Sweet Tooth by Ian McEwan (Vintage)
by Patrick O'Connor
ACCLAIMED British author Ian McEwan delves into the world of espionage with Sweet Tooth but this is not the world of James Bond but a more mundane, everyday spy story, set in 1970s England.
The central character is ex-Cambridge maths student and bishop's daughter Serena Frome, who is recruited to M15 after a relationship with her married, middle-aged lover Tony Canning, a don at the university.
Rough Music by Patrick Gale (Fourth Estate)
THE dynamics of family relationships are put under acute examination in this expertly crafted tale.
Author Patrick Gale invites the reader along on two parallel journeys as we see a young married couple and their eight year old son embark on a two-week holiday at a picturesque beach cottage in Cornwall and then again witness the same family revisit the house some 30 odd years later.
Stonemouth by Iain Banks (Little, Brown)
by Patrick O'Connor
YOU should never go back could be the morale of this novel.
Stewart Gilmour has a successful career in London as a lighting designer but revisits his home town, the fictitious Stonemouth, positioned somewhere 'north of Aberdeen', for a funeral.
Afterlife by Sean O'Brien (Picador)
by Patrick O'Connor
THE organisers of a poetry festival in the fictious town of Divott near the Welsh border want to reintern the body of celebrated poet Jane Jarmain, a move that forces her one-time friend Martin Stone to look back on events in a sultry summer in the 70s.
Stone was obsessed by poet Thomas Exton and back in the 70s felt that his own troubled, drug-fuelled lifestyle shared parallels with the 17th century scribe.
One Moment, One Morning, Sarah Rayner, (Picador)
by Patrick O'Connor
COMMUTERS on the 07.44 train from Brighton to London usually keep themselves to themselves, buried in their books, newspapers or whatever gadget floats their boat.
But in One Moment, One Morning, everything changes for three women when a man collapses and dies from a heart attack. They are forced to confront major changes in their lives.
Trespass, Rose Tremain (Vintage Books)
by Patrick O'Connor
IN the Cevennes region of France, 10 year old Melodie skips away from her school picnic to explore.
To her delight she comes across a 'deep, sea-green pool' and strips down to her knickers to prepare to dive in when 'at the very corner of her vision, she sees something which shouldn't be there...then she starts screaming.'