MUST READS | Daily Mail Online
MUST READS
Night- crawling
by Leila Mottley (Bloomsbury £8.99, 288pp)
At 17, when many teenagers are thinking about friends, fun and the future, Kiara Johnson is burdened with responsibilities.
Her father is dead, her mother is in detention, her elder brother is a jobless would-be musician and the rent has doubled on their run-down apartment in Oakland, California.
While Kiara makes sure that her crack addict neighbour’s eight-year-old son goes to school, she’s had to drop out to look for work.
Trying her luck at a strip bar, she loses her virginity in a drunken coupling with a patron, who shoves a roll of dollars into her hand.
In desperation, she turns to sex work to pay the rent, only to be exploited by the local police. Leila Mottley’s best-selling novel, written when she was still in her teens, is a haunting and powerful debut based on real-life events.
The Club
by Ellery Lloyd (Pan £8.99, 352pp)
Home, the highly exclusive members’ club, has branches in all the places where celebrities love to mingle.
The latest addition to the Home portfolio is Island Home — an islet off the Essex coast, which is accessible only by boat and a causeway at low tide.
Once used by the military, the island has undergone a luxury makeover, with amenities including an underwater restaurant.
A starry guest list has congregated for the launch party, with a programme of feasting and entertainment over several days.
But as hungover guests arrive for Sunday brunch in the restaurant, they notice a submerged Land-Rover on the seabed. And then they realise what’s inside.
The second thriller by the husband-and-wife writing team, this is an addictive mystery of beautiful people with ugly secrets.
How to be an Ex Footballer
by Peter Crouch (Ebury £8.99, 288pp)
‘Life as a footballer is a dream,’ writes Peter Crouch, ‘until it is suddenly over and you are cast adrift in a world you do not understand’.
The former England striker retired from professional football in 2019, aged 38, and he writes with wit and real feeling about ‘what happens next — when the rest of your life unfurls in front of you and you just want to tell it to furl off’.
Crouch finds the possibilities for a post-pitch career are limitless. While some stay close to the game, becoming a manager or a pundit, others branch out in unexpected directions — acting, politics, art and even the priesthood.
He ends his hugely entertaining book on a thoughtful note, with a plea not to forget the football players who gave the crowds so much pleasure during their brief, glittering careers.