Jane Harris — Gillespie and I

Faber and Faber (UK) 2011 Paperback, 440pp. In the late 1920s, elderly Harriet Baxter sets out to relate the story of her relationship with Ned Gillespie, a talented artist who never achieved the fame he deserved because, back in the early 1890s, he destroyed his own work before committing suicide. Harriet mourns his loss, and the waste of his talent. But did she play a greater part in the grisly downfall of Ned and his family than she's willing to admit? Infused once again with atmosphere and period detail, and shot through with the same wicked humour, Gillespie and I is another gothic tour de force from one of the emerging names of British fiction. (ISBN: 9780571238279). Good.