Strangers in company (by Jane Aiken Hodge)

(Amazon UK link)

I’ve been reading some of my books by Jane Aiken Hodge over the past few months. She wrote some historical novels, which were very well researched (if a tad too political for my tastes, at times). She also wrote some contemporary fiction, mostly light thrillers. One of this latter category is ‘Strangers in company’ which I last read in 2008. Unsurprisingly, I couldn’t remember anything about it. 

Marian Frenche is the main character in this book. It was published in the mid-1970s, so that’s the era in which it’s set. Marian, who is in her late thirties, has taken on an unusual job: she’s going to be chaperoning a young woman called Stella on a Greek coach tour. She’s paid very well for this, and she needs the money: her eighteen-year-old twins have left home, travelling to live with their father in the United States. And his financial support has stopped. 

I’m not quite sure why so much is made of the twins and the fact that their father is quite famous: other than missing them desperately at times, they don’t have much relevance to the plot, and we never meet them. But their absence sets the scene for an intelligent motherly woman who needs a job and is willing to try almost anything. Stella is known to be moody, and Marian is told not to let her get too close to any other members of their tour party.

Anatomy of a scandal (by Sarah Vaughan)

(Amazon UK link)

I hadn’t previously read anything by Sarah Vaughan. And I very much doubt if I would have picked up her novel ‘Anatomy of a scandal’ if I had seen it on a stall; the cover is mainly black and it looks like a thriller. Really not my favourite genre. However, it was allocated for this month’s local reading group, and I was able to find it from ‘World of Books’ last year. I didn’t start reading it until a few days ago, but it wasn’t difficult to finish it in just three days despite it being nearly 400 pages.

The chapters are mostly short, each one head by the name of the viewpoint character and the date in which the chapter is set. This is helpful, as the timeline switches to the past fairly often, as the story unfolds. It opens in the ‘present’ of the novel, 2nd December 2016. Kate is the viewpoint character here; she’s a barrister who has just lost a case. 

We see her surroundings, feel her frustration. And she makes it clear that her wig and gown help her into the role that she plays in court. She tries only to prosecute when she’s pretty sure the defendant is guilty, but she knows that the system isn’t perfect: that what matters more than truth is the way it’s painted by the lawyers.

The ice cream girls (by Dorothy Koomson)

(Amazon UK link)

I do like the books by Dorothy Koomson, though some of her writing is rather harder-hitting than many of my preferred authors. Her later books seem to be thrillers, which is a genre where I feel less comfortable than with more straightforward women’s fiction. I’m currently rereading my collection of her books, around one per month, and this week I picked up ‘The ice cream girls’, which I last read over thirteen years ago.

Usually, after such a long gap, I have entirely forgotten a storyline. It’s a testament to the author’s powerful writing that I did recall a fair amount of what happened in this book, once I had started. This did not detract in any way from the story, or the suspense that continues throughout.

There are two main protagonists, Serena and Poppy. We meet Serena first when her husband Evan goes down on one knee and proposes to her… a romantic gesture of the kind she has been longing for. He’s a kind, generous man - a doctor, and apparently a very good one. They have a good relationship, and now he’s offering to marry her over again, with a lavish ceremony that contrasts with their more basic original wedding. 

Big sky (by Kate Atkinson)

(Amazon UK link)

I hadn’t previously read anything by Kate Atkinson. But she’s a bestselling author, and her book ‘Big sky’ has several positive recommendations on the cover. I understand that it’s fifth in a loose series involving a private investigator called Jackson Brodie, but it isn’t necessary to have read the earlier ones. 

I doubt if I would have picked this up even if I’d seen it secondhand, but it was this month’s read for our local book group. So I bought it (used) last year, and have been reading it over the past week. It’s quite a long book - nearly 500 pages in my paperback edition - and we’ve been quite busy with guests. 

In addition, it really didn’t grab me. If it hadn’t been for the upcoming book group, I would probably have given up after about fifty pages. The first chapter is gripping: two Polish girls are video chatting with a man in the UK who is promising to find them work in hotels in London. They’re quite wary, but everything seems authentic. And he’s even going to pay for their flights. At the end of the chapter, we learn that he is not who he says he is…

The Paris apartment (by Lucy Foley)

(Amazon UK link)

I hadn’t heard of Lucy Foley, although she's apparently a best-selling author. Most likely I would not have picked up her thriller ‘The Paris Apartment’, as that’s not my usual preferred genre of reading. But it was allocated for this month’s book club, and I was able to find it inexpensively for my Kindle. So I’ve been reading it over the past week or so.

There’s a dramatic start to the book.  Jess, a young woman travelling on her own, arrives at her brother’s apartment block in Paris. She hasn’t seen him in a while, but has nowhere else to go. She spoke to him earlier in the day, and he gave his address, and also explained how to get in. He wasn’t exactly enthusiastic about her coming to visit, but clearly was expecting her.

But he’s not there. He doesn’t answer his phone, and doesn’t respond when she presses the buzzer to his flat. She tries asking people she sees, but nobody helps at all - and her French is minimal, so she’s not sure anyone understands. Finally she is able to see the code someone else uses to get into the area, and when she gets to the third floor, she picks her brother’s lock. 

And he’s not there. 

I thought it a very well-written start to the book, quite tense and beginning with a situation that would have taxed almost anyone. 

Jess discovers that Ben hasn’t taken his wallet, so he can’t have just popped out to shop. She's annoyed at first, thinking he must have forgotten about her. But as the days pass, she not just puzzled, but becomes worried that something may have happened to him. She tries every possible means of contacting him, with no result. 

She tries to speak to different residents of the building, but finds them oddly unhelpful. And rather than being all written from Jess's viewpoint, it switches from chapter to chapter. It works well, seeing different people's viewpoints, although the voices are all very similar. 

There’s Nick, a likeable young man, who was a friend of Ben’s, but he insists he knows nothing. There’s Mimi, a rather nervous young woman who seems friendly and yet withdraws at any hint of trying to push for answers. There’s an angry young man called Antoine on the ground floor, and in the penthouse is Sophie, a glamorous, perfectly made up woman, whose husband isn’t currently at home. 

There’s also the concierge, who lives a spartan life in a small cottage separate from the main block of flats, and who observes everything that’s going on. Mostly she is ignored, so she isn’t entirely sure how to deal with someone like Jess who tries to befriend everyone.

I thought the book started well, throwing Jess into a stressful and unexpected situation. It shows her as a - basically - kind person, although she’s evidently running away from something she should not have done. However I felt the residents of the apartment block appeared rather too quickly and it wasn’t easy to remember who was whom. They’re distinct individuals but there isn’t much characterisation to any of them. 

