"One of Us" by Elizabeth Day

Ben, a politician transparently based on Boris Johnson, intends to bid for the premiership. But will he be destroyed by the murky secrets in his past?

The plot of this novel is so predictable that I started playing thriller trope bingo. It could have been written from a checklist of recent scandals:

• MP surfs porn on office computer
• MP is rehabilitated through a reality TV show
• Oil protestor is daughter of Cabinet minister
• Another oil protestor is an undercover cop (this seems doubtful since he is the leader of the group and therefore any possible prosecution would be compromised by accusations that he was an agent provocateur).
• A young girl is sexually abused by an older male family member
• Rape
• A rehabilitation clinic is presided over by an Austrian doctor with a comic German accent
• The rich daughter of the gentry becomes a drug addict
• There is gaslighting

To be charitable one could say this is satire but it's too heavy handed to be funny. And so many of the targets for its scorn are cheap and easy. Trains, for example, always run late.

What about the characters? Stereotype after stereotype: Hapless MP, ruthless MP, ruthless hedge fund manager, gay academic, poor little rich girl, sidelined wife and mother. On the other hand, the main protagonist, Martin, is was a scholarship boy at a posh School, simultaneously entranced and rejected by the upper classes. Given that this describes my own schooling almost exactly, you would have thought I would have empathised like mad and identified with this character. But the pedestrian quality of the writing and the predictability of the plot left me not caring at all what would happen to any of these wooden puppets.

How is it written? It is narrated, mostly in the present tense, from a multiple third person close perspective, each chapter being from the point of view of one of the characters. At the beginning of the book, some of the chapters are dominated by exposition. The maxim 'show don't tell' is mostly ignored by this author.

There are moments when the editing seems slapdash. A mixed metaphor is pointed out when half of the metaphor hasn’t been mentioned. Timelines sometimes seem discrepant. 172,437 is said to be 0.000000149% of 67 million when it is actually 0.25%. 0.000000149% of 67 million is 1. I couldn't work out whether Martin's suspension from employment ended.

Apparently it is a sequel and the Guardian reckons it is better than the earlier novel, so I won't be reading that. The last line, in which the author directly addresses the reader, opens up the possibility of a further sequel. I won’t be reading that either.

Selected quotes:

• “Cheeks like a hamster on a particularly nutritious seed binge.” (Ch 1)
• “My mother taught me early on that life was meant to be endured and, if possible, mocked.” (Ch 1)
• “I am all sides. A hall of mirrors in human form.” (Ch 1)
• “Long dining tables set with family silver and inherited insouciance." (Ch 4)
• “We believe we are a country incapable of dictatorial rule when, in truth, we are just as susceptible to the lure of monstrous men (and it is always men) as everywhere else.” (Ch 6) It isn't always men: Mrs Gandhi. Catherine the Great. Madame Mao.
• “My life was a constant criss-crossing over different classes and cultures.” (Ch 6)
• “LGBTQ-A-B-C-D-plus-minus” (Ch 8)
• “Gary told him it didn't matter if he cried; that it would, in fact, ‘show your human side’ - as if he possessed another, more noticeable, non-human side.” (Ch 8)
• “Wanting is only for the people who have to try.” (Ch 9)
• “The smallest child, built like an oblong with hair, start growling from his seat at the table.” (Ch 11)
• “Rocket, the most overrated of the brassicas.” (Ch 11)

Once again I am left failing to understand how such a poorly written book could be praised. Stanley Tucci calls it "brilliantly written". Lucy Foley compares it to Patricia Highsmith and describes it as a "gimlet-eyed interrogation". Kate Mosse says it is "superbly crafted". It is a bestseller. The Guardian reviewer praised it. What did these people see that I missed?

