Falling, by Elizabeth Jane Howard

(Pan, £6.99)

DAISY Langrish is looking for peace, a place to forget her traumatic past, the end of a passionate second marriage, problems with her daughter and somewhere she can settle down to a spot of serious writing.

A cottage in North Oxfordshire appears the ideal spot in which to retreat with her wounded pride, humiliation and anger. Really getting away from it all.

Henry Kent appears almost immediately. He lives on a boat nearby. Daisy's sense of unease is slowly appeased as Henry subtly works at making himself indispensable, at first as gardener and handyman, then confidant and finally lover.

With his goal of marriage just around the corner, Henry must surely be home and dry. But is he?

There's a thrilling end to this clever exploration of the wonder and worry of falling in love in late middle age, and warning of the danger of how our need for love can be exploited to nightmarish effect.

It's clever, tense and gripping, although not always an easy read as the chapters appear in a sort of diary form, alternating from Daisy's to Henry's points of view. Beverly Abbs