Monique Roffey’s HOUSE OF ASHES out tomorrow

Monique Roffey’s new novel, HOUSE OF ASHES, is published in the UK by Scribner on 17 July. Inspired by real events, this is the haunting story of Ashes and Breeze, two disaffected young men who follow the charismatic Leader into a disastrous coup.

Monique will be around the country talking about the novel over the summer. She will be signing at several bookshops, including Waterstones Covent Garden on 23 July (in an event chaired by Eithne Farry), Waterstones Petersfield on 22 July, Blackwells Oxford on 13 August and Topping Books, Ely on 21 August.

She will also be appearing at Edinburgh Book festival, talking with Neel Mukherjee about the different ways both their books address the issue of idealistic young men railing against their societies. 

HOUSE OF ASHES is already attracting praise from writers and reviewers, with blogger Naomi Frisby calling it ‘a powerful book… the best 2014 published novel I’ve read so far this year.’

Monique's second novel THE WHITE WOMAN ON THE GREEN BICYCLE was shortlisted for the Orange Prize and the Encore Prize, and ARCHIPELAGO was shortlisted for the Orion Book Award 2014 and awarded the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature 2013.

Visit Monique's website here.

Praise for HOUSE OF ASHES:

‘This is the kind of Caribbean fiction Gabriel Garcia Marquez once wrote about – a vividness of imagination which is at once so terrible, so beautiful and so compelling that it shows you exactly how things are.’ – Kei Miller, author of WRITING DOWN THE VISION

‘With HOUSE OF ASHES, Monique Roffey breathes new and desperately needed life into the narrative of war and politics. Here is a novel that is deeply and intimately imagined, with all the great themes of love, faith, violence and death at stake on nearly every breathtaking page. ‘ – Dinaw Mengestu, author of THE BEAUTIFUL THINGS THAT HEAVEN BEARS

'Monique Roffey's brave and loving novel will stage an insurrection in your heart … Monique Roffey has an astonishing talent for self-reinvention with every book. This may be her best yet.' – Vahni Capildeo, author of UTTER

'A chilling, dark tale of an uprising gone wrong within an imagined Caribbean republic. Roffey tells this terrifying story in the simplest, clearest prose. She tackles her subject fearlessly and with enormous compassion: both breaking and melting the heart simultaneously. A beautiful, startling novel.' - Amanda Smyth, author of BLACK ROCK

Laurie Penny shortlisted for the Red Women of the Year awards 2014

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Celebrated journalist Laurie Penny has been shortlisted for the Red Women of the  Year awards 2014 in the Blogger category. She is up against bloggers Carrie Barclay, Muireann Carey-Campbell, Charlotte O’Shea and Niamh Shields. The winner will be announced later this year.

You can view Laurie’s blog here.

Laurie’s new book UNSPEAKABLE THINGS was published by Bloomsbury last week. Clear-eyed, witty and irreverent, Laurie Penny is as ruthless in her dissection of modern feminism and class politics as she is in discussing her own experiences in journalism, activism and underground culture. Read an extract in The Guardian here.

Tim Baker highly commended for the Debut Dagger

New Blake Friedmann client Tim Baker has been highly commended for the Crime Writers Association Debut Dagger for THE LONG OBLIVION, an extract from his novel FEVER CITY. Alongside the winner, he was selected as one of only two commended entries from hundreds of entries.

FEVER CITY is an upmarket speculative crime fiction novel which details how Hastings - a hit man with no heart but a lot of conscience - and Alston - a PI with plenty of heart, but whose conscience is running on empty – collide during a sensational kidnapping case in 1960s LA. Uncovering a sinister world of Hollywood blackmail, Big Oil paymasters, and a sadistic FBI agent, by the time their wild-eyed, wise-guy journey is over, both men will be forced to confront the roles they have inadvertently played in the JFK assassination.

FEVER CITY will be out on submission in the UK this summer, for more information contact Tom Witcomb. 

Six Blake Friedmann Books out today!

It’s a big publication day at Blake Friedmann with six books by our authors being published in the UK today!

Barbara Erskine’s latest novel THE DARKEST HOUR is published by HarperCollins. An epic tale of love and heartbreak set in World War II and the present, Lucy’s husband is killed in a bizarre car accident and a painting he was to have restored leads Lucy back to the life of the artist, Evie. Finding a painted-over figure of a WWII pilot behind Evie’s self-portrait, Lucy unravels the mystery of the two men in Evie’s life, and their relevance to Lucy’s own. Barbara Erskine is the author of the bestselling novel LADY OF HAY, which has been continuously in print for 28 years and sold in 26 languages.

No. 1 Irish bestseller Sheila O’Flanagan’s new novel IF YOU WERE ME is published by Headline. Stressful presentations are part of a day’s work for Carlotta, but this one was in 2 languages. Missing her plane home wasn’t part of the plan, and missing her future mother-in-law’s birthday party is just the first of a sequence of events that turns her emotional and work life upside down.  Headline have sold more than 6 million books by Sheila.

Feminist, socialist and associate New Statesman editor Laurie Penny’s new book, UNSPEAKABLE THINGS, is published by Bloomsbury. Publishers Weekly called the book “a feminist book for our time that burns with a wild light and deserves attention.” Clear-eyed, witty and irreverent, Laurie Penny is as ruthless in her dissection of modern feminism and class politics as she is in discussing her own experiences in journalism, activism and underground culture. Read an extract in The Guardian here.

THE TESTIMONY OF THE HANGED MAN is the latest novel in Ann Granger’s Victorian Crime series, published by Headline. When Inspector Ben Ross is called to Newgate Prison by a man condemned to die by the hangman's noose he isn't expecting to give any credence to the man's testimony. But the account of a murder he witnessed over seventeen years ago is so utterly believeable that Ben can't help wondering if what he's heard is true. It's too late to save the man's life, but it's not too late to investigate a murder that has gone undetected for all these years.  She has more than 5 million books in print in English and German.

Told in her trademark multiple first-person style, AN OPEN MARRIAGE is the new novel by Tess Stimson published by Macmillan. Mia Allen has never quite adjusted to living in England. Her husband Kit though, loves the sense of community and his job as a school teacher in a private school.  Like Mia, Kit's boss Charlie is also looking for more excitement in her life. When she and Rob are invited to dinner with Mia and Kit, she jumps at the chance to make new friends. One evening, the increasing attraction between them all moves up a notch, but it's not long before the seductive highs of these new friendships lead to desperate lows. Can any of their relationships survive this unconventional arrangement? 

Finally the paperback of THE SUMMER QUEEN, the first book in Elizabeth Chadwick’s stunning Eleanor of Aquitaine trilogy, is published by Sphere. You can view a trailer for the book here. Choice Magazine called it “engrossingly written and well researched.”   Chadwick has delivered the manuscript for the second volume, THE WINTER CROWN and is now writing the final volume THE AUTUMN THRONE.  She is a New York Times bestselling author and according to The Historical Novel Review is “The best writer of medieval fiction currently around.”