There’s a nicely varied bunch of paperbacks to look out for in October – enough for two posts, albeit short ones – several of which are already tried and tested by me starting with Oyinkan Braithwaite’s Booker Prize longlisted, Women’s Prize shortlisted My Sister, the Serial Killer. A woman is about to sit down to supper when her sister calls. She’s killed another man and needs Korede’s peerless cleaning skills. Set in Lagos where Korede is a nurse and Ayoola charms men, My Sister, the Serial Killer is a short, darkly funny novel, an enjoyable caper with a sharp edge and a page-turning pace.
Sarah Perry’s chilling, clever and immersive Melmoth is also very dark but in an entirely different way, combining a rattling good yarn with a complex moral dimension. Perry nests stories within stories throughout her book – from a young boy’s betrayal of the Jewish family whose overtures of friendship he resents to the brothers, both civil servants, who coolly help administer the Armenian genocide – all witnessed by Melmoth, who walks through the centuries with her bleeding feet, reaching out a hand to those who resist redemption.
Shirley Barrett’s The Bus on Thursday sounds as if it might have a touch of the gothic leavened with a hefty dose of humour. Primary-school teacher Eleanor finds a job in the remote Australian town of Talbingo after she’s recovered from a mastectomy. She arrives to find that not only has her predecessor apparently done a runner but the town has a distinctly creepy atmosphere. According to the blurb it’s ‘riotously funny, deeply unsettling, and surprisingly poignant… … a wicked, weird, wild ride for fans of Maria Semple, Stephen King and Henry James’s The Turn of the Screw. And when have those three writers ever appeared in the same sentence?’ When indeed?
Sonia Velton’s Blackberry and Wild Rose has its feet firmly planted in the historical fiction 
territory I seem to have ventured into recently with its eighteenth-century setting and gorgeous cover. The wife of a Huguenot silk-weaver employs a prostitute as a maid thinking she’s doing a good deed, but Sara despises the hypocrisy she discovers in her new mistress’s Spitalfields house. Blind to it all, Esther is determined that her husband will weave a piece of silk from her designs and can think of little else, apparently. It’s the Huguenot element that appeals to me here although that jacket is well nigh irresistible.
That’s it for October’s first batch of paperbacks. A click on a title will take you to my review for the first two or to a more detailed synopsis for the others, and if you’d like to catch up with October’s new novels they’re here and here. Second instalment soon…
The Bus on Thursday is one of the strangest books I read last year. But quite amusing. Whether you’d consider that a recommendation or not, I’m not sure!
Hmmm…I think a leaf through before buying might be called for although I’m happy with a bit of wackiness.
The Bus on Thursday sounds intriguing. I’ve read My Sister, the Serial Killer and really enjoyed its off beat humour.
It does, doesn’t it. Opinion seems to be divided on the Braithwaite but I loved it and was pleased to see it on Prize lists.
I love Historical fiction and The Bus on thursday seems interesting too. I’ve not heard such good reviews of My Sister The Serial Killer but I just might check it out at the library.
I think My Sister… may be a love it or hate it book so that seems the best policy.
I tried Blackberry and Wild Rose before its hardback pub date last year and just couldn’t bring myself to get more than 30 pages in or so – it felt entirely unmoored from any historical period, unevocative and written in that bland present tense that seems to mar historical fiction more than most (not that I object to the present tense as a narrative tool per se; I think it’s harder to maintain narrative focus and drive with it, though.)
Oh, that’s a shame. Perhaps I need to sample it first. Easy to be seduced by that jacket.
Oh absolutely – those publicists know what they’re at!
When you reviewed My Sister The Serial Killer I told my sister about it and we laughed, then we tried to work out which of us would be the serial killer and which the one that gets the other out of trouble.
The cover of Blackberry and Wild Rose is gorgeous and the subject matter is tempting, so I’ve bought it.
I hope you and your sister aren’t tempted to act the novel out! I’d be interested to hear how you get on with Blackberry and Wild Rose.
I have been intruiged by My Sister the Serial Killer since you first reviewed it. Not usually my kind of thing but it does sound fascinating.
I didn’t think it would be up my alley either but I loved it.
I’m hoping Melmoth will do well for us, especially given the popularity of Perry’s previous novel. How does it compare to The Essex Serpent, do you think? Will it satisfy those looking for more of the same or does it have something rather different to offer? I’d be interested to know.
I preferred The Essex Serpent but I think this will do equally well. Some Serpent fans may not find the gothic element so appealing, I suppose, but it has the same intellectual heft.
I’ll certainly treat myself to the Braithwaite now it’s in paperback, and The Bus on Thursday will definitely be up my street I’d wager!
You’re in for a treat with the Braithwaite, Annabel.