You All Die Tonight by Simon Kernick (title £20, 384 pp)

Seven acquaintances, including a retired police detective and a Russian gangster, wake up one morning to find themselves in a remote, locked mansion in Essex.

No one knows how they got there, but they were all drugged.

Then a disembodied voice announces that they have all received a poison that will kill them within 24 hours.

The only way they can save themselves is if one of them confesses to four brutal murders, known locally as the Blue Lake Massacre.

So begins Kernick’s latest, ever-inventive story, told with his usual flair and appetite for corkscrew twists. Really gripping.

One murderer, 7 suspects, 24 hours to live

The Enigmatic Daughter by Henry Porter (Quercus £22, 496 pp)

Very quietly, Henry Porter established himself as one of Britain’s finest spy writers, and here his supremely elegant talent is on full display.

Maverick Alice “Slim” Parsons is back from her latest MI5 mission – infiltrating the life of a brutal Russian tycoon who nearly rapes her.

She wonders if she will ever work in espionage again. But the department decides she should hide on a website that seems surprisingly knowledgeable about government activities. Could there be a mole in the upper echelons of power?

The site is run by a group descended from the Bletchley Park war codebreakers. Then his old enemy returns and the story turns into a threat to Slim and MI5 itself.

If you’ve never read Porter, now is the time to start.

You Can’t Hurt Me by Emma Cook (Orion £22, 304 pp)

This captivating debut film from an Observer journalist revolves around world-renowned neuroscientist Dr. Nate Reid, who built his reputation by describing the extraordinary symptoms of his late wife Eva, an artist who felt no pain.

His Pain Lab aims to help millions of people avoid it at all costs. Anna is offered the chance to work as a ghostwriter on her upcoming autobiography, and she quickly becomes fascinated with the couple’s marriage.

This seemed to be based on the ability to inflict and accept pain, which led to Eva’s death in the studio that was part of their home. But did she die by her own hands, or did Reid poison the cocaine that killed her?

Stylishly written, it reveals that no one can be trusted in a world dominated by pain.