THIS WEEK’S BEST BOOKS

The List Of Suspicious Things by Jennie Godfrey (Hutchinson Heinemann, £14.99, ebook £7.99)

Jennie Godfrey’s beautifully written debut novel is based on her childhood in West Yorkshire in the 1970s. Miv has family issues – her mother has stopped speaking, her Aunty Jean has moved in and her dad is stressed… not to mention the issue of the Yorkshire Ripper murders.

A move “down south” is discussed, firing Miv’s drive to solve the case of the disappearing women in order to stop the move. Miv and her friend Sh aron make a list of all the suspicious people within their community but their search for truth reveals more secrets than they thought possible. This coming-of-age novel touches on themes of family, friendship, love, suicide, mental health, betrayal, loss and murder.

Amanda De-Beer

Every Smile You Fake by Dorothy Koomson (Headline Review, £16.99, ebook £9.99)

Profiler and therapist Kez Lanyon finds a baby in her car and suspects the mother is Brandee, a social media star who has gone into hiding, removing herself from the online world. Kez begins her search for Brandee and gets pulled back into a world she hoped she had left forever.

Dorothy Koomson has written a twisty tale that taps into child exploitation, the church of online influencers, pseudo psychology and radicalisation – and it doesn’t seem too far-fetched, as similar stories have been in the news. Each chapter is more addictive than the last, as the backgrounds of the characters are unpicked while their lives unravel and Koomson shines a light on the dark side of life online. Rachel Howdle

The Trials Of Lila Dalton by LJ Shepherd (Pushkin Vertigo, £16.99, ebook £6.99)

In an incredibly inventive debut, barrister LJ Shepherd draws upon her day job to write a new type of courtroom drama with a dystopian slant. Lila Dalton wakes up to find she’s leading the defence of a man accused of something horrific – but she doesn’t know how she got there and can’t remember anything from two seconds earlier.

Luckily, her brain has retained how to actually be a lawyer – but then the real mystery begins as she tries to find out who she is and why she’s in this courthouse on a strange island, with her phone tapped and death threats being slid under her door. A well-paced, gripping read – you’ll be desperate to learn the truth. Prudence Wade