Skip to main content

Featured

Dangerous by Essie Fox #Review #Giveaway

If a gothic thriller is what you are after, look no further than Essie Fox's Dangerous which will be published by Orenda Books on April 24th. I also have the chance for you to win a print copy . Details on how to enter are at the foot of this post.     When fiction is fatalā€¦   Living in exile in Venice, the disgraced Lord Byron revels in the freedoms of the city But when he is associated with the deaths of local women, found with wounds to their throats, and then a novel called  The Vampyre  is published under his name, rumours begin to spread that Byron may be the murdererā€¦   As events escalate and tensions rise ā€“ and his own life is endangered, as well as those he holds most dear ā€“ Byron is forced to play detective, to discover who is really behind these heinous crimes. Meanwhile, the scandals of his own infamous past come back to haunt himā€¦   Rich in gothic atmosphere and drawing on real events and characters from Byron's life,  Dan...

Lie With Me by Sabinne Durrant

     I love the way that Lie With Me by Sabinne Durrant  figures a central character who is such an anti-hero. Paul Morris, the narrator, is a would be author who has written one book in his early twenties and failed since to produce anything else worthy of publication. By chance he meets Alice, a widow, and sets about inveigling himself into her life, eventually getting himself invited to spend a holiday in Greece with her family and friends. In the heat of the sun, the lies he weaves close in on him. Sabinne Durrant conveys the claustrophobia he feels as he backs himself into a corner. We follow him through the story as he lies and manipulates. We begin to see how each lie is leading him further into trouble but he seems unable to stop himself. What is surprising is that although I could see how egotistical and self- serving Paul he is, I had sympathy for such a flawed individual.

    All the characters in Lie With Me have secrets. They seem to shadow box each other, each spinning their own facade. It is one of the pleasures of the book to try to second guess and to speculate as to what each person believes is going on. Paul is the ultimate unreliable witness. Alice's trip to Pyros is part of the annual visit she has made there following the disappearance of a young girl who was her friend. It seems that Paul was there at the time but says that he cannot remember anything about the time or indeed who he met or what he did. As we see him lie and invent his own backstory, everything he says is doubted. It is clear from early on in the book that he is a totally self-serving person. Of course of all the people he meets, he may not be the only one.  

    When the twist comes at the end, it did surprise me as I had been taking myself up a different path. It gave it a satisfying end and certainly repaid the reading of the book. 

In short: a clever and intriguing read with dark humour thrown in.

Thanks to the publisher, Mulholland Books for a copy of the book via Bookbridgr.   

Comments

Popular Posts