award for International Crime Fiction 

THIS BRIGHT LIFE by Karen Campbell

Shortlisted for the Best Fiction prize at Scotland’s National Book Awards 

SUMMER ROLLS by Tuyền Đỗ

‘Perfectly encapsulates the immigrant experience and how different generations might look at the same situation through entirely different lenses… This story transported me through time in such a way that I couldn’t believe I had come to the end when I did. More than anything, though, this story made me HUNGRY. For more than just food; for travel and to experience more of the beauty in other corners of this vast world we live in.’ – Payal Shah, @pie_loves_books, ‘Books of the Year’

GROW WHERE THEY FALL by Michael Donkor 

One of The i’’s ‘Best New Paperbacks, March 2025’

EVERY KIND OF PEOPLE by Kathryn Faulke

Winner of the 2025 RSL Christopher Bland Prize

FELICITY’S WAR by Jean Fullerton

Shortlisted for the Romantic Novelists’ Association’s 2025 Romantic Saga Award

HEARTWOOD by Amity Gaige

‘HEARTWOOD absorbs the reader in the subculture and shorthand of the trail, exploring the thorny tangles of motherhood (and daughterhood) and building satisfying suspense about whether, and how, all three women will emerge from their metaphorical woods.’ – The New York Times, ‘The Best Books of the Year (So Far)’

THE DOGWALKER’S DETECTIVE AGENCY by Michael Hogan

‘Cosy crime takes a delightfully fresh turn with this striking debut about a graphic designer who returns to his childhood home at the seaside and finds a body while walking three dogs. One body breeds another, and the plot gently thickens. If you like Richard Osman’s books, you will love this.’ – Geoffrey Wansell, Daily Mail, ‘Best Books of 2025 – Crime’

ONE OF US IS DEAD by Peter James

No.1 UK paperback bestseller  

THE HAWK IS DEAD by Peter James

No. 3 UK hardback bestseller

‘The pages turn themselves in James’ series’ – Anna Bonet, the i newspaper, ‘The best new crime and thriller books to read in October 2025’

‘A majestic treat’ – James Owen, The Times, ‘The Best Thrillers of 2025 so far’

GRACE (TV show based on Roy Grace novels by Peter James)

‘Screenwriter Russell Lewis (ENDEAVOUR) adapts the novels of popular British crime mystery author Peter James in this series of feature-length episodes that feel like the epitome of prestige television. Grace follows John Simm (DOCTOR WHO) as a troubled detective whose failure to find his missing wife drives him to the point of obsession to solve each case… Simm’s performance is one of the best in his career, and it's a big draw of the show, though the cinematography and visual storytelling are a close second, as each episode feels like it has cinema-quality production to match the movie-style runtime.’ – Tauri Miller, Collider, ‘The 8 Best British Mystery Shows on Britxbox Right Now’

SHE PLAYS WITH THE DARKNESS by Zakes Mda

 Selected for the Searchlight Book List August 2025

THE ZULUS OF NEW YORK by Zakes Mda

Selected for the Searchlight Book List August 2025

LEO by Deon Meyer

Christmas No.1 in South Africa

‘This South African series has everything – an exotic setting, a great plot and the talents of detectives Benny Griessel and Vaughn Cupido as they put their careers on the line to find the link between three seemingly unrelated homicides.’ – Globe and Mail, ‘The Globe 100: The 100 best books of 2025’

‘The master South African storyteller shows his aptitude for weaving multiple plotlines together and making them all equally engaging in this smart, exciting geopolitical thriller. LEO is a book to get lost in and to learn from.’ – Lisa Henricksson, Air Mail, ‘AIR MAIL’s 10 Best Mystery Books of 2025’

One of Amazon's Best Books of the Year So Far 2025 – Top 20 in the Mystery/Thriller (new and continuing series) category

ASHEN CROWN: BOUND BY FIRE by Elli J. Morrigan

‘BOUND BY FIRE held me captive with its rich world-building and titillating romance. Imogen Wilde was her own spark in this audiobook, delivering a layered performance of a story that was quite literally made for audio. I’m eager to see what debut author Elli J. Morrigan does next.’ —Audible Blog, ‘The 10 best romantasy listens of 2025’

THE GHOSTS OF ROME by Joseph O’Connor

Winner of the overall An Post Irish Book of the Year Award 2025

Winner of the Listeners’ Choice Award at the 2025 An Post Irish Book Awards

Shortlisted for the Eason Novel of the Year Award 2025

Shortlisted for the 2025 Kerry Group Novel of The Year Award

The seventh-highest selling book in Ireland in 2025

No.1 Irish hardback bestseller

One of The Times’ ‘Best Books of 2025 so far’

