Showing titles in Dark Humour

*Now a major Netflix series starring Leo Woodall and Rachel Weisz* 'An astonishing debut . . . I was utterly hooked . . . by this twisty, sexy, shocking treat of a novel ' – The Sunday Times One evening, a fifty-something literature professor invites her new and beautiful young colleague...

Years on from Trainspotting Sick Boy is back in Edinburgh after a long spell in London. Having failed spectacularly as a hustler, pimp, husband, father and businessman, Sick Boy taps into an opportunity which to him represents one last throw of the dice. However, to realise his ambitions within the Adult industries, Sick Boy must team up with old pal and fellow exile Mark Renton.

For Alex Lowry, life is for the living. Even if that comes with a lot of risk. And where some men his age might just buy a sports car, he's become a full-blown adrenaline junkie. Whether it's lawnmower racing, rock climbing, or medieval combat, he'll give it a go - whatever makes him happy! His daughter Hannah thinks he might have lost the plot. Chances are, she's absolutely right.

Obituary writer Bud Stanley isn’t really living his best life. He’s fallen into a funk after a divorce. (She left him for another man, who, in fairness, was far more interesting.) He’s not doing his job well. He’s given up on dating. And he’s about to be fired for accidentally publishing his own obituary one mildly drunken night (though technically the company can’t legally fire a dead person). As Bud awaits his fate at work, he does the only logical thing: He goes to the wakes and funerals of total strangers to learn how to live again.

A smash-hit reality show is offering a lifetime of luxury to the one person living the world's worst life, and now everyone is out to prove just how bad they've got it. Want in? All you've got to do is accept ocular implants that let the whole world see life through your eyes, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Fortunately, there's still one person who hasn't lost faith in all humanity. The show's ever-smiling host is determined to wring some tiny bit of meaning out of this twisted competition and your unhappy existence.  

Chiltern boards the 23:50 sleeper train from London to Edinburgh with two pork pies, six beers and a packet of chocolate digestives. At 23:55 he sends a message to all 158 people in his contacts, telling them that he plans to end his life in the morning. He then switches his phone to flight mode. He’s said goodbye. To him, it’s the end of his story - and time to crack open the biscuits. But across the world, 158 phones are lighting up with a notification. 

In their lovely old Cotswolds village, Janet and Susan are known to all the other villagers as “the girls”—a fixture. Partners in love and work, co-proprietors of a picturesque shop specializing in the work of local artisans and farmers, they lead an enviable, enviably settled life. So it’s no catastrophe when Sue, the younger of the two, feels the need to take a month to travel on her own, leaving Jan alone to run their stall at the Inland Waterways Rally Craft Fair.

Repackaged to tie-in with hardback publication of ‘The Reavers’ and to appeal to a new generation of George MacDonald Fraser fans, ‘Mr American’ is a swashbuckling romp of a novel. Mark Franklin came from the American West to Edwardian England with two long-barrelled .44s in his baggage...

More preoccupied with drinking, sleeping, and writing, an unnamed student neglects his studies and invents three separate openings for a novel. The first introduces the Pooka MacPhellimey, "a member of the devil class", the second involves Mr. John Furriskey, a character belonging to another of the student's creations (writer Dermot Trellis), while the final opening features legendary Irish heroes Finn Mac Cool and Mad King Sweeny. Soon, Trellis' creations rebel against him, doing as they like while he sleeps, and the characters begin wandering in and out of each other's tales.

From John G. Hartness comes a must-listen collection of four Quincy Harker, Demon Hunter novellas: She Talks to Angels, Shout at the Devil, Angel of Harlem, and Sympathy for the Devil. She Talks to Angels: In the fifth part of the Quincy Harker crossover series, Gabby helps hunt down a rogue archangel in St. Louis, learning more about herself, about history, and about that cute doctor's son than she expected.

