The Little Friend

This swampy Southern stew of Nancy Drew meets Flannery O'Connor meets Breaking Bad is slower in tempo and with characters more flawed and relatable than its predecessor The Secret History's intellectual sociopaths, but is a fantastic novel in its own right. TLF is carried by 12 year old Harriet, a brilliant creation, funny and scathing and magnetic, a child on the cusp of losing the innocence of childhood as she searches for her brothers killer. This isn't a light summer read - it's a dark, dark novel - but it's filled with humour and lovely little family details. Even better, it grips from the start and is completely engrossing.