AFTER waiting more than 30 years to hear news of her missing sister, Jess has finally received the call she’s always dreaded, in The Gardens by Emma Babbington (HQ, £9.99). The police have found human remains in the garden of the flats where her family lived in the 1990s.

She’s been in Australia for years, but now she flies back to London to move into the old family home and await developments. Jess thinks she’s ready to hear the worst — but the worst is so much more than she has ever imagined.

Family secrets long hidden overlap with the internal battles of a controlling cult in a psychological suspense novel which grips and surprises from start to finish.

Scandal by Kelly and Kristina Mancaruso (Head of Zeus, £9.99) features a Nottingham soccer star and his ex-beauty queen wife, who got together under rather unfortunate circumstances. Three best friends hired a cabin in Sherwood Forest: one was found dead, footballer Harry’s girlfriend was missing presumed dead, and sole survivor, Kayleigh, is now married to Harry.

Some fans have never forgiven her for “stealing” her friend’s intended, and that’s going to get worse now that the missing woman has turned up alive. As social media conspiracy theories swirl, Kaleigh realises that Harry is keeping things from her. And she’d thought it was only her doing that.

The Mancaruso sisters’ depiction of the miserable, luxurious life of celebs and their WAGs gives us opportunities for schadenfreude or sympathy or both — but watch out for a really horrifying twist.

Newcastle detective inspector Rachel flees a career-threatening disaster back home to sign on for something she’s going to hate even more: as In Deep Water by Elle Blair (HQ, £9.99) begins, she’s trapped aboard a cruise ship with her parents and her two teenage kids, longing for the comparative peace of a drugs bust in Byker.

An unwise attempt at light relief puts her at the centre of a shipboard murder, and suddenly keeping her fractious family safe is all that matters. Blair’s debut combines a claustrophobic thriller and a solid police procedural with plenty of enjoyably grumpy humour.

For some complete summer escapism, turn to The Avengers: Death in Downing Street by David Crichton (Titan, £9.99). The action, of which there is plenty, takes place in 1967, when Harold Wilson is trying to negotiate Britain’s entry to the Common Market. The unions are anti, big business is pro, and the Cabinet is split. But right now Wilson has an even bigger problem: he’s convinced he’s eight years old and he can’t understand why people keep calling him prime minister. Such a mysterious crisis can only be solved by government agent John Steed and his fearless associate, Mrs Peel.

I think readers who recall the much-loved 1960s TV series will feel that the author has done a good job of capturing its unique style which did so much to define British cool in that decade.