How far would you go to bring back the only person who ever felt like home? 'A riot in novel form by an author with an utterly singular, original vision. Public Access Afterworld will leave you breathless and desperate for a sequel' KALIANE BRADLEY, author of The Ministry of Time 'Jane...

History, mystery and a barrel load of bitchery. (Think Maupin meets Mapp & Lucia, or Less meets Schitt’s Creek) The second instalment in The Brightonians Trilogy continues the story of warring socialites – this time navigating the bonkersness of the first National Lockdown. On a broader level, it’s about how resourceful people can be when they feel they are being attacked. Under siege you might say! Beginning in 2020 with an ominous card-reading that the fortune-teller hasn’t had since the mid-80s, one question preys on his mind.

Brought to you by Penguin. In the land of Lapvona, the lord of the land Villiam is cheating the local villagers of their food, their water, their livelihoods. Grotesque and ridiculous, he marries the pregnant and tongueless ex-nun Agata, whom he believes will make him God, and his son will be...

Working at the local grocery store and surviving high school used to be the hard part. Now the real problem? Time and space keep breaking. The JackSkip Detective Agency (and bait shop—long story) is way out of its depth. Reality is cracking open: demons are slipping through, alternate selves keep showing up, and something big, furious, and cosmic is behind it all. Skip and Jack (careful, that’s trademarked by the Tuna Conglomerate) and Annabelle, aka A.B., are the victims of a bizarre pivotal location, a town that is at the center of a Universal Conflux of Doom.

Emily Austin, the bestselling “queen of darkly quirky, endearingly flawed heroines” (Sarah Haywood, author of The Cactus), returns with a luminous new novel following a librarian who comes back to work after a mental breakdown only to confront book-banning crusaders in an empowering story of...

It's 2017, and Olga and her brother, Pedro 'Prieto' Acevedo, are bold-faced names in their hometown of New York. Prieto is a popular congressman representing their gentrifying, Latinx neighbourhood in Brooklyn, while Olga is the tony wedding planner for Manhattan's power brokers. Despite their alluring public lives, behind closed doors things are far less rosy. Sure, Olga can orchestrate the love stories of the one per cent, but she can't seem to find her own...until she meets Matteo, who forces her to confront the effects of long-held family secrets.

'A LABYRINTHINE MYSTERY OF EMOTIONAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL COMPLEXITY' Jo Brand 'DELIRIOUS AND REWARDING' Guardian 'UNMISSABLE' Woman's Weekly A GUARDIAN BOOK OF THE YEAR 2025 Fleeing Scotland in the wake of family disgrace, 16-year-old Ida Campbell secures a scholarship at a failing girls' boarding...

Cambridge, 1994. Professor Don Lamb is a revered art historian at the height of his powers, consumed by the book he is writing about the skies of the Venetian master Tiepolo. However, his academic brilliance belies a deep inexperience of life and love. When an explosive piece of contemporary art is installed on the lawn of his college, it sets in motion Don's abrupt departure from Cambridge to take up a role at a south London museum. There he befriends Ben, a young artist who draws him into the anarchic 1990s British art scene and the nightlife of Soho.

All Nick wants to do is take his dying father for a perfect father-son weekend in the Scottish Highlands. It’s not much to ask, is it? A log cabin, a roaring fire, a bottle of fine whiskey, and two days to paper over the cracks in their relationship. However, Nick didn’t plan on making the trip with a dead neighbour in the back of his car. Or the neighbour’s dog. He really didn’t plan on being pursued by a psychotic female assassin intent on collecting body parts.

Barry White Jr. is a self-professed man-child, and he likes it that way. He’s also a content creator for a logistics firm. No one in his Welsh village really knows what that means—least of all Barry. To add a little spice to his life, Barry places bets here and there. Then, one day, he wins big and is burdened with a mammoth sum of money. But the harder Barry tries to get rid of his winnings, the more he seems to accumulate. It’s like a real-life game of Go for Broke! Then it dawns on him. Perhaps there’s a way of turning this windfall to his advantage.