Coben joins six-strong line-up for the Richard and Judy Book Club this winter
Harlan Coben is among the six-strong line-up for the Richard and Judy Book Club this winter.
Known as one of the world’s leading suspense storytellers, Coben joins the Richard and Judy Book Club for the second time with his latest novel, The Match (Century). In true Coben-style, Judy confirms this is “the long-awaited and deeply engrossing sequel to Coben’s The Boy from the Woods (Arrow)”. When a disheartened Wilde, about to abandon his search for his parents, receives an intriguing message from a stranger, the story “kicks off on a wild, twisting, compelling journey through murder and revenge”, as Richard reveals. Superbly smart in both characterisation and plot, Richard claims that “you find yourself rooting for this modern-day Mowgli… It’s unputdownable, and we loved it”.
Next on the list is Robert Gold’s Twelve Secrets (Sphere). Richard and Judy were both equally gripped by what they have called a “first-rate début thriller”. This fast-paced and addictive story is set in a small village where, as Richard reveals, “everyone knows each other, gossip thrives, and dirty family secrets are carefully concealed”. It’s no wonder then that successful journalist Ben Harper is on a mission to find out what really happened all those years ago with the brutal double murder that killed his brother. As he uncovers the connection to the devastating death of his mother not long after, Richard hints that, “nothing is as it seems”.
The next recommendation in this season’s Book Club is by Jacquie Bloese, who takes her readers back to 1940s Nazi-occupied Guernsey in The French House (Hodder & Stoughton). Amid the uncertainty of war, the lives of Émile, Isabelle and Lieutenant Schreiber become intertwined, and an unlikely – yet forbidden – connection is formed. “We’ve all grown up on ‘Dad’s Army’ and stories of Britain’s heroic resistance to the Nazis during WW2”, Richard reminisces, “but there were sometimes exceptions to the awfulness…The French House is that story”. Based on true events during the Second World War, this is a truly special début novel of love, friendship and human connection found in the strangest of places.
Author Jo Browning Wroe moves readers with a heartbreaking story in her début historical novel, A Terrible Kindness (Faber & Faver). The novel retells the tragic events that befell the Welsh mining village of Aberfan one ordinary October day, as a coal tip avalanche abruptly and catastrophically engulfed a primary school, wiping out a whole generation in its path. Can 19-year-old William, a freshly qualified embalmer, possibly pick up where he left off after a life-changing few days? A true moment in history that has since been etched into the hearts and minds of a nation, Richard and Judy commend Browning Wroe for her novel, which “turns this appalling incident into a sort of tenderness. Quite an achievement”.
The penultimate title joining this season’s Book Club is Nora Murphy’s dark and compelling novel, The Favour (Macmillan). There is strength in numbers, and it just so happens to be found in the meeting of minds in this thrilling début novel, as two women find that their shared experience of abuse brings them together in the most unexpected and violent of ways. “Both Leah and McKenna have become completely isolated, blackmailed into leaving their job,” Judy explains, revealing they become “more and more terrified” of their controlling husbands. Murphy’s legal background and expertise of domestic abuse issues bring this novel to life in a “dark, unsettling, but convincing” story, Richard states, adding “it’s a thrilling page-turner”.
Wrapping up this winter Book Club collection is The School for Good Mothers (Hutchinson Heinemann), by author Jessamine Chan. In this deliciously dystopian and timely début, Chan compels readers with the imaginative and very realistic fear that punctuates new parenthood, prompting readers to ask of themselves: if the state measured what it means to be a good mother, would I pass the test? For Frida, this nightmare becomes a reality as she descends into “the grip of a punishing, controlling regime” led by an all-powerful state. In The School for Good Mothers, Judy adds, Frida – and the other mums – “must meet its exacting standards – or lose everything. Including their children”. Provocative and thought-provoking, Richard and Judy praise this novel as an “utterly compelling” début from Chan.
The winter Richard and Judy Book Club launches with another series of podcasts on 15th December. W H Smith customers can purchase exclusive special editions of the book club titles with bonus content.
