From Bowie to murder in Costa Rica, 4 fab new books to start 2026 | Books | Entertainment
Departure(s) by Julian Barnes, Hardback, £18.99
Booker Prize winner Julian Barnes approaches his 80th birthday this month secure in his position as one of our finest writers. And Departure(s) can only polish his reputation. As ever, Barnes’ themes are simultaneously big and small, playful and poignant – love, loss, memory and mortality – gently building to a thought-provoking crescendo. Also as ever, the lines between fiction and reality are subtle. Narrator Julian is an elderly author living with a rare blood disorder. In a story within the story, he recalls friends Stephen and Jean who fall in love twice – once when they are young and again when they are old. Only Barnes knows what’s truly real. The rest of us can just enjoy the ride. 9/10
A Killer in Paradise by Tom Hindle, Hardback, £18.99
When five friends are invited to a luxury eco-lodge in the Costa Rican rainforest by a hotel heiress they went to university with but haven’t seen for a decade they jump at the chance. But their week in paradise soon takes a sinister turn when a body is discovered during its launch party and it then becomes clear one of their group is responsible. As old rivalries are brought to the surface and long-held secrets exposed, the author delivers a series of clever bluffs and double bluffs which will keep readers guessing until the killer is unmasked in this classy murder mystery in a glorious setting. 8/10
A Gift Before Dying by Malcolm Kempt, Hardback, £22
After a botched high-profile murder investigation Elderick Cole is exiled to the remote Arctic north of Canada where the once nomadic Inuit people struggle to adapt to the modern world. When he finds the hanging body of Pitseolala, a troubled Inuit girl he had sworn to protect, Cole works with her younger brother Maliktu, a fellow outsider, to find redemption by tracking down a killer preying on children. This intensely gripping debut is hypnotic in plunging the reader into the vast frigid expanse of the Arctic Circle and the brutal reality of its Inuit population plagued by addiction and domestic violence. A harrowing but ultimately life-affirming read, it’s hard to believe this is a debut novel. 9/10
Lazarus: The Second Coming of David Bowie by Alexander Larman, Hardback, £25
Even the greatest fan – and Alexander Larman is up there having named his daughter Rose Evelyn Bowie – would struggle to celebrate much of the Starman’s uninspiring eighties output. Commercially and critically stuck, Bowie’s alt-rock band Tin Machine was largely turgid, while solo albums failed repeatedly to catch fire. Yet by the time of his tragically early death aged 69 in January 2016, he was revered as one of our greatest stars. Just how he reinvented himself is the subject of Larman’s brilliant new biography. This is Bowie at his best – and worst. Told with a fan’s eye but a critic’s judgement, Lazarus is required reading; an early contender for music book of the year. 10/10
