Mostly Books Meets...

This week, we’re speaking to debut author, Rosie Andrews. Rosie’s much anticipated debut novel, The Leviathan, was published on 3rd February.

Historical fiction based in the 17th Century, the book has already received rave reviews with comparisons being made to novels such as The Essex Serpent, The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock and The Binding.

The podcast is produced and presented by the team at Mostly Books. Find us on Twitter @mostlyreading & Instagram @mostlybooks_shop. Edited by Nick Short @alongstoryshorter. The Leviathan is published in the UK by @bloomsburypublishing

Books mentioned in this episode include:

The Leviathan by Rosie Andrews (9781526637338)

Mallory Towers by Enid Blyton (9781444929874)

St Clare’s by Enid Blyton (9781444934823)

1984 by George Orwell (9780141393049)

Road to Wigan Pier by George Orwell 9780141185293)

Down & Out in Paris & London by George Orwell (9780141184388)

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (9780141198965)

Moonlight and the Pearler’s Daughter (9781529072846)

The Key in the Lock by Beth Underdown (9780241503300)

The Silmarillion by JR Tolkein (9780007523221)

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (9780141198859)

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson (9780007351008)

Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkein (9780261103252)

Welcome to season 4 of Mostly Books Meets!

Our first guest this season is joining us for a second time - a Mostly Books Meets first! This week we’re talking to Sunday Times best-selling author, Beth Morrey. Beth first joined us as a guest this time last year, talking about her debut novel Saving Missy.

Fast forward a year, a lot has changed. We’re still dealing with the effects of COVID but we are no longer in full lockdown as we were when Beth and I first caught up and, whilst we’re still talking books, we’re here today to chat about Beth’s brand new book, Em & Me which was published on 3rd February.

Books read by Beth in the last year are listed below. All of which are available to buy for a discounted price through the Mostly Books website.

The podcast is produced and presented by the team at Mostly Books.

Find us on Twitter @mostlyreading & Instagram @mostlybooks_shop. Edited by Nick Short @alongstoryshorter

Hamnet, Maggie O’Farrell (9781472223821)

The Silent Daughter, Emma Christie (9781787394933)

Small Pleasures, Clare Chambers (9781474613903)

The Vanishing Half, Brit Bennett (9780349701479)

Sorrow and Bliss, Meg Mason (9781474622974)

Falling, TJ Newman (9781398507241)

From the Veg Patch, Kathy Slack (9781529107968)

The Last One at the Party, Bethany Clift (9781529332162)

Dark Matter, Michelle Paver (9781409121183)

The Sentinel, Lee Child/Andrew Child (9780552177429)

Past Tense, Lee Child (9780857503626)

This Much is True, Miriam Margolyes (9781529379884)

Stanley Tucci – Taste (9780241500996)

The Silence, Susan Allott (9780008361341)

Magpie, Elizabeth Day (9780008374945)

Mrs Dalloway, Virginia Woolf (9780241341117)

The Pursuit of Love, Nancy Mitford (9780241514993)

The Grand Sophy, Georgette Heyer (9780099585541)

Just Haven’t Met You Yet, Sophie Cousens (9781787466814)

Rachel’s Holiday, Marian Keyes (9780241958438)

One Ordinary Day at a Time, Sarah J Harris (9780008377373)

Where We Belong, Anstey Harris (9781471173868)

If I Can’t Have You, Charlotte Levin (9781529032420)

Lost Property, Helen Parris (9781529176339)

People Like Us, Louise Fein (9781789545005)

The Couple at no.9, Claire Douglas (9781405943406)

Wintering, Katherine May (9781846045998)

All the Lonely People, Mike Gayle (9781473687417)

The Maid, Nita Prose (9780008435721)

Black Cake, Charmaine Wilkerson (9780241529928)

A Lady’s Guide to Fortune-Hunting, Sophie Irwin (9780008519520)

Don’t Forget to Scream, Marianne Levy (9781474623667)

Meredith Alone, Claire Alexander (9780241542408)

In the podcast this week, I’m speaking to award-winning author, JP Delaney.

J.P. Delaney is a pseudonym of author, Tony Strong who has also written under the name Anthony Capella.

JP ‘s first psychological thriller, The Girl Before, was an instant Sunday Times and New York Times bestseller and went on to sell over a million copies worldwide. His subsequent books Believe Me, The Perfect Wife, and Playing Nice were also top ten bestsellers.

