Amman Brar's debut novel Mr Sidhu's Post Office (HarperCollins, £16.99) is a heartbreakingly beautiful tale that brings the Post Office Horizon scandal to life through the story of a widowed Sikh postmaster. Sukhdev 'David' Sidhu has run his sub-post office in Richmond, west London, faultlessly for two decades. But when a new IT system called Horizon is introduced, the books won't balance and more than £15,000 goes missing. Mr Sidhu soon finds himself pitted against a system that refuses to listen, with devastating consequences.
A Warm Portrait of Community in Crisis
Brar draws on the experiences of his own sub-postmaster father to paint a warm, moving picture of a community plunged into crisis. Set against the backdrop of Mr Sidhu's gradual falling in love with his colleague Rose, with flashbacks to his early life in the Punjab, it's a charming, bittersweet tale with a huge heart. The reviewer, Matt Nixson, gave it a 9/10 rating, noting: 'If you’re not feeling a little teary by the end of this heartbreakingly beautiful debut novel, you might want to check your pulse.'
Solitary Agents: Espionage Thriller Returns
David Goodman's Solitary Agents (Headline, £20) brings back accidental secret agent Jamie Tulloch, who first appeared in the multi-award-winning A Reluctant Spy. The former disillusioned tech executive is now facing his final hurdle to going full-time for MI6. Exercise Red Poacher pits the foreign intelligence service against its local rivals MI5 in a high-stakes training exercise to weed out the unworthy. But a foreign power has infiltrated the operation with murderous results, and Jamie finds himself in the crosshairs of British intelligence. His MI5 opposite, burnt-out corporate lawyer Sam Li, must decide if Jamie has really gone rogue. The killing of a fellow trainee ups the ante, placing Jamie and Sam on a collision course. Goodman is described as 'one of our finest new spy writers,' and Solitary Agents is rated 8/10.
The Shadow Step: Ballroom-Dancing Detective Returns
Mark Billingham's The Shadow Step (Little, Brown, £22) is the third outing for ballroom-dancing detective Declan Miller in the crime writer's palate-refreshing Blackpool-set series. From wobbly sausage dogs and accidental deaths to murder, kidnap and mayhem, Miller tangos from crisis to crisis. When the body of a drug dealer is pulled from a park lake, apparently with his head bashed in, and a clearly innocent man confesses to the killing, it sets in train a sequence of events with deadly consequences. Miller's cynical, dry and brilliantly humorous nature acts as a counterpoint to the darkness. Still talking to his dead wife Alex, winding up partner Sara Xiu, and perfecting his foxtrot, Miller is a brilliant creation. The book received a 9/10 rating.
Mr Moonlight: Definitive Biography of Brian Epstein
Philip Norman's Mr Moonlight (Simon & Schuster, £30) is a definitive biography of Brian Epstein, the man who discovered The Beatles and steered them to global fame before becoming increasingly isolated and unwell as his young charges became independent of him. Epstein died aged just 32 of an accidental overdose of sleeping pills, or possibly foul play (Reggie Kray hinted he had been killed). 'Would they have been stars without him? Certainly The Beatles began to list badly following Epstein’s untimely demise in 1967,' writes Nixson. '“We’re f***ed,” said John Lennon when he heard the news.' Norman, a foremost Beatles expert, delivers a poignant and revelatory must-read for fans, rated 8/10.
