Penny Smith's Top 5 Book Club Books of the Year
Penny selects some of her favourite books from 2023
Last updated 11th Jan 2024
Each Thursday on Scala Radio, Penny Smith welcomes renowned authors onto the show, to find out about their newest literary works. Throughout the past year, we've been honoured to welcome the likes of Jo Nesbo, Kate Mosse, and Richard Osman.
As we bid farewell to 2023, Penny has curated a selection of her cherished reads from the past 12 months.
While this collection isn't intended as a definitive 'best of' list, it serves as a heartfelt celebration of the books that have resonated most profoundly with Penny throughout the year, showcasing a diverse array of literary gems that have left a lasting impression.
Penny Smith's Top 5 Books of the Year
The Turnglass by Gareth Rubin
1880s England. On the bleak island of Ray, off the Essex coast, an idealistic young doctor, Simeon Lee, is called from London to treat his cousin, Parson Oliver Hawes, who is dying. Parson Hawes, who lives in the only house on the island - Turnglass House - believes he is being poisoned.
And he points the finger at his sister-in-law, Florence. Florence was declared insane after killing Oliver's brother in a jealous rage and is now kept in a glass-walled apartment in Oliver's library. And the secret to how she came to be there is found in Oliver's tete-beche journal, where one side tells a very different story from the other.
1930s California. Celebrated author Oliver Tooke, the son of the state governor, is found dead in his writing hut off the coast of the family residence, Turnglass House. His friend Ken Kourian doesn't believe that Oliver would take his own life.
His investigations lead him to the mysterious kidnapping of Oliver's brother when they were children, and the subsequent secret incarceration of his mother, Florence, in an asylum. But to discover the truth, Ken must decipher clues hidden in Oliver's final book, a tete-beche novel - which is about a young doctor called Simeon Lee.
The Last Devil To Die by Richard Osman
You'd think you would be allowed to relax over Christmas, but not in the world of the Thursday Murder Club.
On Boxing Day, a dangerous package is smuggled across the English coast. When it goes missing, chaos is unleashed. The body count starts to rise – including someone close to the Thursday Murder Club – as our gang face an impossible search and their most deadly opponents yet.
With the clock ticking down and a killer heading to Cooper's Chase, has their luck finally run out? And who will be 'The Last Devil To Die'?
The Ghost Ship by Kate Mosse
The Barbary Coast, 1621. A mysterious vessel floats silently on the water. It is known only as the Ghost Ship. For months it has hunted pirates to liberate those enslaved by corsairs, manned by a courageous crew of mariners from Italy and France, Holland and the Canary Islands.
But the bravest among them are not who they seem. The stakes could not be higher. If arrested, they will be hanged for their crimes. Can they survive the journey and escape their fate?
A sweeping and epic love story, ranging from France in 1610 to Amsterdam and the Canary Islands in the 1620s, The Ghost Ship is a thrilling novel of adventure and buccaneering, love and revenge, stolen fortunes and hidden secrets on the High Seas. Most of all, it is a tale of defiant women in a man's world.
The Rise by Ian Rankin
The Rise is a gleaming residential tower, newly constructed from steel and blackened glass, that stands on some of London's most prestigious real estate. Looming imposingly over Hyde Park, only multi-millionaires need to apply for one of its sumptuous apartments. But when the young night concierge is found murdered in the building's lobby, the elite residents quickly find their gilded lifestyles under unwelcome police scrutiny. Investigating officer DS Gish has her work cut out. The only suspects, those who live in the building, aren't accustomed to police interrogation. But it seems certain that one of them must be the killer. Could it be the Russian oligarch? Or the lonely actress? Maybe it's the family of the career criminal? Or perhaps it's the building's reclusive developer who lives alone in the penthouse? Obstructed continually by locked doors, governments both foreign and domestic, and an apparent absence of motive, can DS Gish solve this impenetrable mystery and apprehend the murderer—before they slip away forever?
Went to London, Took the Dog by Nina Stibbe
How do I get rid of the mosquitoes infesting Deborah Moggach's garden? Is it normal for my kids to drink so much? And why doesn't anyone in North London know how to clean up after their dog?
These are just some of the questions plaguing Nina Stibbe as she plots her grand return to London, reflecting on what it means to turn your whole life around aged 60. Whether it's dinner parties with the great and the good of the London literati or micromanaging her son's online dating profile, Nina Stibbe's utterly inimitable wit is ever present throughout this diary of her first return to London since the Love, Nina years.