The Last Thread – Ray Britain

Crime Fiction
5*s

I couldn’t help but be intrigued when I was contacted by Ray Britain to see if I would be interested in reading his book with a view to writing a review, not least because this is a book written by someone who has been on the front-line of policing. You can read my interview with Ray Britain here. That’s not to say I didn’t approach the book with some degree of trepidation as the author was at pains to stress that his novel would reflect real-life policing and I wondered if the reality would quash the exciting storylines, after all most of us realise that what we see on TV and read in some (not all) novels can’t possibly reflect the more painstaking aspects of policing in modern Britain. I needn’t have worried at all, the author has the mix of reality and fictional plotting perfectly balanced and the knowledge that this could be ‘real’ made the resulting read more meaningful.

Our protagonist is DCI Doug Stirling and we first meet him on top of a bridge working in a voluntary role negotiating with a youngster who is about to commit suicide. Not the early damp start to the day that anyone would enjoy and yet the author had me in the moment from the first page willing Doug to be able to save a young life. It’s not to be and we see the stress the DCI is under especially when the Police Complaints Commission become involved in what seems like a never-ending investigation into what happened on the fateful day. Doug tries to put it behind him and due to a lack of professional officers he is working on the gruesome death of a man found murdered in a burnt out car but ordered to keep a low-profile while he’s under investigation. This is where the story really hots up and the mystery thickens by the minute, especially when a firm identification of the victim is made.

The Last Thread is an outstanding debut with an exceptional plot which is complex yet not so much so that I ever lost any of the threads, let alone the last one! The characters are well-rounded, perhaps a little too earnest at times but of course they are modelled on those who are dedicated to the job and not the detectives of old with a permanent pint in their hand and a life full of angst to forget. There are a couple of the rottener types of detectives to keep the book spiced up and the author also provides some of the office banter that keeps far less intellectually puzzling working lives turning up and down the country.

Best of all for me is this book is set in Worcestershire, something I was unaware of when I agreed to read it and as those of you who follow this blog know, I love reading books set in places I’m familiar with and my brother lives in Worcester so this book fully qualifies, and passes the test as I could easily recognise some of the settings described so well by the author.

The Last Thread was a great read, I’m delighted to note that the title implies that Doug Stirling will be returning, soon I hope as a book written from someone who has lived the life but can also tell a cracking good tale is just what this crime lover needs.

First Published UK: 17 September 2017
Publisher: Ray Britain
No of Pages: 536
Genre: Crime Fiction
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Cut To The Bone – Alex Caan

Crime Fiction
4*s

So we have Ruby Day, a vlogger aged just 20, who posts videos about all the fun stuff in life, shopping, make-up and the like, and then she goes missing. Why would anyone want to take Ruby and why do they want to keep her name in the spotlight by posting videos about her, post disappearance.

There is no doubt that Ruby’s disappearance is a mystery but her parents are convinced from the start that this is serious, and although she’s an adult the investigation is fast-tracked. After all everyone wanting the mystery solved, most of all Ruby’s adoring teenage fans, it has fallen to a special crimes unit set up in the centre of London with all the best equipment money can buy to find out. Enter Detective Sergeant Zain Harris who is working for Detective Inspector Kate Riley. Both are strong and determined characters and part of the smallish team carrying out the investigation which is far more techy than most police procedurals. We enter the realms of the ‘dark web’ as Zain uses less than approved methods to delve into Ruby and her associates’ on-line life.

The lead characters have been created with a real sense of depth and mystery.  Kate Riley is keeping a secret regarding her transfer from the US to London, and alongside the main plot this side interest is eked out allowing the reader to build a picture of her background, but crucially no-one else knows these facts and she is determined to keep it that way. Meanwhile Zain is keeping his own demons close to his chest too, with clear signs that a previous case prior to him joining the newly formed team has psychologically damaged him, he too isn’t over keen to share his private life either. Alex Caan hasn’t neglected the more minor characters though and cleverly reveals them in half-light, each one needing to enter centre stage a few times before I got a sense of who they really are, and this includes our missing vlogger Ruby who has far more substance than it would first appear. On the one hand this is excellent, far more true to life than those books which give you fully-formed characters from the off, but with a rather large cast, it took a fair amount of concentration to ensure that I knew exactly what was being revealed about whom!

