Keep Your Friends Close – Paula Daly

Psychological Thriller
5*’s

 

Open the book and meet the rather intimidating, woman who is Natty Wainwright whose marriage is so successful she runs an upmarket hotel with her husband Sean. Married young, the couple have two teenage daughters, Alice and Felicity and an enviable lifestyle completed by a beautiful home and expensive cars.

Dr Eve Dalladay; beautiful and always perfectly dressed she is also successful psychologist with her own practice and is one of Natty’s oldest friends. Eve is visiting when Natty gets the phone call which changes everything; Felicity is in hospital in France. Eve generously offers to stay and help the couple out by keeping an eye on Alice for a couple of days while Natty makes the trip to care for her youngest daughter. By the time Natty returns Sean has fallen in love and Eve is ensconced at the hotel. It isn’t long before she receives a letter stating that Eve has done this before.

Sorry to scatter this review with clichés but this book is a real page-turner and an absolute compulsive read so that each time I came to the end of a relatively short chapter, I had to read ‘just one more!’ I wanted to know how both Natty and Eve would play their respective hands and Natty’s realistic reaction to being told that her best friend and her husband were an item made me root for her throughout the book despite the fact that she clearly wasn’t some perfect woman who’d never done anything wrong. Paula Daly has created a book made up of flawed characters including some wonderful secondary ones; my favourites being the Policewoman Joanne Aspinall and her aunt Jackie as well as Natty’s father Ken. These true to life people served to add another layer of enjoyment to the story. The only character who appeared a little indistinct was Sean, but without giving any spoilers by the time I had read to the end I think that maybe the author was trying to show us just how insignificant he was to the drama…

Since reading this I am definitely going to find time to read the author’s debut What Kind of Mother Are You? which has been on my TBR for far too long!

I was lucky enough to receive a copy of this book from the publishers Random House UK in return for this review.