By Sarah Pinborough

HarperCollins, out now

Everyone has their secrets – but are some worse than others?

Sarah Pinborough’s latest novel is one of those stories that’s going to stick in your mind for a long time after you read it, as the deeper implications of the story resonate. It’s a slick and pacey tale that presents its story from multiple points of view – a mother and daughter, and the mother’s best friend for the most part – with constant revelations that make you reassess what you’ve read so far. If you enjoyed Christopher Nolan’s movie Memento (the one told backwards) you’ll appreciate this – there’s the same pulling out of the rug from your expectations (and of all the twists in the book, there’s only one that I saw coming – although Pinborough seems to play fair with all the information there, albeit perhaps providing it from unreliable narrators).

And if that’s all there was to Cross Her Heart, it would still deserve the time you spend reading it – Pinborough’s plotting and characterisation are as intricately woven together as ever – but there’s more to this book than that. It’s a novel about the secrets that we all keep in our everyday lives (whether it’s domestic abuse or the realities of caring for elderly relatives) – and the secrets that society as a whole chooses to ignore. We’re horrified at news of serial killers, but, as recent news stories have shown us, there’s a sick underbelly that traps others within it, children caught up in cycles of abuse that most people prefer not to think or do anything about. The most truly horrifying moment in this book comes when a mother doesn’t just turn a blind eye but actually bargains with an abuser. And you know deep in the pit of your stomach that that’s all too real.

Verdict: Strong characters, slick plotting and a spotlight shone on areas we’d prefer not to examine… Sarah Pinborough goes from strength to strength, and this is her finest yet. 10/10

Paul Simpson