And there’s my problem with the book, really. I did hope things would work out for Jess eventually, but she never feels entirely three-dimensional, and everyone else in the book feels very flat. There are some tense situations, but it was hard for me to feel any kind of stress - and that’s unusual, as I’m easily spooked by fictional tension and thrillers.  But after the dramatic opening, not much happens for quite a lengthy section of the book. 

In the second half of the book the story gets going, after Jess seems to have come to a brick wall in her searches. There’s a local journalist after a story, a seedy night club, a shocking article on a computer, some surprising revelations about the residents of the flats, and more. Throughout I thought it was a well-written plot, but couldn’t care much about any of the people. 

The ending should have been quite exciting, but although I kept reading - sometimes a bit compulsively - and the chapters are short, I only really felt relief when everything was resolved and the book ended. There’s a bit of a twist,  when Jess thinks she’s found out something and we learn quite quickly that the ‘clues’ in the book actually lead to a rather different scenario. But by that stage I didn’t much care. 

Since I find some thrillers very stressful to read (and generally avoid them) it’s perhaps a good thing that I didn’t find most of this book particularly tense. I quite liked the cultural references, and Jess’s rather poor attempts at speaking French. And I thought the plot was well constructed and the writing nicely paced. But since the characters did nothing for me emotionally, it’s not a book I’m likely to read again.

Review copyright 2025 Sue's Book Reviews

The asylum (by Karen Coles)

(Amazon UK link)

As with so many of the books chosen for our local book group, I had not heard of the author, Karen Coles. Nor would I probably have picked this book up if I had seen it on a bookstall. The cover is attractive but it’s billed as a psychological thriller, set in the UK in 1906, and features an asylum. Not my kind of book at all. 

So it was with some reluctance that I picked it up a couple of days ago. I calculated that I would need to read 90 pages on each of the subsequent four days to finish in time for the group. On that first day I read over 100 pages. Today I read another 120 pages in the morning, then dipped into it again in the afternoon… and suddenly two hours had gone by and I was engrossed. I finished it in just two days. 

The main protagonist is called Maud, and the novel is told from her point of view. She’s locked in a cell in a ‘lunatic asylum’, as psychiatric hospitals were called at the start of the 20th century. She hears people wandering around, and is disturbed by various noises. There’s evidently something very traumatic in her past as she can remember almost nothing. She knows she has been in the asylum for five years, but has forgotten what led up to it, and has no idea whether she might have been perfectly sane beforehand.

Maud is kept in an almost comatose state by drugs, and is told that she has behaved violently. So she’s never let out. Her meals are brought by warders, whom she dislikes. Her life must be incredibly boring, but then she sleeps a lot. She’s haunted by nightmares and sometimes wakes screaming… only to be drugged back into oblivion. 

A new doctor, Dr Dimmond, comes to work at the asylum. He is a caring person who has some modern ideas about psychiatry, including the use of hypnosis to bring suppressed memories to the fore. The main doctor, Dr Womack, whom Maud dislikes, is against this. But Dimmond - or Diamond, as Maud calls him - has been commissioned to try hypnosis for a research project. And Maud, he believes, is an excellent candidate. 

Maud doesn’t trust Diamond at first, and refuses to tell him anything. But she gradually lowers her defences when he repeatedly shows her kindness. He convinces her that if only she can recall the traumas of her past, she might find healing, and possibly even freedom. 

So, after some initial resistance, the hypnosis starts to bring back some of Maud’s memories. They’re written in Italic form, either spoken by her when hypnotised, or in dreams, or in her mind as she starts to draw images that she can recall. There’s a man chasing her, she knows, as she feels herself slipping into the marshes, and she’s terrified of him. But there are other people too - a woman playing the piano, a man with a knife… so many mixed impressions going through her mind. She doesn’t know what’s real and what is her imagination, and, at first, neither do we. 

Gradually the past is opened up to Maud, and her story emerges. She clearly feels extensive guilt at incidents that were - probably - not her fault. Each time something new comes to light, Diamond hopes she will find peace. But each time she knows there’s something more…

It’s clear that the unpleasant Dr Womack doesn’t want her to remember anything. His methods are brutal, even for the era, and since he is the boss, he can order emetics, heavy doses of drugs, a straitjacket, confinement in the dark, and more.  He exerts his authority over Dr Diamond, wanting to have Maud restrained, back in her room, unable to do anything. 

There are a lot of traumatic descriptions, both in Maud’s memories and in the ‘treatment’ she is given by the Dr Womack. I had to skim over some of them, but that didn’t detract from the story at all. The treatment given to her is horrifying from the perspective of the 21st century. Yet, although Dr Womack is clearly a vengeful, evil character, some of his methods were in use in the eras before mental illness was understood. The author did her research well. And evidently some of the patients in the asylum did have severe mental health issues.  

The rampant sexism is horrendous, too. Dr Womack states that women could not be scientists as their brains were not made for studying. It was apparently a commonly held opinion. The book demonstrates how men are doctors, the women just assistants. The doctors have absolute authority over everyone else. And the asylum patients are all female, as far as I remember.

It’s gripping stuff.  The writing is excellent, the plotting meticulous. There aren’t any real surprises for the reader through most of the book. We know early on, from hints, many of the things that are going to be revealed, and which people are implicated in Maud’s past. Some might object to the revelations and twists being hinted at in advance, but for me that added to the ‘gothic’ nature of this book. I was on tenterhooks, not wondering what was coming, but how it would happen, and how it would all be resolved - if, indeed, anything would be resolved. 

Then the ending, when Maud is unexpectedly released from the asylum, was a surprise to me. I had not expected that she would behave as she does... and it brought several issues into question. Was she really cured...? Perhaps we'll never know. 

It’s not a book I’m likely to read again, but I thought it was very thought-provoking and quite eye-opening too. Definitely recommended if you like this genre. 

Review copyright 2024 Sue's Book Reviews

Midnight Train (by Sally Quilford)

(Amazon UK link)

I have a large collection of Kindle books by Sally Quilford, most of them downloaded free when she made them available as a special offer. I usually read at least one when I’m travelling. This time I decided that ‘Midnight Train’ looked interesting; I acquired it eight years ago but had not previously read it. Apparently it was originally published as a magazine pocket novel.

I had no idea what to expect, as the author writes in a variety of genres. I quickly discovered that this was a romantic thriller. Sally Quilford has a gift of characterisation, and for a while I could barely put the book down. More than once I was reminded of some of the contemporary novels of Jane Aiken Hodge or Mary Stewart, both of whom also used this genre. 

