Paperback choice

2:08pm Thursday 24th April 2008

The Book of Murder Guillermo Martinez (Abacus, £10.99)

It's not often that cinemagoers get to ponder Wittgenstein's theory that mathematics is the only thing we can be truly certain about. Martinez's previous book, The Oxford Murders, has been made into a film starring John Hurt and Eljah Wood. The author's maths research brought him to Oxford for a two-year post-doctoral post in the 1990s.

His latest thriller exhibits the same fascination with numbers and probability, but is set in his native Argentina. This time a struggling writer is drawn into investigating a series of deaths. Luciana's parents and sister have died - she believes this is the work of a serial killer, but is it just chance?

Ferney James Long (Sphere, £7.99)

First published ten years ago, this time-travel love story by former Combe resident and BBC correspondent James Long has been reissued after going out of print. Ferney is an 83-year-old widower searching for the bones of his long-dead wife. Then a young couple, Mike and Gally, arrive in search of a of a country cottage, and Gally, mentally fragile after a miscarriage, discovers a ruined place for sale. Gally's relationship with Ferney is the focus for a powerful voyage into the past.

Tomorrow Graham Swift (Picador, £7.99)

Unusually for Swift, this is written from a woman's viewpoint, by the mother of teenage twins. The action occurs during one sleepless night, when she wrestles with the problem of how to tell her children a terrible secret. Writing in his gentle, subtle style, Swift builds the tension beautifully, but the truth, when it comes, is a bit of a letdown.

Tearing Down the Wall of Sound: The Rise and Fall of Phil Spector Mick Brown (Bloomsbury, £9.99)

You've Lost that Loving Feeling is the most-played single ever, yet its creator, record producer Phil Spector, lived as a recluse in his Los Angeles castle for 25 years, before granting an interview with Brown in December 2002. A few days afterwards, Hollywood starlet Lana Clarkson was shot dead at the house, and Spector was later arrested for murder. The trial is still ongoing. The story of his life is fascinating, and Brown tells it well.

Dog Eats Dog Iain Levison (Bitter Lemon, £8.99)

Bank robber Philip Dixon gets more than he bargained for when he spots US college lecturer Elias White having sex with a student. Blackmailed into becoming an accomplice, Prof Elias finds his true vocation. This cult thriller could be a joke present for an academic with a sense of humour.

Editor's choice