I really enjoyed this foray into a life that is a bit like a foreign land to me. Of course I know what YouTube is and I know that vloggers get endorsed by companies for promoting their goods but I haven’t ever been moved to see what it’s all about, I think these lifestyle vlogs are aimed at younger viewers than me! However that aside I can see that this world means big money for those who are successful and in Cut to the Bone we meet Ruby’s management team. I did have a quiet chuckle when one man was asked to reveal exactly what he did for his fee, after all Ruby was successful long before she needed an agent and a contract!

The pace of this book was fairly brisk with a number of different perspectives used and with so many side issues to be considered including the tactics of those from all walks of life who want a larger slice of the pie than they deserve, the need to keep reading on was a compelling one. Some of the descriptions, especially later on in this book are not for the faint-hearted, and as graphic as you’d expect for a book that is describing visual media!
Overall a fantastic debut full of a great mixture of characters with a plot that was as interesting as it was unusual.

I’d like to say a big thank you to Twenty7 Books for allowing me to read a copy of this book ahead of the paperback publication today, 3 November 2016.

 

First Published UK: 14 July 2016
Publisher: Twenty7 Books
No of Pages: 410
Genre: Crime Fiction
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My Sister’s Bones – Nuala Ellwood

Crime Fiction
5*s

Well this story was so much more than I expected, the war journalist not a token character to make a difference like I suspected, but someone who really felt like they’d seen and done all those terrifying things that it is easier to shy away from when it comes on the news.

When Kate Rafter returns to Hearne Bay following the death of her mother she is collected from the train station by her brother-in-law Paul. It is clear from the outset that there is trouble between Kate and her younger sister Sally and even when we are forced to confront Kate’s version of events, there are questions as to the real cause.

I’m often wary of crime books that strongly have mental illness at the very centre of their tale, not because I’m in any doubt of the awfulness of the condition but because I harbour slight suspicions as to the author’s motives – do they chose to portray someone this way to be politically correct? Or to capture readers who suffer similarly? Perhaps it has been chosen to excuse the actions of a character to make the unbelievable, less absurd? Not so in this book. Yes Kate is suffering from the effects of all that she has witnessed and she hears voices, sees hallucinations and takes strong tablets to help her sleep, but, and this is crucial for me to keep faith, she is also strong, she takes herself to task, unwilling to play the victim, she wants to return to work. So although we have a reason to doubt her visions, as I got to know more about her, all that she sees and hears has echoes in the war-zones she recently left, it all felt authentic.

What is equally interesting is that we follow Kate in a police station over the course of her detention for some unknown crime. She is guarded, trying not to provide ammunition to the police but we are as unsure of her motive as her crime. In between the interviews she narrates her tale, going back to the weeks leading up to her arrest. Because I knew some of this background and her need to present her most sane self to the police this also gave me a clue as to the strength of this woman, this is no flaky airhead playing at being a war-zone journalist, imagining she’s been to Syria, this is someone who has seen things we don’t even want to imagine.

Most of the book is narrated by Kate but we get to see another perspective through her alcoholic sister’s eyes. Sally always felt her mother preferred clever Kate who succeeded at everything and had moved away and left them, including her mother who had been shattered by the death of their brother when he was just a toddler. This is just one of the shadowy truths that litter this book. We know David died, but how and why isn’t instantly apparent, neither is the disappearance of Hannah, Sally’s daughter.

With many themes of a distressing nature this book could easily have turned into a complete misery fest but it is far too clever for that. Although there is plenty to despair about, some of it far too distressing to deeply contemplate, there is also a plot with a definite ending which lifts this head and shoulders above the competition. I loved the way that the themes reappear throughout the story and loop back to re-examine the truths based upon updated information whilst never labouring the point.

