This month we publish two titles, each of which is the third novel from a Lightning author who has published one book a year with us since their debut in 2017.

The Cinderella Plan is the third courtroom drama from lawyer-turned-crime-writer Abi Silver. Featuring her legal sleuths Judith Burton and Constance Lamb, plus another of her trademark AI twists, it starts with a fatal crash involving a prototype self-drive car.

The only occupant is the car's manufacturer. If the vehicle was in driverless mode, it could sink his company. But if it’s proven that the car was in manual override mode, he could go to prison. In a cut-throat business environment, could there also be foul play at work?

The Cinderella Plan follows hard on the heels of The Pinocchio Brief, which was shortlisted for the Waverton Good Read Award, and
‍The Aladdin Trial. Both were Times/Sunday Times Crime Club picks.

You can order The Cinderella Plan at 25% off using the discount code BOTM, or order all three Burton & Lamb books for the price of two. For that one, use discount code SILVER. Both offers come with free UK p&p.

In very different mood, A Right Royal Face-Off, the third novel from Simon Edge, is a comedy about the rivalry between the 18th-century painters Thomas Gainsborough and Sir Joshua Reynolds for the rivalry of King George III.

Like the author's acclaimed debut The Hopkins Conundrum, about the Victorian poet Gerard Manley Hopkins, it mixes historical drama with a satirical modern strand: in this case, about a badly damaged monstrosity which may or may not be a long-lost Gainsborough. And like his atheist comedy The Hurtle of Hell, it tackles a highbrow subject in a highly original and entertaining way.

Award-winning novelist Ryan O'Neill calls A Right Royal Face-Off
‘a glorious comedy of painting and pretension', while the world's leading Gainsborough expert calls it a ‘beguiling' book with a ‘beautifully managed and brilliantly resolved’ narrative.

You can order it at 25% off using the discount code BOTM, or buy all three of Simon Edge's comic novels for the price of two. For that, use discount code EDGE. Both offers come with free UK p&p.