Sadie Jones has had a glittering career since her first novel, The Outcast (2008), garnered comparisons to Ian McEwan’s Atonement. She specialises in emotional trauma in historical (20th-century) settings. After The Uninvited Guests, an elegant Edwardian ghost story, Fallout, her fourth novel, is set in 1970s creative London, the world Jones grew up in and knows well. The punning title refers both to disagreements and damage. 

At the heart of the novel are Paul, a young theatrical producer; Leigh, a stage manager; Luke Last, an aspiring playwright; and Nina, a debutant actress. The first three are firm friends until Nina bursts in, with devastating consequences. Jones sketches this artistic milieu very effectively: the routines and casual