Under Your Skin

Starred review from December 16, 2013
In former newspaper editor Durrant’s gripping debut, morning TV host Gaby Mortimer’s enviably glossy London life starts to careen out of control after she finds a young woman’s body during her daily jog. Though a savvy Oxford grad should know better, Gaby impulsively breaks the cardinal rule of criminal procedure: don’t touch the corpse. Then she submits to police questioning without a lawyer—until it becomes clear that Detective Inspector Perivale regards her as his prime suspect. With her increasingly distant husband, a hedge fund honcho, on a business trip to Singapore, Gaby starts trying to extricate herself by investigating the murder, with the help of an unlikely ally: scoop-hungry freelance journalist Jack Hayward. But further complexities and creepy coincidences soon emerge. Why, for instance, was the victim apparently wearing Gaby’s T-shirt? As the suspense mounts, Durrant skillfully keeps the twisty story on track through convincing characters and domestic detail—right up to the shocking conclusion. Agent: Gráinne Fox, Fletcher & Co.