The most anticipated reads of 2024

Out on 4 January

Cole, considered the 'perfect husband,' is left shocked when his wife, Mel, decides to leave him. Seeking isolation, he moves to the coast and befriends Lennie, an artist leading a similar solitary existence in a precarious cliff-edge cottage. However, their lives are upended when two young women vanish nearby while on a protest walk on the coast. Now at the center of a police investigation and media storm, it becomes clear that Cole and Lennie may not know each other as well as they thought.

Out on 9 January

At last: the final installment of the internationally acclaimed Atlas Six trilogy. Following a dramatic incident at the library, the Alexandrians must navigate their dangerous recruitment terms. With alliances crumbling and ethical dilemmas concerning their exceptional abilities, the initiates are split. Meanwhile, global forces are plotting their downfall, and Atlas Blakely, their Caretaker, might be planning something even more catastrophic. As they face decisions about power and betrayal, everyone is in a desperate race for survival.

Looking for more like this? Take a look at our guides to must-read dark academia and fantasy books.

Out on 25 January

The follow up to Nathan Hill’s electric debut The Nix. When Jack and Elizabeth meet as college students in the '90s, the two quickly join forces and hold on tight. But fast-forward to twenty years later, and married life, and the no-longer-youthful dreamers are being forced to face their demons. Moving from the gritty 90s Chicago art scene to a suburbia of detox diets and home renovation hysteria, Wellness is a powerfully affecting novel about how we change, grow and age. It is a story of a marriage, middle age, our tech-obsessed health culture, and the bonds that keep people together. 

Out on 1 February

This addictive piece of historical fiction is a real Victorian Gothic adventure. Constance Horton has disappeared, and her sister, Maude is determined to find her. Having boarded a ship heading for the Arctic, disguised as a boy, Constance was apparently the victim of a 'tragic accident', but Maude isn't so sure. Armed with her sister's journal, she sets out to get justice. It's a journey that takes her deep into London's sinister underbelly, via public hangings, dangerous men and Madame Tussaud's. But Maude has a certain darkness all her own. . .

Out on 15 February

Bestselling author Kristin Hannah returns. The Women follows twenty-year-old nursing student Frances “Frankie” McGrath. Raised on California’s idyllic Coronado Island and sheltered by her conservative parents, she's always prided herself on doing the right thing, being a good girl. But in 1965 the world is changing, and she suddenly imagines a different path for her life. When her brother ships out to serve in Vietnam, she impulsively joins the Army Nurses Corps and follows him there. Amidst chaos and heartbreak, Frankie finds strength in female friendship and learns the value of sacrifice and commitment. This emotionally charged novel illuminates the often-forgotten stories of women who bravely served their country.

Out on 22 February

The debut novel from rising star John Manuel Arias, Where There Was Fire begins in the late sixties, in Costa Rica, as a massive fire destroys a lucrative fruit plantation and all evidence of a massive cover-up. Travelling forward to the nineties, Teresa Cepeda Valverde's family is still feeling the effects of that night. Brimming with ancestral spirits and omens alongside a gripping family mystery, this is, simply, a stunning piece of writing. 

Out on 22 February

Vampires. Secrets. Tea. What more do you want?! Already causing a ruckus on TikTok, in A Tempest of Tea, Hafsah Faizal takes us to Arthie Casimir's prestigious tea establishment in the city of White Roaring. Tearoom by day, illegal bloodhouse by night, Arthie caters to both humans and vampires – but this arrangement is under threat, and Arthie can't save it alone. . .

Out on 29 February

Mysterious letters, treasure hunts, eccentric aunts and an old manor house. What more could you want from a delicious slice of cosy crime? Freya Lockwood has spent the last twenty years avoiding the quaint English village in which she grew up. But then she learns that her estranged mentor, antiques dealer Arthur Crockleford, has died in somewhat suspicious circumstances – just before she receives a letter from him. . . 

Out on 7 March

The hugely popular poet makes his fiction debut with the electrifying story of Cyrus Shams. Ever since his mother was killed, Cyrus has been grappling with her death. Now, newly sober, he is set to learn the truth of her life. Uncovering mysteries from his past – an uncle who rode through Iranian battlefields dressed as an Angel of Death, a haunting work of art by an exiled painter – Cyrus hurtles towards the one final revelation that will transform everything. 

Out on 11 April

'Percival Everett is a giant of American letters, and James is a canon-shatteringly great book' – Hernan Diaz, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Trust

The Booker-shortlisted author of The Trees returns with this shattering retelling of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, told from the point of view of Jim. It's 1861. The enslaved Jim overhears that he is about be sold and separated from his family forever, and decides to hide on Jackson's Island while he works out what to do. Here, he comes across Huck Finn, who's faked his own death to escape his violent father. Thus begins their famous journey by raft along the Mississippi River, but as you've never heard it before. 

