THOUGH the title suggests a traditional thriller and it does open with a brutal murder in the car park of a Suffolk seaside town, Something Might Happen is a million miles from a conventional murder mystery. This is a novel about the ripples – and tidal waves – that follow an act of violence, the effects it has on the victim’s family and friends, the unimaginable directions in which grief takes them. At the centre of Something Might Happen is Tess, whose close friend Lennie is stabbed to death on a Monday night in October, following a PTA meeting. Tess is grief-stricken and bewildered – Lennie just isn’t ‘the type to have something happen. She has everyting going for her. Beauty, talent, kindness. As the police search for clues, even finding a suspect, the life Tess lives begins to fall apart, relationships shift and crumble. Nothing feels safe and her daughter Rosa keeps seeing Lennie. Throughout the novel, in spite of something already having happened, there is the irresistible page-turning sense, still, that something might happen. “Electrifying”, said the Financial Times.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Julie Myerson was born in Nottingham in 1960. She read English at Bristol University and worked for the National Theatre and for children’s publisher, Walker Books, before winning the Elle Magazine Talent Content and becoming a full-time writer. She is the author of seven novels and two works of non-fiction and also writes for newspapers, magazines and radio. Something Might Happen, published in the summer of 2003, was shortlisted for the WH Smith Literary Award and longlisted for the Man Booker Prize for fiction. Her first novel, Sleepwalking was shortlisted for the prestigious John Llewellyn Rhys Prize. Her most recent novel, Out of Breath, is a rite-of-passage story following 13-year-old Flynn on a journey that starts with her encounter with a boy at the bottom her garden and takes Flynn and her brother into the familiar fictional territory of a world without adults.

POINTS TO CONSIDER

The novel’s title creates an atmosphere of tension. How is this built on through the novel?

How are Tess’s relationships with Mick, Alex and Lacy different?

What do you think of the way the novel ends?

How would you have ended it?

Think about the ways in which grief is expressed by the adults and children.

WIN A BUNDLE OF BOOKS

There’s a bundle of Vintage Books to be won in this month’s Book Group competition. Simply let us know what you think about this month’s featured title – Something Might Happen – and your review could win you the prize. Visit herefordtimes.com and click on the link to the Book Group or write to us at HT Book Group, Hereford Times, Holmer Road, Hereford HR4 9UJ, with your review, name, address and contact details. The winning review will appear in next month’s HT Book Group and its author will win a selection of paperbacks. Usual competition rules apply. Deadline for entries is midnight on Friday, May 30.

HOW TO ORDER

Something Might Happen, RRP £7.99, offer price £7.59. Sleepwalking; The Story of You; The Touch, Me and the Fat Man; Laura Blundy, all RRP £7.99. To order any of the titles listed, call the Hereford Times Bookshop on 08700 713317 or send your cheque/postal order made payable to Hereford Times Bookshop to: Hereford Times Bookshop, PO Box 60, Helston, TR13 0TP. Please allow seven to 10 working days for delivery. All titles supplied subject to publisher availability. To order online, visit www.sparkledirect.com.