PSYCHO

(Harvill £12.99) rUTh W Are has sold the film rights to her previous bestseller, In A Dark, Dark Wood to reese Witherspoon, so she is well on the way to thriller-writer royalty. her latest book is possibly even more cinematic.

hal is a damaged young woman who unexpectedly inherits a big posh house in Cornwall which is still home to a big posh family , who are not best pleased.

hal quickly realises there has been a mistake — she shouldn’t have inherited the house at all — but is torn about whether to reveal the truth because she is heavily in debt. Meanwhile, the family has its own secrets which begin to unravel in a way that threatens hal’s life.

Ware shamelessly chucks in elements of Agatha Christie and Daphne du Maurier and blends them with a gutsy contemporary take on the dangers of confronting the evils of damaged but privileged people.