THE TWELVE LIVES OF SAMUEL HAWLEY

by Hannah Tinti (Tinder Press £16.99)

After a peripatetic existence, Samuel Hawley and his teenage daughter Loo return to his late wife’s hometown in an attempt to settle down at last.

But as Loo seeks answers about her mother’s death, her father’s former life — recounted in a series of flashbacks which revisit scenes from his criminal past — catches up with him in a bloody finale.

the cover mentions Quentin tarantino, and it’s a valid reference for this pacy and violent — yet also poignant and sensitive — novel. Guaranteed to make even the most tedious plane journey whizz by.