AN UNREMARKABLE BODY

(W&N £14.99) JOURNALIST Laura is floored by the sudden death of her mother, Katharine, following an accident. But while Katharine’s body gives little away, her life turns out to have been as complex and full of secrets as any — something Laura begins to appreciate as she delves into memories of her Eighties childhood and her parents’ failed marriage.

As a domestic thriller, this debut doesn’t quite work — a first plot twist is too easily guessed, while a second one feels forced.

But as a sensitive examination of a life frustrated by mores and circumstance, it’s much more successful.

With Katharine’s post- mortem providing the book’s backbone, Laura seeks out the truths its bald statements cannot contain, at the same time trying to find in her own tangled lovelife the kind of happiness that eluded her mother.