"One of Us" by Elizabeth Day

An audio book.

Martin (his first-person PoV) is a History of Art lecturer at the University of South Anglia, Cambridge. Because he used "Orientalism" in a lecture, and has she/they issues, he has to go to a therapist, Joanne. He lives in a cottage. His best friend at school, Ben, went to Cambridge University with him. Ben was driving in an accident when someone was killed. Martin took the blame in exchange for money. Ben became a cabinet minister, married to Serena. He's stopped paying Martin money. Martin's wife Lucy has left him. She hit Ben's wife with a champagne bottle and spent a while in rehab.

Serena (her third-person PoV) is Ben's wife.She's a Lady. They have 4 children. Both have affairs. She thinks Martin is creepy and gay.

Richard was a politician expected to succeed Ben until he was caught watching porn. His wife Hannah left him. They're childless.

Fliss, Ben's sister, died. She talks from beyond the grave.

Cosina (her third-person PoV), Ben and Serena's oldest child, is involved with protest action when a fellow protester, River, was injured. Ben is Tory energy minister.

Martin's invited to Fliss's funeral. He doesn't know why, or how Fliss died. Nor does he know who invited him. He hopes it was Ben. Serena welcomes him, gossiping about the various guests. She says that Fliss drowned, drunk in Bali. He meets Derek, Fliss's boyfriend in Bali. He says that she wasn't doing drugs.

Cosina visits River in hospital. She loves him. He tells her that he knows who she is, and has info about Fliss. Later it's revealed that he's an undercover police officer. Cosina tells Martin about it all. Martin passes the info to Richard.

In the third person we hear about Fliss's life. When she was 50 she was squatting, got drunk, and called Jarvis for help. He took her home and raped her. She told Ben and the police but wasn't believed. She went to Bali and started a new life. On her 54th birthday she lapsed and drank. A voice told her to kill herself so, feeling worthless, she did.

Serena has sex with Jarvis, a rich uncouth friend of Ben. When the PM resigns, Ben announces his candidature (without telling Serena first). Richard, his reputation restored by appearing on a reality show, is running his campaign. Jarvis is funding it. To widen his appeal, Ben tells the Guardian newspaper that Martin, his oldest friend, is gay. Martin had been keeping that secret.

Ben and Serena get caught up in an eco-protest at the British Museum that involves Cosina. Serena didn't know about Cosina's involvement. Ben did. Cosina rushes away to Cambridge on a whim. When she gets there she realises that subconsciously she wants to meet Martin. She realises that all the people she knows are fakes. He, world-weary, distrustful of love since his mother died in his 30s, tells her that he's passed on her info to Richard. Meanwhile, Serena dashes away to an Austrian wellbeing clinic, fed up with not being told things. After 3 days, Cosina starts replying to her txts. Ben tracks her down to apologise in person. She tells him about Jarvis.

On a Breakfast TV interview, Richard spills the beans about Ben and Jarvis, announcing his own leadership bid. Casina escapes reporters by going to Bali, staying with Derek.

Ben, unaware of Martin's involvement in his downfall, wants Martin to be Cosina's godfather. Martin finds a partner. Richard becomes prime-minister, Martin being his consultant on gay matters. Ben goes to prison. The book ends with Martin seeing Jarvis in a sauna.

Other reviews

• Lara Fiegel (The Party was so plot-driven and backstory-laden that it lacked the fine-grained intimacy of her earlier works. One of Us is a sequel to The Party, but it’s a much stronger, more distinctive novel, better read as a standalone work. Here she has returned to the intimate family dynamics at which she excels, combined with a brilliantly propulsive, almost whodunnit-ish plot and an astute analysis of power. ... The novel is wilfully big-boned, mixing levity and real substance, and risking unwieldiness as it does so. The social satire can feel like a series of memes – which says as much about the banality of our moment as about Day’s writing.)
• Aoife Burke (Narratively, it doesn’t always work. It goes by the everyone-is-the-main-character-in-their-own-story principle, so the tone ends up very uneven. ... The cast of characters lacks originality)
• goodreads