14, January 2021

Three Things About Elsie

by Joanna Cannon

84-year-old Florence has fallen in her flat at Cherry Tree Home for the Elderly. As she waits to be rescued, she considers the charming new resident who looks exactly like a man she once knew – a man who died sixty years ago. 

8, April 2021

Hidden in Plain Sight by Jeffrey Archer

Newly promoted, Detective Sergeant William Warwick has been reassigned to the drugs squad. His first case: to investigate a notorious south London drug lord known as the Viper.

8, July 2021

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

'Shoot all the Bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a Mockingbird.'

A lawyer's advice to his children as he defends the real mockingbird of Harper Lee's classic novel - a black man charged with the rape of a white girl. 

14, October 2021

A River in Darkness by Masaji Ishikawa

Half-Korean, half-Japanese, Masaji Ishikawa has spent his whole life feeling like a man without a country. This feeling only deepened when his family moved from Japan to North Korea when Ishikawa was just thirteen years old, and unwittingly became members of the lowest social caste. 

Suggested books that did not make it onto the 2021 list...

Jew(ish) by Matt Green

Murder in St Remy by Susan Kerman Lewis

Homefire by Kamila Shamsie

The Dutch House by Anne Patchett

Educated by Tara Webster

11, February 2021

Between the Stops by Sandi Toksvig 

A funny and moving trip through memories, musings and the many delights on the number 12 route, Between the Stops is also an inspiration to us all to get off our phones, look up and talk to each other because as Sandi says: 'some of the greatest trips lie on our own doorstep'.

13, May 2021

Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo

This is Britain as you've never read it.

This is Britain as it has never been told.

From Newcastle to Cornwall, from the birth of the twentieth century to the teens of the twenty-first, Girl, Woman, Other follows a cast of twelve characters on their personal journeys through this country and the last hundred years. 

12, August 2021

A Stranger on the Beach by Michele Campbell

There is a stranger outside Caroline's house.

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Her spectacular new beach house, built for hosting expensive parties and vacationing with the family she thought she'd have. But her husband is lying to her and everything in her life is upside down, so when the stranger, Aidan, shows up as a bartender at the same party where Caroline and her husband have a very public fight, it doesn't seem like anything out of the ordinary.

11, November 2021

A River in Darkness by Masaji Ishikawa

THE GREATEST LOVE STORY IS THE ONE YOU LEAST EXPECT . . .

Alice Wright doesn't love her new American husband. Nor her domineering father-in-law or the  judgmental townsfolk of Baileyville, Kentucky. 

11, March 2021

Fifty Fifty by Steve Cavanagh

Two Sisters on trial for murder.

They accuse each other but who do you believe?

One of them is a liar and a killer.

But which one?

10, June 2021

Dark Corners by Ruth Rendall

A tragic accident. A blackmail plot. A house of cards. And murder. In his late father's house, Carl finds a hoard of pills, 'wonder drugs' and herbal remedies. He sells a box of slimming pills to his close friend Stacey. She dies.

9, September

How to Buy a Planet by DA Holdsworth

When Toby, a penniless student, and his two new flat mates find out one morning on TV, they're surprised to find the Earth’s new alien owners are staggeringly cute and bring the promise of a debt-free future. They're just getting ready to celebrate along with the rest of the world, when a chance encounter with a mysterious professor reveals the truth. And there’s a glitch: the Earth is about to be destroyed.

9, December 2021

Merry Bloody Christmas by Ellie Scott

Countdown to Christmas with 24 contemporary short stories