Out on 11 April

'Your friends would probably describe me as nice. But guess what? I can't stand your friends.'

Come for the jaw-dropping insider view and vicarious thrill of a sociopath recounting their darker impulses, stay for the redemptive love story and fascinating insights you could only get from a sociopath who is also a doctor of psychology. Ever since she was a small child, Patric Gagne knew she was different. Finally diagnosed as an adult, she soon realised that the official descriptions of sociopathy were far from the full story. With help, and a change in perceptions, is there a way for sociopaths to integrate happily into society? And can she find it before her own behaviour goes a step too far?

Out on 25 April

Elizabeth O'Connor brings a luminous sense of time and place to this assured, beautiful debut. It's 1938, and building a life on a remote island off the coast of Wales, with its harsh, salt-stung landscape, and houses left empty by the Great War, is difficult. As one of the best English speakers on the island, Manod, a young woman living with her sister and father, begins working with two anthropologists from the mainland, seeing in them a rare chance to leave the island and discover the life she has been searching for. But, as she guides them across the island's cliffs and through its history, she becomes entangled in their relationship, and her imagined future begins to seem desperately out of reach.

Out on 23 May

What actually happened when Eilis returned to New York? Long Island is the long-awaited sequel to Colm Tóibín's prize-winning, bestselling novel Brooklyn. Eilis and Tony have built a secure, happy life; twenty years married and with two children looking towards a good future. But then a man with an Irish accent knocks on their door, and everything changes. Did Eilis make the wrong choice marrying Tony all those years ago? Is it too late now to take a different path?

Out on 30 May

'As I remembered it the diary was about sitting again, an easy portrait this time, fully clothed, the manuscript mainly a record of my father’s remarkable stories. I imagined all his stories were amusing, uncontentious [...] It is unclear to me now how I was able so effectively to distort reality.’

Rose Boyt explores her complicated relationship with her beloved father, Lucian Freud, through the diary she finds after her parents' deaths. Enthralled by his genius, it is only much later that she begins to question the version of events she had come to accept.

Out on 6 June

From the bestselling author of The Doll Factory, now a major TV series, this is an unstoppable historical thriller about murder, manipulation, and a young woman trying to wrestle power from the hands of a dangerous man. London, 1839. Where the cemeteries are full and there is money to be made in death, Bonnie and Crawford lead a life of trickery, surviving off ill-gotten coin and nefarious schemes. But one hot evening, their luck runs out. . .

Out on 6 June

This is the stunning second book in the Crowns of Nyaxia series, following 2023's The Serpent and the Wings of Night. You'll find no spoilers for either book here, but for those not yet acquainted with the series we'll just say: The Hunger Games meets vampires meets Romeo and Juliet. Sold. 

Out on 25 June

The long wait has been worth it: the final part of the YA trilogy that started with Children of Blood and Bone reaches us in June. These West African-inspired fantasy novels conjure a stunning world of dark magic and danger, and follow Zélie as she attempts to bring back magic to her people and strike against the monarchy.

Out on 27 June

The hotly (in all senses of the word) anticipated final book in the Lovelight rom-com series by TikTok favourite author B. K. Borison. When Nova Porter proposes one night – no strings – to get her and Charlie Milford's inconvenient attraction out of their systems, he's happy to oblige. Nova has no explanation for her attraction, and wants to move on and focus on her new business. So will their one-night solution go as planned? Of course not. 

Out on 4 July

Horror fans: mark your calendars. We can't give much away about this one yet, but it's a brand new folk horror from the much-loved Grady Hendrix, author of The Final Girl Support Group. 

Out on 11 July

The lonely life of fifteen-year-old Theron David Alden is transformed when he meets Jake. Older, cooler, more confident and startlingly beautiful, Jake likes the same bands, the same drugs, and has the same drive to oblivion. Over the course of two decades, Theron and Jake get high, drift apart, and are brought hurtling back together, until a final collision tears them apart forever. Theron wants Jake, and he wants to be Jake. But is Jake brave enough to want him back?

Out on 17 October

Fans of Olivie Blake are already so excited for her new short story collection that we're including it here before it even has a cover. Containing modified fairytales, contemporary heists, absurdist poetry and at least one set of actual wedding vows, Januaries is a series of magical ruminations on life and love.

From the bestselling author of The Clockmaker's Daughter comes a breathtaking mystery of love and lies told with trademark intricacy and beauty. The story begins in the Adelaide Hills in 1959 when a local delivery man makes a terrible discovery. Sixty years later, when Jess returns to her family home in Sydney, she discovers a true crime book that reveals a shocking connection between her own family and this once-infamous crime. An epic novel that spans generations, Homecoming asks what we would do for those we love and the healing nature of truth. 

