From the opening sentence of this psychological thriller “If she’d turned off her phone instead of listening in, perhaps no one would have died…” the reader is drawn into this tightly crafted book. And the pace never lets up.
“She” is Cressida, wife of Laurence Howard, a rich Irish entrepreneur and a man with secrets. Cressida, who has put up with her husband’s philandering before, suspects yet another affair. This time, however, fed up of Laurence’s behaviour, she intends getting to the bottom of who the mysterious woman on the phone is. Cressida is thinking divorce, and determined to protect herself and her 17 year old daughter Emily-Jane, she enlists the help of Brioni O’Brien, a computer expert and the sister of one of her friends. Brioni initially intends helping out Cressida as a favour to her sister, but gets drawn ever deeper into the increasingly sleazy and dangerous world in which Laurence is involved.
Expect lots of corporate skulduggery, a fair amount of death and gore, a stroppy teenager, some lovely windswept Irish scenery and – good fun, but a bit too much at times – a peek into the life of the Dublin super-rich. Gorgeous house (I’d kill for that pool, metaphorically speaking!), smart house, extravagant food and drink, all of it a touch OTT, but it definitely makes for fun reading.
The writing style and the short chapters keep the plot moving along at a fair lick, and even though I figured out one plot twist, (and felt pretty pleased with myself for so doing), there was one I didn’t see coming at all. The last sentence of the book has a twist in the plot – now you can’t really better that, can you?
This is the first book I’ve read by Sam Blake, and I enjoyed it.
Now I’ve discovered that the eminently likeable Brioni O’Brien features in another book, I shall, of course, read that too.
I’ll let you know my thought.