Cardiff killers and mystery men in this months popular fiction: JULIE TUDOR IS NOT A PSYCHOPATH by Jennifer Holdich, A BEAUTIFUL FAMILY by Jennifer Trevelyan, PRIVATE LIVES by Emily Edwards
Julie Tudor is Not a Psychopath is available now from the Mail Bookshop
JULIE TUDOR IS NOT A PSYCHOPATH by Jennifer Holdich (Hodder £20, 320pp)
I LOVED this brilliant Cardiffset comic debut. Admin worker Julie is obsessed with her colleague Sean. But he does not return her passion so she eliminates the competition, not once, but several times.
His wife, girlfriend and subsequently Sean himself meet what, to everyone else, are mysterious ends. Julie herself tells the story from her own highly selective point of view, also revealing some of her worrying early influences.
A great cast of secondary characters – office workers, neighbours, random tramps – add to the fun. Serious Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine vibes and just as hilarious, sad and disturbing. I predict a monster hit.
A BEAUTIFUL FAMILY by Jennifer Trevelyan (Pan Macmillan £16.99, 288pp)
WE'RE in 1980s New Zealand, on the holiday from hell with ten-year-old Alix, her parents and older sister Vanessa.
The rented house is bleakly horrid, overlooked by a voyeuristic neighbour, and after meeting a friend from school in the local shopping mall, Vanessa has started shoplifting and flirting.
To add to the fun, Alix's mother is up to something with the dad of another schoolfriend, which precipitates some violent reactions Oh, and a child died at the resort a few years previously, so Alix wants to try and find the body. She tells the tale through half-comprehending childhood eyes, but we can piece it together.
Atmospheric, disturbing and beautifully evoked.
PRIVATE LIVES by Emily Edwards (Penguin £18.99, 352pp)
HEADMASTER Seb has a secret – he once bought a sex worker's services. Said worker unknowingly moves to the posh south-coast town where his school is.
Entirely by accident, she becomes good friends with his wife. The cat emerges from the bag once busybody Anna gets involved and moral panic breaks loose among the schoolgate parents.
Can Seb face them down, and save his job and family? But the consequences don't stop there; Anna's own marriage is drawn into the cycle of destruction. Just who, the novel asks, is the villain here? A great premise and plot with lots of emotion.
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