Best popular fiction out now: THE LOWE JOB by Grace Alexander, KILL BILLIONAIRE by Anders
THE LOWE JOB by Grace Alexander (Orion £16.99, 432pp)
Imagine a contemporary Mrs Bennet, of Jane Austen fame, with four beautiful daughters and no scruples whatsoever.
When ex-PR Lydia Lowe, a brilliantly monstrous character, turns her professional nous and natural cunning to furthering the careers of her girls, she’s initially wildly successful.
Lili goes global following a sex scandal staged by her mother and her sister Stevie is a TV star on the back of it. But youngest girl Katie struggles with all the attention and when hippy sister Iris invades Stevie’s love life, the trouble really kicks off.
While it’s quite explicit at times, I loved this snappy, witty and sharply observed debut.
KILL BILLIONAIRE by Anders Lustgarten (Chatto & Windus £16.99, 272pp)
When teen genius Kayla’s beloved woods burn, she vows revenge on the billionaires whose businesses are destroying the planet.
Together with Mr P, an outsize ex-soldier, and tiny elderly Nancy, she plots undercover assassinations across the globe. One California tech bro freezes in his own cryogenic chamber, while another falls victim to his own robot servants. As the plutocrat deaths pile up, Kayla becomes a global icon.
But in Catch Me If You Can fashion, the FBI and Scotland Yard are hot on her tail.
It’s all scarily believable, but Kayla’s a compelling narrator and her murders are horribly entertaining.
Ms Mebel goes back to the Chopping Block is available now from the Mail Bookshop
Ms MEBEL GOES BACK TO THE CHOPPING BLOCK by Jesse Sutanto (Corvus £9.99, 304pp)
Trophy wife Mebel is appalled when her husband runs off with their private chef.
Determined to win him back, she jets from Jakarta to a swanky French cooking school. It’s not in Paris though, but the Oxford suburbs.
Mebel’s princessy ways make it hard at first. Her fellow students are a third of her age and her room smaller than her walk-in wardrobe at home.
But she gets on with the work, makes friends with the youth and even falls in love with a sexy restaurant owner. But is Alain all he seems and what does it mean for Mebel’s marriage?
A funny, warm-hearted read about a woman’s late- life self-discovery.