Storytime

BRING ME BACK

Mounting tension and mistaken identity in the latest thriller from one of UK’s bestselling crime writers. Layla Gray, 19, left remote Scotland to tramp the streets of London trying to find a youth hostel. Wealthy investment banker Finn McQuaid, 41, and flatmate Harry are on their way to the theatre, when they spot the scared teen. Finn is drawn to the vulnerable girl and fobs his girlfriend off on Harry to take Layla home. Beware: men who treat women badly, raging tempers and lying, seems to be Paris’ early warning. Fifteen months later, Finn and Layla are returning from a ski trip when he stops for a bathroom break and Layla mysteriously disappears. Twelve years later, Layla still missing, Finn is about to marry her sister Ellen. But what didn’t he tell police about that fateful night?

THE TRICK TO TIME

As a little girl in Ireland, Mona fashioned dolls on the sand from seashells. She always knew husband William liked a drink – he even arrived late at the hospital to discover their baby has died. Mona, nearly 60, is now a dollmaker. A support group for mothers whose babies died sends the women to Mona’s shop. A carpenter carves dolls in balsa or heavier pine; depending on the birth weight. Every woman can shut their eyes and feel the exact weight of their baby, says Mona. They do not pay a penny for the loose-limbed, naked dolls, but wrap them in a shawl when they leave. In Mona’s day dead babies were taken straight to the sluice room. But the kindness of a nurse gave Mona 45 minutes with her child. “There is a trick to time. You can make the most of what you have,” writes the author.

THE PERFECT GIRLFRIEND

A “must-read thriller”, ex-air stewardess Hamilton’s debut, lives up to its billing. When pilot Nate checked into a Heathrow hotel he asked receptionist Elizabeth out for a drink. But school bullying and the death of her brother have left her delusional. Nate “de-friends and un-follows” her when their relationship becomes too intense. “Nate just suffered from temporary fear of commitment,” she says. Lying that she speaks French to become a trainee stewardess, she changes her name to Juliette and plots calculated revenge, convinced she can bludgeon true devotion. Keeping Nate’s flat keys, she sleeps in his bed when he is on long-haul flights. Engineering a place in the cockpit on a flight Nate’s piloting, she shocks with a “look behind you!” move.