Stephen King, the king of horror, is back with another gem...5 new books to read
The Retirement Plan by Sue Hincenbergs is published by Sphere in hardback, priced £18.99 (ebook £7.99). Available June 3
If crazy, switcheroo mysteries with a dark comic edge are your thing, then The Retirement Plan is the summer read for you. Sue Hincenbergs' story of disappointment, grief, deceit, murder and casinos is based around the friendship of a group of women.
After the death of one of their husbands in a freak accident (or was it a hitman catching up with him for past misdeeds?), his widow is left a million-dollar life insurance payout, sparking a Golden Girls' retirement dream for the other wives.
But cleverly, this isn't just their tale. The husbands also have a retirement plan, and a suspicion that someone is about to find out about it. The three remaining husbands reach out to their barber to help 'fix' the problem. A triumphant crime caper that is funny and exciting.
9/10 Review by Rachel Howdle
Never Flinch by Stephen King is published in hardback by Hodder & Stoughton, priced £25. Available now
A brutal murderer seeks revenge for a wrongly convicted man, taunting police with a letter threatening to kill '13 innocents and one guilty.' Meanwhile, outspoken feminist activist Kate McKay launches a lecture tour, packing venues with her noisy fans, angry opponents and unwittingly, a stalker intent on killing her.
Two dramatic storylines in one book by award-winning, master-crime writer Stephen King, Never Flinch is a double treat for his army of fans.
Detective Izzy Jaynes leads the hunt for the letter writer, made urgent when the promised killings start. She asks for help from her friend, private investigator Holly Gibney, who is suddenly hired by McKay to be her bodyguard amid increasing threats to her safety.
The hunt for the killer and the stalker merge into one as time runs out to avert a bloodbath. King says it was a difficult book to write as he had surgery on his hip, revealing it went through multiple rewrites and three title changes after his wife told him he could "do better." The author of more than 70 books proves yet again he doesn't flinch from writing best-sellers.
9/10 Review by Alan Jones
Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid. Photo: Hutchinson Heinemann/PAAtmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid is published in hardback by Hutchinson Heinemann, priced £20 (ebook £10.99). Available June 3
Taylor Jenkins Reid - author of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo - is back with Atmosphere. Set amid the 1980s space shuttle programme, it explores female empowerment, space and science, queer love and everything in between.
From the beginning of the emotional rollercoaster that the novel takes you on, Jenkins Reid hits at every heart string imaginable. Astronomy professor Joan Goodwin leaps at a chance to work for NASA, embarking on a celestial and scientific dream that brings her into the orbit of fellow astronaut candidate Vanessa Ford.
Atmosphere jumps from past to present, examining NASA culture, and readers are also given a great view of the kind of training needed to be part of the Space Shuttle program. Moving, pacey and a read that will stick with you.
8/10 Review by Sara Keenan
Year of the Rat: Undercover in the British Far Right by Harry Shukman is published in hardback by Chatto & Windus, priced £20 (ebook £10.99). Available now
Year of the Rat: Undercover in the British Far Right by Harry Shukman. Photo: Chatto & Windus/PA
Harry Shukman's brave delve into the dark recesses of Britain's Far Right feels especially timely. He spent a year undercover, infiltrating a series of extremist groups in the hope of understanding - and exposing - their dreams and ambitions.
That Shukman's book provides few surprises is less a slight on his quest than an admission of the extent to which the ideas he encounters have been allowed to infiltrate the mainstream.
The people Shukman meets are not, for the most part, big-booted skinheads swathed in Nazi tattoos, or white-hooded American backwoodsmen.
They are normal people - men, mostly - who espouse their beliefs in pubs and clubs, or on specially-arranged camping trips. Some members of the lower-ranked orders appear so gullible as to inspire a tinge of sympathy. But such moments of light relief - there's an excruciatingly funny incident involving a notorious football hooligan being caught short - don't mask the real power and threat posed by extremist groups.
The strength of Year of the Rat is not so much the tales of low-level loudmouths, but the inferences to the shady puppet-masters who continue to shape world politics for the worse.
6/10 Review by Mark Staniforth
Audre & Bash Are Just Friends by Tia Williams is published in paperback by Quercus priced £9.95 (ebook £4.99). Available now
A super-summery YA rom com, Audre & Bash Are Just Friends is a spin-off from US writer Tia Williams' page-turner of an adult romance, Seven Days In June.
Audre is the highly-motivated, thoroughly ambitious, incredibly well-behaved daughter of best-selling erotica novelist Eva Mercy (the heroine of Seven Days), and it's the last day of school when Audre's summer plans disintegrate.
