Bitter Orange

Claire Fuller Fig Tree €20.99 A water-bloated library, a billiards room dense with lurid graffiti, and a secret door hidden by twisting ivy. It’s the summer of 1969 and such is the atmospheric havoc that awaits unloved Frances Jellico when she heads to Lyntons, a ruined mansion whose garden follies she is to catalogue. But she is not alone: there to document the interior is handsome Peter and his tempestuous younger wife, Cara. Frances first spies them through a peephole she discovers in her bathroom floor but as a heatwave takes hold, the bohemian couple make her their confidante. Sinister and suspenseful, this gothic novel simmers with guilt, lust and envy.

Hephzibah Anderson