The Exhibitionist

Charlotte Mendelson                                                                            Mantle £16.99

Longlisted for this year’s Women’s Prize for Fiction, Mendelson’s fifth novel is a compulsive distillation of artistic ego, midlife passion and family dysfunction.

It’s set over a single weekend, as folk gather to toast the once famous and still monstrously controlling painter Ray Hanrahan at his comeback exhibition.

Among them are his grown children and his downtrodden wife, Lucia, whose own long-neglected artistic career threatens finally to soar. 

The zestfully crafted drama that follows is hilarious, sexy and thoughtful.

Hephzibah Anderson

The Great Passion

James Runcie                                                                                 Bloomsbury £16.99

Bach’s St Matthew Passion is regarded as one of the Enlightenment’s finest achievements.

In this beautifully calibrated novel, Runcie, best known for his Grantchester mystery series, tells the story of its creation from the perspective of Stefan Silbermann, a gifted pupil of Bach in 1727 Leipzig.

Bach emerges as an intense, flawed, deeply religious man, and through a poignant exploration of grief and love, Runcie brings his glorious music thrillingly to life.

Simon Humphreys

The Patron Saint Of Second Chances

Christine Simon                                                                                      Sphere £16.99

Set in southern Italy, this whimsical debut novel has some surprisingly poignant moments.

At the centre of its eccentric cast of characters is self-appointed mayor Nino Speranza. Sporting a luxurious moustache and armed with a compendium of saints, he hatches a plan to save debt-ridden Prometto.

Rumour runs riot when a famous film star duly arrives, prompting madcap mayhem among the town’s 212 residents. It’s ludicrous but lovely.

Eithne Farry

Give Unto Others

Donna Leon                                                                 Hutchinson Heinemann £20

Leon’s much-loved Commissario Brunetti series has been running for 30 years. Together the books offer a wonderfully complex portrait of Venice.

This time the city is starting to emerge from the pandemic: there’s no tourism and little crime, so Brunetti is free to investigate when an old friend says she’s worried about her daughter’s marriage.

What follows is a gently paced, emotionally acute story of betrayal and revenge.

John Williams