Audre & Dash Are Just Friends by Tia Williams. Photo: Quercus/PA
Sick of her mum doting on her new baby sister and sleeping on the sofa while their apartment gets a remodel, Audre decides to hire a 'fun-consultant' to help her let loose a bit and give her material for a project that could help her get into college - enter new kid, Croc-wearer and expert partier, Bash.
While the trajectory of this pair's relationship is to be expected (yes, sparks do fly), Williams' characters are suffused with anxieties and family angst that feel wholly real. A flirty, entertaining read that should hit a nerve with lots of teens.
8/10 Review by Ella Walker
1. The Knight and the Moth by Rachel Gillig
2. By Your Side by Ruth Jones
3. Nightshade by Michael Connelly
4. Silver Elite by Dani Francis
5. The Devils by Joe Abercrombie
6. This House of Burning Bones by Stuart MacBride
7. The Cardinal by Alison Weir
8. Tyrant:The Nero Trilogy by Conn Iggulden
9. Vianne by Joanne Harris
10 The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong
(Compiled by Waterstones)
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Horror outside primary school as knifeman tries to stab dad picking up his child
A knifeman threatened to stab a parent outside a primary school as children were being picked up. Cardell Hamman, 20, approached the dad as he collected his child outside the north Manchester school in January. Without warning, Hamman brandished a knife and shouted: "You want to f*** with my sister?" He then moved towards the man, swinging the knife at his body. The blade brushed the man's shoulder before he grabbed Hamman and pulled him away, Manchester Crown Court heard. READ MORE: 'Can someone get this man away from us': Woman's horror Jet2 flight after stranger sat next to her strikes READ MORE: Man planned to spend day 'on the beer drinking 16 pints' before meeting woman he's accused of murdering, court told He then ran towards the school, followed by Hamman, who shouted: "I'm gonna stab you up." Sign up to the MEN Court newsletter here Kate Gaskell, prosecuting, said: "CCTV at the school recorded him as he arrived, followed by the defendant. As the defendant entered the school playground he appeared to secret the knife about his body. "He left as the victim neared the door to the building. As he left the defendant shouted, 'You want to f*** with my sister. Watch, I'm gonna stab you up'." Others also heard Hamman shout words to the effect of 'you're a dead man'. The victim recognised Hamman, but 'as far he was aware there was no ill feelings between them', Ms Gaskell added. In a statement the victim said: ''This incident has shocked me and makes me worried and concerned for my family's safety. So many thoughts are going through my head about what might happen in the future or what could have happened. 'I want to be strong for my family, and my opinion is that I don't want to show my emotions to them or anyone else because as a father I have to be strong for them and show them that their dad isn't scared of anything. 'As time goes by I might begin to feel differently but for now my thoughts rest with what could have happened if I hadn't managed to get away and what if something else like this happens in the future.' He added: 'I have no idea why Cardell would target me, as far as I'm concerned, until today I had no problem with him.' Hamman was arrested after CCTV footage led police to his home in Droylsden. He told officers he had taken an overdose the day before and was taken to hospital. He was examined and released as being fit to be interviewed. Hamman denied the offences. He accepted he knew the victim as the man's child knew his sister, but said there were 'no ill feelings' between them. He later pleaded guilty to attempted wounding with intent; and possession of a bladed article. Join our Court and Crime WhatsApp group HERE Defending, Graham Rishton said the incident took place due to a 'culmination in a disagreement between the victim and Hamman's sister', though, he added: 'Nothing can come close to justifying this type of behaviour. It is only his good fortune, and obviously that of the victim, that there was no injury.' Mr Rishton said the defendant, who had previous convictions for carrying a knife, had since become a father which had provided him with a 'new perspective'. Jailing him for three-and-a-half years, Judge Alan Conrad KC said: 'Your victim had done nothing to deserve this. I accept you had a very difficult start in life. You are a young man who tends to go out with a knife and finds it difficult to control yourself.' Hamman, of Moss bank Avenue, was banned from contacting the victim, under the terms of a restraining order, indefinitely.