There are two main characters. Angela is a former actress, in her forties, whose agent is trying to persuade her to reprise a role she played in her twenties. She doesn’t want to, but finds it hard to say no. She’s also stressed when she discovers that her ex-husband’s new wife is pregnant. Evidently there’s some history there, but we don’t learn exactly what is involved until towards the end of the book. 

Mike is the other main character. He’s in his fifties, a vicar who has recently gone through a very stressful time. Again, we don’t learn all the details until much later, although there are sufficient hints that his eventual revelation does not come as any surprise. He’s feeling exhausted, with a lot of demands, and decides that he needs a break. He is widowed with a son at university. 

Both Mike and Angela decide to take a trip on the ‘Midnight Train’, a journey across parts of Europe ending in the fictional country of Cariastan. There are sufficient hints to let the reader know that they may not return, that the trip is doomed… 

Much of the story takes place on the train. Mike and Angela meet when it’s discovered that they had both misunderstood their bookings, and after initial misunderstandings they decide to make the best of it. Mike doesn’t want to admit that he’s a minister, despite the fact that Angela mentions her father being a retired Vicar. He feels that his profession can get in the way of friendships or other relationships - and he feels very attracted to Angela. 

However they have little chance to develop a relationship, as a dangerous plot is gradually revealed, involving extreme danger to everyone on the train. They have no idea who they can trust - if anyone. Other characters include two young men who work as staff, Cal and Will, and a small boy called Solomon who’s with an impatient woman called Patty. Then there’s Ambroise, a Frenchman… and an elderly couple from Mike’s church who decided to join the tour at the last minute, to keep an eye on him. 

The underlying story involves complex politics, greed and scandals, and I admit to skimming a little over some of the detail. I expect some of this would seem unrealistic to people more knowledgeable than I am. But I had no trouble accepting a fictional oil-rich microstate that was formerly part of the USSR. I didn’t like the violence and deaths that occurred, but they’re not unusual in this genre, and are done without any gratuitous detail. 

I hoped that there would be an eventual positive resolution to what was a very tense book in places - but wasn’t at all sure how this could happen. I thought the climax of the story was cleverly handled, and I loved the way that Angela shows herself to be a strong, independent woman with many unusual skills. 

The writing is mostly very good, the action well-paced, the characters believable. Having said that, there are a few proofing errors. There’s also a slight confusion in that someone, with similarities to a child, apparently his grandfather, turns out to be not a blood relation at all. I kept expecting a new revelation, but the mistake is never explored - nor is it explained, or even mentioned later in the book.

But on the whole I liked this book very much. I would recommend it to anyone who likes the romantic thriller genre, and who would like a quick, light read. Available in large print paperback, and still inexpensive for the Kindle. 

Review copyright 2024 Sue's Book Reviews

The Sudden Departure of the Frasers (by Louise Candlish)

(Amazon UK link)

I’ve been enjoying re-reading some of my collection of novels by Louise Candlish. Her more recent books have been quite tense thrillers, and I haven't even tried those published in the last few years as that isn't my preferred genre. But her earlier ones were more relationship-based, and very well-written. I first read ‘The Sudden Departure of the Frasers’ in August 2016 but seven years later I had entirely forgotten the plot. I picked it up to read a few days ago, and by the time I was half-way through I could barely put it down…

It opens when a young couple called Christy and Joe are moving into a large house in an exclusive and expensive street in London. They can hardly believe their luck - they were offered an excellent price. They had to borrow money from relatives for the deposit, and are stretching themselves to the limit with the mortgage. But it feels like a dream come true.

At least, it should do. Christy has some reservations, and a few uncanny bad feelings about the place - well described, early in the book, giving a hint of problems ahead - but I could not recall even a hint of what the issues might be. Then she and Joe are shunned by their neighbours who all seem to know each other, but won’t even come to their house for welcoming drinks.

There’s clearly some mystery about the previous owners, who left in a hurry with no contact details or even a forwarding address. And some huge secret that everyone in the street knows, but refuses to talk about. 

Alongside Christy’s viewpoint (told in the third person) are chapters written from the point of view of Amber, the woman who was living there previously with her husband Jeremy. Jeremy is rather older than Joe, and extremely wealthy. So in their first months, they spend an inordinate amount of money having the house redesigned and professionally decorated. Amber has given up her job, at least for the time being; Jeremy obviously adores her, but she hints of past depravities, and it’s not long before she embarks on an affair…

Amber’s story is told in the first person, as if she were writing down her memories. She says right at the beginning that she wants her ‘confession’ in writing, and explains that she’s told a lot of lies, and is full of deception. However we have to assume that her story is the truth as she sees it. She’s evidently very fond of Jeremy, but she also likes taking risks, having adventure and excitement in her life. She’s a rather bizarre character, who seems to attract adoration from all around; yet she is judgemental, commenting inwardly on their untidy homes, their chaotic lives, and their bad haircuts. 

It was a bit hard to distinguish Amber from Christy at first although the two are very different; Christy doesn’t have the need for danger or excitement, or the dubious past that Amber has. But she’s very curious about their negative reception in the street, and when she loses her job, she starts watching everyone in the neighbourhood, trying to find out what they all know, and unwilling to let go. I could empathise with Christy far more than with Amber.

As the story progresses, it becomes more tense and it was difficult to put down; I did eventually guess what the huge issue was; I don’t know if I subconsciously recalled it from my previous read, or whether it was due to some clues the author lays through the book - and even though I was correct in my surmise, I had not remembered any of the runup to the event from Amber’s point of view, nor the discovery from Christy’s.

The other people in the street are rather caricatured and it was hard to tell them apart; I liked the widowed Felicity but Christy never meets her. I didn’t at all like the changeable, arrogant Rob; others seemed interchangeable, there just as extras rather than of any great significance. 

The writing is excellent, the theme quite dark but less scary than I had thought, on picking it up to read. There are concluding chapters that tie up a lot of ends, but there’s much that is thought-provoking; in part the way that a huge web of deception can lead to immense problems when it reaches its inevitable exposure. 

Recommended if you like fast-moving and tense women’s fiction, albeit with a decidedly 'adult' theme. 

Review copyright 2023 Sue's Book Reviews

The Truth about Melody Browne (by Lisa Jewell)

(Amazon UK link)

Although I had seen a few books by Lisa Jewell in shops, most of them looked like thrillers and I hadn’t been tempted. Then I spotted’ The Truth about Melody Browne’ at a church book sale a couple of years ago. The cover appealed, the blurb on the back sounded intriguing, so I paid my 50 cents and it has been on my to-be-read shelf until I picked it up to read a couple of days ago.

