Where to start with Sarah Waters

British novelist, born 1966.

Best Sarah Waters book to start with: Fingersmith (2002), on 3 of the 20 lists it could have made.

Fingersmith is the best way into Sarah Waters. It was shortlisted for both the Booker Prize and the Women’s Prize in 2002. It is a Victorian story of thieves and con artists, with a country house at its centre and a plot full of turns, so it is best to know as little as possible going in. It is long, but the pace never drops.

The Little Stranger, shortlisted for the Booker in 2009, is set in a decaying country house in post-war England and told by a local doctor. It reads like a ghost story. The Night Watch was shortlisted for the Booker and the Women’s Prize in 2006. It moves backwards through the 1940s, from 1947 to 1941, and follows a group of Londoners, so it is best read third.

The Paying Guests, shortlisted for the Women’s Prize in 2015, is set in 1922, when a woman and her mother take in lodgers. It begins slowly and then speeds up, so give it time.