Under Your Skin

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. (Feb.)