The Reading

Little Hangwich is a quiet town — quiet in the way places are quiet just before something very stupid happens. When a mysterious book turns up in the library's donation box, librarian Marjorie Prendick assumes it's just another dusty curiosity. Then it bites a teenager. And a bingo-night regular. And a man who made the mistake of trying to renew it online. As the body count climbs, Little Hangwich turns to its only hope: Dr. Nathaniel Blaze, optometrist, academic showoff, and the sole man alive who can "see what others cannot, because he has three degrees." With his sharp-tongued ex-wife Helena — a forensic bibliographer with no patience left for him — and Marjorie's rapidly weaponising frustration, Blaze uncovers the horrifying truth: the book isn't just cursed. It's hungry. And it's trying to write itself into a bestseller. Now the pages are multiplying. The overdue notices are chanting. The shelves are trembling. And someone is going to have to write the most devastating one-star review in literary history — or die trying. Because in Little Hangwich, overdue books don't just accrue fines. They collect souls.