And what a page-turner it is! It’s very cleverly written, and I can see why the author turned to suspense or thrillers. This book, however, is standard women’s fiction told mainly from the viewpoint of thirty-two year old Melody, with intervening sections telling snippets from her childhood. The twist - and it’s an unusual device - is that Melody has no memory of anything that happened until she was nine, and a fire destroyed her home. 

The prologue shows Melody waking up after being unconscious due to smoke inhalation. She recognises the concerned people around her as her mother and father, and recalls his strong arms lifting her out of her bed, taking her to safety..

We’re then taken to the present day where Melody lives in a council flat with her son Ed, whom she had when she was just fifteen. She hasn’t seen or spoken to her parents since she told them about her pregnancy, which shocked them so much that she left with her boyfriend. He then left Melody, but she turned out to be an excellent mother and she’s very close to Ed. 

A friendly man on a bus starts chatting to Melody one afternoon, and invites her out. They go to a show featuring a hypnotist, and Melody is selected for a performance on stage. She has to pretend to be five years old, which she finds herself doing much more easily and naturally than she would have expected. Then she faints, causing havoc around her, and after she wakes she starts having unexpected flashbacks of her early childhood.

It’s confusing at first, a muddle of people and places, but that reflects well her own confusion. She wonders if she’s imagining it all at first but gradually more of the pieces slot into place…

The writing is excellent (if a tad too peppered with expletives for my taste), the characters well-rounded, and I thought the scenes from Melody’s childhood were extremely well done. She’s a self-contained, friendly person who deals with changes and different people as well as any child could. She’s aware from a young age that she sometimes has to tread carefully; she knows when to ask questions and when to stay quiet. She accepts people for who they are, and is understanding and forgiving when adults get things wrong. 

Gradually the picture falls into place, and the pace picks up as we see drama and emotion, and many people and places which Melody had totally forgotten about. It’s extremely well done, and while it all ends perhaps a tad too tidily with almost every thread being neatly tied up, I don’t have an issue with that; I like satisfactory endings, particularly when some of the revelations had been quite shocking. 

I could empathise with the adult Melody being totally confused, although she seems to handle all the new revelations remarkably easily. I was less understanding of her long estrangement from her parents; it seemed a drastic thing to do, keeping them from Ed.  I could believe more in Melody as a thoughtful child who observes, feels, longs to be loved and appreciates every little bit of affection she is given. She has to deal with more trauma than any child should have to cope with - and even her total memory loss makes sense in the final chapter.

Overall I thought this an excellent read and would recommend it highly to anyone who likes women’s fiction with some tension and mystery that’s gradually unravelled. ‘The Truth about Melody Browne’ reminded me a bit of some of Louise Candlish’s earlier books.

Review copyright 2023 Sue's Book Reviews

The Second Husband (by Louise Candlish)

(Amazon UK link)

I’m glad I decided to re-read my collection of Louise Candlish novels, over the past couple of years, at a rate of about one every couple of months. Her earlier novels weren’t as dark or tense as her more recent ones, and on the whole I like them better. I’ve just finished ‘The Second Husband’, which I first read in 2016; naturally, I had entirely forgotten the storyline. 

The front cover gives a hint of what the novel is about, but I suspect I might have guessed anyway although the denouement doesn’t come until around half-way through. The main protagonist is a thirty-nine year old divorced woman called Kate. She works for a charity, and has two children: Roxy who is 17, and Matt who is 9. Her estranged husband Alastair is married to someone called Victoria and she hasn’t entirely forgiven him although they try to be fairly amicable for the sake of the children.

Kate is struggling for money, although Alastair gives generous child support, so he suggests she take in a lodger. After initial reluctance, she and the children manage to divide her top-floor flat so as to give a small one-bedroomed apartment next door. We see her hesitating about which of the possible tenants to choose; eventually she decides on Davis, a rather personal man in his early forties, who is a private teacher and coach. He seems ideal: he’s friendly, charming to everyone, and pays his rent on time.

Most of Kate’s stress is caused by Roxy, who hangs out with a girl called Marianne, barely wanting to speak to her mother. Roxy has suddenly adopted revealing clothes, heavy make-up, and an eye-rolling attitude, reminding her mother that at 17 there are many things she can do, without necessarily needing permission. Kate finds it hard, seeing her beautiful, affectionate little girl turn into a moody teenager, and tries perhaps too hard to find out what’s going on in her life.

Davis gradually becomes friendly with Kate, and gets along very well with both Roxy and Matt. He starts coaching Roxy in French, and is regularly invited to dinner. It’s all quite platonic, until Kate realises that she’s starting to fall for him…

The writing is excellent, the characterisation entirely believable, and I quite liked Kate. I think my favourite character is Matt; he’s uncomplicated and trusting, and many of the events of the book go right over his head. I liked Kate’s sister Tash, too; she’s disorganised and Kate thinks of her as little more than a teenager, but although they’re very different, Tash is very fond of the family. 

In the second half of the book, after Kate has made a shocking discovery - and while I’d guessed what it might be, I had entirely forgotten how she found out, and what the consequence would be - the pace gets a bit faster. The action moves outside the small community atmosphere in London, and I found myself liking Kate even more, as she berates herself, and second-guesses many decisions. Yet she keeps going; her love for her family and determination to care for them feels real, and while I was never moved to tears, I found some of the writing quite tense, even if not along the ‘thriller’ lines of some of the author’s later books. 

I thought the situation was very well-handled; at times the style reminded me of the novels by Libby Purves, as quite difficult issues are covered sensitively. The storyline could have been sordid but was somehow lifted out of that. There are some thought-provoking discussions related to how adults perceive teens, and vice versa; and how far parents can go in protecting their children, even if almost adults, from the choices they make. 

Recommended if you like this author’s work, or similar hard-hitting women’s fiction. Although if you prefer Louise Candlish’s more recent thrillers, this might seem a bit tame by comparison. 

Review copyright 2023 Sue's Book Reviews

The Island Hideaway (by Louise Candlish)

(Amazon UK link)

I’m enjoying re-reading the novels I’ve acquired, over the years, by Louise Candlish. Some of her more recent publications have been tense psychological thrillers, so I’m rather liking the gentler style of her earlier work. I’ve just finished re-reading ‘The Island Hideaway’ which was apparently her first published novel, though she revised it a decade later; the original title was different. I first read it in 2015. 

