Stephen Glover's latest tense and gripping thriller: Levin's War by Stephen Glover, The Shadows of Kensington Gore by Ross Montgomery, The Fresh Cut by Antti Tuomainen, Revenge Plot by Stephanie Wrobel

Published: 08:13 EDT, 30 October 2026 | Updated: 08:13 EDT, 30 October 2026 Levin’s War by Stephen Glover (Biteback £16.99, 368pp)Daniel Levin and Robert Upton served in the Second World War together, saving each other’s lives along the way.Ten years later Daniel is a committed communist, writing for the Daily Worker and struggling with his homosexuality, while Robert is an up-and-comer at the Foreign Office, while neglecting his artist wife in favour of his powerful mistress.Two seismic events – the Suez Crisis and the Hungarian uprising – force both men to question everything they believe in. And when MI5 encourages Robert to spy on Daniel, matters come to breaking point.A tense, moving, reexamination of a key moment in post-war history.The Shadows of Kensington Gore by Ross Montgomery (Viking £18.99, 352pp)Decima Stockingham is an ill-tempered octogenarian, who happens to be one of the finest detectives of the Edwardian era.Bored with exposing endless larcenous butlers, she’s delighted when a policeman is murdered on her doorstep, apparently by a group of militant suffragettes.Decima is wheelchair-bound, so it’s her young cockney sidekick, Stephen Pike, who has to risk life and limb following leads here and there. But it’s the wonderful Decima, of course, who unravels the elaborate conspiracy behind it all. Terrific.The Fresh Cut by Antti Tuomainen (Orenda £18.99, 264pp)Heikki Nevalainen runs a failing sawmill in rural Finland. He’s deep in debt to a local gangster, Ismo Sippo. So when Sippo poisons his wife and asks Heikki to use the sawmill to dispose of her body, he has little option but to agree. Except the wife, Annaleena, comes to before meeting the wood chipper, and is keen to take revenge.An expertly plotted black comedy, with a fine cast of eccentric minor characters, especially a lovelorn Belgian wood-buyer and gourmet. Fargo comes to Finland – thoroughly enjoyable.Revenge Plot by Stephanie Wrobel (Michael Joseph £16.99, 400pp)Literary agent Claudia Conway is celebrating Christmas alone in a luxurious, snowbound Catskill cabin, when a car crashes outside. The occupants are single dad Arnie and his six-year-old son, Theo.Claudia welcomes them in, but when it turns out that Arnie is an aspiring author carrying a manuscript, she realises the crash was no accident.It’s a familiar set-up, though a cunning twist takes us in an unexpected direction. A smart satire let down by a poor ending.