THE CUT (Little Brown, £18.99), possibly Chris Brookmyre’s most exciting and funniest thriller yet, features Millicent, who has spent 25 years in prison for murdering her lover, a charge which she still denies.

Released to live with friends of friends in Glasgow, she finds the world a strange place and her existence pointless. But a chance discovery gives just the hint of a possibility of figuring out why her boyfriend was killed.

Pre-jail, Millicent was a special effects expert working in horror films  and was the best in the business. When her path crosses that of a horror-obsessed film student and reluctant part-time burglar, the result is a dangerous chase across Europe and through the world of the video — itself a much-maligned art form, in the view of the odd-couple protagonists.