This is an excellent read, with echos of Mira Grant - but in a British setting. I'm the 'lowbrow' reader in our family so it's not unusual to catch me reading books with covers showing burning planes under raised gold print or indeed, zombie novels. However, there's a good chance that any particular book I choose will have pedestrian writing. I am sometimes disappointed in the quality of my choices and have several unfinished novels which seemed to have promise but turned out to have annoyingly poor or boring writing, even if the story idea was good.

The Splits, however, is unusually well written, with a wonderfully understated English sensibility. I even decided to take a chance and recommend it to my wife (who is famously highbrow). She found it highly enjoyable and I felt vindicated for the first time! I don't mean it's highly stylised or inaccessible, rather that the writing does the job it's meant to do without pulling you out of the story either with poor writing, overly affected language or plot holes. It really captures the atmosphere of the events and scenes within, but uses just the right amount of description to not slow the story down in any way. It's written from the point of view of a number of characters who were different enough to keep me interested but who are all real enough to be believable and they all fit perfectly into the world described. Highly recommended. Looking forward to more.

JAY ZED