A new novel by Ian McEwan is bound to be surrounded by a generous amount of brouhaha, and Random House has certainly been putting the publicity wheels in motion with this one! Look out for a wodge of interviews and appearances as his latest book focusing on climate change, Solar, is released tomorrow. Thanks to those magnificent spinning publicity wheels, we have one SIGNED copy of Solar and a Solar t-shirt with the book cover printed on it to give away as a first prize, and three runner-up prizes of Solar t-shirts to give away.

Here’s the blurb… Michael Beard is in his late fifties; bald, overweight, unprepossessing – a Nobel prizewinning physicist whose best work is behind him. Trading on his reputation, he lectures for enormous fees and half-heartedly heads a government-backed initiative tackling global warming. An inveterate philanderer, Beard finds his fifth marriage floundering. When Beard’s professional and personal worlds are entwined in a freak accident, an opportunity presents itself, a chance for Beard to extricate himself from his marital mess, reinvigorate his career and very possibly save the world from environmental disaster.

If you’re an Ian McEwan fan then this is a pretty special prize, but you have to be in it to win it! So enter our competition…

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International best selling crime writer Val McDermid has sold over two million copies in the UK alone and over 10 million copies worldwide. Fever of the Bone is the sixth novel to feature clinical psychologist Tony Hill and detective chief inspector Carol Jordan and we have five copies of the newly released paperback to give away thanks to the nice folks at Sphere (Little, Brown) and Colman Getty (thanks Caroline!)

The series has enjoyed huge success, including being adapted for the award-winning ITV drama Wire in the Blood. Here’s the blurb on the latest book… In Fever of the Bone Val introduces Tony Hill’s most twisted adversary to date – a killer with a shopping list of victims, a killer unmoved by youth and innocence, a killer driven by the most perverted of desires.

The murder and mutilation of teenager Jennifer Maidment is horrific enough on its own. But it’s not long before Tony realises it’s just the start of a brutal and ruthless campaign that’s targeting an apparently unconnected group of young people. Struggling with the newly-awakened ghosts of his own past and desperate for distraction in his work, Tony battles to find the answers that will give him personal and professional satisfaction in his most testing investigation yet.

If that has given you a taster and you think it’s a book you might enjoy, then enter our competition…

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We are lucky bunnies. We know that. Because most days we hear the pleasing thud of several books for review landing on the door mat. If you’re a book lover, it’s the best sound in the world.

However, after choosing what we have time to review ourselves, then sending books to our BookRabbit reviewers, there is still a whole host of books desperate for a pair of eager eyes and a loving home.

Here is our ‘outta control’ TBR pile at the mo…

Does anything take your fancy?

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The competition is now closed. The five lucky winners (who must have been holding their lucky rabbit’s foot?) are… Keith B Walters, Rob (Rob Around Books), Jackie (Farm Lane Books), Rachel Taylor and Karen (Euro Crime). Congratulations! We hope you enjoy your prize. What a fantastic response we had – thank you all so much for entering. See you back here soon for more author interviews and competitions.

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He’s the man of the moment and we have an exclusive interview with him, along with a fantastic competition prize thanks to Bethan Jones at Random House who has given us FIVE SIGNED COPIES of Jo’s latest book, The Snowman to give away (thanks Bethan!)

Enjoy the interview. You can also find out more about Jo in his biography and read a review of his latest book. But whatever you do, don’t forget to enter the competition at the end of the interview!

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We are big, bouncing fans of World Book Day down here in the burrow. The charity does fantastic work promoting literacy and the enjoyment of reading, particularly among children and young people. The more people who know about it, and support it, the better.

My niece and nephew (Jessica aged 8 – loves horse riding, sewing and her Build-A-Bear; and Bader aged 12 – loves computer games, his new iPhone Touch and anything to do with Formula 1 – and they both LOVE reading) were telling me this weekend what their school, Barfield Prep School, was doing to celebrate and promote WBD. As well as dressing up as their favourite character from a book, all the children have to create a Book Box. They choose a book that they love and fill a cardboard box with things about that book. They then present their box to the school and the other children have to guess what book their box represents.

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The competition has now closed. Congratulations to our 5 lucky winners: Mel Butcher, Tina Parnell, Maxine Grant, Shelia Goss and Jesica Sharon. We will email you all to confirm details.

Thanks to everyone for taking the time to enter. We hope you enjoyed the excellent interview that Dorothy gave us too. Coming next is an interview with Norwegian crime writer, Jo Nesbo, and possibly a little book giveaway too…

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Today we have the pleasure of welcoming bestselling author Dorothy Koomson to the BookRabbit warren. Dorothy’s lastest book, The Ice Cream Girls has just been released and already the reviews are excellent. You can find out more about Dorothy in her author profile, and enjoy this exclusive interview below. We also have 5 copies of The Ice Cream Girls to give away, courtesy of Sphere/Little, Brown. So make sure you enter the competition at the end of the interview!

BR: Welcome to BookRabbit Dorothy, and congratulations on a fantastic book – we finished it last night and thought it was a cracking read. Can you tell us how you would sum up your latest novel, The Ice Cream Girls?
Dorothy: I’m so glad you liked the book. The Ice Cream Girls is an emotional, intriguing look at some challenging subjects with a murder mystery subplot.

BR: The book deals with some incredibly dark issues including domestic violence, rape, mental cruelty – what compelled you to tackle such difficult and emotive subjects?
Dorothy: One of the best things about being a writer is having the chance to immerse myself in an emotionally difficult or challenging subject. With The Ice Cream Girls, I originally had an idea about two people who were accused of a crime but one went to prison and the other ‘got away with it’. They both claim to be innocent so who is telling the truth? As I thought the idea through, more elements of the story – such as domestic violence and the abuse of trust by an adult – cropped up.

My other books – to some extent – all deal with difficult subjects. Marshmallows For Breakfast, for example, dealt with alcoholism, and Goodnight, Beautiful dealt with mental illness.

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