In My Good Books

Scottish crime writer  Suzy Aspley  joins me to talk about  The Bone Mother , the second book in her atmospheric Martha Strangeways series, where murder, mystery and Scottish folklore collide. Set in the run-up to Halloween,  The Bone Mother  sees journalist Martha drawn into another unsettling investigation after human remains are discovered on a railway line in the West Highlands. As Martha and...

This week on  In My Good Books , I'm joined by debut author  Divya Maniar  to discuss  After Care , a darkly compelling novel exploring reality TV, influencer culture, social media and our desperate need to be seen. Grace was once a reality TV star, but two years after appearing on a dating show, her fame is fading and the brand deals are drying up. When a former castmate and rival dies, Grace...

What happens when a former police officer turned executive coach becomes caught up in a dangerous investigation involving corruption, religion and the British royal family? This week on  In My Good Books , I'm joined by acclaimed crime writer  Leye Adenle  to discuss  Fall From Grace , the first book in his new crime thriller series featuring Bobby Fatukan. Leye and I discuss the inspiration b...

This week, I’m joined by Lord Peter Hain, whose extraordinary career has taken him from anti-apartheid activism to more than 20 years as an MP and roles in Tony Blair and Gordon Brown’s governments – including Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. Peter’s latest thriller,  Smuggler Kingpin , takes readers into the world of tobacco and gold smuggling across Zimbabwe and South Africa, where organ...

Come with me to Bloody Scotland 2026 for a special episode recorded behind the scenes at Scotland’s International Crime Writing Festival in Stirling. I spent the weekend in the very busy festival green room, grabbing authors for quick conversations between their events and getting a taste of what Bloody Scotland is really like behind the scenes. Mark Billingham looks back on his long history with...

Michael Robotham is one of the world’s most acclaimed crime writers. Across a career spanning 20 novels, his books have sold millions of copies around the world, he’s twice won the CWA Gold Dagger, and his Joe O’Loughlin and Cyrus Haven series have made him one of the biggest names in crime fiction. But  Tell Me Something True , Michael’s 20th published novel, takes him right back to where it all...

What if girls in a remote Cornish village started mysteriously dying on their 17th birthdays? This week on  In My Good Books , Susie is joined by crime writer Roz Watkins to talk about her dark and atmospheric new standalone thriller,  The Wicked Girls . Ruby is approaching her 17th birthday, but in her village that has become a terrifying prospect. Girls are dying on the day they turn seventeen,...

This week on  In My Good Books , I’m joined by Jo Cheetham to talk about her debut novel  Love and Rent , a funny and painfully relatable story about money, class, friendship, relationships and what it really means to be independent. Jo’s first book,  Killjoy , told the extraordinary true story of how she went from reluctantly attending a protest to becoming part of the No More Page Three campaign...

What can the books we read tell us about queer history, and what happens when important stories are allowed to disappear? In this episode of  In My Good Books , part of the Reading Is Political series, I'm joined by author Layla McCay to talk about  T he Queer Bookshelf: A Reader's Guide , her celebration of the LGBTQ+ books that have shaped literature, culture and queer lives across centu...

In this episode of  In My Good Books , I’m joined by Cathryn Kemp to talk about her new historical novel  They Can’t Burn Us All , which takes us to 17th-century Iceland and a notorious real-life witch trial where the story of witchcraft looked very different from elsewhere in Europe. We look at some of the bigger questions running through  They Can’t Burn Us All - misogyny, power, jealousy, siste...

This week on  In My Good Books , I’m joined by The Secret Barrister to talk about their first novel,  The Cut Throat Trial , now out in paperback. But who is The Secret Barrister? Despite selling more than a million books, appearing regularly in the media and becoming one of the best-known voices on the British criminal justice system, the identity of The Secret Barrister remains one of publishing...

What if a killer was targeting people who all shared exactly the same address – but lived thousands of miles apart? Gavin Bell joins me on  In My Good Books  to talk about  138 Main Street , his ingenious new thriller and the first novel he has published under his own name after previously writing as Mason Cross and Alex Knight. The novel begins with a brutal murder at 138 Main Street in an afflue...

New York Times bestselling author Chloe Benjami n joins me to talk about  Under Story , her first novel since the international bestseller  The Immortalists  – and a book I loved so much I read all 500 pages twice before this interview. Under Story  follows divorced scientists Laurel and Eli, who are unexpectedly reunited at a research base in Antarctica, where a mysterious visual disturbance know...

