PSYCHO THRILLERS

LITTLE DEATHS by Emma Flint (Picador £12.99) FlInT reconstructs a real Sixties case in new york where a mother, Alice Crimmins, was convicted of murdering her two children.

In a remarkable blend of fact and fiction, Flint has changed the names, but stuck closely to the details of the lengthy police investigation and trial — though she provides her own interpretation of who really was to blame.

Her protagonist is ruth Malone — a sexy redhead who is separated from her husband and living a rackety life in the borough of Queens, where she is a part-time cocktail waitress with a string of lovers.

Accordingly, she is not believed when she claims the children were taken at night from her apartment — where they were sleeping in a locked bedroom — without her waking.

Flint’s narrative, largely told from an admiring rookie reporter’s point of view, is that ruth was as much on trial for her chaotic lifestyle and extramarital conduct as she was for killing her children. The police, led by a corrupt copper, were hellbent on a guilty verdict, as were most of the public.

Flint has done an admirable job in presenting an alternative story that brilliantly captures the atmosphere of the time.

This is spellbinding, beautifully written and very moving.

HER EVERY FEAR by Peter Swanson (Faber £12.99) KATE PrIddy needs to get as far away as possible from london after a brutal attack by an ex-boyfriend leaves her traumatised. A house swap with her unknown cousin Corbin in Boston provides a temporary solution.

However, shortly after settling in to Corbin’s grand pad, Kate makes a shocking discovery. The next- door neighbour, a young woman called Audrey, has been murdered and, worse, she and Corbin were an item.

With the police sniffing around, as well as an over-friendly neighbour, Alan, who seems to be spying on her, Kate becomes rattled. What does she really know about Corbin and why did he rush off to london?

Swanson painstakingly builds up an ingenious and very readable narrative that alternates between Boston and london — but somehow the suspense is never sufficiently ratcheted up to make this the white-knuckle ride his previous two books have been.

SAY NOTHING by Brad Parks (Faber £12.99) In rurAl Virginia, Judge Scott Sampson is preparing to pick up his six-year-old twins from school when he gets a text from his wife Alison saying they have gone to the doctor instead.

But when Alison gets home, she is alone and denies sending the text. So begins the emotional roller coaster that’s the stuff of parental nightmares. Why? How? Who?

An anonymous phone call answers the ‘why’ question. The judge is instructed to rule a certain way in an upcoming drugs trial if he wants to see Sam and Emma again and, of course, most importantly, to ‘say nothing’.

With the fascinating backdrop of the u.S. judicial system, this outstanding raceagainst-time psychological thriller is as much a tale of family dynamics as of criminal behaviour, as the judge even starts to suspect his wife of being involved with the kidnap.

The old cliche of page-turner is dead right here. This twisted tale is written with such power and intelligence that you have no option other than to read it under your desk at work.