DEBUT FICTION

THE VISITORS by Catherine Burns (Legend Press £14.99)

MARION ZETLAND is a socially withdrawn single woman in her 50s who lives with her brother, John, in a dilapidated townhouse. She has no friends, no job, but fills her waking hours with TV.

The occasional cry for help or sob drifts up from the cellar, where John spends much of his time, but Marion is in denial about whatever it is he’s up to down there — but we, the readers, can guess.

When John has a heart attack, Marion has to face the truth — with devastating results. With its two unsympathetic main characters, chilling atmosphere and grim dénouement, this is an insightful study of loneliness and evil.

THE CHICKEN SOUP MURDER by Maria Donovan (Seren £9.99)

WRITTEN in the voice of 11-year- old Michael, who suspects a murder committed by a neighbour, this novel inevitably evokes Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time.

but it quickly establishes an identity and panache of its own, vividly painting the immediate social world of a prickly, precocious boy brought up by his nan, but with emotional ties to the neighbouring adults and children.

The plot is firmly rooted in its setting (a town close to Dorset’s Jurassic Coast) and time (2012), but the theme of a child’s dawning awareness of the lives of adults, and the beginning of his own transition away from childish things, is universal.

Handled with great sensitivity, this has great comedy, exciting developments and very moving moments, right through until the nicely worked solution to the mystery.

PULL ME UNDER by Kelly Luce (Daunt Books £9.99)

AS A child, Chizuru akitani is bullied until she fatally stabs a fellow pupil and is institutionalised for the next seven years. estranged from her father, a world- class violinist, she is then sent to resettle in america, where she changes her name to Rio Silvestri.

From that moment, her former identity becomes secret even from her husband and child. However, when her father dies, Rio returns alone to Japan for his funeral.

at the funeral home, she meets her old teacher and, together, they embark on a strenuous 88-temple pilgrimage.

as her relationship with her teacher changes, and more history is disinterred, Rio is forced to confront who she really is.

Japan provides the stunning backdrop to this intriguing story, which questions whether or not we can escape our past.