Even this book has a hint of intrigue and tension, though it’s quite low-key.  The main protagonist is a young woman called Eleanor who has gone to one of the Sicilian islands for ten days or so. But it’s not for a holiday: she’s there to observe her former fiance Will, who is there with his new girlfriend. She hopes he might return to her - their breakup was traumatic, and Eleanor hasn’t got over it. 

I found some of the stalking very bizarre; Eleanor has a monocular with which she spies out the local village and cafes from her hotel rooftop, hoping to catch sight of Will. She isn’t quite sure what she’s going to do, and her friends back home think she’s crazy to be following him like this. I tended to agree with them…

It’s primarily a character-based novel, since Eleanor gets to know several other visitors in the hotel: Sophie and Tim, who are happily married and have left their young son with grandparents; a German couple with a teenage daughter who’s only fourteen but dresses skimpily and sulks most of the time; and Lewis, a man she finds quite attractive and willing to listen when she pours out some of her story. 

It’s well-written, with some flashbacks. It wasn’t always obvious that these were happening, as there was no change of tense, or clear indication that there was going to be a foray into the past, but context soon showed me that the main story was taking a brief break. The flashbacks fill in some detail that helps with the story, and don’t really detract from it.

It’s quite a page-turner, and the ending works well, although it’s a bit abrupt; I’d like to have seen a little more of what was going to happen when Eleanor returned to London. But my biggest problem with the book that I didn’t actually much like Eleanor. Her obsession with Will doesn’t seem entirely believable, her excessive drinking and smoking gets out of hand, and she does some frankly stupid things. 

There are one or two unexpected turns to the storyline, although by the time the revelations come I’d pretty much guessed the outcomes; I don’t think I was remembering them from my last read as it was so long ago. I had certainly forgotten a rather perilous scene when Eleanor doesn’t check the weather before embarking on a long outing with two other characters. 

Definitely worth reading, and re-reading if you like this style of women’s fiction, but not the best of Louise Candlish’s writing. 

Review copyright 2023 Sue's Book Reviews

The Last Thing He Told Me (by Laura Dave)

(Amazon UK link)

I hadn’t heard of Laura Dave. I don’t think I’d even have picked up a book with such a dark blue cover, and blurb on the back talking about a twisty-turny thriller, no matter how cleverly crafted. But ‘The last thing he told me’ was allocated for this month’s local reading group so I acquired it second-hand, and started reading it on Friday. 

It’s quite a long novel (360 pages in paperback) and at first I wondered whether I’d get to the end in time, as we have visitors staying, so I’m not reading as much as normal. I thought perhaps I’d read a hundred pages or so, and then find a summary somewhere.  In the event, it was compulsive reading - and not as heavy as I’d expected - and I finished it by the end of Sunday, after five minutes here and ten minutes there…

The story is narrated by a woman of about forty called Hannah. She’s been married for just over a year to Owen, and they live on a floating house in California. Owen has a sixteen-year-old daughter, Bailey, whom he adores - and who doesn’t much like the intrusion of a new love into his life. Hannah is doing all she can to befriend her stepdaughter, but Bailey is not responding well. 

Other than that, life is pretty much idyllic for Hannah. She works making hand-crafted rustic furniture, and Owen makes sufficient money as a software coder that they live a comfortable life.  And then, out of the blue, Owen vanishes. The company he works for is being investigated for fraud, but Hannah can’t believe he would be involved in that, or that - if he was - he wouldn’t be willing to stand trial along with his colleagues. 

He leaves her a note with just two words on it. She and Hannah have to try to make sense of what’s happened, with no information initially - and then, as they start to ask questions and investigate, the story becomes more and more confusing. It seems that what they thought they knew wasn’t even right. 

To say anything else would be a spoiler; suffice it to say I was hooked, as confused as Hannah and Bailey, perhaps; intrigued to know more. I don’t think I’d class it exactly as a thriller although there are some tense moments. But it’s certainly an exciting story, with quite a few unexpected revelations.  It reminded me a bit of some of Louise Candlish’s novels; more a psychological thriller, perhaps, than a high-action one. 

The writing is excellent, the pace exactly right, with a few flashbacks here and there to Hannah’s life with Owen before and during their marriage. I liked her very much, And I also liked the way that, although there’s a love story underlying the novel, it’s much more about Hannah and Bailey, and their growing relationship as they bond in their shared loss. Hannah is generous and wise; at times I felt she was almost too altruistic to be believable - but not quite. She has moments of being afraid, moments when she doesn’t know what to believe, and a great deal of anger.  

There’s nothing explicit in this book, no on-page violence, and minimal bad/strong language. I thought the ending was well done, but left too much open. So I’m delighted to read, at the back, that the author has started working on a sequel.

Very highly recommended. 

Review copyright 2023 Sue's Book Reviews

The Other Passenger (by Louise Candlish)

(Amazon UK link)

I have been reading novels by Louise Candlish for over a decade now. Her writing is excellent, fast-paced and her novels have tight, often very clever plots. Her later books have been in the psychological thriller category, tense and page-turning, yet without being scary. So when I saw ‘The Other Passenger’ in a church book sale for 50 cents, I had no hesitation in buying it. It took me nearly a year to pick it up to read - and just three days to finish.

Jamie is the main protagonist of the novel, which is told from his perspective, in the third person. We meet him first at the end of December 2019 when he’s about to board the water ferry that takes him to his workplace, in London. He notes that his friend Kit is not there, He mentions Kit’s tendency to get drunk, to skip work or turn up late. He describes the way they, and two other commuter friends, have become a kind of group, hanging out and drinking beers together, although he doesn’t know a whole lot about the other two. He also hints at one or two things he’d rather forget….

Then, when the ferry reaches Kit’s destination he is met by two men who flash their police IDs, and tell Jamie they need to have a chat with him, since his friend Kit has not been seen since the evening of December 23rd.  And, according to security cameras and other information, Jamie was the last person to see him…

The story then alternates with the present - moving forward, slowly - and the past year, as Jamie recounts how he and his partner Clare first met Kit and his wife Melia, and how their friendship progressed. To say anything much more about the plot would be to give spoilers - the story has so many unexpected revelations and (towards the end) twists, even U-turns, that I found it quite unputdownable.

It’s unusual for me to like a book where none of the main characters are particularly sympathetic, but somehow I did. Jamie’s accounts seem to be reasonably straightforward and honest - he recounts the story as if doing so to himself, or in a journal, although the assumption is that this is what he’s telling the police, off the record. But much of what he recounts doesn’t make pleasant reading. Jamie drinks too much, he’s suffered panic attacks, he sometimes accepts drugs, and he openly admits to a terrible betrayal of two people he cares about.

