The Decoy by Tony Strong, (Bantam £5.99)
If you enjoy a swift, harrowing and very frightening plot to your thriller look no further, this is the next one for your list.
Tony Strong has done it yet again with an un-put-downable cracker. Claire Rodenburg is a struggling actress in New York.
A girl has to pay the rent, so she agrees to become the decoy for a detective agency, hot to supply clients with proof of straying husbands.
When a chambermaid finds the macabre murder of one of Claire's clients, she (Claire) agrees to help the police find out if the victim's husband is the killer.
The narrative is unsparing in its brutality, but it is a fascinating work, with enough plots to necessitate a reread of previous pages more than once.
Tony Strong writes a masterful and gripping tale, a hot follow-on to The Poison Tree and The Death Pit. Other crime writers watch out we have a new king waiting in the wings.
Annie Dendy
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