BOOK OF THE MONTH

This month we are very excited to publish
‍The Aladdin Trial, Abi Silver’s follow-up to her acclaimed debut The Pinocchio Brief, currently shortlisted for the Waverton Good Read Award.

The duo of Judith Burton and Constance Lamb return for another legal investigation with an AI (artificial intelligence) twist. This time, the deceased is an elderly artist who has plunged from an upper floor of a London hospital. The accused is a Syrian refugee employed as the hospital cleaner.

In a spellbinding courtroom confrontation, Burton and Lamb uncover not only the cleaner’s secrets, but also those of the artist’s family, her lawyer and the hospital.

The book is once again a Sunday Times Crime Club pick, and crime critic Geoffrey Wansell hails it as “quite wonderful”.

Download our 2018 trade catalogue

Book(s) of the Month

Green Oranges on Lion Mountain

Discovery Road

only £7.99 each

“In the space of five years, I went from graduating at Harvard
to becoming a psychiatric patient.”

coming soon...

the complete guide

to all things running

new releases

An Isolated Incident

When 25-year-old Bella Michaels is brutally murdered in the small town of Strathdee, the community is stunned and a media storm descends.

Mansfield and Me

The acclaimed graphic biography of Katherine Mansfield

The Hurtle of Hell

An atheist comedy featuring God and a confused young man from Hackney

The Industry of Human Happiness

Love, murder and obsession in the early days of the gramophone

The Story of Trojan Records

Laurence Cane-Honeysett

The definitive history of the iconic label, published as part of its official 50th anniversary celebrations

The Aladdin Trial

A new Burton and Lamb legal thriller from the author of the acclaimed The Pinocchio Brief.

Their Brilliant Careers

The Fantastic Lives of Sixteen Extraordinary Australian Writers

Matthew De Abaitua

A memoir of literary ambition

The Exphoria Code

Antony Johnston

A Brigitte Sharp thriller

The Participation Revolution

How to ride the waves of change in a terrifyingly turbulent world

The Antipodeans

The epic wartime love story that took New Zealand by storm

recommended titles

A Raindrop in the Ocean

Michael Dobbs-Higginson

The life of a global adventurer

Jules Mountain has reached Everest Base Camp, within reach of fulfilling his life’s ambition, when the earthquake sets off the avalanche. Something sets him apart from the other surviving climbers: is it that he has already cheated death once before? Does his gung-ho attitude show him to be brave, fatalistic or irresponsible? Will he finally have picked a fight he cannot win? 

At The Deep End

Morgan Tsvangirai

At the Deep End is the story of a man who, through everything he has endured at the hands of Robert Mugabe's government, has remained committed to working for peace and democracy for all in Zimbabwe, and in the process become a beacon of hope for a beleaguered nation

Mission: Possible

A decade of living dangerously

The Hopkins Conundrum

A tragic comedy about Gerard Manley Hopkins and five shipwrecked nuns

The Pinocchio Brief

A schoolboy accused of a brutal murder. A retired lawyer with secrets to hide.

The Shifting Pools

A challenging, dream-like, deeply personal novel

Across the West democracy is dying. Profound ignorance and contempt between ruling class and ruled is the cause. Time of Lies crystallises this theme with a satirical focus on the British general election of 2020. It offers echoes of Animal Farm, If and Dr Strangelove. 

Blog

Lightning Books acquires new Caroline Kington novel

West Country novelist turns from light rural comedies to a saga of secrets, bitterness and revenge set in the toughest decade for farmers since the Thirties

Setting the record

Journalist and novelist James Hall tells the story of the birth of recorded music in a Maiden Lane basement

Lightning snaps up second title from crème-de-la-crème Miles Franklin shortlist

Continuing its run of republishing some of the finest work from Australia and New Zealand, Lightning will publish Emily Maguire's hugely acclaimed novel An Isolated Incident

Lightning to publish graphic memoir of literary icon Katherine Mansfield

The UK publisher has acquired rights to a New Zealand graphic book celebrating that country's proudest literary daughter

First, spoof Aussie biographies; now a classic short story told 99 times

On the eve of the UK publication of Ryan O'Neill's prize-winning Australian novel Their Brilliant Careers, Lightning Books signs his follow-up

The dingy basement that spawned a recording empire

Novelist James Hall explains why he is launching a campaign to give proper recognition to the Covent Garden studio which gave birth to ‘the industry of human happiness’ 