Evil twins and vivacious nonagenarians in this month's popular fiction; MONA ACTS OUT by Mischa Berlinski, BAD INFLUENCE by C J Wray, JULIE CHAN IS DEAD by Liann Zhang

THERE’S an early Woody Allen feel to this offbeat comedy about an ageing actress in New York. Mona’s cooking for the family and thinking/worrying about her upcoming role as Shakespeare’s Cleopatra.

She recalls her early days in an experimental theatre troupe under a charismatic but tricky director. She hasn’t seen him for years but now sets off across the city to find him. As she zigzags across Manhattan, getting into scrapes, we slip back and forth in time.

Not a huge amount happens but it’s richly funny about Shakespearean thespian pretensions. I especially enjoyed the cameo from Bill Clinton.

I LOVE Wray’s brilliant comic dramas about nonagenarian war heroines. Here is another triumph.

An old lady with an exciting past, Jinx, is retired to the Cotswolds but forced by circumstance to go on the village coach trip to Italy.

Sitting next to the postman’s truculent daughter, Jinx recalls her own ghastly childhood in both occupied Singapore and poverty stricken post-war Blighty. And how, when fairy godmother/Second World War spy Penny appeared, life took a surprising, glamorous turn. Possibly this involved some looted art and so the trip’s destination, Florence, has significance.

Will Jinx find what she is looking for? Funny, touching, fabulous.

IF YOU liked Yellowface, you’ll enjoy this nailbiting life-swap ride through the glossy influencer scene.

Twins Julie and Chloe were adopted at birth: Chloe by a rich family and Julie by a nasty aunt. While Julie drudges in a supermarket, Chloe’s an internet sensation. Unsurprisingly, Julie is jealous.

So when she finds Chloe dead in her posh apartment, she doesn’t hesitate to assume her identity. This means joining the Belladonnas, the influencer handmaidens surrounding queen bee rich kid Bella Marie. But will they see through Julie? Wry, compelling and deliciously dark, if a bit unbelievable at times.