Child and Ng chosen for latest R&J Book Club

Books by Lee Child, Celeste Ng and Dinah Jefferies are among the eight titles chosen for the new Richard and Judy Book Club, run in association with W H Smith.

Child joins the book club this April with his 22nd Jack Reacher novel, The Midnight Line (Bantum), Ng’s selected work is Little Fires Everywhere (Abacus), whilst Jefferies novel to be featured in the promotion is The Sapphire Widow (Viking).

The book club is also welcoming back Susie Steiner with her third crime novel in the series, Persons Unknown (The Borough Press), while Julie Cohen's Together (Orion) and Erin Kelly's He Said She Said (Hodder) have also made the list. The remaining two books in this spring's club are The Wildflowers by Harriet Evans (Headline) and The Party by Elizabeth Day (Fourth Estate).

Husband-and-wife team Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan ran the book club on their television chat show on Channel 4 and later on digital online channel Watch, before teaming up to run it with W H Smith in 2010.

Commenting on the new collection of books, Finnigan said: “Yet again, Richard and I are both astounded by the broad range of talented authors – it truly was a difficult task to select only eight titles for this latest selection. It is a fantastic and varied collection of books to enjoy, and we have loved every moment spent selecting these captivating novels.”

Publishers are providing special editions of the chosen books with book club discussion  points, author Q+As and recommended reads. W H Smith is also hosting a series of podcasts to give insights into the authors and their writing processes.

In related news, the retailer also revealed that How to Stop Time by Matt Haig (Canongate) won the reader’s vote for the previous Book Club selection, which launched in December.

Haig said: "It was already an honour to be included on the Richard and Judy list in the first place, especially among such incredible talents, so this is some very lovely icing on the cake. Thanks to all the readers who voted for How to Stop Time. I had no idea how a strange story about a 439-year-old history teacher would go down, and felt so nervous when it came out, that to get the thumbs up from readers is the best feeling."