Our Book Club Is Officially Having a Moment
We have always believed in picking brilliant books before the rest of the world catches up. Right now, three of our titles are making headlines and things are moving fast.
Virginia Evans: The Correspondent (April 2026)
Where do we even start with this one? When we chose The Correspondent as our April Book of the Month, we knew we had found something special. Virginia joined us for our author meeting on 7 April, and if you were there, you already know what an extraordinary woman she is.
Since then, the world has been paying attention. The Correspondent has been longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction, the Andrew Carnegie Medal, the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, and has won the 2026 PEN/Hemingway Award for debut novel. The Women's Prize shortlist is announced on 22 April, next Wednesday, and we will be watching with everything crossed.
And then there is this: after a competitive seven-studio bidding war, Lionsgate has landed rights to the film adaptation, with two-time Oscar winner Jane Fonda attached to star and produce. Jane Fonda. Playing Sybil. We are not calm about this.
Mel Pennant and CJ Wray: The CWA Dagger Awards
Two of our books have landed on the same prestigious award longlist, and if you have not heard of the CWA Dagger Awards before, allow us to introduce you. The Crime Writers' Association has been running since 1953, and the Daggers are their annual awards, widely considered the most respected prizes in crime fiction. Being longlisted is a serious achievement, and this year, we have two.
Both A Murder for Miss Hortense by Mel Pennant and Bad Influence by CJ Wray are longlisted for the 2026 CWA Dagger Awards. The shortlist is announced on 28 May, with winners revealed at the CWA gala dinner in July.
We read A Murder for Miss Hortense back in February and we have not stopped thinking about Miss Hortense since. She is sharp, formidable, and completely unlike any sleuth we have met before. Mel Pennant has created something genuinely special, and the good news is there is more to come. The second Miss Hortense mystery, Miss Hortense and the Last Rites, publishes on 2 July 2026, and we will be reading and reviewing it here.
Bad Influence is our May Book of the Month, and CJ Wray is joining us for our author meeting on 5 May. We cannot wait. Having two of our books on the same Dagger longlist in the same year feels like something worth shouting about, so we are.
Three books. Three longlists. One film starring Jane Fonda. Not a bad month for the Michelle Gordon Book Club.