For better, for worse. Or not?
PSYCHO THRILLERS CHRISTENA APPLEYARD
SIRACUSA by Delia Ephron (Point Blank £12.99)
DO YOU marry someone who knows you or someone from whom you can remain hidden? This is just one of the telling questions raised in this brilliant, biting take on modern relationships.
Two unhappily married, fortysomething American couples are on holiday together in Syracuse in Sicily with Snow, the splendidly creepy ten-year-old daughter of restaurateur Finn and smothering mother Taylor.
Michael, a famous writer, and Lizzie, a fading journalist, are childless. Both couples excel at finding ways of not confronting the problems in their marriages.
Everything changes — with devastating consequences — when Michael’s secret mistress Kath suddenly turns up at their hotel.
The characters take it in turn to tell the gripping story in which there is really no hero. And you don’t always know who to believe.
Ephron, the sister of the late novelist Nora who co-wrote the film You’ve Got Mail with her, has conjured a minor masterpiece that reads like a mash-up of Henry James and Raymond Chandler.
It leaves you longing for the film — which is already in the works.
THE TROLL by D. B.Thorne (Corvus £12.99)
A GUILT-RIDDEN father and successful banker who has long neglected his troubled daughter returns from Dubai to London to search for her after she goes missing.
When the police assume that Sophie, a celebrity journalist with a history of suicide attempts, has killed herself, her father is determined to find her himself. This is a dark story and takes the reader inside the mind of an internet troll.
It is a chilling account of what motivates these monsters and how they revel in their anonymous power.
There are interesting themes here, but the over-the-top ending leaves you feeling short-changed.
THE DAY SHE DISAPPEARED by Christobel Kent (Sphere £12.99)
A YOUNG barmaid called Nat is suspicious when her best friend suddenly disappears after texting to say she has met the perfect man. The shocking description of a murdered young woman right at the start of the book means the reader is one step ahead of Nat.
The tension mounts when Nat suspects she is being watched. So is she next?
Kent is clever at creating an atmosphere of intense suspicion around all the male protagonists, mostly because she has the rare skill of making her male characters as convincing as her female ones.
The writing is breezy and confident, but fans of her powerful bestseller The Loving Husband might be a little disappointed.