In short, this book was so good, not always an easy read but an informative one, and yet the author never preaches, she is telling a story which has everything you’d expect from a good mystery, in fact there are several mysteries all of which are revealed with an understated style which will make you gasp.

Thank you to Penguin who allowed me to read a copy prior to the publication date of tomorrow. This review is my unbiased thanks to them.

Published UK: 1 November 2016
Publisher: Penguin 
No of Pages: 400
Genre: Crime Fiction
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The Two O’Clock Boy – Mark Hill

Crime Fiction
4*s

Starting back in 1986 with a killer first line:

The boy loved his parents more than anything on this Earth. And so he had to kill them.

I have a fondness for books that stretch back to the past for the focus of a current investigation, and this is a bloody one, has its roots very firmly in a time and a place that for most of those who were present, would rather forget! The setting for the past is a children’s home and this one is of the particularly grim variety where the children are overseen by a slovenly couple under the management of a man Gordon Tallis, whose love of power is palpable.

In the present DI Ray Drake and DS Flick Crowley begin their investigation with a triple murder of a particularly horrible nature. Ray Drake has recently been widowed and has a difficult relationship with his daughter April while Flick is newly promoted and with her boss insisting on watching her every move in this investigation, deeply worried that he is already regretting his backing of her promotion. The interaction between the two is puzzling with Fick moving away from her by the book investigating style to the more intuitive one that Drake uses. She can’t understand quite why Drake is so dismissive of her thoughts, with the pair pulling in opposite directions the reader can’t help but wonder is Drake going to pull rank on his newly promoted DS.

There is tension in the past and present scenes, from the first to the last page; this is not a book to choose to relax with, you need to pay attention, close attention. What the writer gives us is a wonderful array of characters who feel realistic. We learn about the mundanity of some of our victim’s lives, many of whom are not the morally upstanding citizens that deserve unreserved sympathy for their plight, but Mark Hill’s pen doesn’t stint in bringing them to life; it is easy to see his scriptwriting talent wrought upon these pages. The drudgery of a day in the life of a shelf-stacker spent dreaming about his retirement in Spain, his life planned in expectation of greater rewards in the future was one of the evocative early scenes which bought the man to life – only for my hopes for him to be shot down in metaphorical flames.

Each of the scenes both past and present are well-drawn without underlining the difference in time periods the obvious way by naming popular products and fashions but somehow the ‘feel’ of the past was there, and that’s written by someone who was of a similar age to many of the children in this book! The author has given a real sense of moral ambiguity with all of the characters and that is never harder to do when the natural inclination towards the children depicted is one of sympathy rather than condemnation but the author obviously works to the maxim that our sensibilities are there to be challenged.

This is a seriously well-plotted book and despite this being Mark Hill’s debut novel, the assuredness of his writing is never in doubt. I knew early on that this was going to be a cracking good read, and it was. Bookended by the stunning opening and one of the best finishes to a crime novel I’ve read for a long time this is one writer who has made it onto my ‘must-read’ list of authors, and not many get promoted to that position after a single book.

I received an ARC of The Two O’clock Boy from the publisher Little, Brown Book Group UK, and in return this unbiased review is my thanks to them.

First Published UK: 22 September 2016
Publisher: Little Brown Book Group UK
No of Pages: 432
Genre: Crime Fiction
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The Unseeing – Anna Mazzola

Historical Crime Fiction
5*s

Using the bare bones of a real historical crime, Anna Mazzola has filled in the gaps to present a gripping story, one that feels entirely authentic.

