The act of reading always involves identification: with the story, the characters, the author’s intentions. Renée Knight takes this concept and pushes it to dangerous extremes in her psychological thriller Disclaimer (Doubleday, £12.99, pp. 304, Spectator Bookshop, £11.69). Catherine Ravenscroft finds a novel in her house which she doesn’t remember buying, and which seems to be telling the story of her own life. Her deepest, most terrible secrets are included. And the final page ends with her own murder. Is this a threat? How can the author have such an intimate knowledge of Catherine’s life, of events and feelings that she’s kept hidden even from her husband?
This is a post-Gone Girl novel: a troubled marriage, and two interlocking stories complete with unreliable narrators. It’s a finely crafted puzzle box. In these days when anybody can write what they like about us on the internet, the book is certainly timely. How far should we go to maintain our privacy? What happens when we confront the person behind the pseudonym? The truth shifts back and forth.
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