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- From My Little Pony to British Crime Novels...and New Books This Week
From My Little Pony to British Crime Novels...and New Books This Week
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Tim Sullivan’s path to crime writing wasn’t a straight line. A veteran screenwriter with credits on Sherlock Holmes, Flushed Away, and even My Little Pony, he turned to novels during the pandemic—and struck gold. His DS George Cross mysteries, initially self-published, quickly became a phenomenon, winning praise from Stephen Fry and catching the attention of Bloomsbury’s Head of Zeus imprint.
At the heart of the series is DS George Cross, a meticulous investigator on the autism spectrum whose brilliance and exacting logic set him apart from colleagues. Readers have embraced both his unusual methods and Sullivan’s ability to weave emotional depth into tightly plotted mysteries.
Now eight books in, the series continues to grow in popularity. In a recent episode of Joy with Craig Ferguson, Sullivan sat down with his longtime friend to reflect on their early years together—and to talk about how a chance decision during lockdown became a second career as one of Britain’s most compelling crime novelists.
Curious about the series? We recommend starting with The Dentist. It’s the first book in series, and while you certainly COULD enjoy the books as standalone mysteries, there are ongoing personal issues and mysteries that are much better in order.
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New British Books This Week
The Killer Question by Janice Hallett
At a rural pub called The Case is Altered, a trivia night turns sinister when a body is found, a mysterious team dominates the quiz, and long-buried secrets resurface through messages, emails, and a nephew’s documentary five years later.
Get it: Amazon | Bookshop.org (supports independent bookshops)
The Impossible Fortune by Richard Osman
UK RELEASE ONLY (US RELEASE SEP. 30) As the Thursday Murder Club prepares for a wedding, Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron, and Ibrahim are drawn back into danger when a guest vanishes, a shady partner emerges, and whispers of an uncrackable code point to secrets worth killing for.
Get it: Amazon | Bookshop.org (supports independent bookshops)
Circle of Days by Ken Follett
On England’s Great Plain, a gifted flint miner and a visionary priestess join divided tribes to raise a monument of stone, even as drought, betrayal, and war threaten to destroy them.
Get it: Amazon | Bookshop.org (supports independent bookshops)
A Slowly Dying Cause by Elizabeth George
In Cornwall, DI Thomas Lynley and DS Barbara Havers investigate the murder of Michael Lobb, a tin and pewter workshop owner whose death entangles eco-mining interests, bitter family estrangements, and a much younger new widow.
Get it: Amazon | Bookshop.org (supports independent bookshops)
What We Can Know by Ian McEwan
In 2014, a poet’s mysterious lost verse sparks speculation, while in 2119 a lonely scholar in a flooded England hunts for the poem and uncovers a tangled story of love and crime across time.
Get it: Amazon | Bookshop.org (supports independent bookshops)
A Tale of Two Dukes by Emma Orchard
An independent duchess and the cousin she despises enter a turbulent marriage of convenience, only to find passion and dangerous secrets waiting to upend their Regency world.
Get it: Amazon | Bookshop.org (supports independent bookshops)
A Very Bookish Murder by Dee MacDonald
At a Highland writers’ retreat, guesthouse owner Ally McKinley finds a famous novelist strangled, then must unmask the killer before more bookish guests turn up dead.
Get it: Amazon | Bookshop.org (supports independent bookshops)
The Dark of the Moon by Fiona Valpy
On the sun-drenched Île de Ré, a wartime heroine who once flew with the Attagirls and served as an SOE agent recounts her daring past while still searching for the pilot husband who vanished decades earlier.
Get it: Amazon | Bookshop.org (supports independent bookshops)
Dark Horse by Felix Francis
When rising Irish jockey Imogen Duffy is framed for her boyfriend’s murder, ex–jockey turned investigator Sid Halley is drawn into a deadly case that soon makes him the target of a stalker himself.
Get it: Amazon | Bookshop.org (supports independent bookshops)
Slashed Beauties by A Rushby
In this gothic feminist body horror set between 18th-century London and present-day Seoul, three cursed Anatomical Venuses—wax figures modeled on sex workers—come to life at night to kill the men who wronged them, binding women across centuries in a deadly legacy.
Get it: Amazon | Bookshop.org (supports independent bookshops)
A Bitter Wind by James R Benn
On Christmas Day 1944, US Army Captain Billy Boyle visits his girlfriend at RAF Hawkinge, but when a murdered officer turns up with secret radio espionage papers, he’s drawn into a deadly investigation that stretches from the White Cliffs of Dover to war-torn Yugoslavia.
Get it: Amazon | Bookshop.org (supports independent bookshops)
Lion Hearts by Dan Jones
In 1350, as plague-ravaged England faces fresh threats from Spain, the scattered Essex Dogs—tavern-keeping Loveday and courtly squire Romford—must draw on old bonds and brutal lessons when past debts and unfinished battles pull them back into the fray.
Get it: Amazon | Bookshop.org (supports independent bookshops)
A Carol for Mrs. Dickens by Rebecca Connolly
In 1851 London, Catherine Dickens—overwhelmed by parties, children, and her husband’s fame—receives a magical sprig of holly that takes her on three journeys into her past, rekindling her lost Christmas spirit and reminding her of the joy found in love and faith.
Get it: Amazon | Bookshop.org (supports independent bookshops)
‘This is how the entire course of a life can be changed: by doing nothing.’
Ian McEwan, On Chesil Beach
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