Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy (Canongate, £9.99)
The award-winning Australian writer’s third adult novel begins with a lone woman, Rowan, washed up on a remote island between Tasmania and Antarctica. Shearwater is a research outpost, home to the global seed vault created as a bulwark against climate catastrophe and to colonies of seals, penguins and birds. For eight years, Dominic Salt and his children have lived there, but dangerously rising sea levels mean that they, and the vault, will shortly be evacuated. Dominic cannot understand why Rowan has ended up on Shearwater, and Rowan is mystified by the absence of the scientists and researchers, about whom the family are tight-lipped – and the island’s communication centre has been mysteriously sabotaged, isolating them still further. McConaghy writes beautifully about the natural world and expertly ratchets up the tension, as mutual suspicion increases and secrets are gradually revealed. This is a powerful read that encompasses not only grief, sacrifice and perseverance in the face of disaster, but also survival strategies and their concomitant moral dilemmas.
Darkrooms by Rebecca Hannigan (Sphere, £20)
When chaotic kleptomaniac Caitlin returns to her small Irish home town after the death of Kathleen, the mother from whom she has been estranged for many years, she’s pleased to be welcomed by the Branaghs, friendly neighbours she remembers from childhood. Less pleasant is being forced to confront past traumas, including the disappearance of her nine-year-old friend Roisin from a local wood 20 years earlier. Caitlin feels guilty about this, as does Roisin’s older sister Deedee, who is sure that Caitlin is still hiding something. Having joined the garda to find answers that never materialised, Deedee is drinking heavily, making poor decisions and jeopardising both her job and her relationship, and both women desperately need closure … This impressive, if bleak, debut is a slow-burning but well paced story of shame, guilt, misplaced loyalty and generational trauma, the conclusion of which, once one is in possession of all the facts, has a heartbreaking inevitability.
The Nancys and the Case of the Missing Necklace by RWR McDonald (Orenda, £9.99)
Winner of the Ngaio Marsh award for best first novel, New Zealander McDonald’s debut is set in a small town in South Otago. Eleven-year-old Tippy Chan has had a tough year after the death of her father, and when her mother goes on a Christmas cruise, leaving her in the care of her uncle Pike and his new partner Devon, she’s not sure what to expect. Pike, who fled to Sydney many years earlier, and Devon, a fashion designer, arrive in a blizzard of sequins and exuberance, but what begins as a jolly romp against a background of queeny flamboyance and inappropriate innuendo – which, mercifully, sails over our young narrator’s head – darkens when one of Tippy’s teachers is found dead in suspicious circumstances. Uncle and niece being devotees of the Nancy Drew mysteries, they feel compelled to investigate, and the Nancys detection club is born. As well as a compelling mystery, this is a funny and touching account of family, friendship and loss, with a trio of appealing characters at its heart.
Best Offer Wins by Marisa Kashino (Doubleday, £16.99)
American journalist Kashino’s first novel is a satirical thriller about the housing market, set in Washington DC. PR executive Margo and her lawyer husband Ian are desperate to move out of their cramped flat and buy a home where they will be able to start a family but, demand far outweighing supply for the type of property they desire – colonial style in a good area, the very benchmark of Successful Adulthood – they keep losing bidding wars. When Margo, the cynical but sensitive product of an unstable childhood, hears of a perfect house about to be put on the market, she decides to persuade the owners into a private sale. What begins with stalking and befriending under false pretences soon escalates, and events spiral out of control as Margo becomes increasingly deranged in pursuit of her life goals. Dark, funny and inventive, this is an ingeniously entertaining take on millennial anxieties.
Your Every Move by Sam Blake (Corvus, £14.99)
More dirty dealings in the world of property, this time among the estate agents themselves. Your Every Move is set in London, where Sterling & Co sell houses that would attract the highest band of mansion tax to the uber-rich. Successful saleswoman Rosie Kinsella, who is also an influencer with an Instagram account full of property porn, usually enjoys her work, but now she’s being stalked. “Michael” appears to believe that he has a relationship with Rosie and, terrifyingly, has progressed from messaging to sending her photographs clearly taken from inside her home. Meanwhile her boss, Yaraslava, has problems of her own – and then a colleague is found murdered in one of the luxury houses on their books. Seasoned crime readers may work out whodunnit fractionally before Rosie does, but this zippy chick lit/psychological thriller mashup with a dash of romantic suspense is just the job for a long winter evening.
