The Richard and Judy Book Club, exclusive to WHSmith

Three women are connected by one brutal crime in this week’s Book Club novel, A Slow Fire Burning. Author Paula Hawkins joins Richard and Judy to explain why she feels the key to a good thriller is less about the whodunnit and more about the whydunnit. She also reflects on the apparent overnight success of her novel The Girl on the Train, and how she’s changed as a writer over the years.

Simply head online to whsmith.co.uk to browse the Summer Book Club collection, and use the code SUMMER22 for a 10% discount.

Apples Never Fall is the first of Richard and Judy’s recommendations in their Summer Book Club. Author Liane Moriarty, who also wrote Big Little Lies and Nine Perfect Strangers, tells Richard and Judy about how even she doesn’t know how her mysteries will unfold as she’s writing them.

They discuss the themes that Liane has woven through the book, including holding grudges, children living up to their parents' expectations, and the grief that sportspeople who don’t fulfil their potential might feel.

Simply head online to whsmith.co.uk to browse the Summer Book Club collection, and use the code SUMMER22 for a 10% discount.

Former Tornado navigator John Nichol has written a new book, Tornado: In The Eye of The Storm. He joins Richard and Judy to talk about the different types of fear he felt when he was shot down and tortured during the first Gulf war, and how the treatment of military personnel who are suffering mentally has changed over the last century.

Tell Me Your Lies is this week’s Book Club novel. Written by Kate Ruby, it tells the story of a mother who – determined to portray a picture perfect image of her family – sends her alcoholic daughter, Rachel, to therapy. However, Rachel and her renowned therapist develop a troubling relationship. Continuing the theme of mental health, Richard, Judy, John, and Kate all share their own thoughts about, and experiences of, therapy and psychological traumas.

Simply head online to whsmith.co.uk to browse the Early Summer Book Club collection, and use the code APRIL10 for a 10% discount.

Author Lizzy Barber has spent time in Florence every year since she was a teenager. Knowing the city intimately, she has set her novel Out of Her Depth in and around its glamourous hills. Quiet young woman Rachel takes a summer job at the beautiful Villa Medici, and is plunged into a social group of glamorous teens used to a life of privilege.

Lizzy joins Richard and Judy to talk about how the concept of an unassuming outsider finding themselves in a lavish world allows for commentary on this type of lifestyle. A thriller, Out of Her Depth mirrors the themes in The Talented Mr Ripley, and they all discuss the bravery in writing unlikeable protagonists.

Simply head online to whsmith.co.uk to browse the Early Summer Book Club collection, and use the code APRIL10 for a 10% discount.

First time novelist Miranda Cowley Heller has written The Paper Palace, which joins 50 year old Elle as she steals away from a family holiday to have sex with her childhood crush for the first time, while her beloved husband is inside with the rest of her family. How can Elle choose between two equal but entirely different men?

Miranda joins Richard and Judy to talk about how her own life inspired the story in a number of different ways – not least that she grew up in mesmerising Cape Cod where the book is set. They also discuss how Miranda wrote the entire novel not knowing herself what decision her protagonist was ultimately going to make.

Simply head online to whsmith.co.uk to browse the Early Summer Book Club collection, and use the code APRIL10 for a 10% discount.

Long hot summers have a strange ability to make life both stand still and take on a vibrant, mystical quality. This week’s Book Club read takes place over one such summer. Catherine, a successful London barrister goes missing the day before her wedding anniversary; the clue to her disappearance lies buried thirty years in the past at a rambling old English house where  rituals take place.

Joining Richard and Judy is author Harriet Evans. She talks about choosing to write an unreliable narrator, taking inspiration from Game of Thrones, and how the idea to include folklore in her novel began in a traffic jam on Chelsea’s King’s Road. Plus, how Richard and Judy themselves inspired parts of the book...

Simply head online to whsmith.co.uk to browse the Early Summer Book Club collection, and use the code APRIL10 for a 10% discount.

A cruel patriarch, a weak wife, and three adult children who all have a motive to murder their parents are at the centre of this week’s Book Club novel Not A Happy Family.

Returning Book Club author Shari Lapena joins Richard and Judy to discuss whether the children of a psychopath might learn to take on similar character traits, as well as how she created a location that would become a character in itself, by taking inspiration from various real places she knows well.

Simply head online to whsmith.co.uk to browse the Early Summer Book Club collection, and use the code APRIL10 for a 10% discount.

Malibu Rising is the first novel in the Early Summer 2022 Book Club. Author Taylor Jenkins Reid has written about the glamorous Riva siblings, professional surfers and models who live an enviable life in Malibu, but are all grappling with their own fears and secrets that will spill out at their annual summer party.

The novel is set in 1983, often flashing back through the family’s history over the decades. Taylor joins Richard and Judy to talk about how the nature of fame has changed recently, and why we feel entitled to know about the lives of celebrities. She also describes Malibu as she sees it today, yes as a dazzling colony of superstars, but predominantly as a place of unbelievable natural beauty.

Simply head online to whsmith.co.uk to browse the Early Summer Book Club collection, and use the code APRIL10 for a 10% discount.

Writing twins provides infinite possibilities to explore the human psyche. This week’s Book Club author LV Matthews has created two women who might look the same, but whose lives have taken incredibly different paths as a result of a cataclysmic shared experience in childhood. Her novel, The Twins, follows straight laced nanny Margot, and promiscuous dancer Cora as they learn more about their past.

Richard and Judy share their experience of raising twin boys, and LV looks back at her own childhood as she knew from five years old – before she could spell – that she wanted to be a writer.

Simply head online to whsmith.co.uk to browse the Spring Book Club collection, and use the code SPRING10 for a 10% discount.

The Funny Thing about Norman Foreman is the delightful title of this week’s Book Club read. A young hopeful comedian, 12 year old Norman, is at the centre of the story, and author Julietta Henderson joins Richard and Judy to chat about her own love of old-style British comedy. A fan of anything slightly quirky and eccentric, she also talks about her own upbringing in the rainforests of Queensland, where she grew up without a TV, telephone, or toilet!

Simply head online to whsmith.co.uk to browse the Spring Book Club collection, and use the code SPRING10 for a 10% discount.