Extraordinary Books

A Frida Kahlo painting, a scandal, and secrets that threaten to change the course of historyIn 1938, showgirl-turned-socialite Dorothy Hale falls from a Manhattan skyscraper. Her friend Clare Boothe Luce – writer, diplomat and rising political figure – commissions Frida Kahlo to paint a memorial portrait. Months later, reporting from Europe, Clare encounters the Duchess of Windsor in Paris and begins to question what really happened that night. In New York, Frida, estranged from Diego Rivera, wrestles with betrayal, ambition and the demands of her art. As she works on the painting that will become one of her most unsettling, she edges closer to the truth. At the heart of this novel lies a real-life mystery: was Dorothy Hale’s death an act of despair, or something far more dangerous, entangled with the power struggles shaping the modern world?

Across the fractured end of the twenty-first century, multiple generations endure the upheavals of climate collapse and the violent remaking of what was once the United States. At the heart of the cruel, chaotic wastelands of the Southwest are the brother and sister known in whispers as ‘the Twins’: Tom and Tam MacAllister. Their brief insurrection against the oligarchic powers of a broken nation blazes with elemental force, echoing long after their fall. Half-history, half-legend, their legacy lingers in surpising ways as a bleaker order re-forms. Dennison Smith’s taut, luminous prose carries this mythic novel of violence and renewal, confronting what is lost – and what may yet be born.

He’s back! In this second instalment of Steven Froelich’s Latin American odyssey, the Man Without a Plan lands in Belize, a country he knows nothing about. But Froelich has a talent for making himself at home wherever he is, amassing an impressive array of new friends in a short time – some of whom can even match his penchant for being in a near-constant buzz from industrial-quantity drugs and drink.As ever, the cock-a-hoop characters Steven ingratiates himself with become his surrogate dysfunctional family. But Tracey, Devonais, Ask Bobby!, Valentino and a pack of feral kids led by the gleefully destructive Molokai soon have Steven wondering whether or not his cheerfully transactional relationships are, in fact, binding him ever more tightly in a web of scams that threatens to leave him broke and stranded in this shabby paradise. Is his paranoia justifiable, or is that just the continuous cocaine use? His response is to agree to renting an SUV and embarking all together on a road trip along the coast, taking in shantytowns, fine hotels, beaches and, at a low ebb, jail. Why do ‘mechanics’ keep appearing every time the truck mysteriously fails? Why are his credit cards failing just as frequently? Who’s zoomin’ wh? oarse, irresponsible and wilfully ignorant, Froelich is nevertheless observant and caring at heart – and Belize is about the ways in which chaotic, complex human beings find community, no matter where they’re from or where they’re headed.Features twelve full-colour illustrations by Froelich’s collaborator Oscar Zárate.

Steven Froelich doesn’t just stumble into trouble: he hunts it down and makes it his constant companion.Guatemala inaugurates the series of Froelich’s travel memoirs, which will include Belize, Nicaragua, Colombia, Mexico and Cuba. Fresh from a Miami drunk tank, Steven lands in Guatemala City. Riotous road trips follow, with our man perpetually wasted on booze and cocaine but fuelled by a passionate curiosity about people from all walks of life. Danger is never far off, but neither are laughs.With an unapologetically raw, unfiltered and darkly funny voice, Froelich explores the absurdities of the human condition, Guatemala-style – beauty and madness, privilege and privation.

Dunblane 1996. Columbine 1999. Utoya 2011. Christchurch 2019. Lewiston 2023.What drives someone to commit the unthinkable? In Running Amok, forensic psychiatrist Paul E. Mullen burrows into the minds of lone wolf mass murderers, exposing the troubling patterns underlying their actions.Drawing on decades of first-hand experience assessing killers such as Australia’s Martin Bryant and Anders Breivik, Mullen examines the key forces that unite them: obsessive rage, personal grievance, a fascination with weapons and a destructive quest for infamy – often culminating in suicide. Mullen challenges myths about madness and violence, revealing these killers not as incomprehensible monsters, but as deeply disturbed individuals shaped by knowable forces. Crucially, he offers guidance for recognising warning signs and improving threat assessment.Running Amok is both a searing investigation into mass murder and a call to action, urging society to confront these dark realities and prevent the next horror.