Books

Two gripping new thrillers focus on relationships and the trouble they can get people into.

The New Girl by Harriet Walker (Hodder & Stoughton £12.99): Like a cat’s claws scratching down glass, this tangled tale sets your nerves on edge. Margot Jones has it all, she’s a glossy mag’s fashion editor, has a caring hubby, a lovely home and is about to have her first child. Needing a maternity stand-in she chooses Maggie because she’s a safe pair of hands. She won’t rock the boat. Wrong! It seems Maggie the mouse has turned into a monster, craving everything Margot’s got. Or is Margot suffering from hormonal paranoia? An insightful dissection of jealousy and insecurity.

Like Mother, Like Daughter by Elle Croft (Orion £8.99):

The author of

The Guilty Wife with another domestic noir to keep you discarding one theory after another as the story takes some devilish twists. Kat always tried to treat her two daughters alike, but she struggles with rebellious Imogen more than Jemima. Possibly because she’s looking for signs Imogen may be taking after her birth parents - both serial killers. Imogen doesn’t know she’s adopted, until she takes a DNA test. Now Imogen’s vanished, and a well-kept secret has explosively shattered a family. Reviews by Janet McKechnie.

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A KNOCK AT THE DOOR T.W. Ellis

Sphere £18.99

I love the Victor the Assassin series he writes as Tom Wood, so was quickly hooked on this head-spinning, full-throttle Ellis debut. A nightmare begins for unsuspecting Jem after waving her hubby Leo off on a business trip. Two people claiming to be FBI agents turn up telling her Leo isn’t who he

OPERATIVE 66

Andy McDermott Headline £20.99

Move over James Bond, there’s a new agent on the block In Alex Reeve, the deadly Operative 66 of the title, a former black ops specialist who’s officially licensed to do whatever dangerous deeds required of him by Her Majesty’s government. But, now it’s Alex in the crosshairs says he is, and she’s in danger. But, when the phone rings the caller tells her to flee because her visitors are really drug cartel killers. From there it twists, turns and surprises in Hitchcock style.

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of his own highly skilled team because he’s been branded a rogue asset, a traitor who knows too much about the shadowy world of spying to be allowed to live. It’s a pulse-pounding express ride as Alex bids to smash a dark conspiracy.

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