Stalking nightmare turns deadly

PSYCHOS

EVERY MOVE YOU MAKE

by CL Taylor (Avon €16.25, 432pp)

I WOULD recommend starting this book at the end. The author’s note is a powerful account of their own experience of being stalked. It is the inspiration for this intensely told and psychologically compelling story.

The four main characters are Alex, Lucy, River and Bridget and we meet them at the funeral of their friend, Nat. Even though they are strangers, they have formed a unique sort of support group — all them are being stalked.

When they are handed a wreath saying one of them will be killed in ten days’ time, they are forced into action. What follows is a deeply moving and at times terrifying account of the characters’ personal stories as they search for a solution to their ordeal.

THE WRONG SISTER

by Claire Douglas (Penguin €16.99, 400pp)

TASHA and Aaron leave their three-year-old twins with her successful sister Alice and husband Kyle for a rare break in Alice’s holiday home in Venice. The sisters have different lives and Tasha is aware of her own modest lifestyle. Claire Douglas is clever about the underlying competitiveness and complex affection shared by sisters.

Family relationships and secrets are at the core of this well-told story. Then Tasha receives news that her sister and husband have been attacked. Kyle is dead and Alice is lying seriously ill in hospital. Even more dramatically, Tasha is sent a note saying she was the real target of the attack.

Douglas has a deceptively chatty style, but she is a particularly good at twists and red herrings. She keeps the plot on the boil right to the end with a conclusion that is both gratifying and surprising.

PRIMA FACIE

by Suzie Miller

(Hutchinson Heinemann €24.65, 336pp) THIS is the novel version of the seismically successful play that tells the story of Tessa Ensler. She is a top female barrister who made her name defending rapists, only to be defeated by the same system when she herself is raped.

It’s impossible to read Prima Facie without picturing Jodie Comer whose gripping West End performance won countless awards.

But the novelisation faces the challenge of conjuring up the same level of tension as the play. The inevitable expansion of back stories, coupled with extra characters, ends up taking away from the tension.

But if you haven’t seen the play (and don’t want to wait for the film which is also coming), you are unlikely to be too disappointed. This nakedly powerful story of how even a successful articulate woman lawyer can herself become a victim of the system is still one worth telling and re-telling.