CNN
an hour ago
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University peers describe a creepy, domineering Bryan Kohberger in months before Idaho killings, newly released files show
In the days and weeks after Bryan Kohberger was arrested in connection with the brutal killings of four undergrads at the University of Idaho, students and instructors at nearby Washington State University told investigators the suspect seemed creepy and intense, with one predicting Kohberger could become the type of professor that harassed and stalked students, according to a trove of newly released documents. Kohberger pleaded guilty to the killings in July and has been sentenced life in prison without parole. One student who was in a class with Kohberger in the fall of 2022, when he worked on his PhD in criminology, told police he would act aggressively, staring at his classmates when he wasn't dominating group discussions. In a December 2022 interview conducted on the day of Kohberger's arrest at his parents' home in Pennsylvania, the student said the class often sat through his hours-long verbal sparring with professors as he tried to come across as the 'strongest, smartest, most important person in the room,' according to the records. The student described having a 'bad feeling' about Kohberger from the moment they met at orientation in the fall of 2022, months before the November 13 murders of Ethan Chapin, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Madison Mogen. Over the distressing semester that followed, she told investigators, Kohberger would trail her after class, block her path when she tried to leave conversations and stare with such intensity that she kept a tally of the encounters. Her account is one of many in the latest release of investigative files from the Idaho State Police around the murders, where classmates, professors and other university staff describe alarming interactions with Kohberger to police before he was apprehended. The accounts, scattered across classrooms, offices and hangout spots, carried the same refrain: Kohberger's presence often set people on edge. They captured the reflex in his peers to become shields for one another against a man who would soon be accused of murder. Kohberger appeared to be well known on campus for his silent, unblinking stares, which several of his colleagues described as his attempt to assert 'dominance.' One WSU faculty member described Kohberger's 'keen interest' in her fall 2022 undergraduate assistant, whom he watched fiercely. She said Kohberger would stand at the assistant's desk, even directly behind her at times, looking over her shoulder as she worked. Another professor was asked to escort the assistant to her car after work because of Kohberger's behavior, according to the documents. One student said whenever she looked up, Kohberger, who was a teaching assistant in her class, was 'always' staring, according to the records. He rarely spoke to students, she told police. She felt he would time his exit to leave when she did and then follow her to her car. The graduate student who met Kohberger during orientation said she caught him 'aggressively' staring at her as many as nine times in one class and said she was also followed after class. 'Kohberger always seems to want to be in the general area of her and others in the program that did not want to have anything to do with him,' the student told police, according to the documents. CNN has reached out to WSU for comment. Professors and faculty were troubled by Kohberger's behavior, according to the documents, and had fielded several complaints from students and colleagues. Multiple WSU staff members told police that faculty met before Christmas 2022, days before Kohberger's arrest, to discuss each of their students, but discussions about Kohberger dominated because he was 'highly problematic.' The files show that faculty swapped stories about Kohberger and debated pulling his funding and TA position, citing unnerving classroom conduct. 'Mark my word, I work with predators, if we give him a PhD, that's the guy that in many years when he is a professor, we will hear is harassing, stalking, and sexually abusing … his students,' one of Kohberger's teachers told her colleagues during the meeting, according to the documents. One professor said Kohberger tried to keep him from leaving his office, an act he described as 'power tripping,' according to the files. Kohberger would show up late in the day and keep talking as the professor tried to go home. When the professor pushed back, Kohberger called him 'snarky,' the documents said. Kohberger then refused to leave when the professor asked, following him down the hall when the professor decided to walk away. 'Preventing him from leaving his office was a way of controlling,' the documents said. Students described to police how Kohberger stood close enough to trap them at their desks. In an office used by female students, one of his professors said Kohberger would position himself in the doorway, physically blocking it until she stepped in, 'allowing the female students to leave.' In several separate interviews, students and professors described stepping between Kohberger and others – intercepting him in hallways and inserting themselves in conversations for others' security. One WSU faculty member said her 'maternal instinct' wouldn't allow her to leave a female student alone in an office on campus with Kohberger, so she kept herself busy until he left. She didn't say any specific behavior of his prompted her to feel this way, the documents said. When he left, she told the student to email her with the subject line '911' if she ever needed help. In August 2022, a University of Idaho student said she met Kohberger in an apartment lobby and pointed him toward a pool party. She said she became uncomfortable with his staring and awkward conversation. During the party, 'Kohberger made very direct eye contact with her and made a bee line towards her' and a friend 'got up to intercept him' after realizing the student was uncomfortable, according to documents. In another instance, a male worker at a bookstore on WSU's campus described acting 'as a buffer' between his female coworker and Kohberger as he frequented the store, the documents show. The man believed Kohberger 'was attempting to flirt' with the woman 'and was absolutely zeroing in on her.' The man started 'telling Kohberger she was on the phone when he would come in so she wouldn't have to interact with him,' according to the documents. CNN's Jean Casarez, Lauren del Valle, Dakin Andone, Andy Rose, Nicquel Terry Ellis and Nicki Brown contributed to this report.
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Jade Thirlwall Says She Has a ‘Daily Battle' to Avoid Trying Ozempic After Past Eating Disorder
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