THE BEST NEW FICTION

Shrines Of Gaiety Kate Atkinson Doubleday £20

Atkinson’s latest lands with a satisfying thud, although its fleet, insightful narrative belies its heft. Its setting is post-Second World War Soho, seething with glamour and corruption. At the centre of this dangerous demi-monde is Nellie Coker, a nightclub queen with ambitions to advance her six children in society. But can she survive that long when her enemies include those on both sides of the law? Dickensian, yes, but infused with a playful knowingness that’s pure Atkinson.

Hephzibah Anderson

Best Of Friends Kamila Shamsie

Bloomsbury Circus £16.99 When we first meet Zahra and Maryam, they are best friends at a Pakistan school in 1988. They are naturally outgoing and, even in a conservative society, seem to have the world at their feet. Fast forward to London in 2019 and, although their friendship has endured, life is tugging them apart. Zahra runs a civil liberties organisation and faces deportation. Maryam is a venture capitalist, welcomed at Chequers. The novel drags in places, but the portrait of a complex friendship rings touchingly true. Max Davidson

Nights Of Plague Orhan Pamuk Faber £20

Pamuk’s latest is set on the fictitious island province of Mingheria in the declining years of the Ottoman Empire, just as a virulent plague breaks out. Shunned and isolated, the island makes an opportunistic bid for independence. Covering Pamuk’s usual concerns – modernity versus tradition, East versus West – Mingheria becomes a microcosm of the break-up of empire and the founding of modern Turkey. Inventive and with a dizzying array of characters, it’s also overlong and occasionally self-indulgent.

Simon Humphreys

The Bullet That Missed Richard Osman Viking £20

Osman’s is a reassuring world in which almost everyone – even former KGB officers – is so much nicer than you might expect. This latest caper sees the Thursday Murder Club investing a cold case that leads all the way to a billionaire crypto trader, who may turn out to be an exception to the niceness rule. Otherwise Osman’s enormously popular mix of crime-busting, romance and regular quips is just as before. Pointless to expect anything else. John Williams