THE TRUTH AND strataderm thật giả OTHER LIES

by Sascha Arango

(Simon & Schuster £14.99)

Already a bestseller in Germany, this debut from screenwriter Arango is destined to be every bit as big a success around the world, for it introduces a character — author Henry Hayden — who is as compelling as Patricia Highsmith's legendary Tom Ripley.

Amoral, witty, sexually unscrupulous and an occasional murderer, Hayden utterly inhabits every page of this superb story, leaving behind an indelible impression.

On the surface he is a phenomenally successful author, aged 44, whose books often appear as set texts in school exams, while in truth he is a deeply secretive man who has concealed the fact that his wife Martha actually writes all his books — though only she and he know that.

When his mistress, who also happens to be his editor, finds that she is pregnant with his child, events begin to overtake him.

He decides to kill his wife and, eventually, his mistress, but to do it in such an ingenious manner that the local homicide squad will never suspect.

So begins a house of mirrors of intrigue that ends with a delicious twist.
The finest crime novel I have read this year.

THE WASHINGTON STRATAGEM

by Adam Lebor

(Head of Zeus £7.99)

An Israeli-born female James Bond hidden deep in the heart of the United Nations is the premise behind this strikingly well-informed, smartly plotted, thriller.

Yael Azoulay has been carrying out covert missions for fictional UN Secretary General Fareed Hussein for some time.

Indeed her first outing came in Lebor's last book The Geneva Option, where she almost lost her life, but now she is back in New York, and the stakes have suddenly become even higher.

Her mentor Hussein is pushed aside in a coup at the top of the organisation, and she finds herself sidelined by the new Acting Secretary General Caroline Masters, a powerful woman with her own political agenda.

Azoulay has to unravel the conspiracy to unseat her former boss while at the same time grappling with a shadowy lobbying operation called The Prometheus Group and its fearsome chief executive — the Goldfinger of the novel.

Azoulay is a carefully crafted character, seemingly fragile yet made of tungsten, with an innate sixth sense.

She may not quite be 007 yet but she is on the way . . . so catch her now.

THE SILENT ONES

by Ali Knight

(Hodder £19.99)

Knight's first novel, Wink Murder, was smart, well-written, and genuinely thrilling, and I raved about it.

This is her fourth, and it is even better.

Indeed, she has created a terrific villain — a female serial killer named Olivia Duvall, who refuses to disclose the whereabouts of the five teenage girl victims she confessed to killing ten years ago.

Enter the brother of one of the victims who is obsessed with finding his sister.

Darren Evans gets himself a job as a cleaner at the secure psychiatric hospital where Duvall is held, and sets out to befriend her.

But she is far too clever for him, killing one of her fellow inmates with one of his mops while he stands by helpless.

The parallel with Hannibal Lecter is clear: serial killers are manipulative, devoid of a sense of right or wrong, and like to amuse themselves.

This might not have quite the terrifying grip of Thomas Harris's first Lecter novel, Red Dragon, but it is fiendishly clever nevertheless.