The year is 1837 and Queen Victoria is on the throne, London is a bustling array of work while a woman’s life is dependent on class and money and being married. Meet Sarah Gale who has been sentenced to hang for being an accomplice to the murder of Hannah Brown, a woman cut down on the eve of her wedding. Sarah sits in an impeccably described cell in Newgate awaiting her fate. With the public clamouring for her sentence to be reduced, a lawyer young Edmund Fleetwood is asked by the attorney general to review the evidence and produce a report for him. Edmund goes about his task diligently, but it’s not easy, Sarah has given no real defence and with her former lover about to be hung for murder Edmund has his work cut out for him.

Sarah was a seamstress in London at the time the murder took place with a young son in tow she was ripe for being taken advantage of so when her lover James Greenacre takes up with someone else, that someone being the future victim, Hannah Brown, Sarah shuffles off to a local boarding house wondering how she was going to keep herself and her son out of the ever looming fear of the workhouse.

Anna Mazzola really conjures up the time period for us in this pitch-perfect historical thriller with the details of the time period delicately placed so that never once did it feel like that her obviously meticulous research had been indiscriminately scattered across the pages. And then there is the plot, the most obvious and troubling question being why won’t Sarah defend herself? Edmund is fearful that if he can’t get her to talk she will hang for a crime she has not committed. But this talented debut author doesn’t just follow that question around bends, there are other side-plots to explore with a whole cast of characters that may be not all they first appear to be. Put simply, this is a book which has undertone of dark and disturbing matters, some of which have stayed hidden for quite some time. It is these undertones which add the real feeling of layering to the story this is far from a bit of imagination being added to the real story of The Edgeware Road Murders, with a complex tale that the author has spiced up with additional characters and these are delivered with a real emotional context given to their actions. With these multiple layers so pleasingly presented I was completely immersed in the tale as it unfolded; I could imagine Sarah sat in her small cell, the lawyer beside her coaxing a defence from her tight lips and despite her reluctance we learn a little bit more and this kept me turning those pages until the fitting finale.

If you haven’t already guessed, I loved this book, there was nothing that felt the tiniest bit out of place and the author subtlety manipulates the reader’s emotions by the drip-feed of bits of information. I also rarely mention titles in my reviews but this is a good one in part it relates to Hannah Brown who had an eye removed in the course of the murder but it also applies to other characters too which pleases my love of continuity between a title and a novel. This really is an exceptional debut, and I’m looking forward to finding out what else this talented author will produce for my enjoyment.

I was exceptionally grateful to be provided this book by the publisher Tinder Press and this honest review is my thanks to them.

First Published UK: 14 July 2016
Publisher: Tinder Press
No of Pages: 368
Genre: Historical Crime Fiction
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My Husband’s Son – Deborah O’Connor

Psychological Thriller
4*s

Sometimes I just want to be swept away by a story but what does it for me isn’t a great romance, no my getaway is fraught with angst and secrets, a quest for the truth and a bit of action. Deborah O’Connor must have known this when she wrote My Husband’s Son!

We first meet Heidi when returning from a sales pitch she walks into an off-licence for a bottle of wine! So far so typical but in the back of the shop is a young boy who she thinks is the spitting image of her husband’s missing son, Barney.

Heidi has also lost a daughter, although the details of her daughter’s murder are left fairly sketchy throughout the book. Jason’s loss is different, he firmly believes his son is still alive and he still deals with the double-edged sword which is the press interest in the story. His study, holds the age progression pictures that have been generated to keep the public aware that Barney is still missing. Jason and Heidi got together after his marriage to Barney’s mother Vicky withered in the year after losing Barney.

I like a book with secrets and this book is dripping in them, and most are not where or what you expect at all but what the reader has to decide is the boy Barney or is Heidi just seeing what she wants to see? And all the while as the story of the disappearance is poured over while Heidi’s obvious distress at the loss of her daughter and her longing for another child is ever present. This is a relentless tale and one that I got completely caught up in. Quite often when plots are fairly unrealistic either in the events or the character’s actions, I get pulled out of the story which ruins the experience for me but even though Heidi’s actions seemed at best a little disordered, I was able to buy it. Perhaps because of the circumstances she found herself in.

