Ransom created quite a stir with The Birthing House, and while this reasonably fast-paced chiller is good, it doesn’t quite keep up with its predecessor.

Focusing on the life of celebrity body double James, who has recently lost his wife, this rather convoluted tale takes us on a tour of the mysterious, the sinister and the deranged.

Unsure whether his wife is haunting his large, echoy house, Hastings embarks on an ill-advised affair with a neighbour, which leads to more grief than he could have imagined.

With locations that are hard to visualise, and characters who sometimes slip off the reality scale, it’s nevertheless a pretty exciting read.