Bookshop Blog

Surprise Your Shelf!

£

May 28th, 2010 by admin

The lovely folk at Random House have given us proof-copies of some very cool books including a couple of books that won’t be available until July.

Proof-copies are special editions of books that are printed in small print-runs – and therefore very collectable – in advance of a book’s official publication. They are sent to a few select folk in The Book World: journalists and reviewers, booksellers and trade buyers, TV producers and so on. They are not for sale.

Chuck Palahniuk is in the sort of fighting-fit form that made such a success of Fight Club and Haunted. ‘Tell-All’ is a Sunset Boulevard-infected homage to Hollywood’s Golden Age which inevitably butchers a few sacred cows in a blistering haze of name-dropping, melodramatic grand gestures and psychic torment in a merciless send-up of every beloved, name-checked black-and-white movie.

Karin Fossum is very familiar to every reader who loves a good Scandinavian crime. ‘Bad Intentions’ continues the adventures of Inspector Sejer.

Jo Nesbo is a thriller writer attracting acclaim from authors as diverse as Michael Connolly and Mark Billingham. In ‘The Snowman’, Inspector Harry Hole is in pursuit of a serial killer with a very chilling calling-card.

Shannon Burke’s debut ‘Black Flies’ caught my eye when it first came out: a gripping novel that follows rookie Paramedic Ollie Cross through Harlem in the mid-1990s and asks what happens when the people sent to save you can’t even save themselves?

More locally, Alan Warner returns to the alcohol-fuelled chaos of The Sopranos in his latest novel, ‘The Stars in the Bright Sky’ – this is unforgettable holiday reading, a story of debauchery, Guinness, one-night stands, Bacardi Breezers, hormones and female friendship.

Finally, acclaimed by James Ellroy as the best first novel he’s read in years, Stuart Neville’s debut thriller novel, ‘The Twelve’, is launched on 24th June but you can be among the first to enjoy this novel if you enter our competition.

To enter, simply leave a comment (the link is above the image; all comments are moderated) telling us which thriller was your favourite and in 20 words or less what you liked about this book. Alternatively, you can drop into the bookshop and fill out a wee competition form.

We’ll pick 5 names at random on Friday 4th June – including 2 Tweeters/ online entrants – and send the winners an email. Winners will receive proof-copies of the books described above, some of Random House’s best authors, to read over the holidays and all in the very swanky, eco-friendly bag (also pictured above).