10 highly-anticipated books we can’t wait to read in 2024
The new year is almost upon us and with that, comes a whole new catalogue of wonderful books that will be published over the next 12 months.
From crime thrillers and mysteries to romcoms and humorous reads, there are plenty of new titles to choose from in the coming year.
Whether you’re already an avid reader or your New Year’s resolution is to get stuck into some great books, this list will help you decide which wonderful pieces you should make sure you read in 2024.
First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston
Published by Headline on January 14
Evie Porter has everything a girl could want: a doting boyfriend, a house with a picket fence, a fun group of friends. The only catch: Evie Porter doesn’t exist. First comes the identity. Once she’s given a name and location by her employer, she learns everything there is to know about the town and the people in it. Then the mark: Ryan Sumner. The last piece of the puzzle is the job. For Evie, this job feels different. Ryan has gotten under her skin and she’s started to picture another kind of life for herself. But Evie can’t make any mistakes after what happened last time. Because the one thing she’s worked her entire life to keep clean, the one identity she could always go back to – her real identity – just walked right into this town. Evie Porter must stay one step ahead of her past while making sure there’s still a future in front of her.
Blizzard by Marie Vingtras
Published by Mountain Leopard on January 18
In a harsh, Alaskan landscape, four solitary characters are brought together by a desperate hunt to find a missing child. Blizzard is a gripping thriller. Quiet and unnerving but building to a breath-taking dramatic climax. A blizzard rages in Alaska. In the storm, a woman stops for a moment to tie her shoelaces. Seconds later, the child under her protection has vanished. She searches for him, soon joined by the very few other inhabitants who live in this cold, desolate place. As the hunt intensifies – a race against the clock in these excruciating conditions to bring back the child alive – the inner demons and torments of each individual are revealed, and their uncanny connection to one another is finally unveiled.
Frank & Red by Matt Coyne
Published by Wildfire on February 1
Frank and Red are a mess. Frank is a grumpy old curmudgeon. A recluse whose only company is the 'ghost' of his dead wife, Marcie. He is estranged from his friends, his son, and the ever-changing world beyond his front gate… And then Red moves in next door. Red is six. A boy struggling to adjust to the separation of his mum and dad, a new school, and the demonic school bully. Red is curious, smart, he never stops talking, and he's got a trampoline. From the moment Red's blonde mop appears over the top of the fence that divides their two gardens, the unlikeliest of friendships is born… And it is a friendship that will change both of their lives forever.
A Long Song For Ricki Wilde by Tia Williams
Published by Quercus on February 6
Ricki Wilde has many talents, but being a Wilde isn’t one of them. As the impulsive, artistic daughter of a powerful Atlanta dynasty, she’s the opposite of her famous socialite sisters. Where they’re long-stemmed roses, she’s a dandelion: an adorable bloom that’s actually a weed, born to float wherever the wind blows. In her bones, Ricki knows that somewhere, a different, more exciting life awaits her. When regal nonagenarian, Ms. Della, invites her to rent the bottom floor of her Harlem brownstone, Ricki jumps at the chance for a fresh beginning. She leaves behind her family, wealth, and chaotic romantic decisions to realise her dream of opening a flower shop. And just beneath the surface of her new neighbourhood, the music, stories and dazzling drama of the Harlem Renaissance still simmers. One evening in February as the heady, curiously off-season scent of night-blooming jasmine fills the air, Ricki encounters a handsome, deeply mysterious stranger who knocks her world off balance in the most unexpected way.
End of Story by A. J. Finn
Published by HarperCollins Publishers on February 29
“I’ll be dead in three months. Come tell my story”. This is the chilling invitation from Sebastian Trapp, renowned mystery novelist, to his long-time correspondent Nicky Hunter, an expert in detective fiction. Welcomed into his lavish San Francisco mansion, Nicky begins to unravel Trapp’s life story under the watchful eyes of his enigmatic wife and plainspoken daughter. But Sebastian Trapp is a mystery himself. And maybe – probably – a murderer. Two decades ago, his first wife and son vanished – the case never solved. Is the master of mystery playing a deadly game – and if so, who will be the loser? And when a body surfaces in the family's koi pond, they all realise the past isn't buried – it's waiting.
