The Chase

Set on the first day of illegal hunting in England, Candida Clark's novel is a gripping story of jealousy, revenge, class and marriage. An idyllic-seeming gathering of family and friends is blown apart by a husband's jealous rage; false scents lead to bloodshed; love, ultimately - even the memory of love - triumphs, healing the broken-hearted. Featuring the secretly-pregnant Lady Celia, her suspicious husband, a Labour anti-hunting MP, a feckless sister, a gay groom, a former Iraq soldier living in the gatehouse and a dangerous hunt-worker with a romantic grudge, this is stylish English fiction of the most satisfying kind.