The women haven’t been in contact since a terrible accident at the exclusive American college they both attended, where the devious scholarship girl Lucy, whose backstory contains some disturbing inconsistencies, formed a dangerous obsession with her rich roommate. Emotionally fragile, Alice is badly in need of support, but the unannounced arrival of her former best friend worsens matters. Sweltering in her European clothes, Alice soon becomes too scared of the teeming, dusty streets to venture from their flat, and John, who has married her for her inheritance, leaves her to stew while he embraces all the city has to offer. It’s 1956, and Alice and her husband, John, have moved to Tangier. The amoral, manipulative presence of Patricia Highsmith’s Tom Ripley hovers over Tangerine (Little, Brown, £13.99), Christine Mangan’s tale of expats behaving badly in Morocco (set to be a film starring Scarlett Johansson).
With a fast-moving, complex plot underpinned by solid but unobtrusive research and plenty of drama and intrigue, Taylor brings the 17th century to life so vividly that one can almost smell it. His investigation brings him back into contact with tough-minded Cat – now living under an assumed name – and he turns to her for help. This is chalked up to senility, but after Nathaniel is run over and killed by a wagon, James discovers a bloodstained list of names among his personal effects and begins to wonder if the old man was telling the truth.
Marwood’s elderly father, Nathaniel, claims to have seen the body of a woman at Clifford’s Inn, where the court sits. The city is being rebuilt, with the eponymous fire court settling individual disputes over who should pay for what. A sequel to The Ashes of London, his magnificent evocation of the Great Fire of 1666, The Fire Court (HarperCollins, £14.99) takes place the following year and continues the stories of James Marwood and Cat Lovett. Property, or the smoke-blackened ruins thereof, is also at the heart of Andrew Taylor’s latest novel.
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