The Scandalous Man by Gavin Esler
HarperCollins £17.99 Buy the book here

You've seen the author on Newsnight. Esler has reported political jiggery-pokery all over the world, and now he has turned his garnered wisdom into a traditional-yet-cracking political thriller. Harry Burnett is a translator who has not spoken to his father, Robin, a notorious Thatcherite minister, since he was destroyed by scandal. Robin has been attacked and left for dead, and Harry discovers a side of the man that he never imagined. There's the “secret” Hampstead flat, surely far too plush for a penniless has-been. And what about Robin's relationship with a famous US journalist? It gets murkier and more tangled, but the suspense never slackens.

A Fraction of the Whole by Steve Toltz
Hamish Hamilton £17.99 Buy the book here

Now that Martin Dean is dead, his son Jasper begins to analyse their tortured, peculiar relationship. Jasper has been raised in a world of nuttiness and paranoia. As a boy, he discovered a family hero: Martin's brother Terry, a criminal legend in the Ned Kelly mode. Martin tells his son how a sense of misplaced responsibility led to him shaping his criminal career by visiting the local prison to take masterclasses. And that is only the beginning of this exuberant, utterly brilliant Australian first novel. Booker, anyone?

Being Emily by Anne Donovan
Canongate £10.99 Buy the book here

“Following the events of a single day,” says the blurb on the back, “her family can never be the same.” Why not just come out with it? The protagonist's mother dies in childbirth. Now that's out of the way, we're free to enjoy Donovan's wonderfully fresh and moving writing. Fiona is a confused, clever teenager, fascinated by Emily Brontë. But she must struggle to find a direction for herself within her fractured family.

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