Clutch of phantoms - Clare Layton

Brilliant psychological suspense, in the Barbara Vine school.

Cass Evesham, one of the rare women traders, has a shocking weekend, in every sense. Her lover ends their affair in a particularly brutal fashion, and the press besiege her with the news that the grandmother whom she thought dead, is a celebrated murderess, just released on parole.

Livia Claughton, now in a safe house under an assumed name, finds it difficult to accept help from those who can't imagine the horror of 25 years in prison - long punishment for a very different crime from the one for which she was convicted.

Julia, actress daughter of the famous singer killed in her prime, is determined to restart her flagging career - and feed her hatred - by starring in a theatre season featuring plays of revenge - the publicity could hardly be greater.

All three women have to come to terms with their pasts, their families and their futures - and Cass above all must discover if an instinct for violence is a genetic inheritance.

The pace is swift, the characters complex, fascinating and credible, and the situations compelling and all too convincing.