Unravelling Oliver (Penguin Books)

"Magnificent...compulsively readable...stunning, shock and superb". (Frank McGuinness). 'I expected more of a reaction the first time I hit her.' Liz Nugent's gripping novel of psychological suspense, Unravelling Oliver, is a complex and elegant study of the making of a sociopath in the tradition of Barbara Vine and Patricia Highsmith.

Oliver Ryan is a handsome and charismatic success story. He lives in the suburbs with his wife, Alice, who illustrates his award-winning children's books and gives him her unstinting devotion. Their life together is one of enviable privilege and ease - enviable until, one evening after supper, Oliver attacks Alice and beats her into a coma.

In the aftermath, as everyone tries to make sense of his astonishing act of savagery, Oliver tells his story. So do those whose paths he has crossed over five decades. What unfolds is a story of shame, envy, breath-taking deception and masterful manipulation.

Only Oliver knows the lengths to which he has had to go to get the life to which he felt entitled. But even he is in for a shock when the past catches up with him. Liz Nugent has worked in Irish film, theatre and television for most of her adult life.She is an award-winning writer of radio and television drama and has written short stories for children and adults.

Unravelling Oliver is her first novel.