PSYCHOLOGICAL FICTION

DISCLAIMER

by Renee Knight

(Doubleday £12.99)

HERE IT is — the debut novel that social media has been buzzing about for months. Will this actually be the next Gone Girl?

Well, let’s just say that it doesn’t disappoint. And the narrative is elegantly written, free from the overwriting and over- emoting that spoils so many in this genre. Catherine is a successful documentary-maker, happily married to Robert with one grown-up son, Nick, when she starts reading a novel which unmistakably details an incident in her life she has never told anyone about — least of all her own family.

Stephen is a retired schoolmaster, still grieving for his dead wife Nancy. He, too, has shameful secrets in his past but currently he is a man on a mission of murderous revenge, and the object of his bilious hatred is Catherine.

Slowly, slowly, the story unfolds, finally revealing the thread that links Stephen to Catherine.

The first half of the novel is very measured, the second a maelstrom of appalling revelations and twists. It is certainly very clever and entertaining, if a little coldly and tidily executed.

HUSH HUSH

by Laura Lippman

(Faber £12.99)

LIPPMAN’S wacky private investigator Tess Monaghan is back, and now the mother of an engaging small girl called Carla Scout — a salient fact, because this is a book about parents and children, specifically mothers.

When Melisandre Dawes returns to Baltimore, she wants to reconnect with her two teenage daughters who have not seen her for ten years since she was convicted of the appalling killing of their baby sister Isadora.

Unsurprisingly, Melisandre’s former husband, Stephen, who is remarried with another child, is determined that the reunion won’t happen. But Melisandre who is rich, beautiful and determined, embarks on a legal battle to get what she wants.

This is a strong and unusual story and, as other deaths mount up, Lippman keeps you guessing as to whether Melisandre is mad or merely misunderstood.

As in all her novels, Lippman delivers a first-class mystery, but there are also plenty of intelligent insights into damaged individuals and family dynamics.