Lisa Jewell returns in this week’s psychological thrillers: It Could Have Been Her by
It Could Have Been Her by Lisa Jewell (Century £22, 432pp)
A NEW Lisa Jewell thriller is always an event and this one is billed as her darkest yet – and with good reason.
The central character is Jane Trevally, a fiftysomething single woman grappling with her own demons and lack of a place in the world when a lost dog called Hugo catapults her into a painful revisiting of her past.
She tracks the dog’s owner to a home by Hampstead Heath only to discover it’s the same creepy house she herself escaped from 25 years ago after a terrifying encounter.
However, there is no sign of the dog’s young owner at her home and nobody seems concerned.
So Jane sets out, with the help of her stepson, to find the girl and unlock the secrets of the night all those years ago when Jane could have died.
As usual, it is Jewell’s trademark psychological insights into her characters that will convince, and compel, her readers in their millions.
You Know What You Did by K. T. Nguyen (No Exit Press £9.99, 384pp)
In this deliberately disturbing tale, the central character, Annie, finds herself unravelling after the sudden death of her mother, a Vietnamese refugee.
Her previously successful life as an artist melts away into chaos with the return of debilitating OCD.
The police become involved when Annie wakes up in a hotel room with a lifeless body next to her. Meanwhile, her relationship with her teenage daughter is in tatters. The author ties these seemingly random events together with an eye to maintaining the tension while making you stop and stare at the same time, as the thriller sometimes veers into horror story territory.
Some of the descriptions of OCD are troubling. But there is a rewarding symmetry to a plot that bravely tackles themes of intergenerational trauma with understanding and compassion.
Our Last Resort by Clemence Michallon (Elliott & Thompson £9.99, 352pp)
Once devoted brother and sister, Frida and Gabriel are reuniting at a luxury resort hotel in the American desert when a beautiful young guest is found dead.
Frida was already alarmed after witnessing an altercation between the dead woman and her much older husband. But it is Gabriel who becomes chief suspect.
When the resort is put in lockdown by police, Frida has to relive the dramatic events of their childhood being raised in a cult in New York – and ask herself whether the events of her youth might have some bearing on her brother’s guilt. An intriguing take on sibling loyalty with a gripping conclusion.