Often authors become famous for inventing a strong character which they flesh out over many years and many novels with an entire and believable personality. The world these fictional heroes and heroines inhabit becomes as real to fans as any other universe they engage with on a daily basis – which is one reason why instalment-based genres such as the Harry Potter series become such smash hits and addictive reading with millions of worldwide fans.

On a slightly smaller scale, successful British author Peter James has carved out such a loyal, devoted niche following for his series of thrillers and murder mysteries written around his protagonist Roy Grace, of which there are a dozen or so published and well-sold books. So it comes as something of a surprise to see the author has recently dared to step outside the confines of Grace’s world and leave him behind altogether; his new novel is a stand alone work featuring new characters, called Perfect People.

But it is the Roy Strong series that attracts most attention, and it is easy to see why. Each novel uses the seaside town of Brighton and its surroundings as the stage where the characters and plots are set.

This perhaps adds a realistic, believable air to the author’s stories, which often start with the domestic mundane, allowing readers to identify and get to know the cast, before plunging them into a spiralling script of drama and intrigue.  For example, the novel ‘Dead Tomorrow’ starts with the female protagonist reading the local newspaper looking for flats to rent in Brighton … and ends with her daughter’s life in peril as she fights for her life on a kidney dialysis machine.

There is a gruesome twist as dead bodies with missing internal organs that are washed up on the Brighton beach are linked with sinister Eastern European drug and organ trafficking crime syndicates.  Through his detective hero Strong, Peter James explores the lengths a devoted mother will go to in order to rescue her daughter’s life, even if it means breaking the law and dashing her morals against the rocks on Brighton beach.

If a book shouldn’t be judged by its cover, then how should it be weighed up? Most people would say by the subject matter and how it is dealt with, and in the case of a fiction work, how the prose is put together. A cheap cover shouldn’t necessarily indicate a dull interior or sloppy writing, in fact in some cases the cover can belie the fine work it contains.

A case in point is the female-friendly fiction of Joanna Trollope whose books are critically acclaimed and sell very well, yet usually to be found lurking in the bargain bin of a dingy supermarket or high street discount book retailer at a very cheap price.

Her novel ‘The Best of Friends’ is a good example of the ‘assumed to be trashy’ pulp fiction judging purely by the dismal non-descript photo and design of the cover.

But on closer inspection this novel is beautifully written and the plot stretches the reader’s imagination and thoughts as it is in no way predictable or mundane.

A pair of middle-aged, middle-class couple experience marital difficulties and the fallout of that and the effect on their teenage offspring provides the plot for this thoughtful novel about love, faith and commitment set against the daily struggles of life and long periods of time.

Trollope weaves an intriguing tale of events, fleshing out her characters with believable, confused emotions echoing the tumultuous happenings in their marriages. Her writing is always fresh and elegantly done, with flowing grammar, top notch punctuation and flowing imagery.

Accused of being far too smugly middle-class, which is (as it is true) unable to be refuted, at least the author makes a great job of understanding, deciphering and penning her tales of middle-class woes.

This book is an engrossing light novel to read on a plane, on holiday or in the bath which will not disappoint with its quality and integrity.

Contemporary fiction often shies away from the ‘big’ subjects and deals mostly with the whimsical side of life, but one very well published and popular female author is not afraid to take the bull by the metaphorical horns and write a tale centred around religious belief in the modern Western world.

Jodi Picoult’s recent novel ‘Keeping Faith’ is her 12th successful novel and is set in New Hampshire. The story revolves around seven year old Faith and her mother Mariah, whose marriage to Faith’s father breaks down when he has an affair and leaves the family home.

This event triggers a series of unusual and remarkable events starting with Mariah noticing that Faith is talking to an imaginary friend. Beginning to worry that the stress of the family division has taken its toll on the young girl, Mariah takes her daughter to see some specialists…but the picture that emerges about this invisible friend gets more confusing as religious aspects creep into the scenario.

This is confusing to Mariah who has no beliefs herself nor has she raised her daughter with any religious schooling or indoctrination. Then a ‘miracle’ appears to occur as Faith seemingly raises her grandmother, Mariah’s mother, from the dead after she suffers a massive cardiac arrest.

This attracts national publicity and then as a consequence, the interest of assorted religious figures, groups and individual pilgrims desperate to benefit from the new young ‘prophet’s’ healing touch.

As Mariah tries to protect her daughter, she gets caught in a downward spiral of a national religious fervour and her belief in the truth of her daughter’s words and actions make her question her own beliefs and ethics.

Whilst in this turmoil with the press and several dozen fanatics camped on her driveway, her ex-husband decides she has become an unfit mother and attempts to sue for custody.

Picoult’s story telling progresses with sufficient pace to keep the reader intrigued and she uses the plot and its protagonists to analyse all aspects of faith, not shrinking from the controversial and doing so with a tremendous insight into people’s lives, thoughts and feelings.

A world very far removed from a Western urbanised society cannot be further away than rural poverty in Nigeria. That is the troubled setting for the first novel of new author Christie Watson for her book ‘Tiny Sunbirds Far Away’. The novel has been released to critical acclaim already; indeed it won the Costa new author award in 2011.

Twelve year old Blessing and her older brother Ezekiel live a relatively pampered life in the well-to-do suburbs of Lagos. Ezekiel is often sick, however, and has many allergies which makes his mother overprotective.

Their father is a loud man, whom the children worship…but later in the story his bullying and violence towards his wife is revealed. After Blessing’s mother catches him with another woman, he leaves his family and they are forced to vacate the expensive flat and move back to the family home in the Warri delta.

The shock for the children is immense at first, catapulted suddenly from a comfortable flat into a remote farmhouse with no electricity, no running water and no bathrooms.  Blessing’s grandparents are also poor, having no regular income and have converted to Islam.

Most readers can certainly empathize with Blessing’s shock at this change in her lifestyle and the struggles the family all go through to fit into this new world with its new traditions and values.

The novel’s characters are all engaging and one quickly feels connected to Blessing as she comes of age, losing her rose-tinted view of her father and taking over the mothering role for her brother Ezekiel as her mother finds salvation in the arms of a white man employed by the hated Western Oil Company.

Environmental, social and political themes are explored from the small family’s point of view, and there are moments of humour and humility as well as trauma and tragedy. Blessing’s relationship with her grandmother grows as she teaches her the skills of a traditional midwife, and Blessing finds her direction and comes to love her life in the countryside.