Janice Hallett joins me on  In My Good Books  to talk about  The Silent Appeal , her new murder mystery and a return to the brilliantly chaotic world of am dram! Since  The Appeal  was published in 2021, Janice has become one of the most distinctive voices in modern crime fiction, creating ingenious mysteries told through emails, text messages, transcripts and other documents rather than tradition...

Bestselling author Sarah Vaughan joins me for the latest episode in my Bloody Scotland 2026 series to talk about her new psychological thriller,  Based on a True Story . Sarah tells me why she wanted to make  Based on a True Story  a glossier, more playful departure from novels including  Anatomy of a Scandal ,  Little Disasters  and  Reputation , and why the Cornish setting was so important to he...

Matt Coyne , better known to millions of parents as Man vs Baby, joins me to talk about his new novel,  The Trouble With Sister Francis   a funny and nostalgic story about friendship, community and growing up. Matt takes us back to the 1980s and the working-class Sheffield estate that helped inspire the novel, introducing us to Sister Francis, a swearing, smoking, unconventional nun, and the four...

Sarah Pinborough joins me for a special Bloody Scotland 2026 episode to discuss her haunting new novel,  They Say a Girl Died Here . Known for bestselling novels including  Behind Her Eyes , Sarah has built a reputation for writing books that constantly surprise readers. In this conversation, we explore how an early novella evolved into one of her most emotionally resonant novels, why she's dr...

This week I'm joined by  Joanna Wallace  to celebrate the publication of her brilliantly entertaining new novel,  The Art of Getting Hammered . Joanna's debut novel,  You'd Look Better as a Ghost , introduced readers to one of crime fiction's most unforgettable protagonists: Claire, the artist, pub worker and part-time serial killer. Now Claire is back, and this time she finds hers...

Jonathan Trigell joins me for this episode of Reading Is Political to discuss the re-release of his award-winning novel,  Boy A . First published in 2004,  Boy A  became one of the defining British novels of its generation, winning both the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and the Waverton Good Read Award before being adapted into the acclaimed BAFTA-winning film starring Andrew Garfield. More than twent...

Linda Duncan McLaughlin joins me to discuss her debut crime novel,  Original Sins , which has been shortlisted for the 2026 Bloody Scotland Debut Prize. Linda shares the inspiration behind a story that explores identity, adoption and the age-old question of nature versus nurture. We discuss the challenge of writing a protagonist whose birth father is a serial killer, why the novel blends psycholog...

This week on  In My Good Books , I'm joined by debut author Katie Huttlestone to discuss her novel,  A Healthy Appetite . The novel follows Hannah, a woman with late-stage illness who volunteers for an experimental drug trial. As the treatment begins to work in unexpected ways, it also awakens an increasingly ravenous appetite, forcing Hannah to confront impossible questions about survival, identi...

In this episode of Reading Is Political, I'm joined by debut novelist  Fauzia Musa  to discuss her extraordinary novel  The Strangling Fig . Spanning the Partition of India and Pakistan in 1947 through to the early 2000s,  The Strangling Fig  is a sweeping family saga that blends literary fiction, magical realism and historical memory. We explore how personal histories become family myths, the gen...

Kirsty Lockwood joins me to discuss her debut crime thriller,   We Know What You Did , a novel that's already making waves after being shortlisted for the 2026 Bloody Scotland Debut Prize and longlisted for the McIlvanney Prize. In this episode, Kirsty shares the whirlwind journey from publication day to becoming one of the most talked-about new voices in Scottish crime fiction. We chat about the...

When Zoe Ranki n first joined the podcast,  T he Vanishing Place  hadn't even been published. Fast forward a year and her haunting New Zealand thriller has been shortlisted for the Bloody Scotland Debut Prize and longlisted for the McIlvanney Prize, an incredible achievement for a first novel.  In this special Bloody Scotland 2026 episode, we chat about everything that's happened since publication...

In this episode, I'm joined by  Dr Eleanor Drage , Senior Research Fellow at the University of Cambridge, AI ethicist, broadcaster and co-host of  T he Good Robot  podcast , to discuss her new book  What If We Got AI Right? We explore why conversations about AI need to move beyond hype and fear, how power, politics and inequality are embedded in technology, and why regulation, education and public...