Kit and Melia are always complaining about having no money, despite their both being in good jobs. They have student debts and other loans to pay off, but they seem to spend all the money they earn on eating out, drinking and drugs. I didn’t like either of them much, either. Jamie and Clare live in a huge and gorgeous house, but we quickly learn that it’s owned by Clare, given to her by her parents. Clare has a high-powered job but Jamie had to give up his city job, and now works as a barista at a cafe. He likes his job but Clare wants him to get something else, and is a bit pushy about it.

So I didn’t much care about any of the significant people in the book - yet I kept reading, increasingly curious to know what had happened to Kit. It’s not clear whether he’s still alive, and if so whether he’s gone off with someone else, or been beaten up by his dealers for owing money, or whether he’s lying somewhere in a drunken stupor. By the time we discover Kit’s fate, there have been so many twists and turns to the story that I had almost lost sight of the fact that he has been missing.

It’s a powerful story which, essentially, is about strong women, whether they are basically benign or narcissistic. Kit and Jamie both come across as having entitlement mentalities, Kit feeling that the world owes him something, and Jamie that he can do whatever he wants, remaining dependent on Clare. They are both, in different ways, victims of circumstances, yet doing nothing to stand up to what is right.

If you want to read a hard-hitting, thought-provoking and fast-paced crime novel that’s expertly written, then I would recommend this.

Review copyright 2023 Sue's Book Reviews

The Swimming Pool (by Louise Candlish)

(Amazon UK link)

I know that when I start a new Louise Candlish novel, I’m going to be gripped - and possibly quite tense - until I’ve finished it. Her earlier novels were lighter, albeit with some dark sections and hints of mystery, but the more recent ones have been described as psychological thrillers. ‘The Swimming Pool’, which I was given last Christmas, is no exception.

Natalie is the narrator in this novel, and thus the main viewpoint character. We meet her first in a dramatic prologue where she is running naked to her home, after dark, her feet hurting after getting caught in stones. She makes it to her block of flats, only to find ‘him’ - we have no idea, at this stage, who this refers to - waiting for her. It’s cleverly done, opening the novel to a scene of extreme tension, with no idea what would happen.

The rest of the book is set in two broad time-frames: 2015, and some episodes in 1985 when Natalie was a somewhat wild teenager, led on by a local girl called Mel. We see scenes of their increasing bullying of the neighbourhood children, culminating in something involving a girl known only as ‘Nessie’; Natalie has evidently tried to forget this incident, but it keeps recurring and she is terrified still, even thirty years later, that there may be repercussions.

In 2015, Natalie and her husband Ed are both respectable middle class teachers who like to be organised and structured; their home is always tidy, and while they don’t have much romance left, they get along well enough, partly due to their shared love of their daughter, 13-year-old Molly. Molly, we soon learn, is terrified of water, probably due to a nasty incident when she was a toddler. So when a new Lido is opened nearby, Molly has no interest in going there.

Natalie, on the other hand, loves swimming. So, as the long summer holiday break starts, she arranges to swim with her friend Gayle. And she meets the glamorous Lara, a wealthy socialite who has been campaigning to re-open the Lido for a couple of years. Lara seems to take an interest in Natalie, inviting her into her circle of friends… and Natalie, as when she was a teenager, is easily led.

But interspersed with the progression of the summer holiday is a scene at the end of August, which gradually progresses, in which it’s clear that something terrible has happened at the Lido, involving Molly and her friend Georgia, who is Lara’s daughter…

The writing, as I expect with Louise Candlish, is excellent. The pace is good - while it might seem that not much is happening, the tension gradually builds. By the time I was half-way through I could barely put the book down. I wanted to know what exactly happened in 1985, and what was going to be the outcome of the potential tragedy at the end. I also wanted to know where the prologue fit into the book, and what Lara’s motivation for befriending Natalie is - it’s clear that it’s not simply altruistic.

I have to admit I didn’t much like Natalie as a person; she seems quite weak, prone to peer pressure and wanting other people to think well of her, and far too protective of her daughter. But it’s a testament to the writing that I found the book gripping anyway and was hoping things would work out for her. I liked her husband and Molly, but none of the glamorous folk was particularly likeable - and yet I kept reading, putting the book down only when the tension became too much, or I had to do other things (like sleep). It’s not a short novel - about 450 pages in paperback - but I finished it in just three days.

I hadn’t guessed what eventually transpired, and the epilogue was yet another surprise… all in all, a very well-written book that explores the unusual condition of aquaphobia and the tensions that can easily arise in family life. It also - quite subtly - covers some of the dangers of teenage water games and challenges, and the lifetime shame that can result from childhood bullying.

Definitely recommended if you like this kind of book. I’m not usually interested in thrillers, but am glad I read this one.

Review copyright 2022 Sue's Book Reviews

Sea Witch comes home (by Malcolm Saville)

(Amazon UK link)

I have been a fan of Malcolm Saville’s ‘Lone Pine’ series since my early teenage years, when I came across some of his books on my grandmother’s shelves. In the 1970s Armada books published abridged versions of this series at affordable prices for teens, and I acquired them all - or almost all of them. I re-read the series regularly, and inevitably liked some of the books better than the others.

‘Sea Witch Comes Home’, 13th in the series, was possibly my least favourite. The reason is that it doesn’t include many of the Lone Piners - just David Morton and his twin siblings Dickie and Mary. And Mackie the dog, of course. It’s not in a familiar setting, either, and the family they go to stay with - Paul and Rose - are rather quarrelsome; they want help as their father has gone missing, but they don’t want to reveal too many details - and can’t agree about what information to share anyway.

The last few times I re-read the series (which happens about once every decade now) I didn’t re-read this book. I missed out a few others, too, in my last read-through, around 2009-2010. But since then I have managed to acquire full editions of all the series, many of them in Girls Gone By form with interesting introductions and details about publication history. I’m very much appreciating reading the full text of some of the series which I only ever read in abridged form, but still wasn’t particularly looking forward to ‘Sea Witch’.

To my surprise, I thought it an extremely good read. It’s not a typical Lone Pine book; there’s not much discussion of the club, and most of the teens are not involved anyway. It’s more of a thriller-adventure story that just happens to involve the Morton family. It mostly revolves around the Channing family: Paul and Rose as mentioned above, and their father. Because Saville writes from multiple viewpoints, switching them with different chapters, we know what Mr Channing is doing, even though his children don’t.