The Girl Before is being adapted into a major television series and JP has been heavily involved as lead writer and co-executive producer. A TV tie in edition of the book was published on 25th November and the TV series is due to be released the weekend before Christmas.

JP, welcome to Mostly Books Meets.

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Books mentioned in this episode include:

The Girl Before by JP Delaney (https://bit.ly/3dCVcwQ), Mitford Girls by Mary S Lovell (https://bit.ly/3ycORBR), I Capture The Castle by Dodie Smith (https://bit.ly/3rNLFeE).

All of which are available to buy for a discounted price through the Mostly Books website (www.mostly-books.co.uk/shop).

The podcast is produced and presented by the team at Mostly Books.

Find us on Twitter @mostlyreading & Instagram @mostlybooks_shop. Edited by Nick Short @alongstoryshorter

This week we're speaking to crime author, Cara Hunter.

Cara is the author of five bestselling crime novels following the investigations of DI Adam Fawley and his team. Set in her home city of Oxford, Cara’s books feature an ensemble cast of characters that readers have avidly followed since 2017. Her fast-paced twisting plotlines deliver a gripping read and have won spots on the Richard and Judy Book Club, numerous short-listings in crime fiction awards, and optioned for TV.

In her latest book The Whole Truth, DI Adam Fawley and his team are up against the clock when an Oxford student accuses one of the university's professors of sexual assault and lives come under threat.

This week we’re speaking to Crime author, Olivia Kiernan.

Olivia is the author of four Frankie Sheehan detective novels. Set in Dublin, the ongoing series sees DCS Frankie Sheehan and her team investigating murders across the city, where appearances are rarely what they seem.

In her latest book The Murder Box, we join DCS Frankie Sheehan as a seemingly innocent murder mystery game reveals a sinister connection to the disappearance of a young woman.

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Books mentioned in this episode include:

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred Taylor (https://bit.ly/3cKcVlA), The Adventures of the Wishing-Chair by Enid Blyton (https://bit.ly/3DW9vrG) , Madame Zero by Sarah Hall (https://bit.ly/3laTLtM), Circle Of Friends by Maeve Binchy (https://bit.ly/3HVSXCA), The Murder Box by Olivia Kiernan (https://bit.ly/30Wf8aP).

All of which are available to buy for a discounted price through the Mostly Books website (www.mostly-books.co.uk/shop).

The podcast is produced and presented by the team at Mostly Books.

Find us on Twitter @mostlyreading & Instagram @mostlybooks_shop. Edited by Nick Short @alongstoryshorter

We're taking a couple of weeks off to record some new episodes so we thought we'd go back to take another listen to our interview with Abigail Dean in season 2.

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Abigail’s debut novel, Girl A, was published in January 2021 after a 9-way auction resulted in

Abigail Dean was born in Manchester, and grew up in the Peak District. She studied English Literature at Cambridge University, and graduated with a double first in 2011.

Abigail always loved reading, writing, and talking about books, and her first job was as a bookseller at Waterstones. She later worked as an associate at a New York law firm. Ahead of her thirtieth birthday, she took time off between jobs to work on her first novel, GIRL A. Abigail now works as a lawyer at Google.

Abigail’s debut novel, GIRL A sold in the UK after a 9-way auction to HarperCollins who published it in January 2021. The book immediately became a Sunday Times Bestseller. It has also sold in the US to Viking for a seven-figure deal and has sold in 30 territories including television/film. GIRL A came out in paperback on 30th September

GIRL A tells the story of Lex, better known to the world as Girl A, who escaped her family home where she and her siblings were held captive by their parents. Now, after her mother’s death, she and her siblings are left the family home. Wanting to transform the House of Horrors into a force for good, Lex must come to terms with her six siblings – and with the childhood they shared.

Abigail lives in south London, and is working on her second novel, The Conspiracies.

The podcast is produced and presented by the team at Mostly Books.

Find us on Twitter @mostlyreading & Instagram @mostlybooks_shop.

Mostly Books Meets is Edited by Nick Short @alongstoryshorter.

We’re taking a couple of weeks off to record some new episodes. In the meantime, we thought you’d like to listen to one of our favourite episodes from season one with best-selling author, Robert Harris.

Robert’s first novel, Fatherland, was published in 1992 to critical acclaim and he has since gone on to publish a further 13 novels, the latest of which, V2, was published on when we interviewed Robert in September 2021. More recently, more than ten years in the writing, and now published in a single volume for the first time, The Cicero Trilogy brings the world of the Roman republic vividly to life.

