I’m woefully behind on Jonathan Coe‘s novels, but his latest has really caught my eye (and will probably shoot right to the top of my TBR pile). The Proof of My Innocence is a “political critique wrapped up in a murder mystery”, all told with Coe’s signature wit. The novel is out already in the UK (published by Viking), and it’s due to arrive in North America in April (published by Europa Editions). Here’s the synopsis:
Post-university life doesn’t suit Phyl. Time passes slowly living back home with her parents, working a zero-hour contract serving Japanese food to tourists at Heathrow’s Terminal 5. As for her budding plans of becoming a writer, those are going nowhere.
That is, until family friend Chris comes to stay. He’s been on the path to uncover a sinister think-tank, founded at Cambridge University in the 1980s, that’s been scheming to push the British government in a more extreme direction. One that’s finally poised to put their plans into action. But speaking truth to power can be dangerous — and power will stop at nothing to stay on top.
As Britain finds itself under the leadership of a new Prime Minister whose tenure will only last for seven weeks, Chris pursues his story to a conference being held deep in the Cotswolds, where events take a sinister turn and a murder enquiry is soon in progress. But will the solution to the mystery lie in contemporary politics, or in a literary enigma that is almost forty years old?
Darting between decades and genres, The Proof of My Innocence is a wickedly funny and razor-sharp new novel from one of Britain’s most beloved novelists, showing how the key to understanding the present can often be found in the murkiest corners of the past.
Jonathan Coe’s The Proof of My Innocence is due to be published in North America by Europa Editions (April 15th, 2025), and it’s published in the UK by Viking Books (out now).
The next novel from Taylor Jenkins Reid was announced a little while ago. Atmosphere is “an epic new novel set against the backdrop of the 1980s space shuttle program and the extraordinary lengths we go to live and love beyond our limits.” Long-time readers of CR will know how much I’ve enjoyed Reid’s previous novels — 
Selected from a pool of thousands of applicants in the summer of 1980, Joan begins training at Houston’s Johnson Space Center, alongside an exceptional group of fellow candidates: Top Gun pilots Hank Redmond and John Griffin, who are kind and easy-going even when the stakes are highest; mission specialist Lydia Danes, who has worked too hard to play nice; warm-hearted Donna Fitzgerald, who is navigating her own secrets; and Vanessa Ford, the magnetic and mysterious aeronautical engineer, who can fix any engine and fly any plane.
I’m a relative newcomer to Jess Walter‘s work, and thus-far I’ve only read his short fiction — all of which has been superb, and I can’t recommend 
Next summer, 
A little while ago, we shared an excerpt from the first new Conan the Barbarian novel published by Titan Books — 
An amusing, odd comics collection
Tomorrow, Lake Union is due to publish the latest novel by Emily Beeker: When We Chased the Light. A new novel set in Golden Age Hollywood, here’s the synopsis:
An intriguing, cozy mystery… in space!
A fantastic tale of identity, crime, and the long tail of violence
Civilian Reader 