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Books

Mario Reading reviews four first-rate first novels

The trials of married life and the revenge of a spurned mistress are among the themes of promising debut novels from Michela Wrong, Natasha Pulley, Benjamin Johncock and Julia Pierpont

29 August 2015

9:00 AM

29 August 2015

9:00 AM

Borderlines Michela Wrong

Fourth Estate, pp.352, £14.99, ISBN: 9780008147402

The Watchmaker of Filigree Street Natasha Pulley

Bloombury Circus, pp.336, £12.99, ISBN: 9781408854280

The Last Pilot Benjamin Johncock

Myriad, pp.320, £8.99, ISBN: 9781908434845

Among The Ten Thousand Things Julia Pierpont

Oneworld, pp.336, £14.99, ISBN: 9781780747637

It has become something of a truism among writers’ groups and in articles offering advice on how best to secure the services of an agent or publisher that the opening of a novel is everything — the ne plus ultra of the writer’s armoury. If one can knock the reader’s socks off with the first few lines one is almost there.

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'Borderlines', £12.99, 'The Watchmaker of Filigree Street', £10.99 , 'The Last Pilot', £8.54, and 'Among The Ten Thousand Things', £12.99 are available from the Spectator Bookshop, Tel: 08430 600033

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