PSYCHO THRILLERS  | Daily Mail Online

THREE PERFECT LIARS

by Heidi Perks (Century £12.99, 448 pp)

This book opens with a vivid description of an unnamed woman watching an advertising company’s office burning to the ground and a body bag being carried out.

Who burned down the building and why? There are three suspects: Janie, the former barrister wife of the company owner, Laura, who has returned from maternity leave and discovered she has been sidelined by her maternity cover, Mia, the third suspect.

Told from multiple perspectives and switching timelines, the story rattles along at an enjoyable pace. The well-observed depiction of Laura’s struggles as a new mother battling with the demands of her old job make her the stand-out character. But it’s Heidi Perks’ understanding of different types of women, and the fact that office politics is so often just a brutal playground for acting out unresolved issues at home, that makes this a winner.

WHO WE WERE

by B. M. Carroll (Viper £8.99, 416 pp)

The fashion for writing thrillers from multiple points of view is becoming a bit of a cliche, and often it’s a short-cut for authors who can’t handle proper plotting, so Carroll is pushing her luck with this one, as we are expected to juggle seven points of view.

This clever story revolves around a 20-year school reunion, which in turn provides an opportunity for the fascinating comparison of how childhood friends become surprisingly different adults. But things turn sinister when it emerges that one character has decided to hijack the reunion to take revenge for something that happened many years ago, something that all the friends were implicated in. The simple prose style makes this an easy read and, amazingly, the plot survives the multiple narrative voices.

LITTLE SECRETS

by Jennifer Hillier (Corvus £12, 352 pp)

Celebrity hairstylist Marin Machado has never recovered from having her son snatched from under her eyes at a farmers’ market in Seattle. She hires a private investigator to help with the search, only to discover that her husband is having an affair with a much younger woman.

Marin’s grief-driven energy soon converts into an obsession with the young rival, all with the encouragement of an ex-boyfriend.

The loss of her son seems to take a back seat in this curious mash-up of a plot, but Hillier has the talent to tie together a lot of disparate storylines. She is less successful at making the reader identify with her main characters, although she maintains the tension right until the end.