STEAL ME by Helen Grant (PS Publishing 2026)

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I received a pdf of this book from the author.

This is one of those short novels that draws you in, as does the bookshop that appears overnight in a small town. The shop's name is Legends - or is it? Some can't read the name on the fascia. They can't see what others see. And that is one of the many curious problems presented by what appears to be a wonderful development for local bookworms. 

One of the people who is keen to look inside is Rowan, a young woman with a chequered past. The death of her beloved father left a deep emotional scar. She went off the rails and took to shoplifting. Now she is putting her life back together, keeping her nose clean. Until she browses the shelves of Legends and finds a book entitled STEAL ME. The book knows all about her. It tells her story, in the most disturbing and subversive way. 

After Rowan steals the book, she does her best to get rid of it. It proves distressingly hard to lose or destroy. Helen Grant, as always, smoothly takes the reader from the everyday to the plausibly weird as Rowan becomes increasingly confused and frightened. Meanwhile, others are finding their books in Legends. Rowan's old schoolfriend becomes absorbed in a fantasy, which sounds fine until you realise she will read it until she drops. And then there's the man with a very dark past whose book prompts him to a horrific act of destruction.

Rowan and her friend Jack have to try and solve the mystery of Legends. Who are the superficially nice old ladies who run the shop? Where do they come from? What do they want? The book answers all of these questions deftly as the action speeds up and a final showdown looms. I particularly liked the climactic scenes, in which the unlikely heroes run the gauntlet of monstrous entities to seek the core of the mystery.

STEAL ME is a gripping read, intelligent and full of telling detail. Helen Grant doesn't put a foot wrong in a tale of folk horror that combines realism with magic in a way that doesn't devalue either. There are many magical emporia in fiction. Legends is a worthy addition. 

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