Ghosted Jenn Ashworth

Sceptre, £16.99

There are disappearances of all kinds in Ashworth’s haunting fifth novel, which begins when Laurie’s husband Mark vanishes.

The couple had humdrum morning sex, he offered to make her the usual cup of tea to help with her usual hangover, but then he left the flat without taking his wallet and keys, and quietly vanished.

It takes Laurie five weeks to notify the police. Unable to face up to the situation, she initially attempts to carry on as normal.

She visits her father who’s in the grip of dementia and speaks to his carer Olena, whom she suspects of stealing his money, and she continues to turn up to her cleaning job.

Laurie spends the evenings drinking herself into oblivion to mask the cold, eerie emptiness that seems to seep under the closed door of the spare bedroom.

But when the police investigate Mark’s disappearance, and Mark’s mother travels from the Algarve to help search for her missing son, Laurie is forced to confront some unpalatable truths.

There’s her out-of-control drinking, her anger, her refusal to get help for the couple’s shared trauma, her jokey dismissal of emotions that Mark found hard to reveal.

On his side, there was an out-of-character altercation at work, an online presence on conspiracy theory websites, and a gradual withdrawal from Laurie.

It’s a revelatory portrait of a marriage. Although Laurie is acerbic and funny, this is an immeasurably sad read, aching with the unacknowledged grief of a complicated couple who have lost more than they can say.