Hardback by Weidenfeld & Nicolson, £12.99 (ebook £6.99)
After her successful first novel Alys, Always, Harriet Lane returns with another psychological thriller. This time it is Emma who is the victim. Once a successful figure in the TV industry, she is now a struggling mother of two young children, feeling depressed and unappreciated by her family. The sleek and sophisticated Nina seems to have it all. But she has it in for Emma, wanting revenge for something that happened in their past, despite the fact that Emma doesn’t recognise her at all. Nina’s obsessive revenge starts small; but when her plan starts to involve her children, the novel takes a menacing and truly chilling turn. Lane clearly knows the streets of middle class Northern London personally; her social observations are astute and well observed. Switching between the two narratives, she builds the tension gradually, creating a realistic and terrifying revenge story that will send shivers down your spine.
