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The Sunshine Man

A Novel

Author Emma Stonex
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Hardcover
$30.00 US
Penguin Adult HC/TR | Viking
On sale Nov 11, 2025 | 368 Pages | 9781984882189
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“The week I shot a man clean through the head began like any other . . .”

A taut, electrifying thriller about a woman determined to avenge her sister’s murder—and the killer who must confront his own ghosts

Birdie Keller wakes one freezing January morning to the news she’s been waiting eighteen years to hear. Jimmy Maguire, the man who killed her sister, has been freed from jail. She leaves for London with a pistol and a plan: to find this man and make him pay. 

But every story has two sides. Jimmy can sense he’s being hunted. He knew Birdie a long time ago, in a life she’d sooner forget, and he isn’t the only one with something to hide. As the two circle each other in a heart-stopping game of cat and mouse, they plunge into a murky world of family secrets, betrayals, and unsolved mysteries.

A tense, spellbinding page-turner, The Sunshine Man twists its way through the web of lives left shattered after a terrible crime and crafts an unforgettable tale of loss and revenge.
“An ambitious revenge thriller . . . What makes this thought-provoking book well worth the read is the delicate and perceptive chronicling of how good intentions, childhood misunderstandings, throwaway comments and split-second decisions can pave the way for disaster.” —The Guardian

“A brilliantly accomplished story of fractured lives and the long-term reverberations of violent crime, The Sunshine Man is both poetic and fiendishly gripping. Stonex’s prose is bruising and beautiful.” —Rosie Walsh, New York Times bestselling author of The Love of My Life

“The Sunshine Man is a masterful literary thriller . . . One of my books of the year.” —Lucy Clarke, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Castaways and One of the Girls

“Masterful. Not only suspenseful and exquisitely tense but a nuanced, humanely observed portrait of grief and trauma. A triumph.” —Jo Harkin, author of The Pretender

“A remarkable novel—heart-wrenching, unflinching, and deeply compassionate . . . thrilling and incredibly moving. If you loved The Lamplighters, I guarantee you’ll love The Sunshine Man too.” —Emylia Hall, author of The Shell House Detectives

“A raw, gritty psychological thriller that will leave readers breathless.” —Booklist (starred review)

“Compelling . . . this chiller demonstrates on nearly every page the power of the written word.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
© Melissa Lesage
Emma Stonex is the author of The Lamplighters, which was a Sunday Times bestseller and has been translated into twenty-five languages, and the upcoming book The Sunshine Man. Before becoming a writer, she worked as an editor at a major publishing house. She lives in Bristol with her family. View titles by Emma Stonex

About

“The week I shot a man clean through the head began like any other . . .”

A taut, electrifying thriller about a woman determined to avenge her sister’s murder—and the killer who must confront his own ghosts

Birdie Keller wakes one freezing January morning to the news she’s been waiting eighteen years to hear. Jimmy Maguire, the man who killed her sister, has been freed from jail. She leaves for London with a pistol and a plan: to find this man and make him pay. 

But every story has two sides. Jimmy can sense he’s being hunted. He knew Birdie a long time ago, in a life she’d sooner forget, and he isn’t the only one with something to hide. As the two circle each other in a heart-stopping game of cat and mouse, they plunge into a murky world of family secrets, betrayals, and unsolved mysteries.

A tense, spellbinding page-turner, The Sunshine Man twists its way through the web of lives left shattered after a terrible crime and crafts an unforgettable tale of loss and revenge.

Reviews

“An ambitious revenge thriller . . . What makes this thought-provoking book well worth the read is the delicate and perceptive chronicling of how good intentions, childhood misunderstandings, throwaway comments and split-second decisions can pave the way for disaster.” —The Guardian

“A brilliantly accomplished story of fractured lives and the long-term reverberations of violent crime, The Sunshine Man is both poetic and fiendishly gripping. Stonex’s prose is bruising and beautiful.” —Rosie Walsh, New York Times bestselling author of The Love of My Life

“The Sunshine Man is a masterful literary thriller . . . One of my books of the year.” —Lucy Clarke, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Castaways and One of the Girls

“Masterful. Not only suspenseful and exquisitely tense but a nuanced, humanely observed portrait of grief and trauma. A triumph.” —Jo Harkin, author of The Pretender

“A remarkable novel—heart-wrenching, unflinching, and deeply compassionate . . . thrilling and incredibly moving. If you loved The Lamplighters, I guarantee you’ll love The Sunshine Man too.” —Emylia Hall, author of The Shell House Detectives

“A raw, gritty psychological thriller that will leave readers breathless.” —Booklist (starred review)

“Compelling . . . this chiller demonstrates on nearly every page the power of the written word.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Author

© Melissa Lesage
Emma Stonex is the author of The Lamplighters, which was a Sunday Times bestseller and has been translated into twenty-five languages, and the upcoming book The Sunshine Man. Before becoming a writer, she worked as an editor at a major publishing house. She lives in Bristol with her family. View titles by Emma Stonex

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