To The Last Page

It's not a Man Bites Dog story, it's not even a Dog Bites Young Girl story, as Champ has an alibi for his whereabouts at the time of the alleged incident, but even if that were the case no-one, we are led to believe, would do what the Lamberts have done. But when a policeman comes knocking on the door of the Hayloft in Swaffham Tilney to say the Lambert’s Welsh Terrier has been accused of viciously biting, not just nipping, Tess Gavey, Champ’s owner Sally Lambert does what no one else would do. And evidently enlists the rest of the family. The title makes it sound a little more sinister doesn't it? Well, that kind of suspense is something that this author is a master - or mistress - of, and surreal suspense at that. It's all in the way you tell it and Sophie Hannah has you on tenterhooks from the start with her extraordinary and unusual opening. A policeman, the PC in question in the first paragraph, has been left what looks like a battered dug-up manuscript that detail...

You’ve got to hand it to Sophie Hannah; she is wonderful at presenting you up-front with an intriguing and seemingly impossible situation so absurd that you are completely drawn in. There’s no option but to keep on reading to see how she is going to resolve this. The other great thing about Sophie Hannah and particularly in the case of Haven’t They Grown is that while the outcome and resolution might not be wholly convincing, the author never resorts to cheating the reader or lets them down. She has her work cut out for her with this scenario. Beth Leeson’s world turns upside down when she decides on a whim to check out the former home of a couple of old friends, Flora and Lewis Braid. She and her husband Dom haven’t seen the Braids for 12 years; once close, going on holidays together, their lives have gone in different directions with some underlying tension adding to them drifting apart. Beth is surprised to find that Flora is still at the house, but what is shocking and what makes ...

What an ingenious and sinister little book this is! It subtly manages to unsettle the reader right from the outset when Justine Merrison has a strange premonition. She, her husband Alex and their daughter Ellen are moving out of London, Justine leaving a stressful job as a TV drama executive to settle for a quieter life in their new home in Devon. The premonition isn't wrong, and Justine's life is far from quiet with the strangest things that go on in that part of the world. What is terrific about A Game For All The Family is how Sophie Hannah builds on similar little hunches and feelings in several other simple little events that on the surface don't seem worth worrying about, but are very odd if you think about them too much. As a TV drama producer, Justine is well aware of the concept of the 'unreliable narrator', but you begin to doubt yourself the reliability of what Justine is telling you. How much is real and how much is cumulatively built up and blown out o...