THE BOOKCASE

The central theme of Thomson's haunting novel is how we shape our identity, and ultimately our destiny. Our protagonist Katherine was conceived by IVF and kept frozen for eight years until her parents decided they wanted her.

Now a naive 19-year-old and due to start university, she's virtually an orphan - her mother has died of cancer and her busy war correspondent father is often absent. To spite him, she decides to disappear, dropping her phone into the river in their home city of Rome and travelling to Berlin on a whim, having overheard the name of a man who's recently split from his girlfriend there.

Convinced she's being sent celestial 'messages', she allows her interpretation of a series of random encounters to shape where she goes, her "experiment with coincidence" - a journey that takes her through Russia to Svalbard in Norway. En route she acts out conversations with her father - and her daydreams start to slowly merge with reality until the reader's left questioning what's fact and what's fiction.

Narrated in the first-person present, Thomson's 10th novel starts as a floaty Amelie-esque adventure, and becomes darker and harder as Katherine's stubborn need to experience life in the raw leads her into some dangerous territory.

Although well-researched and with an acutely observed take on the growing pains and self-infatuation of a teenager on the cusp of a new life, Thomson's book leaves the reader cold with a protagonist who's ultimately unlikeable.

Midnight Sun

Jo Nesbo

Harry Hole did so much to establish Jo Nesbo as an international force in crime fiction, that he was always going to be a tough act to follow. Nesbo's departures with Headhunters and The Son showed that he was more than just the latest Scandinavian star of the genre. But Midnight Sun lets him down. There is something just not quite Jo Nesbo about the tale of a flawed hitman who can't quite pull off the job he he's lined up to do. A bit like the shooter whose trigger finger fails him, this story of on-the-run Jon leaves the reader searching for something more, just like Jon's pursuers in the far north of Norway where the sun never sets. Midnight Sun has its moments, including the comical use of a dead reindeer as a place to hide out from a drug dealer's heavies. A drug dealer who lives a double life as a fishmonger. Another hitman whose appearance is more clown than killer. Unlike the sun which never sets, this plot sinks quickly and never quite resurfaces as Jon, like Hole an anti-hero, fails to deliver as a character. Even his reason for choosing this job is something of a failure. The only endearing line is Jon's stop-start love affair with Lea, the central female character, and he does his best to mess that up. Perhaps in a thriller that comically fails, it is fitting that the reader is not sure if Jon succeeds until the last page.

John Crow's Devil

Marlon James

Ten years before winning the Man Booker Prize, Marlon James published his debut novel in Jamaica, now available for the first time in the UK. It tells the story of two priests, Pastor Bligh and Apostle York, at war over the soul of the congregation of the small town of Gibbeah. Blurring the line between good and evil, right and wrong, between God and the Devil, it questions how we choose to believe and who we choose to follow. As a study of radicalisation and of how trauma plays out down the generations, it feels contemporary and necessary, exploring how religion can be used as justification for mankind's deepest urges. The patois lends it authenticity, but it feels too two-dimensional, too superficial, the fire and brimstone of the preachers not tempered by deeper explorations of character. It's good, but Marlon James has better to come.

Christmas On Primrose Hill

Karen Swan

Unassuming charity worker Nettie finds herself caught up in a media storm following a misfired PR stunt, turning her into an unlikely viral star and global phenomenon. Her new-found fame lands her in the throws of passion with a boy band hunk, but there is something much bigger that she desires - answers from the mother who disappeared from her life. Swan's latest novel adds a seasonal theme to the tried and tested formula used by many chick-lit favourites before it, however, the Cinderella story has been done a million times over and there is nothing here to keep it fresh. The 'girl-next-door finds celebrity love interest' storyline is such a cliche, but with little substance to keep you interested, Swan basically presents us with 50 Shades Of Grey, without the sex. Although funny in parts, Christmas On Primrose Hill is unoriginal and lacks pace, leaving you frustrated and disengaged. A very disappointing, Christmas dud.