New British Books This Week + Neighbours Bad Enough to Inspire a Thriller

September 05, 2025

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Most thrillers spring entirely from a writer’s imagination. But sometimes, real life hands over inspiration on a silver platter—or, in this case, through the ceiling with a broom.

British author Mark Edwards didn’t have to look far for the villains in his breakout novel The Magpies. Back in the 1990s, when he moved into a flat in St Leonards-on-Sea with his girlfriend, he found himself living above a couple who made their lives miserable. From letters complaining about the sound of a “toilet brush thrashing about the pan,” to cigarette butts shoved under the door and hoax book-club parcels, the harassment escalated until Edwards finally moved out.

Later, he imagined how far that kind of torment could go—and the result was The Magpies, a psychological thriller about a young couple whose dream home turns into a nightmare when their new neighbors reveal just how cruel ordinary people can be. No vampires, no demons—just the all-too-relatable horror of neighbours from hell.

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New British Books This Week

The Hallmarked Man by Robert Galbraith

When a dismembered body is found in a London silver shop near Freemasons’ Hall, private detectives Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott investigate a case entangled with missing men, Masonic secrets, and personal tensions between them.

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

The Bookseller of Hay by James Hanning

In 1962, Richard Booth bought a small shop in Hay-on-Wye and, through sheer eccentricity and vision, turned it into the world’s largest second-hand bookshop, crowned himself king, and put the Welsh border town on the global literary map.

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

Boudicca’s Daughter by Elodie Harper

Told through the eyes of her youngest daughter Solina, this novel follows Boudicca’s legendary rebellion against Rome in 60 CE Britain and Solina’s own fight for survival as she’s carried from the Iceni homeland to the heart of Nero’s empire.

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

The Spite Date by Pippa Grant

When Hollywood star and British single dad Simon Luckwood offers to take her out after his sons get her arrested, a small-town woman seizes the chance to turn their date into public revenge on her ex—only to find the plan doesn’t go as expected.

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

Vianne by Joanne Harris

Set six years before Chocolat, this prequel follows a young Vianne as she arrives in Marseille, begins cooking with her own touch of chocolate magic, and hides a secret that could change everything.

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

The Skeleton in the Rose Bed by Alys Clare

In 1882 London, private investigators Lily Raynor and Felix Wilbraham probe a set of mysterious bones found in a garden near Tower Hill, uncovering secrets so dangerous that Felix is brutally attacked to keep them hidden.

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

Behind a Locked Door by Sarah A. Denzil

When Lucy Foster visits an old friend, she hears a baby crying behind a locked cellar door—only to uncover a hidden teenage girl and newborn whose terrifying secret puts Lucy’s own life in danger.

Get it: Amazon

Meet Me Under the Northern Lights by Emily Kerr

When a viral video upends her life, radio host Lucy Fairweather flees to the Arctic Circle, where helping at a remote lodge—and its brooding owner Tommi—may lead her to new love beneath the Northern Lights.

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

See No Evil by DS Butler

When DS Karen Hart’s future mother-in-law is murdered in her home—her eyes sewn shut—Karen is forced off the case, but as more of her fiancé’s relatives are killed in the same way, she realizes the killer is closing in on her too.

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

A New Beginning by Laura Randell

Tamsin Davies, a struggling London estate agent chasing her dream of becoming a barrister, is torn between a scholarship opportunity in the US and her unexpected connection with Ben, an aristocrat determined to win both her trust and her heart.

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

Christmas Spirits at Honeywell House by Sharon Booth

In the Cotswold village of Rowan Vale, Clara struggles with family pressures and a secret she’s kept from her partner Jack, while the resident ghosts of Harling Hall stir up mischief during a Dickensian Christmas weekend.

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

“Polite contempt. The barbed and poisonous weapon of the righteous.”

Joanne Harris, Chocolat

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