The Living and the Dead in Winsford by Håkan Nesser; Little Black Lies by Sharon Bolton; In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware; Smaller and Smaller Circles by FH Batacan; The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra by Vaseem Khan
Sadly, Swedish author Håkan Nesser’s excellent Inspector Van Veeteren series has now come to an end, but his latest novel, The Living and the Dead in Winsford (translated by Laurie Thompson, Mantle, £12.99) is a standalone that certainly won’t disappoint. As far as her children and friends are concerned, Swedish former TV presenter Maria Holinek is in Morocco with her “literary colossus” of a husband, Martin, who, in the wake of a scandal, has gone there to write a book about an important event in his past. In fact, she is holed up, alone but for her dog, in the Exmoor village of Winsford. Maria pretends to the locals that she is an author seeking peace and quiet, but her sole intention is to outlive her pet. The revelation of exactly what it is that she is trying to escape and why she intends to end her life is gradual and utterly intriguing. Told in the first person, this is a superb evocation of a woman in the grip of a major emotional and moral crisis, set against a well-evoked moorland landscape.
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