Churchill’s darkest hour was first fight with French since Waterloo | Books | Entertainment

Bad Influence by Will Carver, Paperback Original, £9.99

Alyssa is from a poor background and fights to overcome this every day, dreaming of being truly seen. Less struggles with the wealth and privilege he has grown up with, and wants to become someone important on his own. Together they are inseparable so when Alyssa stumbles on the world of ‘phrogging’ – living unnoticed inside other people’s homes – she and Less slip into the lives of influencers, producers and pop stars in Los Angeles all too busy to notice the shadows in their lofts and the scratching in their walls.

Alyssa and Less are thrilled by their social experiment until they choose the wrong house and are drawn into something more sinister. Carver is one of the UK’s most inventive writers and, in Bad Influence, he skewers the vacuous narcissism of influencers and reality TV with his trademark acerbic wit. A darkly funny and twisty thrill ride. 9/10

A Hateful Decision: Churchill’s Darkest Hour and the British Attack on the French Navy by Edward Abel Smith, Hardback, £22

Winston Churchill’s reaction to the devastating bombardment of the French fleet at Mers-el-Kébir in Algeria on July 3, 1940, gives this stunning new account its title. But despite the enormity of the decision, the PM had no qualms about attacking our erstwhile ally if they would not scuttle their ships or surrender them to Britain. The risk they would otherwise fall into the hands of Germany was just too great, hence Operation Catapult to neutralise or destroy them.

It would be the first time we’d engaged the French in battle since Waterloo 125 years previously. The butcher’s bill of 1,297 Frenchmen killed showed the US that Britain was deadly serious about continuing the war against Nazi oppression – no matter how high the cost. Narrative history at its finest. 8/10

No Way Out by Max Connor, Paperback Original, £9.99

Max Craigie creator Neil Lancaster’s standalone espionage thriller No Mercy introduced Josie Chapman as she sought to avenge the killing of her ex-Royal Marine father in a home invasion. Now she’s back, recruited as a newbie intelligence operative for a secretive British outfit and sent to California ostensibly on a training mission. But when she comes across a young man being assaulted outside a hotel, Josie has no choice but to step and damn the consequences. After all, “Do the right thing, even if it hurts”, is her late dad’s motto.

Next thing she knows, she’s neck deep in an organised crime conspiracy with murder, drugs and blackmail, and she won’t walk away. Now she’s gonna burn them to the ground, with the help of her dad’s old SBS mate Macca. Weapons-grade excitement from one of the best of a new generation of British thriller writers 8/10.

Wimmy Road Boyz by Sufiyaan Salam, Hardback, £16.99

Set over the course of a single, riotous night, Wimmy Road Boyz does for multicultural Manchester, and specifically Rusholme’s Wilmslow Road, AKA the ‘Curry Mile’, what Irvine Welsh did for Edinburgh with Trainspotting. Three young Anglo-Pakistani men are up for a wild night out, and boy do they get one in this joyously funny and daring debut bursting with slang and street smarts.

Best mates Immy, Haris and Khan are hurtling towards their destiny in a rented BMW, but behind their bravado in a world of fleeting delights some darker truths waiting to be teased out. And as the night plays out in a whirlwind of shisha bars, restaurants, booze, women, drugs and violence, they might even begin to share them with each other. Salam is a major new talent and this absolutely banging book is near impossible to put down. 9/10