ARTS & CULTURE
Books – August 21
Billy Summers
by Stephen King
From legendary storyteller and No.1 bestseller Stephen King, comes a thrilling new novel about a good guy in a bad job. Billy Summers is a man in a room with a gun. He’s a killer for hire and the best in the business. However he will only do the job if the target is a truly bad guy… and now he wants out. First there is one last hit to do, and then he’s done. Billy is among the best snipers in the world, a decorated Iraq war vet, a Houdini when it comes to vanishing after the job is done. So, what could possibly go wrong? How about everything.
Featuring one of the most compelling and surprising duos in King fiction, who set out to avenge the crimes of an extraordinarily evil man. It’s about love, luck, fate and a complex hero with one last shot at redemption. Impossible to put down, yet another King classic.
Release date: 3 August, available to pre-order now.
A Line to Kill
by Anthony Horowitz
There has never been a murder on Alderney. It’s a tiny island, just three miles long and a mile and a half wide. The perfect location for a brand-new literary festival.
Private Investigator Daniel Hawthorne has been invited to talk about his new book. The writer, Anthony Horowitz, travels with him. Very soon they discover that not all is as it should be. Alderney is in turmoil over a planned power line that will cut through it, desecrating a war cemetery, and turning neighbour against neighbour. The visiting authors (including a blind medium, a French performance poet and a celebrity chef) seem to be harbouring any number of unpleasant secrets. When the festival’s wealthy sponsor is found brutally killed, Alderney goes into lockdown and Hawthorne knows that he doesn’t have to look too far for suspects. There’s no escape. The killer is still on the island and there’s about to be a second death.
Release date: 17 August, available to pre-order now.
A Slow Fire Burning
by Paula Hawkins
The new page-turner from the No.1 New York Times bestselling author of The Girl on the Train is a hotly anticipated novel about a young man whose body is found viciously murdered aboard a houseboat. The story follows Laura, who has a one-night stand with the victim the night before he dies. She is seen as hot-tempered, troubled, a loner and some even call her dangerous.
Miriam knows that just because Laura is witnessed leaving the scene of a horrific murder with blood on her clothes, that doesn’t mean she’s a killer. Bitter experience has taught her how easy it is to get caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Carla is reeling from the brutal murder of her nephew. She trusts no one: good people are capable of
terrible deeds. But how far will she go to find peace?
Innocent or guilty, everyone is damaged. Some are damaged enough to kill.
Release date: 31 August, available to pre-order now.
The Guest List
by Lucy Foley
A remote island. An invitation to die for.
On an island off the windswept Irish coast, guests gather for the wedding of the year – the marriage of Jules Keegan and Will Slater. An event consisting of old friends, past grudges, happy families, hidden jealousies, thirteen guests and one body.
The wedding cake has barely been cut when one of the guests is found dead and a storm unleashes its fury on the island, trapping everyone.
Everyone has a secret and they all have a motive… one guest won’t leave this wedding alive. This is a gripping, twisty murder mystery thriller from the No.1 bestselling author of The Hunting Party.
Release date: Out now