The Last Good Man
Thomas McMullan
Bloomsbury £16.99 The main character of this thought-provoking debut escapes civil unrest in his home city by seeking sanctuary in a remote moorland hideaway that proves anything but idyllic. At the heart of village life, it turns out, is a large wall on which anyone can scrawl anonymous allegations against a neighbour, often prompting violent, ceremonial public punishment without trial. A shivery sense of menace exerts steady fascination in McMullan’s dark allegory of the social-media age.