10 Ten Exciting New Book Releases in May 2024

 

In my small corner of the world there is a carpet of bluebells. In fact, I have a few growing in the garden. They come up every year and fill me with joy. However, this year, the puppy seems rather keen on rolling about in them so I am constantly behind her shooing her off.

Both puppy and the spring make me happy... as do shiny new books to read. Here are ten new releases that I am looking forward to getting my hands on.

Goyhood by Reuven Fenton

When Mayer (née Marty) Belkin fled small-town Georgia for Brooklyn nearly thirty years ago, he thought he'd left his wasted youth behind. Now he's a Talmud scholar married into one of the greatest rabbinical families in the world - a dirt-poor country boy reinvented in the image of God.

But his mother's untimely death brings a shocking revelation: Mayer and his ne'er-do-well twin brother David aren't, in fact, Jewish. Traumatized and spiritually bereft, Mayer's only recourse is to convert to Judaism. But the earliest date he can get is a week from now. What are two estranged brothers to do in the interim?

So begins the Belkins' Rumspringa through America's Deep South with Mom's ashes in tow, plus two tagalongs: an insightful Instagram influencer named Charlayne Valentine and Popeye, a one-eyed dog. As the crew gets tangled up in a series of increasingly surreal adventures, Mayer grapples with a God who betrayed him and an emotionally withdrawn wife in Brooklyn who has yet to learn her husband is a counterfeit Jew. 

The Nightingale's Castle by Sonia Velton

In 1573, Countess Erzsébet Báthory gave birth to an illegitimate child. The infant, a girl, was swiftly bundled up and handed to a local peasant family to be brought up in one of the hamlets surrounding the Castle. Many years later, 15-year-old Boróka reluctantly leaves the safety of the only home she has ever known in the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains. Trusted members of the countess's household have been sent out to gather new serving girls, and the kindly old man who has taken care of Boróka for almost all her life knows that it is dangerous to turn them away.

Boróka struggles to find her place at Cachtice Castle: she is frightened of the countess's reputation as an alleged murderer of young girls, and the women who run the castle are terrifyingly cruel. When plague comes into the heart of the castle, a tentative bond begins to form between Boróka and the Countess Báthory. But powerful forces are moving against a woman whose wealth poses such a threat to the king: can the countess really trust the women who are so close to her? And when the show trial begins against the infamous 'Blood Countess' where will Boróka's loyalties lie?

Threadbare by Jane Loeb Rubin

Threadbare recounts the story of an innocent but tenacious young girl who chooses marriage to Abe, a lonely widower, rather than follow her farming community north as urban development transforms rural Harlem. Convinced Abe will help her attend high school on the Lower East Side, she faces a rude awakening to the filth and disease of the tenements. Through the following decades, Tillie turns her energy and intelligence to partnering with Abe as he builds a thriving button business while she and her neighbor Sadie launch a unique garment company. Pushing back against anti-Semitic Victorian values dominating the time, she acquires wealth only to have her life upended by a devastating, unforeseen challenge.

Identity by Nora Roberts

What turns someone into a monster? Are they born that way, or is it a choice? I suppose it can be either or both

Morgan Albright dreams of owning her own bar one day but she's bartending for now - working hard, saving money. Life is hectic but she loves sharing a house with her best friend, Nina, and she is even finding time to date for the first time in what feels like forever.

When a seemingly random attack turns Morgan's life upside down, she must leave the city to return to her family home. She hopes that moving back to a small town where she can feel safe will help her to put the horror of that day behind her but, as Morgan soon discovers, sometimes your past just doesn't want to let you go...

The Happy Hour by Cressida McLaughlin

Jess is happy working in Greenwich market selling trinkets to well-heeled locals and excitable tourists.

Then one Sunday, Jess is thrown together with handsome, funny Ash, as they chase a pickpocket through the market, and before long they are making a habit of running into each other at the same time each week.

Jess starts to realize that their hour together is the brightest part of her life. But Ash isn’t telling her everything – can she discover the truth before it’s too late?

