MAYER WAKEFIELD applauds Rosamund Pike’s punchy and tragic portrayal of a multi-tasking mother and high court judge
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Crime fiction
Reviews of the Cut by Chris Brookmyre, The Measure of Time by Gianrico Carofiglio, The Art of the Assassin by Kevin Sullivan and The Moment Before Impact by Alison Bruce
FIONA O CONNOR recommends an unflinching depiction of child sexual abuse and its aftershocks, set in a working-class Liverpool family
New releases from Paul Weller, Wet Leg, and Dino Saluzzi
PAUL DONOVAN relishes the spectacle of a 1950s detective in pursuit of a 500-year-old murder mystery
MARIA DUARTE recommends the intricate study of a high-performance and highly dysfuntional German family
GUILLERMO THOMAS is intrigued by a history of the Middle East that demonstrates how promising post colonial beginnings were snuffed out by Western imperialist interests
THE CUT (Little Brown, £18.99), possibly Chris Brookmyre’s most exciting and funniest thriller yet, features Millicent, who has spent 25 years in prison for murdering her lover, a charge which she still denies.
Released to live with friends of friends in Glasgow, she finds the world a strange place and her existence pointless. But a chance discovery gives just the hint of a possibility of figuring out why her boyfriend was killed.
Pre-jail, Millicent was a special effects expert working in horror films and was the best in the business. When her path crosses that of a horror-obsessed film student and reluctant part-time burglar, the result is a dangerous chase across Europe and through the world of the video — itself a much-maligned art form, in the view of the odd-couple protagonists.
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A corrupted chemist, a Hampstead homosexual and finely observed class-conflict at The Bohemia
Beet likes warmth, who doesn’t, so attention to detail is required if you’re to succeed, writes MAT COWARD
