The Last Days of John Lennon by James Patterson

led to the betrayal of a Resistance network and, by extension, of Moulin. It’s a murky story, carefully teased out. A grim subject alleviated by Marnham’s memory of time spent as a student with the family who belonged to the betrayed network.

Finally, two novels from small publishers, both unlikely to be much reviewed. David Willington’s Palestine Affair, set in the last months of the British Mandate, is unusual in being told from the point of view of the British Palestine Police, trying to keep

Athe peace and be fair to both Arabs and Jews.

Borderline by Jim Forbes is a contemporary crime novel set on the Anglo-Scottish Border, with a passage which harks back to the Battle of Otterburn. It makes good use of the complexities that may arise even today from the differences between Scots and English Law. In this most challenging of years, it’s good to see such breadth and quality of writing and it bodes well for the future.

James Patterson returns with this novelised biography of John Lennon and his murderer, Mark Chapman.

It is informed by copious interviews – including with Paul McCartney – and secondary sources, and interspersed with scenes from Chapman’s viewpoint, which are reconstructed from available evidence, and attempt to get into the killer’s head. These parts don’t feel entirely convincing, and lend the narrative an odd asymmetry. While this is no hagiography, no fan of Lennon’s could read this book without being aware of several other accounts that paint him as a far more complex and ambiguous character. By comparison, this formulaic true-crime version reads almost like an authorised biography – and there was surely nothing “authorised” about John Lennon.