I read and loved Schofield’s first book, ‘Flight Risks’, and looked forward to reading his latest effort, ‘Succession’, which did not disappoint. Like ‘Flight Risks’, the protagonist is a woman with a messy personal life (although not as messy as Grace’s in ‘Flight Risks’). In the midst of losing at love and possibly losing her job, a phone call begins a series of events which threaten to unravel centuries of English history. The motivating force behind this is a media baron with a royal axe to grind (think of a Welsh Rupert Murdoch and you get the picture). Much is at stake in this political chess game but Emma is no pawn, as everyone quickly learns, and the story that follows is a page-turning thriller that I found difficult to put down. Recommended reading for any thriller fan, but even more so if you love a little history with your fiction – you’ll find yourself Googling things to see if the historical events described actually happened!

David Dinner, George Town, Grand Cayman