Vote to Kill by Douglas Hurd. (Warner Books, £5.99 in UK)

New Tory PM Sir James Percival has a lot on his hands. Coming into government with a small but workable majority, he could have been forgiven for looking forward to a quiet life. But no, for his second wife, Helena, and his son, Anthony, are at daggers drawn, popular young up-and-coming MP Jeremy Cornwall is nipping at his heels, and trouble has again flared in Northern Ireland. With the government in dire travail, Sir James discovers qualities of stubbornness in himself that he never knew he had, and he begins to fight back. Hurd has written a smooth insider story of coiled-spring intensity that shows yet again that politics is still one of the most addictive of all drugs.