From within the circle gathered to inter the body of her late husband steps Flora Chapman - retired schoolteacher, occasional seamstress; a colourless, frumpy woman hitherto mashed into the background by a vainglorious husband and his adoring daughter, Hilary.

In Amenable Women Mavis Cheek bestows on her heroine the cool, ironic stance for which she is known. We settle into the company of this new widow, enjoying her sharp, detached observations while also wondering, given the circumstances, how on earth she will manage. But manage she does - brilliantly. Flora revives the Tudor history of her village, a project that diverts as it also heals, bringing a deeply satisfying retribution as her own narrative becomes woven with that of the similarly besmirched Anne of Cleves.

Cheek writes in long, languorous sentences, meandering through with sustained observations and scenes of true comic brilliance. We watch, admire and warm to these women; each of their triumphs is our mounting satisfaction. A brilliantly funny, warm, intelligent read.

In Rebecca Miller's first novel, The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, marriage and motherhood also come under scrutiny. We are introduced, through the manicured lawns of Marigold retirement community, to a sensitive, intelligent and utterly unselfish woman who seems to exist only to make the lives of those around her easier. But Pippa's apparent serenity conceals a wild and troubled past. As her octogenarian husband braces himself for death, her defences begin to yield and the past springs loose.

Miller's prose is tight and compelling; it moves in its own fast rhythm, richly packed with images that slice open the text - contraceptive coils “lodged in her uterus like astronaut litter abandoned on the Moon”, an “open window like the yawning mouth of a dead man” - revealing the dark waters beneath. But one can't help feeling cheated. The fifty-something Pippa is such a good thinker - but we are deprived of her intelligence as Miller swings the focus of the novel to her younger self.

There are too many wild adventures, and their chronological unravelling begins to feel artificial. Miller has said that she wants to write books for books and films for films, but one can't help sensing the camera panning around as one reads this novel. She has a great voice but the promise of her writing is finally lost in an overdressed, overdramatic plot.

Amenable Women by Mavis Cheek
Faber, £15.99; 352pp Buy the book here

The Private Lives of Pippa Lee by Rebecca Miller
Canongate, £9.99; 220pp Buy the book here

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