Dithering about four stars; maybe I’m just mean with the five. Give it five: this is a very clever book indeed, combining disorienting tales of the afterlife such as Séance, reminiscent of The Third Policeman (or is it just the bicycles that make me think that?) with a slow menace in The Pool. Ah yes, The Pool: the story that would put anyone off wild swimming… and Listings: the slowest of slow burn stories grippingly told - and entirely from Estate Agents’ blurbs.

It’s hard to review and avoid spoilers because it’s the twists that make these stories engaging: Just Good Friends needs a second read just to see if you’ve caught every hint, every nuance; the gentle rural horror of the title story (is it really that gentle?) needs savouring; the comedy of “Nine Tiny Stories About Houses” belies a real unease. Each of these nine stories is different in tone and form; the final story of Margaret is, for example, creepy enough to bring a shudder as the story comes to a conclusion, and a wry smile at the narrator’s own coarse world-view.