The Raging Storm is the latest book from thriller aficionado, Ann Cleeves. When enigmatic sailor Jem Rosco arrives in Greystone, Devon, the town are delighted to have a celebrity in their midst. But when he disappears and is later found dead during a storm, DI Matthew Venn faces an uncomfortable case. Having left the Barum Brethren community in Greystone, Venn's judgment is clouded by superstitions and rumors as another body is discovered in Scully Cove. Isolated by the storm, Venn and his team embark on a perilous investigation, unaware that their own lives may be at risk. 

This stunning debut is a whip-smart exploration of an age-old question: what have you got to lose when you fall in love? When Jess first meets Josh at their Ivy League college she dislikes him immediately: an entitled guy in chinos, ready to take over the world. Meanwhile, Jess is almost always the only Black woman in their class. And Josh can’t accept that life might be easier for him because he’s white. But when they end up working for the same investment bank, their tempestuous friendship soon turns into an electrifying romance, forcing Jess to question who she is and what she's willing to compromise for love. 

A cop begins seeing huge, blinking eyes in place of the headlights of cars that tell him who to pull over. Two freedom riders take a bus that leaves them stranded on a lonely road in Alabama where several unsettling somethings await them. A young girl dives into the watery depths in search of the demon that killed her parents. Jordan Peele, the visionary writer and director of Get Out, Us, and Nope, and founder of Monkeypaw Productions, curates this groundbreaking anthology of Black horror, full of stories that prey on everything we think we know about our world and redefine what it means to be afraid.

Nell’s back. Her life still isn’t going to plan. And she’s still asking the big questions and getting none of the answers. Like, for example: why is falling in love so easy, but staying in love so hard? What do you do when your friendships are put to the ultimate test? In this hilarious, un-put-downable follow-up to the bestselling Confessions of a Forty-Something F##k Up, now the basis for the major TV series, Not Dead Yet, there are laugh-out-loud lessons to be learned, truths to be told, adventures to go on and joys to discover. But first, Nell has some more confessions.

In 1805, at a boarding school in York, two fourteen-year-old girls cross paths. Eliza Raine, an orphan with an Indian heritage, feels isolated due to her differences. Anne Lister, a rebellious spirit, defies societal norms for women. Their love story blossoms, creating a profound bond that transcends time and shapes their lives forever. Learned By Heart is the heartbreaking story of the love of two women – Anne Lister, the real-life inspiration behind Gentleman Jack, and her first love, Eliza Raine – from the bestselling author of Room and The Wonder.

This vivid coming of age story set at the end of the Roman Empire, follows Sparrow – a boy of no known origin living in a brothel. He spends his days listening to stories told by his beloved ‘mother’ Euterpe, running errands for her lover the cook, and dodging the blows of their brutal overseer. But a hard fate awaits him – one that involves suffering, murder and mayhem. To cope he will create his own identity – Sparrow – who sings without reason and can fly from trouble. This is a book with one of the most powerfully affecting and memorable characters of recent fiction, brought to life through James Hynes meticulous research and bold imagination. 

Ten years after the publication of the prize-winning Love, Nina comes the author’s diary of her return to London in her sixty-first year. After twenty years, Nina Stibbe, accompanied by her dog Peggy, stays with writer Debby Moggach in London for a year. With few obligations, Nina explores the city, reflecting on her past and embracing new experiences. From indulging in banana splits to navigating her son's dating life, this diary captures the essence of a sixty-year-old runaway finding her place as a "proper adult" once and for all.

Set in Georgian high-society, The Square of Sevens is a historical fiction novel packed with fortune-telling, travels and mystery. A girl known only as Red, the daughter of a Cornish fortune-teller, travels with her father making a living predicting fortunes using the ancient method: the Square of Sevens. When her father suddenly dies, Red becomes the ward of a gentleman scholar. But soon, she can't ignore the burning questions about her family. The pursuit of these mysteries takes her across the country in an epic tale of intrigue, heartbreak and audacious twists. 

In the dead of night, a farmer hears a suspicious noise. It’s everyone’s worst nightmare: a break-in. When he confronts the intruders, he has no idea that he will be left lying in a pool of blood just minutes later. But the chilling truth lies not in the act itself, but what the perpetrators were willing to kill for. And Roy Grace’s investigation into this deadly trade pits him against some of the most ruthless people he has ever encountered . . .

In 1792, England hungers for supremacy while France witnesses Napoleon's ascent. Meanwhile, Kingsbridge, a once-tranquil town, stands on the brink. Industrial innovation sweeps the land, shattering the lives of workers and tearing families apart. In the face of encroaching tyranny, a small but resolute group from Kingsbridge emerges. Their intertwined stories encapsulate a generation's struggle for enlightenment, as they rally against oppression and fight passionately for a future free from the shackles of an oppressive regime. The Armour of Light is the latest instalment in Ken Follett's Kingsbridge series.