The Cut Up by Louise Welsh (Canongate, £20)
This welcome third outing for gay Glaswegian auctioneer Rilke opens with his discovery of a body. Obnoxious jewellery dealer Rodney Manderson has been killed outside the Bowery auction rooms, stabbed through the eye with the Victorian hatpin that his boss, Rose Bowery, has brandished in front of the nation on Bargain Hunt. As she discussed the pin’s virtues as a deadly weapon as well as its millinerial uses, the fiercely loyal Rilke decides – while feeling grateful to have skipped lunch and trying not to think of jelly – to remove it before calling the police. They soon decide they’ve got their man, but Rilke’s not so sure; the roots of the crime may lie in the past – in particular, a notorious reform school. With a central character who feels like an old friend, The Cut Up is as sharply observed, humane and beautifully written as its two superb predecessors.
The Persian by David McCloskey (Swift, £20)
Former CIA analyst McCloskey’s fourth novel centres on Jewish Iranian dentist Kam Esfahani. Dissatisfied with life in Sweden, where his family relocated when driven out of Iran, and wanting the wherewithal to move to California, he accepts an offer from the chief of Mossad’s Caesarea Division. Returning to Tehran, he runs a fake dental practice as cover for assisting in “sowing chaos and mayhem in Iran”. Things go awry when he enlists double agent Roya Shabani, widow of an Iranian scientist killed by the Israelis. The book takes the form of a series of confessions that Kam, now caught and imprisoned, is forced to write by his torturer, and these documents – which may or may not reveal the whole truth – are interspersed with flashbacks. Kam’s cynical tone and mordant humour serve to underline not only the horror, but also the inherent hypocrisy of the endless cycle of violence and retribution: this masterly novel is tragically topical and utterly gripping.
The 10:12 by Anna Maloney (Raven, £16.99)
In screenwriter Maloney’s debut novel, fiftysomething art lecturer Claire Fitzroy is on her way home from Manchester, preoccupied by a marital crisis, when a ragbag of angry screw-ups, their antisocial tendencies inflamed by internet rage-bait, hijack the 10:12 to Euston. With other brave passengers, Claire fights back, but some of her actions have drastic consequences; and when the surviving terrorists are put on trial, Claire finds herself in the court of public opinion, with many viewing her not as a life-saving heroine but as an unhinged menopausal murderer. Now she wants to put the record straight – and, unsatisfied by what she’s heard at the Old Bailey, to discover the whole truth. Gripping and immersive, this salutary tale of how we stereotype and underestimate others is a white-knuckle read that also gives food for thought.
Very Slowly All at Once by Lauren Schott (HQ, £16.99)
This tense, pacy debut novel is a cautionary tale about living beyond one’s means. Trying to maintain their dream home and lifestyle in an exclusive Cleveland suburb has left the Evans family – divorce attorney Hailey Evans, lecturer Mack, and their two young daughters – financially stretched. To make matters worse, Mack is suspended from work; Hailey’s most lucrative client reneges on payment; ominous cracks are appearing all over their newly built house; and they are about to have to start picking up the tab for Mack’s mother’s care home. The cheques that arrive from the mysterious “Sunshine Enterprises” seem like a godsend, and Mack convinces himself that they are his estranged father’s way of atoning for past wrongs, but soon the money is accompanied by requests that involve breaking the law … Schott cleverly keeps things just the right side of plausible as the Evans’s lives spin out of control, and paranoia and desperation take hold.
Vivian Dies Again by CE Hulse (Viper, £16.99)
Comic novelist Caroline Hulse’s crime debut is the story of 36-year-old hot mess Vivian Slade, who spends her life trying to “avoid being sober and alone”. She’s a chaotic nightmare as a flatmate, an embarrassment to her relatives and a source of ruined parties and outrageous anecdotes to her acquaintances. When someone pushes her off a balcony at a family gathering, she finds herself caught in the timeloop of her own murder, her only ally an exhausted waiter who, having cradled her broken body during her first “death”, is now stuck with her. There are flashbacks to various important events in Vivian’s life as she and Jamie try to work out who wants her dead and why, and Vivian realises that she needs to start asking awkward questions and confronting hard truths. Hulse performs the necessary sleights of hand with great aplomb in this witty and innovative mystery.
