From Jess Walter’s rollicking historical novel to A Bright Ray Of Darkness by Ethan Hawke, a wise drama by Kate Russo and Elly Griffiths’s latest, this week’s best new fiction
The Cold Millions
Jess Walter Viking £16.99
Nostalgic for the days of red-blooded political idealism? Then you’ll relish this rollicking historical novel, set in the American West in 1909. A colourful cast includes the radical socialist Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, two adventure-seeking brothers, a ruthless mining magnate and a vaudeville singer who performs with a cougar.
Walter is a class act and, if the narrative structure is rickety in places, the fierce struggle for free speech and workers’ rights is genuinely stirring.
Max Davidson
A Bright Ray Of Darkness
Ethan Hawke William Heinemann £16.99
William Harding is a successful film star whose life is in turmoil. Outed by the press as an adulterer, he is now holed up in a New York hotel, divorcing his pop-star wife while preparing to make his Broadway debut in Henry IV.
In his first novel for 20 years, Hawke has obeyed the adage ‘write what you know’, bringing the theatrical world, from first rehearsal to final performance, thrillingly to life.
Simon Humphreys
Super Host
Kate Russo Tinder Press £20
At 55, Bennett Driscoll is drifting. Since his wife left, the former Turner Prize nominee has been surviving on ‘AirBed’ bookings – now his sole source of income and status. Exiled to his garden studio, he watches guests passing through his home.
Then an encounter pierces his inertia, reinvigorating his art and love life, but he still isn’t sure what he wants. Exploring identity, creativity and second chances, Russo’s midlife drama is wise, tender and surprising.
Madeleine Feeny
The Night Hawks
Elly Griffiths Quercus £20
The latest in the much-loved Ruth Galloway series sees our protaganist take up a university post in Norwich. Academic life is disrupted by a series of murders around Black Dog Farm, linked by the presence of detectorists the Night Hawks.
As ever, the drama that is Ruth’s domestic life interacts satisfyingly with an intricately wrought mystery.
John Williams