‘The second book in Joseph O’Connor’s Rome Escape Line trilogy is another superb testament to humankind’s bravery and resilience. Continuing the story of resistance fighters in Nazi-occupied Italy, THE GHOSTS OF ROME is just as moving and immersive as its predecessor, MY FATHER’S HOUSE’ – Laura Wilson, The Guardian, ‘The Best Crime and Thrillers of 2025’

‘Round two of the Rome Escape Line trilogy – that there won’t be one in 2026 means the whole year is already a dead loss – shows O’Connor’s mastery of the literary thriller. There’s poetry inspired by Urbs Aeterna and plenty of action to go with it, kicking off with an airman falling towards the Nazi-occupied city before the chase, while “bullets spit at his back”, begins. O’Connor’s reimagined adventures of our man in the Vatican, Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty, will hit a screen at some point but don’t wait.’ – Pat Carty, Hot Press, ‘The Best Books of 2025’

MY FATHER’S HOUSE by Joseph O’Connor

A No.5 Irish Bestseller

THE HONEYMOON AFFAIR by Sheila O’Flanagan

Irish Top 10 bestseller and UK Top 20 bestseller

GUNNER by Alan Parks

Longlisted for the McIlvanney Prize for Scottish Crime Novel of the Year

‘Taking inspiration from the real-life secret mission of Rudolph Hess, Parks's blazing wartime crime thriller finds a wounded former detective reluctantly drawn into the case of a mutilated German found in Glasgow's bomb wreckage.’ – Waterstones, ‘The Best Crime & Thrillers of 2025’

‘Lost love, bitter gangland enemies, and the identity of the dead man is at the heart of a powerful conspiracy story. It all makes for an intelligent and pacy crime thriller… Parks knows Glasgow and this is like experiencing the wartime streets of a city under siege from bombers and suffering the deprivations of war.’ – Paul Burke, Crime Fiction Lover, ‘Top Five Books of 2025’

TO DIE IN JUNE by Alan Parks

Longlisted for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award

PASSIONTIDE by Monique Roffey

Longlisted for CARICON Prize for Fiction

A MOTHER’S PROMISE by Renee Salt and Kate Thompson 

No.6 Sunday Times bestseller

THE STRANGER IN THE ROOM by Luca Veste

One of The Times’ ‘Best Thrillers of 2025 — so far’

THE NEAR NORTH by Ivan Vladislavic

Longlisted for South Africa’s Sunday Times Non-fiction Literary Award 

THE INNOCENTS by Bridget Walsh

Longlisted for the 2025 Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) Gold Dagger award

WHITE ROAD by Harry Whitehead

‘WHITE ROAD by Harry Whitehead is a harrowing tale of endurance about an ex-navy rescue swimmer who is stranded in the Arctic. A compelling eco-thriller with big themes and an unforgiving icescape that’s a character in itself.’ – Eve Smith, ‘We're the queens of psychological crime thrillers – these were our fave reads of 2025’, Express

‘Probably the closest I will ever get to the Arctic is reading this frozen-white-knuckle ride of a thriller by Harry Whitehead. WHITE ROAD is both a page-turning disaster drama and a moral re-examination of the climate crisis and our species’ relentless need for more hydrocarbons. The author attends to the hour-by-hour twists in his plot, yet spliced to a forensic exploration of the human heart. He gives us a love letter to the extraordinary ice world of the Arctic: both its fragile beauty and its remorseless terrors. Before everything, the book strikes me as a singular, beautifully integrated achievement.’ – Mark Cocker, ‘Christmas Books 2025’

THE GRAMMAR OF ANGELS by Edward Wilson-Lee

‘In this smart and rangy book, Wilson-Lee, a Cambridge don, paints a glorious portrait of the great 15th-century prince of learning, and teaches you more about magic than you thought you would ever know.’ – The Telegraph, ‘The Greatest Books of 2025’,

Blake Friedmann picks for 2026

SMITTEN by Tom Bellamy

 One of the Next Big Idea Club’s Must-Read Books for February 2026

ADRIFT by Will Dean

‘Dean leans into claustrophobic tension, testing how trust collapses when survival becomes uncertain.’ – Girish Shukla, Times Now, ‘2026 Book Releases Worth Pre-Ordering Now’

BANSHEE, ed. by Ailbhe Malone

An Irish Times ‘One to Watch in 2026’

An Irish Examiner ‘Fiction to watch out for this year’

One of Stellar.ie’s 20 Books We’re Dying To Read In 2026

 SECRETS BETWEEN FRIENDS by Sheila O’Flanagan

 One The Irish Times ‘Best Fiction of 2026 to Look Forward to’ picks