Murder – but who’s the victim?

BEAUTIFUL BAD by Annie Ward (Quercus £12.99, 400 pp)

WARD writes with the same compelling energy as you get in a blockbuster Netflix series.

Beautiful Bad tells the story of a young American travel writer called Maddie who falls in love with Ian, a troubled British soldier, while she is staying with her best friend in the Balkans.

The book opens, however, on a brilliantly descriptive flashback to the scene of a killing in Kansas. We are not sure who is actually dead, but we do know Maddie is in some way involved.

We learn that she is now the mother of a toddler. She is having therapy to deal with both the aftermath of an accident which left her with horrific facial injuries, and her very troubled marriage to a man who seems to be suffering from PTSD.

The original storyline and the expertly drawn minor characters will leave you suspecting everyone — and trusting no one.

BEFORE SHE KNEW HIM by Peter Swanson (Faber £12.99, 320 pp)

FANS of his previous bestsellers, such as All The Beautiful Lies, won’t be disappointed with Swanson’s latest offering.

A young couple, the annoyingly named Hen and Lloyd, have just moved to a Boston suburb. During dinner with their new next-door neighbours, Hen comes across a fencing trophy she believes was taken from the scene of an unsolved murder.

Hen has secrets of her own relating to the murdered man. We learn quickly that she has a morbid preoccupation with death and is grappling with her own mental health issues, so we don’t know how much to trust her suspicions.

As usual, Swanson is spot on with his understanding of the shifting power in relationships. New readers might find his reliance on quirky coincidence less convincing.

THE GUILTY PARTY by Mel McGrath (HQ £12.99, 384 pp)

A GROUP of old friends — two women and two men — meet up and, after a lot to drink and a long night out, witness what appears to be a woman being sexually assaulted. They decide not to get involved. The woman is later found dead, washed up on the banks of the Thames.

The novel explores the deep ties between the friends, who have a mysterious Facebook group with only the four of them as members.

There’s a lot of perceptive writing about the nature of friendship. And McGrath is a thoughtful writer. But in the end, the book’s plot relies too much on the reader being able to imagine themselves in the same outlandish circumstances.