New twist on a death in the family

DISCLAIMER

by Renée Knight

(Doubleday, £12.99)

IMAGINE you’ve done something you’re so ashamed of that you never tell anyone. When the only other person you think knows your secret dies, you might safely suppose you’re in the clear. Then, after two decades, you’re sent — anonymously — a novel which is unmistakably a version of what happened to you, except that it has been subtly altered.

Names have been changed and its disclaimer states that “any resemblance to actual persons ... is purely coincidental” but it’s you all right and whoever’s behind it is also distributing copies of the book to your nearest and dearest.

The story flips between London now and a Spanish seaside holiday resort 20 years ago; between Catherine Ravenscroft, a successful documentary-maker married with a grown-up son, and Stephen Brigstocke, a retired schoolteacher, widowed and also with a son. The difference between them is that Stephen’s son drowned in an accident. The boy’s death has had terrible but very different consequences for them both. Using the popular dual-narrator structure, Knight spins Catherine and Stephen’s stories together, bringing them closer and closer until they eventually smash rather than mesh, with a really clever twist.

The author, a BBC documentarymaker herself, writes in simple, direct prose and her perceptive ideas about the way jealousy, fear and love drive men and women differently make this an above average domestic thriller. It’s superior fodder for your summer hols — just beware of reading it on the beach if you have young children who need supervising.