Small Hours by Bobby Palmer
Published by Headline on March 14
If you stood before sunrise in this wild old place, looking through the trees into the garden…You'd see a father and son, a fox standing between them. You wouldn't know that Jack has returned from the city, still determined to be the opposite of his father. Or that Gerry would rather talk to animals than this angry man back under his roof. You wouldn't imagine that neither is quite who the other remembers. That someone irreplaceable is missing. That one conversation might change everything. If you saw them in the small hours, you'd begin to piece together their story. It's about connection and belonging – and how the world comes alive when you stop to take it in.
The Hunter by Tana French
Published by Viking on March 7
It’s a blazing summer when two men arrive in the village. They’re coming for gold. What they bring is trouble. Cal Hooper was a Chicago detective, till he moved to the West of Ireland looking for peace. He’s found it, more or less – in his relationship with local woman Lena, and the bond he’s formed with half-wild teenager Trey. So when two men turn up with a money-making scheme to find gold in the townland, Cal gets ready to do whatever it takes to protect Trey. Because one of the men is no stranger: he’s Trey’s father. But Trey doesn’t want protecting. What she wants is revenge.
Funny Story by Emily Henry
Published by Penguin on April 23, 2024
Daphne always loved the way her fiancé Peter told their story. How they met (on a blustery day), fell in love (over an errant hat), and moved back to his lakeside hometown to begin their life together. He really was good at telling it…right up until the moment he realised he was actually in love with his childhood best friend Petra. Which is how Daphne begins her new story: Stranded in beautiful Waning Bay, Michigan, with a dream job as a children’s librarian, and proposing to be roommates with the only person who could possibly understand her predicament: Petra’s ex, Miles Nowak. Scruffy and chaotic, Miles is exactly the opposite of practical, buttoned up Daphne, whose coworkers know so little about her they have a running bet that she’s either FBI or in witness protection. The roommates mainly avoid one another, until one day, while drowning their sorrows, they form a tenuous friendship and a plan. If said plan also involves posting deliberately misleading photos of their summer adventures together, well, who could blame them? But it’s all just for show, of course, because there’s no way Daphne would actually start her new chapter by falling in love with her ex-fiancé’s new fiancée’s ex…right?
When We Were Silent by Fiona McPhillips
Published by Bantam Press on May 2
Lou Manson is an outsider when she joins the final-year class at Highfield Manor, Dublin’s most exclusive private school. Beyond the granite pillars and the wrought-iron gates is a world of wealth, privilege and potential. But Highfield is also hiding a dark secret – and Lou is here to expose it. When Lou befriends the beautiful and talented Shauna Power, her plans are thrown into turmoil. Speaking out against the school would mean betraying Shauna, and Lou soon discovers that the Highfield elite will go to any lengths to protect their own reputation…even when the consequences are fatal. Thirty years later, Lou is called to testify in a new lawsuit against Highfield. But telling the truth means confronting her past – and there is one story she swore she’d never tell…
Long Island by Colm Tóibín
Published by Picador on May 23
The sequel to the prize-winning and bestselling novel Brooklyn. A man with an Irish accent knocks on Eilis Fiorello's door on Long Island and in that moment everything changes. Eilis and Tony have built a secure, happy life here since leaving Brooklyn – perhaps a little stifled by the in-laws so close, but twenty years married and with two children looking towards a good future. And yet this stranger will reveal something that will make Eilis question the life she has created. For the first time in years she suddenly feels very far from home and the revelation will see her turn towards Ireland once again. Back to her mother. Back to the town and the people she had chosen to leave behind. Did she make the wrong choice marrying Tony all those years ago? Is it too late now to take a different path?
