Calla Henkel

What happens when the dream of starting your own family turns into a nightmare? Valentine and Raul have been touring in their indie-sleaze band SEZME since their college days, but as they enter their early forties priorities change. It's time to move out of Berlin and start settling down. Raul is ready to marry his partner, Banner, and Valentine wants to start a family with her on-and-off-again partner, Linh, but she isn't quite ready to let go of the band. Determined to piece together the perfect life with the band and a family, Valetine begins planning, and when she inherits the crumbling Southern gothic hotel she grew up in from her late father, it feels like fate. Convincing Raul, Banner and Linh to join her in renovating the hotel, she begins to dream up a queer family life together after facing a homophobic upbringing. But as the four of them navigate their new life and welcome a daughter, August, their relationships start to sour. On the night of the hotel's grand opening, what's meant to be an evening of celebration turns into a nightmare as August goes missing. Stylish, twisty and laced with dark humour, Four Terrible Parents is a story of power, love, responsibility and what happens when parents turn on each other. And then the world turns on them.

''Blackly humorous and enjoyably twisted''Paula Hawkins, author of The Girl on the Train''A knotted mystery too intriguing to leave unpicked''Alice Slater, author of Death of a Bookseller''Binge-worthy . . . a brilliantly immersive and almost cinematic experience''Jenny Mustard, author of Okay DaysRecently dumped and stuck with the mortgage, artist Esther Ray wants to burn the world, but instead, she reluctantly accepts a scrapbooking job from the deliriously wealthy Naomi Duncan. The scrapbooks, a secret birthday gift for Naomi''s husband Bryce, trace the Duncan''s twenty-five-year marriage. The conditions: Esther must include every piece of paper she''s been sent, must sign an NDA, and must only contact Naomi using the burner phone provided. Otherwise she''ll spoil the surprise.As Esther binges true-crime podcasts and works through the near-two hundred-boxes of Duncan detritus, she finds herself infatuated with the gilded family - until, mid-project, Naomi dies suspiciously. When Esther becomes convinced the husband killed her, she uses the scrapbooks'' trove of information to insert herself into the Duncan''s'' lives to prove it. But the more Esther investigates, the further she is dragged back to the scorched earth of her past and the famous artist who paid her to disappear.Laced with pitch-black humour and conspiratorial unease, Scrap is a razor-sharp examination of wealth and power, art and truth, of the line between justice and revenge - and who gets to cross it.See what readers are saying about Scrap''No book has kept me so gripped since Gone Girl!!!''NetGalley reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ''Such an original author . . . Highly recommended''NetGalley reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐''I loved every single minute of this book. Its dark and mysterious with a twisty, unexpected story''NetGalley reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐''I absolutely devoured this book. It was the kind of weird and intriguing story I can never get enough of'' NetGalley reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

2009. Berlin. Two art students arrive from New York, both desperate for the city to solve their problems. Zoe is grieving for her high school best friend, murdered months before in her hometown in Florida. Hailey is rich, obsessed with the exploits of Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears and wants to be a Warholian legend. Together they rent a once-magnificent apartment from eccentric crime writer Beatrice Becks. With little to fill their time, they spend their nights twisting through Berlin's club scene and their days hungover. Soon inexplicable things start happening in the apartment and the two friends suspect they are being watched by Beatrice. Convinced that their landlord is using their lives as inspiration for her next thriller novel, they decide to beat her at her own game. The girls start hosting wild parties in the flat and quickly gain notoriety, with everyone clamouring for an invite to 'Beatrice's.' But ultimately they find themselves unable to control the narrative and it spirals into much darker territory . . .