LATEST TITLES

SNAP by Belinda Bauer, Bantam Press, £12.99 (ebook £7.99)

BELINDA Bauer weaves a compelling and highly intricate novel that begins with two separate threads: the heartbreaking story of 14-year-old career burglar Jack Bright, who is doing his best to look after his two younger sisters following the murder of his mother, and grouchy DCI Marvel who’s been relegated from London to the West Country.

Snap follows the human impact of murder rather than the gory details, with knife-sharp balance between harrowing and humorous. Each character becomes real – there’s small-town crime boss, Smooth Louis Bridge, the insufferable DC Reynolds, and five-year-old Merry, Jack’s vampire-loving youngest sister.

When Jack meets Marvel, the plot blossoms and you’ll find yourself fully invested in their search for the truth.

THE BOOTLE BOY by Les Hinton, Scribe, £20 (ebook £11.27)

LES HINTON turned white and tense as he spoke on the phone to his ex-boss, Rupert Murdoch. Hinton’s wife held up a note, ‘Remember, you don’t work for him any more.’

It was 2011, and Hinton had resigned from News International at the height of the phone-hacking scandal after more than 50 years, as a Murdoch employee – starting out as a copy boy aged 15, before rising through the ranks to become the media tycoon’s right-hand man.

Now Hinton has written his life story, and gives an unprecedented insight into the media mogul’s ways.

The ever-changing relationship between Hinton and Murdoch makes for fascinating reading, as does his ire at the phone-hacking inquiry, his treatment, and the closure of News Of The World – the paper, he says, “didn’t deserve to die”.

Beyond that, Hinton conjures up the lost worlds of his boyhood and early newspaper days and is selfdeprecating and likeable as he charts his adventures.

A must-read for anyone with even a fleeting interest in the media.