What I’m looking forward to reading this autumn

Autumn: cosy nights in, woolly socks, log fires (because no-one can afford to heat their houses) and a good book. Bliss!

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The Skeleton Key, Erin Kelly
Every autumn needs a gothic mystery and this one is a twisty turny treat. Right up there with Kelly's bestselling debut, The Poison Tree (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), The Skeleton Key riffs off the 1970s treasure hunt picture book Masquerade to tell the story of two families – the Churchers and the Lallys – perilously entwined and riven by  fame, lies and greed. (Out now.)
• Buy it from bookshop.org (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) • Buy it from Amazon (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)

The Marriage Portrait, Maggie O’Farrell
After the critical and commercial success of Hamnet (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)(her award-winning reimagining of the life of Agnes Hathaway aka Mrs Shakespeare) Maggie O’Farrell is on a historical roll. Based on the short life of Lucrezia, Duchess of Ferrara, the subject of Robert Browning’s poem, My Last Duchess, in which a duke pulls back a curtain to reveal his wife’s portrait while recounting how he murdered her, The Marriage Portrait shows O’Farrell as a writer at the height of her storytelling powers. (Out now.)
• Buy it from bookshop.org (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) • Buy it from Amazon (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)