The Peasenhall Murder by Neil. R. Norman

In May 1902, a great storm hit the small village of Peasenhall, Suffolk. The following morning, the body of Rose Harsent was found in the house where she worked. Whilst originally believed by the doctor to have been suicide, her brutal injuries, alongside evidence of an attempted fire, told a different story. When looking for a murderer, there were very few suspects, but as more details unfolded, the evidence started to point towards one William Gardiner. William was a respected figure in the community, with a loving family, a job as a foreman carpenter at the local Seed Drill Works, and several positions within the local church. However, the previous year, William had been involved in a scandal that suggested an affair between him and Rose; one that had brought an inquest into the matter and could not be forgotten in such a small village. This made him a person of interest for the police, and when a medicine bottle filled with paraffin was found near her body with the Gardiner family name on it, alongside letters from him amongst Rose's things, it comes as no surprise he was arrested for her murder. Rose was also pregnant at the time of her death; was this the motive? _The Peasenhall Murder_ explores the crime in great detail, from the original scandal through to the aftermath of the trial. It's the perfect read for lovers of true crime and a murder mystery, and those with an interest in Edwardian England.

Old Girls Behaving Badly by Kate Galley

Something old, something new, something stolen…?

Gina Knight is looking forward to the prospect of retirement with her husband of forty-three years. Until, to her surprise, said husband decides he needs to 'find himself' – alone – and disappears to Santa Fe, leaving a Dear John letter in his wake.

Now Gina needs a new role in life, not to mention somewhere to live, so she applies for the position of Companion to elderly Dorothy Reed. At eighty-nine, ‘Dot’ needs someone to help her around the house – or at least, her family seems to think so. Her companion’s first role would be to accompany Dot for a week-long extravagant wedding party.

But when Georgina arrives at the large Norfolk estate where the wedding will take place, she quickly discovers Dot has an ulterior motive for hiring her. While the other guests are busy sipping champagne and playing croquet, Dot needs Georgina to help her solve a mystery – about a missing painting, which she believes is hidden somewhere in the house.

Because, after all, who would suspect two old ladies of getting up to mischief?

Blame My Virgo Moon by Freya Nicole Woolf

Hilarious follow up to Never Trust a Gemini featuring Cat Phillips, astrology aficionado and chaotic teen lesbian, as she struggles to balance romance, friendship and a star turn onstage.

Life should be Gucci gooseberry gorgeous for loved-up Cat. And it is … until her über-cool and swoonsome girlfriend, Morgan Delaney, takes on Cat’s friend – and the most powerfully popular influencer in Lambley Common – Siobhan Collingdale, for the hotly contested spot of Head Girl.

With her loyalties put to the test, Cat throws herself into the gender-indifferent school production of Romeo and Juliet. (A decision she soon regrets...)

Magicalia: Race of Wonders by Jennifer Bell

FEEL THE MAGIC. CONJURE THE IMPOSSIBLE.

When her dad is kidnapped by a woman with a giant hamstoceros, Bitsy and best friend Kosh are swept into a secret world of ancient meteorites and strange beasts called magicores, each conjured using a different emotion. Using a powerful bestiary called Magicalia, the friends must quickly become conjurors themselves, before following a trail of clues that will take them from London to India to Paris, in a race to rescue Bitsy’s dad from a mysterious villain…

Devil in Profile by Kimberley G. Giarratano

In this sequel to to 2023's Death of a Dancing Queen, New Jersey P.I. Billie Levine finds herself at the forefront of a new crime adventure... perfect for fans of Veronica Mars and Serial.

Unlicensed P.I. Billie Levine is trying to bank some extra cash, so she picks up hours working as a process server for another investigative firm. Mindless and mostly 9 to 5, Billie is content to simply hand over court documents until during a routine stakeout, she stumbles upon the corpse of an elderly man, an art collector with ties to Nazi Germany.

Compared to Billie, the dead man has it easy. Billie is feeling on edge lately. Maybe it’s because her father is insisting his estranged kids come to his wedding in Sedona, or that David is making plans to move out, or that a smug teaching assistant is getting underfoot on her latest case.

Although, it’s possible she could use the help when the cops zero in on Billie’s boyfriend, Aaron, and his connections to an international art ring. Turns out, Aaron’s stint in Israel has left him with more than just a thick scar across his neck. The woman he screwed over wants revenge, and she’s determined to leverage Billie’s murder case to get it.

With the detectives focused on Aaron, Billie sets her sights on stopping a killer who is tying up loose ends ― Billie being one of them.