BOOK OF THE WEEK

THE MOST DIFFICULT THING Charlotte Philby, The Borough Press, £12.99, ebook £5.99

FIRMLY in the emerging domestic noir genre, Philby’s debut is intricate, enigmatic, and compelling to the end.

Philby – an awardwinning investigative journalist and granddaughter of Britain’s most famous doubleagent, Kim Philby – is perfectly placed to blend spy thriller with domestic tension.

THE HIDING GAME Naomi Wood, by

Picador, £14.99, ebook £8.99 PAINTER Paul Beckermann looks back at events amongst his Bauhaus art school friends that led to the death of his lover Charlotte. The tragic conclusion is clearly signposted from the start, but the mystery is

Claims that The Most Difficult Thing is reminiscent of The Night Manager from a woman’s point of view, aren’t far off. Centred around two women and the men they love, the novel takes a good hard look at the nature of family, swirled with a gritty undercurrent of lies and betrayal.

Told through alternate chapters, Anna and Maria’s double lives interweave around a family patriarch, expertly trying to keep his unethical business dealings and murky past from catching up with him.

what lies at the true heart of individuals in this circle.

Thought-provoking parallels are drawn between Paul’s obsession with surfaces, depths and degrees of transparency in both character and art. The Bauhaus philosophy of seeking the essential nature of materials contrasts with the imitative art beloved of both the youthful Paul and the Nazi art dealer for whom he briefly works. Despite the drama of the pre-war Germany backdrop and the tangled loves of the group of friends, the overall effect is curiously bloodless. But it makes for a very different novel to the author’s last book,

Mrs Hemingway.

STOP BEING REASONABLE: SIX STORIES OF HOW WE CHANGE OUR MINDS by Eleanor Gordon-smith,

£14.99 ebook £9.94 Scribe, PHILOSOPHER Eleanor Gordonsmith tackles men on the street who catcall women, and finds they are able to carry on doing it, even after it’s pointed out to them that their efforts are not welcome. She talks to a middleaged man who discovers his parents had never revealed to him that he was adopted, and realises he doesn’t really mind, and, most chillingly, to a woman who can’t decide if she was abused or not.

While slickly written, at times, there is a slightly look-at-me cleverness to the style which jars, and the book has an oddly inconclusive feel.