A young pregnant woman, Catherine, awakes to find a note with a knife stating “I could have killed you”. You’ll find yourself rooting for this strange trio of lost souls as they piece together the truth behind what happened to Jack’s family. Jack's life is hard, providing for his sisters, keeping them from the care system, he does whatever he needs to for them to survive. I say I never put these characters through more than they’re able to cope with, even though it may seem like that at the time. There's a very serious storyline running through the book of survival and family loyalty, realistic, emotional but dark and dangerous with a hint of humour that has fast become a trademark of Belinda Bauer's work.

Belinda Bauer's plots are never anything less than original and unsettling, and Snap is no exception. View image in fullscreen ‘Without having read Salem’s Lot, I would never have written Blacklands the way I did’ … Lance Kerwin and James Mason in the 1979 adaptation. It is inhabited by a Goldilocks burglar, a child so traumatised, that he is drawn to homes with their pictures of happy families, living their lives of security and love, the antithesis of his own sorrowful, despairing and traumatised life.Three years later, Jack is still in charge – of his sisters, of supporting them all, of making sure nobody knows they’re alone in the house, and – quite suddenly – of finding out the truth about what happened to his mother.

The emotional rollercoaster that Belinda Bauer sets us on is a large part of what makes this novel such a treasure. The title reflects one of the main themes of the book – that a snap decision made on the spur of the moment can change the rest of your life. I think it is an unusual book to be longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, as I understand it, but I like it! Though Snap was a slow-burner and wasn’t filled with one action-packed scene after another, it kept me turning the page, mainly because of the realistic and relatable characters, with tension building slowing and steadily throughout the story. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice.

Bauer has been an obsessive storyteller since she was a child, lying awake in bed and making up tales that she would pick up the next night.

I’ve talked before about the near-impossibility of divorcing your experience with a book from the context in which you read it; who knows how I would have reacted to this if I’d approached it as a guilty-pleasure thriller and not as a Man Booker nominee, but I did read it as a Man Booker nominee, and I’m at a loss as to how this run-of-the-mill, anticlimactic, bland thriller was able to hoodwink five judges into thinking it’s anything more than a supremely underwhelming contribution to the genre (Val McDermid’s influence aside). When I visited Liverpool, I was so desperate, I couldn’t understand a thing, I thought I was useless. He also makes himself at home while he's at it - cooks himself a meal, sleeps in the family's beds, and then trashes the house and leaves!

The plot is neat and clever, but it is not the stories, the style or the characters alone - though all are good - that set Bauer's work apart. Having also read and enjoyed "The Beautiful Dead" by Belinda Bauer this book "Snap" was always going to be a winner, I wasn't disappointed - I loved every captivating minute. Picture a cat tumbling its ball of yarn, but in reverse; in the beginning it feels as if we have individual strings that we come to realize have been from the same segment all along. And Marvel…well, the boy certainly spins a wild tale but how can he resist the chance to work a nice, juicy unsolved murder? The beginning of this novel would tear your heart apart because right from the first page you know that the mum is not going to come back and the outcome is not going to be good for the kids.

Some days later her body is found - she'd suffered a single stab wound but it was enough to cause a fatal injury. I completely agree, I find it so frustrating that people are going to hold up this book as a reason why genre fiction shouldn’t be eligible for the Booker, especially when really excellent genre fiction has been nominated and has won in the past. Spoiler: the murderer killed Jack’s mom because they ‘snapped’ in a moment of madness, but the murder itself involved kidnapping this woman and driving her to another location, bringing her out into a field, and stabbing her, all of which took some sort of premeditation and lasted something like half an hour…? About a medical student with Asperger’s who is out to solve a murder, Rubbernecker won the Theakston’s Old Peculier crime novel of the year prize.I also liked how the author gave the story some bright moments that made me smile in the midst of some tragic circumstances. Three years later, Jack is still in charge - of his sisters, of supporting them all, of making sure nobody knows they're alone in the house, and - quite suddenly - of finding out the truth about what happened to his mother . Thank you so much to Netgalley and Grove Atlantic for the opportunity to read this in exchange for my honest review. No Winton or Flanagan, no entry from Asia, no entry from Africa and then boasting "hey, we are so edgy, we are now including crime fiction!