Dorset Thriller Adaptation + New British Books This Week

July 18, 2025

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Psychological thriller fans, take note! Sussex-based author Lucy Foley’s The Midnight Feast is out now—and a TV adaptation is already on the way. Universal International Studios won the rights in a highly competitive bidding war and will develop the locked-door murder mystery into a series, with Foley serving as executive producer.

Set during the glitzy opening weekend of a luxury hotel on the Dorset coast (definite Agatha Christie vibes), the novel blends glamour, secrets, and a chilling dash of folklore. If you enjoyed The Guest List or The Paris Apartment, this is one to keep an eye on.

Scottish author JD Kirk’s Bob Hoon thriller series isn’t for everyone. It’s violent, packed with colorful profanity, and all but guaranteed to make you (a) laugh, or (b) throw it across the room in disgust.

If you’re a fan of the series, you might be interested to know JD Kirk has partnered with a Glasgow company to produce a limited run of a whisky called “Hoon Juice” that claims to be “a middle finger in a bottle”. You can learn more HERE. We placed an order to our office here in Maine, so it appears that at least some US locations are eligible to receive shipments.

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New British Books This Week

A Word With the Dead by Rhys Dylan

When a body is discovered by drone in rural West Wales, DCI Evan Warlow must untangle a web of silence, power, and deceit in a community where nothing is as it seems, in this gripping 17th installment of the series.

Get it: Amazon

One Yellow Eye by Leigh Radford

In a post-apocalyptic London, microbiologist Kesta Shelley risks everything to hide and care for her infected husband—defying the government, her colleagues, and her own crumbling sanity—in a haunting reimagining of the zombie mythos driven by love, obsession, and the desperate hope for a cure.

Get it: Amazon | Bookshop.org (supports independent bookshops)

The House at Devil’s Neck by Tom Mead

When a séance at a haunted island hospital turns deadly, magician-turned-sleuth Joseph Spector and Scotland Yard’s George Flint must unravel two eerily connected cases—one modern, one decades old—before the phantom killer strikes again in this classic locked-room mystery set in England.

Get it: Amazon | Bookshop.org (supports independent bookshops)

The Couple Before Us by Daniel Hurst

When a pregnant woman finds a chilling note in her brand-new home, she begins to question everything—her husband, her neighbors, and the dark history of the house—until uncovering the truth puts her and her unborn child in danger.

Get it: Amazon | Bookshop.org (supports independent bookshops)

The Case of the Body on the Orient Express by Kelly Oliver

In 1928, as Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers board the Orient Express for a much-needed escape, a passenger is murdered mid-journey—leaving Sayers a suspect and her assistant Eliza racing against time to catch the killer before the train reaches Constantinople.

Get it: Amazon | Bookshop.org (supports independent bookshops)

Royal Gambit by Daniel O’Malley

When a supernatural assassination rocks the British royal family, Checquy operative and reluctant lady-in-waiting Alix Mondegreen must protect the new heir, investigate a murder, and navigate court life—all while hiding her deadly powers and facing threats that go far beyond palace intrigue.

Get it: Amazon | Bookshop.org (supports independent bookshops)

Arsenic & Old Lies by Benedict Brown

In 1928 London, mystery writer Marius Quin reopens a 15-year-old poisoning case he believes was a wrongful conviction—only to uncover fresh murders and buried secrets that lead him, Lady Bella Montague, and his loyal basset hound to a sinister country estate where danger still lurks.

Get it: Amazon | Bookshop.org (supports independent bookshops)

Grave of the Lawgiver by Peter Tremayne

In AD 673, Sister Fidelma and Eadulf arrive in Seaxmund's Ham to find Eadulf’s uncle murdered, his sister missing, and themselves accused—forcing them to solve a complex mystery while facing rising hostility against Irish missionaries in Anglo-Saxon England.

Get it: Amazon

Love & Other Poisons by Lesley McDowell

In 1857 Glasgow, Madeleine Smith was tried for the murder of her lover and freed by a controversial 'Not Proven' verdict—now, seventy years later in New York, a Hollywood scout believes he’s found the elusive woman with one final secret, and he’s determined to uncover the truth behind her sensational past.

Get it: Amazon | Bookshop.org (supports independent bookshops)

The Best of Intentions by Caroline Scott

In 1932, a young gardener arrives at a Gloucestershire manor turned utopian artists’ retreat, where new friendships, quiet romance, and a looming threat to their creative haven force the residents to band together to protect the spirit of their beloved community.

Get it: Amazon | Bookshop.org (supports independent bookshops)

What the Night Brings by Mark Billingham

When police officers are gunned down in a chilling series of targeted attacks, DI Tom Thorne and Nicola Tanner must uncover whether the killings are acts of vengeance—forcing Thorne to confront betrayals that threaten everything he believes in.

Get it: Amazon | Bookshop.org (supports independent bookshops)

“Grief was like a terrible burden, but at least you could lay it down by the side of the road and walk away from it. Antonia had come only a few paces, but already she could turn and look back and not weep. It wasn't anything to do with forgetting. It was just accepting. Nothing was ever so bad once you had accepted it.”

Rosamunde Pilcher, The Shell Seekers

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