Jane Jesmond's fast-paced thriller 'Cut adrift'

 If ever I'd thought "Follow THAT!' on finishing 'On the Edge' (despite a sigh of satisfaction most definitely tinged with admiration and, yes, a twinge of envy as I suspect I might've done) Jane Jesmond has proved herself eminently capable of doing just that. So many of the characters first met in that debut reappear in this: Jen, as brave as ever and maybe more more sensitive; her mother, Morwenna), assuredly more sensible, and Nick Crawford a LOT more enigmatic, as they hurtle towards trying to make safer a wicked and dangerous embroilment of people-smuggling. Thoroughly deserving of its Sunday Times nomination of 'Thriller of the month' I know it is one I'll return to more than once for the sheer pleasure of re-reading.

Jane Jesmond - On the Edge

As it says on the cover, Jen Shaw loves danger. Even so, hanging off a lighthouse, held only by a fraying rope does sound less than delightful, but to say that she survived beyond chapter two doesn't count as a spoiler because there's plenty more dodgy situations to overcome, not least her embroilment in her eccentric family's problems and the man who rescues her from the rain. But there's another plus, because while racing through to find out whether, and how, she'll escape, I was also aware of how much I savoured the skill of the writing. Enough for me to know I'll be re-reading this again shortly, and more slowly, to properly appreciate.

I promised myself a re-read, and spent all day yesterday doing just that; unable (thanks to my inability to remember how it ended) to put it down, and held by the many tensions on the way to the finale). Now left satisfied, but craving more.