Book Event: Transworld Books Debut Fiction Showcase

Transworld books is one of my favourite publishers of Penguin Books UK and in general, and are most recently famous for publishing The Girl on the Train. If you have not read it yet, get out from under your rock and get reading! Sorry in all politeness though, these guys have published some absolutely amazing books over the years and they introduced us to five more stunning fiction debut's at their debut showcase event.    Despite my train being very late- such is the continuous joy of Southern Rail, I still managed to arrive in time for the wonderful debut fiction showcase from Transworld. Hosted at the gorgeous Charlotte Street hotel. We were greeted by some of the wonderful Transworld team, Rosie, Becky and Alison and were also introduced to the five debut authors that were showcasing that night.

After some wonderful bookish chat, it was time to hear from our authors and I was so excited to hear about their books and for them also to do a reading.

First up was Joseph Nox with his debut Sirens. Joseph said that usually when he reads crime thrillers, it starts with a girl tied up and he wanted to do something different with his novel. Desrcibed as dark noir this story is about a girl who has run away...again. When Aidan Waits, a troubled junior detective, is summoned to her father’s penthouse home – he finds a manipulative man, with powerful friends. But retracing Isabelle’s steps through a dark, nocturnal world, Waits finds something else. An intelligent seventeen-year-old girl who’s scared to death of something. As he investigates her story, and the unsolved disappearance of a young woman just like her, he realises Isabelle was right to run away.  Joseph had me hooked during his reading and it was one of the books that I knew I had to pick up at the end. Next we had Katie Khan with her hotly anticipated debut Hold Back the Stars. I have been seeing this book everywhere recently and is one of the books that was already on my radar for 2017. When Kate read us a little from her book and left us with a cliffhanger, I wanted to read it even more! This is 'the story of two small characters set against the backdrop at the end of the world' and the opening scene is when the two of them only have 90 minutes of air left. I cannot wait to start.

Our third author was Rachel Rhys, but you may know her as Tammy Cohen 😊. Rachel read from her debut A Dangerous Crossing. Set in 1939, Lily has left England and her life of drudgery for new horizons in Australia. Seduced by her new friends, who she never would have dreamed would give her the time of day, Lily soon starts to realise that not everything is as it seems. The reading that Rachel gave us, instantly transported me to that time period. I won't give away anything, but I was very keen to know what had happened. Our fourth delightful author was Mahsuda Snaith with The Things We Thought We Knew. I had been chatting to Mahsuda before the presentation and when she found out she had got a book deal, she had just had a baby! Double celebrations. The Things We Thought We Knew tells the story of Ravine Roy, who has been living in a council flat for ten years and doesn't plan on going anywhere anytime soon. Ravine suffers from chronic pain syndrome. She has been ever since that day ten years ago. Ever since the day her best friend disappeared... Mahsuda has been writing since she was eight years old and never thought her short stories would lead to a novel and certainly not one she had written when she 16 years old! 

Our last author was T.A. Cotterell with his domestic thriller What Alice Knew. This is another book I had been seeing a lot lately over on twitter, and has I love thrillers, I was very keen to know more about this one. Alice has the perfect life, one so many of us would be envious of, but when her husband goes missing one night and receives a suspicious phone call, things don't add up. Alice needs to know what is going on, but when she does uncover the brutal truth, can she be sure it actually is the truth. I NEED to know more! And that was a wrap! I just had time to grab a fab goody bag and a couple of canapes and off I was dashing for my train. I managed to pick up three books and I cannot wait to start them. A huge thanks to the team at Transworld and their fabulous debut authors for an amazing evening.