Cage of Night, by Ed Gorman (CT Publishing, £4.99 in UK)

Gorman is an old hand at the writing game - his suspense novels have been garnering praise for many years now. In this one he is as slickly sinister as ever, as he tells the story of how twenty-one-year-old Spence returns to his home town after two years in the army, falls in love with Cindy Brasher, Homecoming Queen and goddess to a long line of jealous men, becomes involved in a number of horrific crimes, and ends up being led to the well in the woods that harbours a dark secret. Gorman's prose is insidious as it weaves its spell over its cast of characters and over its readers. To paraphrase Aunt Ada Doom: "There's something nasty in the well . . ."