Unusually, and I only realised this when I was reading My Husband’s Son, there is a fair amount of sex in this novel – not overly salacious in detail but enough to take me by surprise because I realised that the books I read rarely have sex-scenes in them at all, rest assured though this is all linked with the main story-line!

With Heidi trying to get Jason to believe she’s found his son and forced to take devious routes to get to the truth it is unsurprising that she finds herself in a spot of bother more than once. That does mean of course that there is plenty of action as well as a general feeling of unease that pervades once you realise that everything is not quite what it first appeared to be!

What My Husband’s Son is, is a perfectly paced piece of psychological suspense. A book that drives on unremittingly dragging the reader along in its wake. I found myself reassessing what I thought was going to happen as another piece of information was slipped into a scene and that continued without the dreaded dip up until the end.

I’d like to say a huge thank you to the publishers Twenty7 Books for another excellent debut novel, and for allowing me to read a copy of My Husband’s Son before the eBook publication date of 16 June 2016.

The Widow – Fiona Barton

Psychological Thriller
5*s

Having been given a tantalising first chapter of this book back in June I knew that this book was going to be publicised heavily, what you can never tell though is whether I would agree with the effort. I’ll cut to the chase, I love well-written, original psychological thrillers that are so gripping you don’t want to put them down – this was one such book, real people simply faded into the background as I became immersed in the life of Jean Taylor.

Jean Taylor is the widow of the title and we all want to know, what she knows. It is a quest by the police for the truth, and as for the journalist, she would have us believe that she wants the truth too but we know that just as importantly she needs the scoop, the headline and the exclusive interview. I defy anyone who like me and evidently the author who hasn’t seen the women that stand by their man, tight-lipped, to wonder how much they knew of their husband’s alleged crime, particularly one that is horrific. How do they manage when there isn’t a part to play and it is just the two of them on an evening with only the television for distraction? What do they say to each other? Worse still how do they justify staying to themselves if they have the merest hint of suspicion.

I don’t want to say too much about Glen Taylor’s alleged crime but it isn’t one of the nicer ones, the newspapers label him a monster, suffice to say it involves dodgy internet sites among other unsavoury activities. A crime so awful that it should make any sane woman instantly leave her husband, unless of course she is sure of his innocence. The crux of the book is the investigation from multiple perspectives across four years.

Each chapter is headed up with the date from 2006 to 2010 along with the person narrating; The Widow, The Detective and The Reporter. Between them and in between the cracks versions of the truth leak out but the reader is always aware that each of these protagonists has their own agenda and rarely is there an awful lot of overlap.

Fiona Barton has been a journalist and naturally because of that, the journalist’s role in a big crime story, felt far more authentic than in most crime fiction. Our reporter is a sassy woman, one who has a heart as well as being highly ambitious. I’m not sure I could go as far as I was being led into believing that she was there for the greater good but neither was she a pantomime figure. The Detective and just as importantly the investigation felt totally authentic, I often forgot while reading this book that it was actually fiction as the police team chased theories, spent hours viewing CCTV and questioning suspects and witnesses that blew these theories out of the window. Jean Taylor was just like a woman I know, probably not as stupid as she’d been led to believe but neither was she the brightest match in the box, she cuts a deferential figure, apart from when it isn’t in her best interest and she can be stubbornly quite at worst and evasive at best.

Reading this book was like watching the events play out in real life, except fortunately I didn’t have to wait for four years to get the conclusion. Rarely have I felt that I am actually witnessing events in a crime novel and certainly not as powerfully as I did whilst reading The Widow. In fact This is going to be the book in 2016 that I push on all my book-loving friends – an exceptional read, one that is clever without going in for big show-off moments but won me over through consistent, engaging and thoughtful writing. I have a feeling Jean Taylor will haunt me for some time to come.

I received my copy of The Widow from the publishers Bantam Press and is being published today, 14 January 2016.

