Paperbacks reviewed by William Leith

Hundred Days: The End of the Great War by Nick Lloyd (Penguin, £9.99)

In July 1918, close to the end of the First World War, Nick Lloyd tells us, the German army was weak and demoralised: “They had lost the initiative.” They were also malnourished and susceptible to disease. Even German civilians were eating “coffee made from acorns” and “bread stuffed with sawdust”. But the Allies weren’t in great shape, either. Lloyd takes us through the last hundred days of the war; it’s like reading about two punch-drunk boxers slugging it out in the final round. His own great-uncle was killed, at the age of 19.

The Final Testimony of Raphael Ignatius Phoenix by Paul Sussman (Black Swan, £8.99)

“This,” says the 100-year-old murderer, who is our narrator, “is going to be the longest suicide note in history.” Born in 1900, Raphael Ignatius Phoenix intends to commit suicide at the stroke of the millenium. His method: a tiny white poison pill he “purloined” from a pharmacy in 1910 and has been carrying around ever since: “Death has never been further than a few inches from my outstretched hand.” He’s a charming, old-fashioned companion, and the author has pulled off the trick of making us very keen on what he has to say, even if he is an appalling, beastly old man who has killed 10 people.

The Boy That Never Was by Karen Perry (Penguin, £7.99)

I shot through this in one sitting. Like Gone Girl, it’s told alternately by a husband and his wife. At the beginning, something very shocking happens: there’s an earthquake in Tangiers. Lots of people die. Dillon, a three-year-old boy, disappears. His mother, Robin, is out of the house at the time. Harry, who was supposed to be babysitting, was out too, having left the boy alone for a few minutes. Six years later, back home in Ireland, Harry thinks he sees Dillon. We’re pretty sure he’s not crazy. But then we keep thinking he might be. It’s the most gripping thing I’ve read for ages.