And it’s quite an exciting plot involving cleverly stolen paintings by an artist whose work was not particularly admired during his lifetime. I assume John Jackson is a figment of Malcolm Saville’s imagination but the locations where most of the action happens are real, set on the East Coast of England. It’s even set in historical context, in 1953, when a natural disaster happened, described in much detail in the last chapters of the book.

The abridged versions of Saville’s stories still cover the plots, and some of the conversation, but anything considered extraneous was cut to fit the Armada format. And so this book, I imagine, was quite bleak: and yet, reading it now, the places and conversations between the characters are what brings it alive. I checked the hand-drawn maps at the start of the book rather more than I usually do; of course some of the buildings and the cast of people are fictional, but the author evidently knew the area and places everything and everyone in believable situations.

If you love the Lone Pine club and prefer to read books that explore their growing friendships and which are primarily from their viewpoints, then this one really doesn’t fit the pattern. Perhaps I wouldn’t even have liked this full edition much as a teen, when I was keen to read more about the low-key romances that start to blossom in later books in the series. I was also less interested in the behaviour and point of view of adults forty-plus years ago.

But reading it now, almost as if it were a standalone novel, I thought it excellent. I had totally forgotten the story - it must be thirty years or more since I read it - and at times I could hardly put it down. It could make a good introduction to the series for anyone - adult or older teenager - wanting a realistic, fast-paced adventure story with some tension; just don’t expect it to be a significant part of the Lone Pine series.

Unfortunately Girls Gone By Publication books go quickly out of print, and second-hand editions tend to be highly priced. But there are marketplaces and social media groups where they are sometimes found less expensively; it's well worth looking out for a GGBP edition if you want to read this book. 

Review copyright 2022 Sue's Book Reviews

Wildfire at Midnight (by Mary Stewart)

(Amazon UK link)

I have enjoyed re-reading my Mary Stewart novels in recent years, and also acquiring some I had not previously read; most of her books have been re-published and are more easily available than before. I first discovered Mary Stewart’s writing in my school library as a teenager, and while some of her books were a bit too ‘thrilling’, I liked the genre of romantic suspense, and was pleased to discover several of my old favourites.

I had ‘Wildfire at Midnight’ on my wishlist for a while, and was given it for my birthday earlier this year. I’ve just finished reading it and am pretty sure it’s not one I have come across in the past, although the title feels somewhat familiar.

The protagonist of the novel is a young woman called Gianetta, a name given to her in memory of a rather shocking great-grandmother whom she never met. I’m not entirely sure what the point was of this foray into family history in the first chapter, as it’s not at all relevant to the rest of the novel. However it introduces Gianetta nicely; she works as a model, but is tired and is persuaded by her parents to take a break. We learn early in the book that she was briefly married to Nicholas, and now divorced although her mother doesn’t quite believe that they are no longer together.

So Gianetta travels to the Scottish island of Skye, hoping to get away from people, from her memories, from her work… and also from the stress of the upcoming Coronation, which sets the book firmly in historical context: the early Summer of 1953.

After arriving at the hotel which her parents recommend, Gianetta immediately recognises an actress and they become acquainted. There are other visitors too, one of whom she knows already - it seems a bit of a coincidence, but not really a problem. However I couldn’t distinguish the other visitors - married couples, two single women, and a few others. Mary Stewart’s characterisation is usually good, but I simply couldn’t keep my mind on the different guests. And it was important to do so, because this book turns out to be a murder mystery.

However it’s not in the Agatha Christie style; although the first tragedy took place off-stage, before the start of the book, it’s described rather ghoulishly. Nor is it the only one… and unsurprisingly Gianetta herself goes through some very tense moments. I had half guessed who the perpetrator was by some of the action - and when revealed, it was clear that there had been some clues, although I don’t think I would have picked them up.

I have to admit that by the time I was about three-quarters of the way through the book I was finding it so tense that I had to skip to the end to discover if my hunch was correct, and to find out what happened. I assumed that Gianetta survived, since she is the narrator of the whole book, telling the story in the past tense. But I wasn’t going to keep reading if the rest of the guests didn’t...

I found the ending quite satisfactory, if a tad surprising in one respect, and then went back to read the intervening chapters, which were less stressful when I knew the outcome. Mary Stewart was excellent at writing suspenseful prose, and as a thriller it works very well if you like this kind of tension. The romantic thread, such as it is, is quite low-key in this book.

I liked Gianetta, even if the other characters felt a bit flat, and thought it a good story. It's one which I will probably re-read in another decade or so. Not my favourite by this author, but if you like nicely tense books from the middle of the 20th century, this is a good one to try. It's now considered a modern classic, and is available in ebook form as well as paperback. Mary Stewart's novels are also often found second-hand.

Review copyright 2021 Sue's Book Reviews

Rose Cottage (by Mary Stewart)

(Amazon UK link)

I first came across Mary Stewart’s novels in my library at my secondary school, many decades ago. I was pleased when I found some of them, years later, in charity shops; and in more recent years I have been able to acquire re-printed versions of those I didn’t have already. One of these is ‘Rose Cottage’.

I did in fact have it as part of an omnibus edition with three of Stewart’s novels, but it was quite an unwieldy tome, which I read in 2011. Since I also had one of the books in this omnibus separately, and was given one of the others, I added ‘Rose Cottage’ to my wishlist in a new edition, and was delighted to be given it for Christmas.

I had entirely forgotten the story; although set in 1947, it wasn’t published until 1997 when the author was in her early eighties. I gather it was her last published novel, but her skill in writing and characterisation shines through, as in her earlier books. And it’s a very enjoyable story. Some of Stewart’s novels have a bit too much violence for my tastes; there’s none in this, other than brief mention of a tragic road accident which affected the main characters significantly - but it all happens off-stage, so to speak.

Kathy is the main protagonist of this story, a young woman in her mid-twenties. We learn in the first chapter that she’s been staying with her grandmother in Scotland, after her grandmother has been ill. Kathy’s had a difficult life: her mother abandoned her when she was small, and she never knew a father. Her grandparents brought her up, and she’s very fond of her grandmother. Then Kathy married an airman, although the marriage was very short as he died in the war. He’s left her reasonably well-off but she’s still grieving.

Kathy’s grandmother asks her to travel to their former home, Rose Cottage. There’s still some of their furniture there, and a hidden safe with some important documents, and a few nostalgic mementoes of their life. Kathy has quite mixed memories of Rose Cottage, which she and her grandmother shared with her great-aunt, who was very puritanical and quite harsh.

