MUST READS
The Twist of a Knife
by Anthony Horowitz (Penguin £8.99, 384pp)
Anthony Horowitz is the author of a mystery series whose main character is a writer named Anthony Horowitz. In the latest novel, Horowitz has ditched his investigating partner, ex-police officer Daniel Hawthorne, and turned to writing drama.
Soon his theatrical thriller, Mindgame, is opening in the West End, but on Press night, the play is savaged by a detestable critic, Harriet Throsby, who is found dead the next day.
She has been stabbed with a dagger handed out as an opening-night keepsake. Anthony’s old nemesis, Detective Inspector Cara Grunshaw, arrests him for the murder.
As the evidence piles up against him, Horowitz urgently needs Hawthorne’s help. With a victim who deserved her fate, and a cast of characters, each of whom has good reason to loathe her, Horowitz’s locked-room mystery is pure entertainment.
Ghost Lover
by Lisa Taddeo (Bloomsbury £8.99, 240pp)
Desire and disappointment stalk the pages of Taddeo’s short stories, in which women obsess about growing older, staying slender, and how best to attract a man — even when they know the longed-for lovers are unworthy.
In the title story, Ari is inspired by the loss of her lover, Nick, to create a hugely successful app. But she can’t get him out of her head, and plans to denounce him as a rapist at an awards ceremony.
In Beautiful People, Jane is cheated out of her most precious possession by an actor she meets.
Taddeo’s damaged heroines stalk the social media of women they envy and men they crave.
They pursue happiness via diets and designer goods, but what they really want is love. Taddeo dissects the contradictions of female desire with her distinctive blend of keen observation and compassion.
The First Half
by Gabby Logan (Piatkus £10.99, 368pp)
The broadcaster turned 50 this year. As Logan has four relatives who lived to be 100 years old, The First Half seems an appropriate title for her memoir.
But she reflects that life isn’t a linear journey: ‘it is the individual events in all our lives that can change their trajectories’.
Each chapter is inspired by a different turning-point. Some are tragic, particularly the sudden death of her 15-year-old brother, Daniel, in 1992 — an event that made Gabby determined to achieve something that would make the pain of his death worthwhile.
Others are hilarious: her story about explaining to the Queen how to breastfeed twins is a laugh-out-loud moment.
This is a captivating account of the first half of a life well-lived.
