THE SIX WHO CAME TO DINNER

(Doubleday £12.99, 272pp)

Anne YoungSon’S diverting short stories are gleefully grim; brimful of sudden violence, overwhelming emotion and salient life lessons, where everyday people — hairdressers, housekeepers and wildlife photographers — are at the mercy of dark minds and messy motivations.

There’s an accomplished liar who knows ‘you have to be within touching distance of the truth’ to be believable (empty nest); a cosy dinner party, in the titular story, that becomes wincingly uncomfortable as the host provokes soul-searching in her guests; while the narrator of The weekend in Question finds a body and discovers the wealthy people she cleans for are as ‘full of ambivalence and good intentions’ as she is.