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THE ALIBI GIRL

by C.J. Skuse (H.Q. £7.99, 384 pp)

This writer may have a difficult name to remember but once you have read one of her excellent books, you won’t forget it. The first two, Sweetpea and In Bloom, were bursting with anarchic (not juvenile) comedy and over-the-top, twisting plots. In the Alibi Girl she also dares to be tender, funny and outrageous at the same time.

The story starts with Joanne telling a bunch of lies to a hairdresser about who she is. We quickly discover that she tells absolutely everyone a different story.

The murder of a girl who looks like Joanne raises the stakes and we are expertly pulled into the mystery of who Joanne really is and why she is telling all these lies.

This is a fast-moving, complex and troubling study of family lives that manages to make you laugh and cry at the same time.

DEAD RINGER

by Nicola Martin (Contraband £8.99, 320 pp)

The idea of this book might sound a bit far fetched — two girls find their doppelgängers via a new facial recognition app and decide to swap lives.

Nicola Martin spins this slightly dodgy idea into a tense and compelling story that courageously embraces contemporary themes ranging from new tech consumption to mental health.

Ella is the girl who comes from a deprived Northern background and Jem is the London party girl who seems to have it all. But both have very big problems.

The book tracks the dark twists and turns as their innocent idea to swap lives in order to solve problems plays out as a treacherous and disturbing nightmare.

Being partly set in the little-known and very isolated landscape of Walney Island in Cumbria is one surprising aspect of the book’s appeal. But it’s Martin’s nimble skill at creating such relatable characters that makes this book so easy to read. Her talent for imagining dramatic scenes between two women will delight fans of Killing Eve.

THE HOUSE ON THE LAKE

by Nuala Ellwood (Penguin £7.99, 320 pp)

This dully titled book opens with a gripping prologue in which an unnamed character appears to confess to murdering a man.

Lisa is the first character we meet as she escapes from her abusive husband with her three-year-old son to hide out in a dilapidated house on a lake.

We know all is not well because he keeps saying ‘Want daddy’.

The other main character in the story is depicted through the 2003 diaries of an 11-year-old girl being brought up as a survivalist by her ex-soldier father.

Ellwood is well-versed in the difficult themes she takes on, such as PTSD, but the storytelling is somewhat interrupted by her commitment to explain all the themes and issues.

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