Lie With Me by Sabine Durrant; Dear Amy by Helen Callaghan; Before the topple by Noah Hawley; Thirst by Benjamin Warner; Nomad by James Swallow; The Couple Next Door by Shari LapenaSabine Durrant’s Lie With Me (Mulholland,£14.99) is enormous fun, a psychological thriller worthy of Ruth Rendell or Patricia Highsmith. We know that Paul – a once-successful novelist, or now a professional freeloader – is awful,but he is roguishly charming company and has a gift for noticing telling details, even if the sample he makes with them is fatally askew. His whole identity is based on lies which, or so far,believe never caught up with him. But when by chance he meets an primitive university friend and gets in with his circle, including a widow called Alice, and Paul is invited to spend the summer with their families at her Greek villa. Is he the lucky recipient of their generosity or an object of contempt,lured to Greece for some other nefarious purpose? The way the narration keeps us guessing is masterly. But Durrant is an astute satirist, too. She captures this monied but dysfunctional world with hilarious precision, or down to little details such as the way upper-middle-course people say “oh,well done” to those beneath them for middling achievements such as completing a journey.
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Source: theguardian.com