The Hidden Legacy – G.J. Minett

Psychological Thriller
5*s

Every now and again a book really hits all the individual spots that make perfect reading experience for me, this is one of those books!

In 1966 in a school playground in Gloucester, there is a horrific crime committed by a young boy, just eleven years old. Two points hit already; I lived near to, and in Gloucester from the age of nine and didn’t leave the area until I was nineteen so I have a geographical point of reference and I’m really interested in children involved in crime, in fact I only had an exchange about this matter with the learned Margot Kinberg on one of her posts earlier this month. Anyway back to the plot; John Michael Adams was sent to trial and the media went into a frenzy calling him ‘Every Parent’s Nightmare’, and as the book continues, we see that this interest never truly fades away, with every related story or supposed sighting of the grown man, causing a re-hash of the crime complete with his picture and his tag-line. So here is point three, how crime reporting effects both the victims and the perpetrators is also an interest of mine – why do some stories become big news whilst others get barely a mention?

In 2008 Ellen Sutherland, receives a solicitor’s letter from a firm in Cheltenham, some way from her home in West Sussex. Reeling from divorce and busy running a business as well as carrying out the multitude of tasks and pointless conversations that are involved in bringing up two children she is unimpressed that she has to visit the office in person, especially as she has never heard of her benefactor, Eudora Nash. She wants to ask her mother whether she knows who Eudora is, but Barbara is in a home suffering from dementia and so unlikely to be able to solve the mystery. Point four, and this is a biggie, I really enjoy a story where the past comes crashing into the present, and it is this that drew me to this book in the first place. When there is a proper and realistic mystery too as there is in The Hidden Legacy– well a book gets a bonus three points!

Ellen travels alone to find out what her legacy is and to her delight it was worth the drive, a beautiful three bedroomed house complete with contents, but she is no closer to finding out why it was left to her. Already puzzled and confused her suspicions are aroused when from stage left a journalist, the wonderfully portrayed Andrew O’Halloran, appears on the doorstep. At this point Ellen begins to keep her own secrets and starts her investigation into Eudora’s life for real. On returning home she recruits her friend Kate (point eight, I like my protagonists to have friends and ones who are real people not just bystanders) for a road trip the two women travel to Gloucestershire to rifle through the old lady’s papers and to talk to the locals.

And if you want to know any more you are going to have to read the book for yourself. Rest assured the plot is devious and sneaky and thoroughly believable. The writing style is engaging, I really didn’t want to put this one down for anyone or anything, there are plenty of red herrings, detours and locations as the action spreads up to Inverness, through Gloucestershire taking in West Sussex on route, and best of all age old secrets that are ultimately uncovered without descending into farce. So as you see, even if some of the subjects I like to explore in my reading aren’t the same as yours, there is an enormous amount for any reader to enjoy. In fact when I finished writing my review up I went onto Goodreads to get the cover picture for the book and was astounded to see this book currently has a high rating of 4.53, unusual for a debut that as far as I know hasn’t undergone massive hype prior to its publication (in e-book format) on 5 November 2015. This time slip thriller is definitely going to end up on my Top Ten of 2015, enthralling yet giving the reader a reason to explore the effects of a crime on everyone involved – and I will award my final point for this reason.

I received my copy of The Hidden Legacy from Midas PR on behalf of Bonier Publishing with their new imprint Twenty7 which was established last year to focus on debut authors and international writers new to the UK markets. This imprint will cover all commercial fiction genres with a focus on crime and women’s fiction. All I can say if their other finds are as good as this one, readers are in for a treat. I’d like to extend an especially big thank you to Eve Wersocki from Midas who has provided me with some excellent books this year with her finely tuned radar which seems to know just what kind of books I enjoy.

Disclaimer – Renée Knight

Psychological Thriller
5*’s

I’m going to start this review with a bold statement – this book will make my top ten reads of 2015. Yes it was so good that I can’t see me coming across ten other books that will beat this one.

