Alan Bradley is back with a brand new Flavia de Luce mystery, What Time the Sexton's Spade Doth Rust, and we've got copies for giveaway until the end of September!

Head to our giveaways page for your chance to win and to see everything else we have on offer. 

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Still Life, by Louise Penny

Dare I say that this is THE Canadian mystery novel? The first in the Inspector Ganache series, you will never forget either its lightnesses or darknesses. I’ve spotted the Gamache books in virtually every country I’ve ever visited. They are truly as international as Sherlock Holmes. And this was the book that set me upon my own mystery writing career—but that’s another story.

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Dreadfulwater, by Thomas King

Thumps Dreadfulwater is the only investigator I know of who comes complete with such warmth, wisdom, heart and soul. Thomas King’s brilliant series sustained us through the horrors of COVID and saw us safely out the other side. I’m already lined up for the forthcoming volume, Black Ice.

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Conceit, by Mary Novic

When, after a lifetime of longing, I finally made it to St. Paul’s Cathedral, I thought not of Sir Christopher Wren but of Mary Novik. Her breathtaking prose (although we didn’t know it at the time) foreshadowed Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall and its sequels. John Donne is brought back to spectacular life, and the Great Fire of London—well, we all know how that ended. Or do we?

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Dragon Springs Road, by Janie Chang

Janie Chang is a storyteller of immense power who writes with heart-rending and heart-mending beauty. Her luminous prose lights the way to the sense that we are the richer for having read her work.

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Bachelor Brothers Bed and Breakfast, by Bill Richardson 

This is the first of the only two books that have made me fall out of bed laughing. It’s the literary equivalent of heart surgery, and ought to be read with oxygen and a skilled medical attendant on hand.

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Fall on Your Knees, by Ann-Marie MacDonald

When Fall on Your Knees was first published more than 25 years ago, I was telling anyone who would listen that it might well be the Great Canadian Novel. After all these years, it still keeps my porch light burning. A magnificent achievement.

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Woman Reading in Bath, by Anne Szumigalski

This book, and the others that followed, taught me to explore the possible. Meeting the author, and then having the privilege of working with her, turned the possible into the practical. A friendship based on words is molten gold. Thank you, Anne, for showing me that all great prose is poetry.

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Learn more about What Time the Sexton's Spade Doth Rust: 

Amateur sleuth Flavia de Luce, along with her pestilent younger cousin, investigates the murder of a former public hangman and uncovers secrets that bring the greatest shock of her life.

Flavia de Luce has taken on the mentorship of her odious, moon-faced cousin Undine who has come to live at Buckshaw following the death of her mother. Undine’s main talent, aside from cultivating disgusting habits, seems to be raising Flavia’s hackles, although in her best moments she shows potential for trespassing, trickery, and other assorted mayhem.

When Major Greyleigh, a local recluse and former hangman, is found dead after a breakfast of poisonous mushrooms, suspicion falls on the de Luce family's longtime cook, Mrs. Mullet. After all, wasn't it she who'd picked the mushrooms, cooked the omlette, and served it to Greyleigh in the moments before his death? "I have to admit," says Flavia, an expert in the chemical nature of poisons, "that I'd been praying to God for a jolly good old-fashioned mushroom poisoning. Not that I wanted anyone to die, but why give a girl a gift such as mine without giving her the opportunity to use it?"

But Flavia knows the beloved Mrs. Mullet is innocent. Together with Dogger, estate gardener and partner-in-crime, and the obnoxious Undine, Flavia sets out to find the real killer and clear Mrs. Mullet's good name. Little does she know that following the case's twists and turns will lead her to a most surprising discovery—one with the power to upend her entire life.