Fiction fix: Kind Of Cruel

Kind Of Cruel by Sophie Hannah

When insomniac Amber Hewerdine visits a hypnotherapist to cure her sleep problems, she doesn’t expect the memories she dredges up to connect her to a police investigation, yet two hours later she is questioned about the murder of a woman she has never met.

It’s a typically intriguing Hannah opener, and fans of her thrillers will be satisfied by the number of twists and shock revelations that keep the plot moving. What makes her compelling reading, though, is not so much the whodunit element as the why. How do memories work? What makes a lie compulsive? Hannah excels at dissecting human behaviour, and the way she describes little acts of cruelty can send real chills down the spine.