So what’s it about? Well as with any book that depends on the reader not knowing very much before they start to appreciate the story, I can’t tell you very much! I can tell you that our chief protagonist, Catherine Ravenscroft has just moved house to a new apartment with her husband Robert when she comes across a novel. Idly picking it up the book entitled Perfect Stranger with the standard disclaimer; any resemblance to persons living or dead scored through with red pen. She starts to read and to her horror she realises it is about her, and more specifically about a secret that she has kept for the last twenty years. All the reader knows at this stage is the secret involves her son Nicholas, their less than successful son, who at Catherine’s instigation has moved into a shared house in a bid to foster some independence and responsibility into his life. Of course the questions raised by the book are what is the secret? And just as importantly who knows and cares enough to write a book about it?

Alternating with Catherine’s narrative we hear from another voice, that of a lonely old man, mourning the death of his wife, Nancy but at last determinedly clearing his house of her belongings, packing her clothes away and giving them to charity shops where he gets given cups of teas and a chance to talk about Nancy.

The reason I enjoyed this book so much was the way that Renee Knight skilfully played on my emotions, changing my opinion of all of the characters who populate this book with an ease that left me reeling. My once certain opinion swept away in a single sentence as another piece of information is casually dropped into the narrative. This is a book of suspense but not of the obvious kind, the tension is palpable and illustrated by Catherine’s actions rather than internal monologues about how scared she is, as she turns from a capable and decisive documentary maker into a scared shadow as she wonders what will follow, how far is the author prepared to go to completely destroy her life? Should she take the ending as a warning, all of these thoughts push real life to the periphery as she valiantly tries to keep the secret under wraps.

Readers that aren’t keen on protagonists they don’t like may well not enjoy this as much as I did but although many of the characters in this book behaved in a way I wouldn’t, at no point did their behaviour seem out of character, they were real people behaving in realistic ways albeit at the edge of their sanity at times and I was utterly convinced.

I’d like to say an enormous thank you to the publishers Random House UK firstly for publishing this book, and secondly for allowing me the great pleasure of reading it. Disclaimer will be published on 9 April 2015 and it is a must for lovers of psychological thrillers.

Unravelling Oliver – Liz Nugent

Psychological Thriller
5*’s

Unravelling Oliver is one of those books that I knew I would love as soon as I started reading it.
‘I expected more of a reaction the first time I hit her.’
These words written by Oliver about what he did to his wife on 12 November 2011 in Dublin. After I had read his words I was chilled, here appears to be a man with no remorse and no motive so what made Oliver batter his wife Alice so badly that she was left in a coma.

The publishers, Penguin Ireland, tell us; ‘Unravelling Oliver, is a complex and elegant study of the making of a sociopath in the tradition of Barbara Vine and Patricia Highsmith,’ and I can’t disagree. As regular readers of my blog know, Barbara Vine was the author who introduced me to the concept of the why someone did it, rather than the whodunit in the mystery novels I already loved and this is a genre which when done well is my favourite type of read.

In this tradition Liz Nugent has employed some of the characters that Oliver Ryan came into contact with during the five decades of his life to reveal small but telling details. Told as if they are giving interviews to the media as monologues, each character gives us a little more insight into Oliver’s character and the events that shaped his life. Barney who was Alice’s boyfriend before Oliver and met him the night he attacked Alice is the first to have his say but there are plenty of others who have encountered Oliver during his life.  Throughout the book Oliver, and others who have met him, unwrap the things he thought he had kept hidden and unravel his life, so that as readers we get an insight into the why of this charismatic, but deeply flawed character.
The originality, cleverness and fantastic characters which peel back the layers of Oliver over the years along with evidence of previous events presented in one way by Oliver and another by alternative narrators was a sheer delight to read.

I am delighted that the publishers gave me a copy of this book in return for my honest review as I wouldn’t have wanted to miss meeting Oliver Ryan, you can meet him too when this book is published on 6 March 2014.