Lucy Popescu on memoir

Speed reading

Lana Estemirova’s courageous Please Live: The Chechen Wars, My Mother and Me (John Murray, £20; Tablet price £18) is both a tender tribute to her mother, Natalya Estemirova – the award-winning Chechen-Russian human rights activist, who was assassinated on 15 July 2009 – and a searing indictment of human rights abuses in Chechnya, state violence and impunity. The book’s title echoes the message Lana texted Natalya on the day she was abducted and murdered. It’s beautifully written – a moving account of a precarious childhood, her mother’s unflinching dedication to justice and their defiant love for one another.

Orlando Whitfield’s compelling memoir, which I’ve come to late, explores the ruthless world of contemporary art dealing, where vast sums change hands for works buyers may never even display. He recounts his rite of passage from dealer to writer, alongside the climb and fall of his ambitious university friend Inigo Philbrick – a convicted fraudster who served less than four years of a seven-year sentence. All That Glitters: A Story of Friendship, Fraud and Fine Art (Profile Books, £10.99; Tablet price £9.89) exposes the opacity at the heart of the high-end art market and Whitfield offers jaw-dropping anecdotes about the greed that fuels a murky, often unchecked industry.

David Whitehouse combines reportage, mystery and memoir in unexpected ways in his latest book, Saltwater Mansions: The Woman Who Disappeared and Other Untold Stories (Phoenix Books, £18.99; Tablet price £17.09). He becomes obsessed with the perplexing disappearance of Caroline Lane, who once lived in the eponymous block of flats in Margate. One day she simply vanished, yet her mortgage and bills continued to be paid. Determined to uncover the truth about Caroline, Whitehouse meets and interviews past and present residents of the building, gradually weaving their personal stories together with his own.