Robert specialises is historical fiction and he’s well known for producing page turning thrillers that keep the reader guessing until the end. His work has been translated into forty languages, several of his books have been turned into films, and he is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

Books mentioned in this episode include:

Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld (https://bit.ly/3EP78ar), 1984 by George Orwell (https://bit.ly/3q3m6p3) & V2 by Robert Harris (https://bit.ly/3bJcsPS).

Robert's latest book, The Cicero Trilogy is out in hardback now: https://bit.ly/3EMaGKw

All of of these books are available to buy for a discounted price through the Mostly Books website (www.mostly-books.co.uk/shop).

The podcast is produced and presented by the team at Mostly Books.

Find us on Twitter @mostlyreading & Instagram @mostlybooks_shop.

Mostly Books Meets is Edited by Nick Short @alongstoryshorter.

In the podcast this week, we're speaking to award-winning author, Mick Herron.

Mick is the author of the bestselling Slough House novels which have won two Crime Writer’s Association Daggers, been published in over 20 languages, and are the basis of a major forthcoming TV series starring Gary Oldman as Jackson Lamb. He is also the author of the Sarah Tucker /Zoë Boehm series, and the standalone novels Reconstruction, Nobody Walks and This is What Happened.

“The John le Carré of his generation” according to fellow crime writer, Val McDermid, Mick’s books were a slow burn, with Slow Horses (the first in the series) making it to number one an incredible seven years after it’s initial publication. Mick now has a huge army of fans that eagerly await every new addition to the Slough House Series.

In the podcast this week, we’re speaking to author, Rachel Edwards.

Rachel is the author of two domestic thrillers Darling and Lucky. Her debut novel Darling examines the fractured and tumultuous relationship between Darling and her 16-year-old step-daughter Lola. Vying for the attentions of husband and father Thomas, it soon emerges that neither can be trusted, and both will do whatever it takes to get what they want.

In her new book Lucky, Rachel has delved into the spiralling world of online gambling, as Etta’s online luck runs out and lands her in a terrifying situation that tests how much she is willing to risk to survive.

Rachel is a long-experienced writer with Sunday Times columns and regular magazine features to her name. Now a full-time author, Rachel’s contemporary narratives hinge on the secrets and lies that spear the hearts of the families and relationships she writes about.

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Books mentioned in this episode include:

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (https://bit.ly/2Zl1zBc),

Mr. Loverman by Bernardine Evaristo (https://bit.ly/2Z9FHZN),

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou (https://bit.ly/2Z9tSCU),

Lucky by Rachel Edwards (https://bit.ly/3B19JLR),

Darling by Rachel Edwards (https://bit.ly/3njMHLB)

All of which are available to buy for a discounted price through the Mostly Books website (www.mostly-books.co.uk/shop).

The podcast is produced and presented by the team at Mostly Books.

Find us on Twitter @mostlyreading & Instagram @mostlybooks_shop. Edited by Nick Short @alongstoryshorter

In the podcast this week we are speaking to international bestselling author Ben Mezrich. In 2003 he released Bringing Down The House: The Inside Story of Six MIT Students Who Took Vegas for Millions which spent a whopping sixty-three weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, and went on to be adapted into the 2008 film 21.

In 2009 came The Accidental Billionaires which explored the founding of the now highly influential social media giant Facebook, which spent eighteen weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, and was later adapted into the Oscar winning film The Social Network.

His latest book The Antisocial Network was published this month and tells the David v. Goliath story of the GameStop short squeeze which caught the attention of the public this year and left the powers that be on Wall Street shaking.

Books mentioned in this episode:

The Antisocial Network by Ben Mezrich (https://bit.ly/3FLsSoY), The Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich (https://bit.ly/2YQcp1K), Breaking Vegas by Ben Mezrich (https://bit.ly/3lFWXht)

Bright Lights, Big City by Jay McInerney (https://bit.ly/3j1NxLB), Life by Keith Richards (https://bit.ly/3lDMxPx), Fiesta: The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway (https://bit.ly/3aS2tHT), Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson (https://bit.ly/3BIrr8i),

All of which are available to buy for a discounted price through the Mostly Books website (www.mostly-books.co.uk/shop).

The podcast is produced and presented by the team at Mostly Books.

Find us on Twitter @mostlyreading & Instagram @mostlybooks_shop. Edited by Nick Short @alongstoryshorter

Ben can be found on Twitter @benmezrich & Instagram @benmezrich