IInspired by a true murder case in Eastbourne a hundred years ago, Emma Flint’s artfully constructed thriller tells of a love triangle that culminates in tragedy. It centers on Beatrice Cade, a typist in her thirties living in a room in a ladies’ club in Bloomsbury in the early 1920s. Beatrice has resigned herself to being single, childless and invisible – a lawyer will later describe her as “the kind of woman you notice on the omnibus every day” – until she catches the attention of Thomas Ryan, a charismatic new salesman at her firm. She learns that Thomas is married, although he convinces her that he and his wife are desperately unhappy, leading him to seek intimacy elsewhere.

The book alternates between Bea’s story and that of Kate, Ryan’s wife, who is shocked when she opens the door and finds two police officers questioning her about her husband and the death of a woman in her thirties. “I don’t understand, I’m just his wife,” she tells them.

Sara Poyzer is the voice of Bea, whose narration captures her vulnerability and independence, while Chloe Massey is Kate, whose bewilderment turns to horror as evidence mounts of a horrific crime against her husband. This is less a crime thriller than a gripping analysis of an affair, a murder and a high-profile court case. Flint also cleverly weaves in some post-war social history, highlighting the plight of the ‘surplus women’ who were typically looked down upon by society and who faced uncertainty after the war.

“Other Women” is available from Picador, 11 hrs 32 mins.

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