January 2026;

Published in 2025 by 4th Estate, an imprint of HarperCollins

This review was written by

the author of Bally and Bro, Motherdarling 

and The Kids of God

"Carrasco '67" by Elaine Broun

Set in Uruguay, in 1967, in the heyday of the Tupamaros urban guerrilla insurgency, this fast-paced thriller has buckets of verisimilitude. There are huge amounts of detail about the procedures adopted in Uruguay in the 1960s to combat the Tupamaros; these vary from what seems to modern eyes strangely naive to hugely over the top. Similarly, the tactics of the villains, who smash bottles more often than they shoot guns, is much more in tune with the reality of the time rather than the hyped up version of fictional baddies. This book has the authenticity of a social document. 

In the same way, the characters are very down-to-earth and normal. Rather than the stereotypes of modern fiction - this misfit or the superhero - the protagonist is a very ordinary businessman with a very ordinary family life and much of the story's drama and tension was derived precisely from this mismatch between the threat and normal life. 

Furthermore, the pacing of the story also reflects the everyday experience with a slow build and some near repetitions. Nevertheless, the final twist is left to the very last moment.

The Prologue is a single line ("You might say it was destined to be or perhaps a mere coincidence, but for whatever reason, their lives were forever changed.") and that acted as a nice hook. Chapter One, an incident plucked from later on in the story, was a good further hook. 

It is always difficult to know where to strike the balance between saying too little (hopefully intriguing the reader, and engaging them by making them puzzle out things for themselves) and explaining too much (so as not to leave the reader confused and therefore alienated from the story). At the start of the book Broun explains a little too much, in my opinion. For example, we are told that Miguel is a psychopath; I think that should have been left to the reader to work out for themselves. On the other hand, the carefully enumerated details about, for example, how to keep unkidnapped when walking down the street, added massively to the realistic feel of the story.

When an author describes the action moment by moment, they can either bog the reader down in obsessive detail or they can add verisimilitude and make the story come alive. Broun got this beautifully right when Miguel breaks into the office block where he works, in chapter three. I was fully engaged. It was really quite creepy! The book really came alive at these moments, another example being when Peter is being chased down the street.

Written in short, sometimes very short, chapters, this book has the hallmarks of a classic thriller and  keeps the action going right to the end.

Selected quotes:

• "He jabbed the cigarette into the ashtray, not quite putting out the fire but breaking little sparks that danced up a little before floating down." (Ch 32)
• "The room smelled of cleaning supplies and that rancid smell that occurred when mops took too long to dry. Dr. Miller closed the door of the closet." (Ch 47)
• "They were starving. Having skipped breakfast, no prodding for the kids to eat was necessary; this soon became a race to the last bite." (Ch 55)

This review was written by the author of Motherdarling  and The Kids of God

"The Statement" by Brian Moore

Based on a real life case. A French war criminal, on the run in the south of France, is being followed both by assassins and the police. He is given refuge in religious houses. But how do the assassins seemingly know his every move? And who are they working for? Sinister forces are at play and they may reach right up to the highest echelons of government and their tentacles seem to spread through French Catholicism.

A well-written thriller by the author who also wrote the excellent The Colour of Blood

Some questions:

• Why was it called The Statement?
• This refers to the letter intended to be poinned on Brossard's corpse by the assassin once Brossard is dead. It is a statement that he has been executed for war crimes. But why name the novel after this? Rather than, for example, the fugitive?
• How does Moore enlist your sympathy for Pierre?
• Right at the start Brossard is a frail old man being stalked by an assassin. In the first chaspter Brossard is revealed as a cunning predator. He kills, ruthlessly. Almost immediately one is aware that he is a war criminal and a very dangerous man. No sympathy there. There are details (he is getting old, he has bad teeth, he has to keep moving, he has only three suitcases of possessions) which might enlist sympathy but after such strong early impressions I wasn't falling for it. So why did Moore choose to start like that?
• Why are the two hired assassins only referred to by their initials?
• The second assassin is given a girlfriend (to whom he lies) and a phobia about horoscopes. But by using initials Moore seems to be encouraging us to think that these men do not count. Their deaths do not matter. Except as it affects the game. 
• The novel explores moral issues including those of forgiveness. To what extent this this raise the novel above the standard thriller format?
• It is interesting how the characters are able to justify themselves. The priests consider that the secular world should not be allowed to impinge upon the religious world, that a confessed sinner is redeemed (although Brossard never shows remorse), that France lost the Second World War because the communists triumphed and that Brossard's role as a soldier for the right and for tradition somehow excuses him killing others.

