This week’s BEST BOOKS
1
No Small ing by Orlaine Mcdonald (Serpent’s Tail, £16.99)
Orlaine Mcdonald presents her first novel, a crackling fire of a story following three generations of a Black family in working-class London.
Livia has been wilfully running away from her life for years, until daughter Mickey and granddaughter Summer arrive on her doorstep with emotional baggage in tow. Over the course of a year spent begrudgingly cohabiting, the trauma, guilt and abandonment that haunts their pasts threatens to destroy their futures too.
Opening with a suicide observed by a neighbour who watches the three spark against each other for one tumultuous year, this is a poetic, emotional and gripping insight into parenthood, race and class in modern Britain.
Holly Cowell
e Cracked Mirror by Chris Brookmyre (Abacus, £22)
The Cracked Mirror brings together two unlikely detectives – Penny Coyne, who’s in Miss Marple’s ilk, and Johnny Hawke, a hard-bitten maverick LA cop in the style of a Michael Connelly protagonist. Two different strands are woven together following two deaths, with the pair arriving at the wedding of a wealthy family whose business chicanery rivals Succession, where a mysterious locked-room death occurs.
It’s action-packed, but where it ends up isn’t what you expect from the start. There’s classic plotting alongside bigger questions about artificial intelligence,nd dementia, sibling rivalry and the privilege of wealth. It’s an interesting mix of classic crime and something more cutting edge.
Bridie Pritchard
3
Gold Rush by Olivia Petter (Fourth Estate, £16.99)
Gold Rush offers a timely exploration of the darker side of celebrity culture in the wake of the #Metoo movement. Narrated by Rose, a young woman working in PR, it unveils the competitive and often unglamorous reality of show business, highlighting how icons can exploit their power.
The story resonates with its unflinching portrayal of abuse and the struggle for accountability. Rose’s struggle to speak out is coupled with the guilt and blame that many women feel in these situations.
This compelling read sheds light on the pervasive issues of power imbalance and the courage required to challenge the status quo, urging the reader to confront uncomfortable truths about exploitation and the price of fame.