Old Soul by Susan Barker (Fig Tree, £16.99)
A chance encounter between two travellers who’ve missed their flight reveals a strange connection: each is haunted by an unexplained death. Although Jake’s best friend Lena died in London a decade ago, while Mariko’s twin brother died more recently in Japan, the circumstances were similar. In both, a rare physical condition that should have been known since birth was only found postmortem. Both had been recently involved with a female photographer, a European in her 30s or 40s, who disappeared soon after the death. Jake suspects it was the same woman and is determined to track her down. Through the testimony of others, the mystery deepens, as the story moves back and forth in time, from Japan to Germany, from rural Wales to the artistic circles of 80s New York, and Jake assembles a picture of a seemingly ageless woman behind a series of inexplicable deaths. An immersive, stunningly weird tale that closes like a trap round the reader.
Model Home by Rivers Solomon (Merky, £18.99)
Can a house that’s never been lived in before be haunted? Gender-fluid Ezri and their sisters carry scars from terrible experiences as the only Black family in a gated community in Dallas. The parents remain after their children are grown. When phone calls go unanswered, Ezri, now settled in London, fears the house has killed them, and must go back to Texas to confront the truth about the past. A disturbing, brilliantly twisty psychological horror exploring family dynamics, memory, gender identity and sexuality.
