The Light of Day by Graham Swift (Penguin)

by Patrick O'Connor

THE central character here is former cop George Webb who now runs a detective agency from an office above a tanning studio on Wimbledon Broadway.

But if you are expecting a typical 'gumshoe' tale forget it. For this is a story about obsessive love, (although to be fair, there is also a murder).

The One Plus One by Jojo Moyes (Penguin)

by Patrick O'Connor

BE warned – this British road rom-com is as soppy as hell. But it's a delight, a lovely, heart-warming, life-enhancing love story which will captivate you from beginning to end.

The plot is relatively simple. Single mum Jess Thomas is struggling to keep her head above water; her teenage stepson Nicky is a loner who is being bullied at school and daughter Tanzie is a maths prodigy who is offered the chance to compete in a Math Olympiad at the other end of the country.

The Quarry by Iain Banks (Abacus)

It is sadly ironic to realise that whilst writing this novel which is about someone dying, author Iain Banks was not aware that his days too were numbered.

Banks passed away shortly after the book was published which adds to the poignancy of this tale about the central character Guy who invites old university chums to his house for a weekend.

Guy lives with his autistic teenage son Kit, who is the narrator.

Expo 58 by Jonathan Coe (Viking)

by Patrick O'Connor

THIS fictionalised account of the British involvement in the Expo or World Fair exhibition hosted by Belgium in 1958 is a deliciously witty 'espionage' novel which also pokes fun on how the British view themselves.

The main character is nondescript civil servant Thomas Foley, who is seconded to Belgium for six months to oversee a mock English pub called The Britannia in the British Pavilion.

The Woman Who Went To Bed For A Year by Sue Townsend (Penguin)

by Patrick O'Connor

SUE Townsend, who died last year, was regarded as one of Britain's best comic writers. She was best known for her Adrian Mole books, chronicling the diaries of a schoolboy through to his mature years.

This was her last novel and in it, Townsend explores an emotion many of us may have experienced at some time or other – 'sod it, I'm fed up with all this, I'm going to stay in bed.'

A Commonplace Killing by Sian Busby (Short Books)

by Patrick O'Connor

IN a moving forward to this marvellous novel, the BBC's economic editor Robert Peston pays tribute to his wife Sian Busby who died shortly before it was published.

Peston transcribed the final pages of her manuscript from a notebook he found after her death so that the book could be completed and anyone who reads it will be eternally grateful.