Books: 5 great reads to recommend in 2020

Lisa Jewell: The Family Upstairs

Family secrets have always influenced good novels, but few go to the wire quite like Lisa Jewell's novel.

It starts with the inheritance if a house - a bequest that leads a young woman on a journey into her own past.

The home is in upmarket London and it’s worth a packet, but it comes with skeletons, and deep-rooted mysteries.

Twenty five years earlier three decomposing bodies were found in the kitchen, but, upstairs, lay a baby, well cared for, fed and simply waiting for someone to come to her rescue.

The story of what happened is told from the perspective of a handful of family members who each have their own perspective.

The story twists and turns throughout - it’s hard to say too much without giving up some spoilers - and is dark, subversive, and complex.

A great read for a winter’s night.

Hanna Jameson: The Last

My first read of 2020 - a perfect start too.

The book is set in a post-nuclear world. The bomb has gone up, civilisation has been wiped out, and there are 20 survivors in a hotel in Switzerland.

Oh, and one of them may be a killer - the discovery of a body in the water tanks bringing this story to life.

Jameson avoids all the disaster-plot cliches , and concentrates on shaping some fantastic characters who try to establish systems and order in a world of chaos and fear.

It’s a murder mystery, but it’s also much more than that as leaders emerge, challenges arise, groups form,  and the fear of the unknown outwith the hotel’s confines starts to grow.

It’s superbly written and executed, and treads very different ground to many other post-nuclear novels.

A fabulous read.

Chris Hammer: Scrublands

Crime novels with journalists as central characters are limited in supply - readers, and writers, tend to go for cops with complicated personal lives and dysfunctional back stories.

Scrublands shows how you can tilt the axis and come up with a superb book.

Set in a small town in the middle of nowhere in Australia, it features writer Martin Scarsden in pursuit of a story into a shocking tragedy which saw the local priest open fire and kill five of his congregation.

He arrives one year on, and the stories he hears don;t tally with the accepted version of events.

Faced with mistrust and loyalties galore, he has to integrate himself into a small town, and make the connections which will help him file the story that makes his name.

The book is as searing as the brutal heat which wilts the town - a truly superb debut from Chris Hammer.

It’s a hefty, intelligent read as well as being a gripping read.

One of the best books I read in 2019.

Jane Harper: The Lost Man

Another powerful thriller set in the Aussie Outback - and an equally good novel.

Harper’s debut, The Dry, was excellent. This one is even better.

It centres around one family who live hours apart such is the vast terrain. 

They live quiet lives and work the land, but the disappearance and death of a brother next to the old Stockman’s grave - a landmark in the middle of nowhere - opens up all manner of questions.

Murder, accidental death or suicide - and why was he even there in the first place?

Harper’s tight writing creates strong characters and grips you from the very first pages; drawn in by the slow pace adding to the atmosphere.

This is a glorious read which you’ll find hard to put down.

Ambrose Parry: The Way Of The Flesh

If you want to know what Edinburgh looked, and felt, like in the 1840s, this book brings it vividly to life.

A collaboration between established author Christopher Brookymre, and his wife Marisa Haetzman - a consultant anaesthetist.

It was her research  for her Masters degree into the history of medicine that sparked this new series which has the potential to deliver memorable stories galore.

The central characters are Will Raven, a medical student, who is an apprentice of the renowned Dr Simpson, and Sarah Fisher, one of the good doctor’s housemaids.

Their worlds collide when he starts to look closely at a series of deaths across the city.

Add in moneylenders hot on his upmarket coat-tails, and you have the makings of a smashing story.

The writers paint a colourful picture of life in Edinburgh for those with money and those with nothing, and bring the dark streets of Auld Reekie vividly to life.

This is the first in what is clearly a series of novels - get in at the start and enjoy the journey of two fascinating characters.