Great lines:

• “The numbers of dead are exaggerated, no doubt, but what matter? Sin is sin in any number.” (p 52)
• “The roulette wheel had stopped and the steel ball of his luck had dropped into a losing slot.” (p 60)
• “Now that he himself was old, he no longer saw old men in a respectful light. Now, he looked at them for signs of failure: the faltering step on the stairs, the voice hesitating over a forgotten surname, the look of quiet deception when dimming ears have missed what was said.” (p 87) 
• “In the ninth decade ... men become stubborn and unyielding, unwilling to admit error now that judgement day is close.” (p 88)
• This is thought by Brossard, the war criminal, but it is about others. He is thinking this to assess to what extent he might be able to rely on the way the other person has always behaved. But he isn't the least self-reflective. Is this the mind of a psychopath?
• “The young ... did not want to be reminded of the leprosy of age.” (p 163)

"The thirteenth apostle" by Michel Benoit

A novel based on M Benoit’s research carried out whilst he was a monk.

Father Andrei has discovered something about the Bible which is a secret many of the RC hierarchy would kill to keep a secret ... and he is thrown from the window of a train. Father Nil, his best mate at the monastery, attempts to follow in his footsteps, reconstructing his research from a cryptic note he found clutched in his friend’s dead hand (which the French scene of crime officers had somehow overlooked). With the mysterious Society of St Pius V, a gang of 12 high placed clerics who have been prepared to murder for the church and a blond, scarred Mossad agent who also happens to be a concert pianist and the best operative of the secret service of Moslem Hamas not to mention an ex-Nazi cardinal all trying to prevent Father Nils from uncovering the secret (though mostly prepared to let him find it provided he dies immediately afterwards) this is one of the less credible imitators of the Da Vinci Code.

As if worried that the thrills of modern day conspiracy ridden Rome will be insufficient the author intersperses his narrative with the power struggle following the death of Jesus (apparently Peter disembowelled Judas) and some of the shenanigans of the Knights Templar.

An enjoyable easy to read thriller but the blurb on the back compares it with The Name of the Rose which is so much better. 

On the other hand, the author's research is clearly interesting. It is probably fair to say that at this distance and given the evidence we have at present there is no possibility of knowing more about the beloved disciple. This lack of evidence and necessary inconclusiveness might leave other people frustrated, hence the need to novelise the story. But for me I think I would have preferred the mystery.

The most interesting thing I learnt was that, according to the author, there is no evidence that Nazareth as a place existed in the time of Jesus and that all translations of Jesus of Nazareth should probably be read as Jesus the Nasorean referring to sect of Judaism linked to the Essenes.

January 2018; 354 pages

"The Colour of Blood" by Brian Moore

On the very first page there is an assassination attempt on the Cardinal of a communist-controlled Eastern European country. Narrated from the Cardinal's viewpoint, the reader follows the Cardinal as he is arrested and escapes. But who has arrested him? And who is trying to kill him? And why? And why now? And what has this to do with the proposals from some of his priests that the church should be organising protests against the regime.

A brilliant, fast-paced thriller deep in Graham Greene and Hitchcock if not Kafka territory.

Selected quotes:

• "The chickens, pecking dementedly, darted this way and that with worried, nervous looks." (p 31)
• "The sun rose in the sky behind a gauzy morning mist." (p 32)
• "The Colonel did not finish the sentence but, instead, drew on his cigarette and expelled smoke in a burst as though he were miming an explosion." (p 38)
• "A wish granted is a wish destroyed." (p 107)
• "I am alone now: not hidden but hiding." (p 107)
• "The truck driver's head and shoulders were silhouetted suddenly in the theatre of the opened truck doorway." (p 119)

Wonderful from start to finish. Shortlisted for the Booker Prize, 1987.

July 2017; 191 pages

This review was written by the author of Motherdarling  and The Kids of God