September 2024 books

What’s new and good to read this month? Dan Coombes has a look at what’s on offer from publishers in September and chooses We Solve Murders by Richard Osman, Intermezzo by Sally Rooney and What a way to go by Bella Mackie.

We Solve Murders – Richard Osman

Hello September, or as it’s known to publishers “basically Christmas”, the time when great big major-league, no-nonsense, book of the year chart-topping hardbacks start appearing in bookshops at an astonishing rate. On that note, here’s the start of a brand new series by Richard Osman, a man very nearly as famous for his internationally beloved and bestselling Thursday Murder Club books as he is for never coming in to our shop to sign any of them. There’s a retired policeman. a detective agency in a small English village, a cat, clever plotting, thrilling chases and murder all over the place. There’s absolutely no way whatsoever this will be anything but an absolutely cracking bestseller.

An iconic new detective duo. And a thrilling new murder to solve .

Steve Wheeler is enjoying retired life. He does the odd bit of investigation work, but he prefers his familiar habits and routines: the pub quiz, his favourite bench, his cat waiting for him when he comes home. His days of adventure are over: adrenaline is daughter-in-law Amy’s business now. Amy Wheeler thinks adrenaline is good for the soul.

As a private security officer, she doesn’t stay still long enough for habits or routines. She’s currently on a remote island keeping world-famous author Rosie D’Antonio alive. Which was meant to be an easy job. Then a dead body, a bag of money and a killer with their sights on Amy have her sending an SOS to the only person she trusts. A breakneck race around the world begins, but can Amy and Steve stay one step ahead of a deadly enemy?

Images: We solve murders front cover, Author Richard Osman

Intermezzo – Sally Rooney

Most novels about life love, family, friendships, relationships and all that sort of malarkey will tell you somewhere in the back blurb that they’re a profound and deeply relatable insight into the foibles of humanity that will play your heart like a fiddle and leave you feeling feelings in a variety of unforgettable ways. That’s all good, and lots of them are, but if you dig this kind of book and are looking for a gem in a maybe slightly crowded field, Sally Rooney belongs at the top of your list. Her gift for capturing the nuance of human relationships really is incredible, as anyone who has read Conversations With Friends or Normal People will probably tell you.

Her fourth novel focuses on two very different brothers and the intricacies of their lives and relationships with themselves, each other and those around them as they’re thrust together in a time of grief.

Aside from the fact that they are brothers, Peter and Ivan Koubek seem to have little in common. Peter is a Dublin lawyer in his thirties – successful, competent and apparently unassailable.

But in the wake of their father’s death, he’s medicating himself to sleep and struggling to manage his relationships with two very different women – his enduring first love Sylvia, and Naomi, a college student for whom life is one long joke. Ivan is a twenty-two-year-old competitive chess player. He has always seen himself as socially awkward, a loner, the antithesis of his glib elder brother. Now, in the early weeks of his bereavement, Ivan meets Margaret, an older woman emerging from her own turbulent past, and their lives become rapidly and intensely intertwined. For two grieving brothers and the people they love, this is a new interlude – a period of desire, despair and possibility – a chance to find out how much one life might hold inside itself without breaking.

Images: Intermezzo front cover, Author Sally Rooney

What a way to go – Bella Mackie

The new novel from the author of the bestselling How To Kill Your Family, which turned into a bit of a cult smash and is a cheerfully blood-soaked slice of fun. Dark humour – and in this case coupled with quite a lot of characters who are (very intentionally) absolutely horrendous people – can be a tricky thing to balance and make work without getting too dark or too silly, but she did a grand job in her last book and it looks like this is something Bella Mackie can do with ease, and probably get better and better at. Oh, and it’s also worth noting that this is a thoroughly decent murder mystery too. I’m not going to cross the line and say this could be some kind of ideal gift for someone who’s a bit obsessed with crime-oriented things for some kind of upcoming gift-giving festival, because it’s still August, and I’m not a complete monster, but…you know, there aren’t as many weeks to go as you might think, just saying.

Anthony Wistern is wealthy beyond imagination. Fragrant wife, gaggle of photogenic children, French chateau, Cotswold manor, plethora of mistresses, penchant for cutting moral corners, tick tick tick tick tick tick.

Unfortunately for him, he’s also dead. Suddenly poised to inherit his fortune, each member of the family falls under suspicion.

And that’s when the lying starts…

Images: What a way to go front cover, Author Bella Mackie