The lads go to an expensive private school and appear to have indulged lives. When Byron tells us that home is a softer place when his father's not there, we understand completely and when we're told James is highly intelligent, we already know James, as in the case of each of the author's characters, quickly animate in our imaginations. We're eased effortlessly into the children's minds. Also unlike Hardy our emotions turn in either direction in an instant as guffaws sometimes end in a stifled sob and vice versa. Perfect's slope is one of inevitability rather than predictability we can see trouble ahead but, unlike in a Hardy novel, we can't always see what form it takes till it hits. Perfect is almost Thomas-Hardyesque as Rachel builds a slippery slope, although it's better written than Hardy's books (and I speak as a Hardy fan). The only difficulty that Rachel presents me with is adhering to my word limit and trying to stop myself from discussing some really clever twists including a huge one that's especially brilliantly executed. Her characters leap from the page in full-blown humanity without the need to translate motives or ideas and yet there are many undercurrents bubbling beneath her stories. I started to realise it while I was reading the award winning The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and now Perfect confirms it: Rachel Joyce is the sort of author who makes a reviewer's life easy. In fact at the moment Bryon's watch's second hand reversed something happened that would mean neither his or James' lives would ever be the same again. 11 year old Byron Hemmings heard about it from his friend James and felt it wouldn't be a good thing. In 1972 two seconds were added to the year.

Perfect by Rachel Joyce