Sky, by Deirdre Purcell (Town House, £5.99)

Her fifth novel sees Deirdre Purcell journeying further and further from the family sagas with which she began her fiction writing career. Significant chunks of this book are set in trendy Montana, and in places the plot ventures into murder mystery territory the conviction with which Purcell handles both is delightful to behold. There are still enough skeletons leaping out of the cupboard of Irish history in there to please the most ardent Purcell fan, but Sky is a tauter, tenser affair than her previous books, and all the better for it.