The Night of the Mi'raj by Zoe Ferraris
Little, Brown £14.99

Nayir - gentle giant and devout Muslim - is a desert guide. When this gripping novel opens he is leading a search for a 16-year-old girl who has disappeared on the eve of her wedding. Nouf belongs to a powerful Saudi family, and when her battered body is found, the family is quick to cover up any possible scandal. But her brother enlists Nayir to find the truth. And Nayir has to accept the help of a woman, a female lab technician named Katya, who can get into the closed women's quarters. This is a fascinating mystery, with a complex and likeable hero.

Caravan Thieves by Gerard Woodward
Chatto & Windus £15.99

These short stories are deceptively casual in tone, almost anecdotal; yet they manage to convey all kinds of longings and tragedies. In My Husband's Dream, the narrator has fallen into bed with Lucy, who lives alone on a small farm. In the morning he offers to help her feed the animals, though he can see none. The “animals” turn out to be worms. Before he left, this was Lucy's husband's dream; the largest worm farm in Kent. The worms are nomadic, Lucy explains, and she has to watch them in case they suddenly make off. In Seagull, a man's career is destroyed by a cadre of small-town puppeteers - Woodward has an agreeably daft sense of humour.

Daphne by Justine Picardie
Bloomsbury £14.99

The main character in this glorious novel is the writer Daphne du Maurier - Picardie has recreated her windswept life on the Cornish coast, and her tottering marriage. While her husband recovers from a mental breakdown, Daphne begins a book about Branwell Brontë. Could he have written some of Emily's poems? Was he the true creator of Heathcliff? This is just one of the literary strands. Meanwhile, in modern London, a modern version of young Mrs de Winter works on her thesis about Daphne du Maurier. A divine treat for lovers of literary mysteries.

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