Oystercatchers Susan Fletcher (HarperCollins, £7.99)

This is a moving tale of two sisters: one alive, one barely so. And a tale of sibling rivalry, of bitterness, of love and trust. Moira's younger sister Amy is in a coma after a cliff fall; Moira, who has been jealous of Amy since she was born, comes to visit her in her green-walled hospital room most evenings. By Amy's bedside, Moira spills out her confession, and thus we hear of her childhood hurt, her lonely schooling, and begin to understand where her strangeness was heading.

Fletcher's prose is poetic, mellifluous, a joy to read, even where the story is as cold and hard as Moira. The characters are intense, human, believable, and the atmosphere and landscape beautifully evoked. It's a haunting story, with all the uncomfortableness of the hospital room and the constant, ambiguous presence of the sea.

Sunday at the Cross Bones John Walsh (HarperCollins, £7.99)

The fact: the Rev Harold Davidson spent many years in London in the 1920s and 1930s, with his self-imposed mission of improving the lot of unfortunate boys and fallen women. The fiction: this book about the Rev Davidson, detailing his daily life and his encounters and emotions as he walks around the capital, frequently falling into holes of his own making.

The story is told mostly through the parson's journal, his lists of things to do - of women in cafes, of boys' homes - and through letters. Walsh has invented a very amusing life for Davidson, on his impulsive, precarious mission. Whether near the truth or not, it's a delightful, roller-coaster ride through the back streets of 1930s London.

Consuming Passions Judith Flanders (HarperCollins, £9.99)

In the early 18th century, only one in five people owned a book, only one in ten had a knife or fork. Yet by the end of 19th century, the Industrial Revolution had changed all that, with machines, factories and railways - and also made possible a whole load of fun through fashion, travel, and general entertainment.

Judith Flanders' book on leisure and pleasure in Victorian Britain is a scholarly one, full of detail about what these massive changes meant. It's a fascinating chronicle of what was on offer in Victorian times, covering shops, shows, books, art, sport, holidays. And wonderful snippets of the stuff of everyday life, from knickbockers and newspaper societies, to the advent of women cyclists in 1895 and recommended items for the traveller, such as a Welch wig and a telescope.