‘The moment I noticed how McAra died I will have walked apart. I can find that now…’

The narrator of Robert Harris’s gripping new novel is a professional ghostwriter – cynical, mercenary, and with a good line in deadpan humour. Familiar with dealing with fading rock and roll stars and minor celebrities, he jumps at the opportunity to ghost the memoirs of Britain’s former prime minister, specifically as it means soaring to the American holiday resort of Martha’s Vineyard in the center of winter and completing the publication in the seclusion of a lavish house.

Nonetheless it doesn’t take him longer to realise he has made an awful mistake. His predecessor on the task died in situations that were distinctly dubious, as well as the ex-prime minister actually is a guy with secrets in his past that are time for haunt him – secrets with the power to kill.

THE DAYS has called Robert Harris ‘the leading current exponent from the intelligent literary thriller’. The Ghost is normally his most compelling novel yet.