April 2014 books of the month

Love the way great writers are updating Jane Austen? Now crime writer Val McDermid has given Austen's classic Northanger Abbey a brilliant modern-day makeover. Present-day heroine Cat Morland is fascinated by Gothic tales. So when she meets the mysterious Henry Tilney, whose family pile is a crumbling abbey full of dark corners, her imagination runs away with her. McDermid adds tension and terror to the original's love triangles, ghosts and secret rooms to create a very readable contemporary thriller. 

No one writes about hair-trigger family tensions better than Joanna Trollope. In Balancing Act, matriarch Susie has single-handedly built up a successful pottery business that now employs her three daughters. But sibling rivalry and the reappearance of Susie’s father, who abandoned her as a baby, threaten to disrupt the family’s fragile ties. 

Louise Walters' debut, Mrs Sinclair's Suitcase, is a heart-breaking tale of loss, missed chances and enduring love. When Roberta finds a love letter from her grandfather to her grandmother, dated after he supposedly died in the Second World War, a family mystery starts to unravel. 

Rachel watches from the afterworld as her family move on with their lives in Hannah Beckerman's painfully poignant The Dead Wife's Handbook.

Scandal, sexual obsession and a sultry setting make The Lemon Grove one of the most hyped books of the year. In Helen Walsh’s intense tale of forbidden desire, 40-something Jenn has an affair with her stepdaughter’s teenage boyfriend, with terrible consequences. 

Fried Green Tomatoes At The Whistle Stop Café became an instant classic when it was published 25 years ago. Fannie Flagg's latest book, The All-Girl Filling Station’s Last Reunion, is also packed with larger-than-life characters, Deep South charm and blissful storytelling. 

Witches are the new vampires! And the book hoping to fill the gap left by the hugely successful Twilight series is Half Bad. It's a supernatural thriller about two tribes of witches living secretly among us in contemporary Britain, and the teenage boy they both fear. We predict big things for former-accountant-turned-author Sally Green. 

Love a plot twist? We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler delivers an unforgettable ‘I didn’t see that coming!’ moment. We won’t say much more about this tear-jerking story of a family like no other, except: read it now before spoilers reveal the surprise. 

Jodi Ann Bickley was just 22 when she had a stroke that left her house-bound. Instead of feeling sorry for herself, she started writing inspirational letters to strangers who were also going through difficult times. One Million Lovely Letters is an uplifting account of how this simple idea kick-started her recovery – and helped thousands of others. Tissue, anyone…? 

Nearest and dearest harbouring dark secrets is a common publishing trend at the moment. In You Should Have Known by Jean Hanff Korelitz, Grace is a happily married therapist about to publish a self-help book on her pet theory: women don't listen to their intuition about what their partners are really like. She is forced to examine her own advice when her husband goes missing after a woman is murdered. A compulsive read.

Nearly a year after Bernie Nolan lost her battle with breast cancer, her youngest sister Coleen publishes her second autobiography, No Regrets. The Loose Women panelist talks about the sisters’ bitter feud over a comeback tour, and how they were all eventually reconciled by Bernie’s illness. Brave and extremely moving.

She burst on to the foodie scene last year when she started a blog about trying to feed herself and her small son on a tiny £10 a week budget. Now Jack Monroe (yes, she's female) has written her first cookbook. A Girl Called Jack is packed with 100 tasty, cheap-as-chips – but much healthier – recipes.   

Lorrie Moore is huge in the States, and well-worth discovering. Her stunning writing is evident in her short story collection, Bark.  

After a heart transplant, a disgraced college professor takes on some of the previous owner’s personality in The Tell-Tale Heart by Jill Dawson.  

The human and political battles of Henry VIII’s reformation are brought to exhilarating life in The Chalice by Nancy Bilyeau.