So she travels down, and embarks on quite a nostalgic journey, meeting people she hasn’t seen for several years, exploring places she recalls from her childhood. Inevitably she can’t find everything her grandmother wanted her to send to Scotland… and she hears rumours in the village of prowlers a few days earlier. The tension is very mild; Kathy is puzzled more than frightened.

The people feel real, even the slightly caricatured three old biddies (who are probably not all that old): the sweet, unworldly one who loves to garden; her more practical sister, and their neighbour who has dreams and visions. There’s a gentle low-key humour in their twitterings, but their care and concern shines through.

Perhaps the plot is a tad far-fetched - but it’s a good story, well-told, with descriptive passages that weren’t tedious, and conversations that felt entirely natural. I liked Kathy very much; I’m not quite sure why it was necessary for her to have been married and widowed for the story, except that it enables her to be reasonably self-sufficient. She does have a job, but can easily take leave.

There’s only the faintest hint of a possible romance - even less than in most of Mary Stewart’s ‘romantic thrillers’, but perhaps it was realistic, leaving the way open for developments in the future.

All in all, I enjoyed this book very much and would recommend it to anyone who likes mid-20th-century character-based stories with a touch of intrigue. It’s not a long book - less than 250 pages in my paperback edition - and I finished it in just a few days.

Definitely recommended.

Review copyright 2021 Sue's Book Reviews

My Brother Michael (by Mary Stewart)

(Amazon UK link)

I have read and liked novels by Mary Stewart for over forty years. I discovered some of her books in the ‘senior library’ at my secondary school, and loved her writing style. She was one of the first writers of ‘romantic thrillers’, and while as a teenager I liked the romance (always very low-key) better than the thrills, I knew too that she was a good story-teller.

In recent years, many of her lesser-known novels have been published. When I like an author, I like to collect all their works, so I’ve added some which I didn’t have to my wishlist.  I was given ‘My Brother Michael’ for my birthday almost nine months ago, and have just finished reading it.

As with all of Mary Stewart’s books, the writing is excellent. She paints her scenery realistically; this one is set in Greece, and I felt that the places and people were all authentic. There’s perhaps a tad more description than I like, in places but it’s easy to skim. Her conversations are believable, and her main characters quite well-rounded.

Camilla is the narrator of this book. She’s in her mid-twenties, and has recently broken off an engagement to a man whom she acknowledges was quite controlling. She’s on her own in Athens, writing to a friend complaining that nothing much ever happens to her.

Camilla’s funds are running low and she’s wondering how she might be able to get to Delphi. At that moment, a man comes into the cafe where she’s writing, and approaches her table. He says that a car is ready for her, with the deposit paid already. His English isn’t brilliant and her Greek is limited to about half a dozen phrases, and she is not able to persuade him that he has the wrong person. He insists that ‘Mr Simon’ needs the car, and that it’s a matter of life or death…

While she has plenty of qualms, Camilla eventually picks up the key that was left behind, and decides that she will drive to Delphi. It’s at this point we learn that she hasn’t driven for a long time, never on the other side of the road. The book is set in the 1950s, when licenses were easier to get - or not required - and she has a few false starts before she gets going - and some near run-ins en route to Delphi.

Naturally she finds Simon, and equally unsurprisingly he has no clue about the car - but the two seem to click, and she learns that he is in Delphi to get some closure on his brother Michael’s death in the war, twelve years earlier. She accompanies him as he meets the family who took Michael in when he was injured, and she also gets to know one or two other people locally.

The story doesn’t really get tense until about half-way through, and the extreme ‘thriller’ part is in the final chapters. It’s a complex and very well-thought-out plot, all too believable, and the bad guys are really extremely unpleasant. There’s more violence than I’m comfortable with; I’d forgotten that Mary Stewart sometimes almost casually kills off some of her minor characters, and thinks nothing of a few good fights with serious injuries.

Having a first-person narrator ensures that I wasn’t worried about whether Camilla would survive, and I was pretty sure that Simon would too, but it was touch-and-go at times. I had to put the book down a few times as I came towards the end, as it was more ‘thrilling’ than I like. There isn’t much of a romance, either; while there are hints, nothing is said or followed through.

I’ve liked other of Mary Stewart’s novels better, but this was still a good read. I’d recommend it to anyone who likes this genre: for older teenagers or adults.

Review copyright 2021 Sue's Book Reviews

The House where Nobody Lived (by Sue Jones)

(Amazon UK link)

Sue Jones, a member of my local writing group, was so pleased with the ease of publication via KDP that she asked for our help with publishing her second novel, ‘The House where Nobody Lived’. I had very much enjoyed her first novel, ‘The Legacy’, and felt privileged to read this one in advance of publication, to do the formatting prior to my husband laying it out and uploading it.

This book is very different in style from Sue Jones’ first book. The main character is a man called Jack, recently divorced and extremely likeable. He moves into a house and hears a voice in the next-door back garden. It’s a small child, who says she is called ‘Nobody’. And it’s clear, by the end of the chapter, that this little girl is treated very badly by the adults who she lives with.

Jack slowly tries to unpack boxes and meets some of his neighbours, but when he mentions this unfortunate small child, he is warned off. The occupants of that house are vengeful, he is told, and if he reports them he might find himself in huge trouble. So he’s unsure what to do, his conscience pricked by the pitiful voice, but also not wanting to be the target of attack.

Chapter Two then switches to an entirely different storyline. We meet Esther, a young woman who has been arrested at an airport, caught by sniffer dogs. It’s clear that her passport is fake, and that she’s doing something for a criminal, against her better judgement. We don’t know why until a bit later in the book, but she’s very concerned that she’ll be in serious danger if she tells the truth.

It’s an exciting book, albeit not at all the kind of novel I would usually read. The characterisation of the significant people is good, although some of the ‘bad’ guys were so awful I couldn’t entirely believe in them. There are some scenes of violence sufficiently unpleasant that I wouldn’t suggest a teenager read the book, and some quite shocking events that I wasn’t expecting. A lot of issues are covered, and I found myself a tad confused about details a few times - but that didn’t matter.

As with the author’s first book, the writing is excellent, and the pace such that it was quite difficult to stop reading, in places. Maybe some of the conversation is a tad too extended for my tastes, not really adding to the story or the characterisation. But I’ve noticed that this style is becoming increasingly common in modern novels.

All in all, I would recommend this if you like this genre of book: it would perhaps fall into the ‘romantic thriller’ genre. Available inexpensively in Kindle form as well as paperback.

Review copyright 2020 Sue's Book Reviews