Six must-read summer fiction books – reviewed by our experts

Summer is here and many people have more time to read. Whether you’re looking for a steamy read for the beach, a twisty mystery to pass the time on a long train journey or an engrossing work of historical fiction to accompany you to the park, our experts in literature have you covered with a series of recommendation’s of novels released in 2023.

1. Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

• She writes: “Fuel for learning” and “Don’t automatically let the boys win” on slips of paper tucked in beside the sandwiches.
• Throughout the book Zott points out the inequalities she suffers because of her gender with a cutting matter-of-factness that boils everything down to chemistry.
• Garmus has created a love story that defies the tropes and presents a powerful woman attacking life on her own terms.

2. Tokyo Express by Seichō Matsumoto, translated by Jesse Kirkwood

• So it should be little surprise that a novel which starts on 13 January on Platform 13 of a Japanese railway station soon takes a sinister turn.
• A couple of corpses are found splayed side-by-side on a remote beach, the tableau suggestive of a love suicide.
• Matsumoto’s slimline novel has become a classic in his native Japan since its 1958 publication.

3. The Three Dahlias by Katy Watson

• Little do they know they have walked into what will quickly become a real-life murder mystery.
• An unusual aspect of this whodunit is that it follows the detectives closely, something avoided by the classic detective novel to maintain mystery until the end.
• The ingenious structure of The Three Dahlias resolves this problem by having three detectives, each hiding details but also acting in turn as Sherlock’s sidekick Watson to the others.

4. Nothing Special by Nicole Flattery

• Nicole Flattery’s first novel, Nothing Special, is somewhat more anchored in reality than her debut short story collection, Show them a Good Time, which was a series of oddball vignettes, witty and disturbing in turn.
• The story begins in 1966 and charts the journey of high-school dropout Mae, who finds herself employed as a typist at Andy Warhol’s studio, The Factory.
• Like Mae, the reader cannot help but be seduced by the sordidly appealing world which Flattery evokes.

5. Four Seasons in Japan by Nick Bradley

• Armchair travellers can readily picture Tokyo – vibrant with neon lights and pulsing with nightlife – but in his latest love letter to the country, Nick Bradley takes the slow train to rural Japan.
• Flo, an American character who first appeared in his bestseller The Cat and the City, chances upon an
  intriguing novel, Sound of Water.
• We read her translation as she grapples with some of the issues of failure and freedom shared by its main character, Kyo.

6. The Cherokee Rose: A Novel of Gardens and Ghosts by Tiya Miles

• This inspiring, moving and deeply spiritual “dual time” novel is loosely based upon research by the historian Tiya Miles, who introduces readers to the often-overlooked ownership of enslaved people by Native Americans.
• She deftly guides the reader through this complex history via the lives of three strong, contemporary women: Jinx, Cheyenne and Ruth.
• Their interests in the former plantation (the Cherokee Rose) leads them to Georgia during a time of upheaval.