Tag: thriller

Blog Tour/Review: The Other Twin by L V Hay

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I’m thrilled to co-host today’s stop on the blog tour for The Other Twin by L V Hay and bring you my review of this enthralling contemporary psychological thriller. Be sure to check out the post of my co-host, The P.Turners Book Blog.

TheOtherTwinAbout the Book

When India falls to her death from a bridge over a railway, her sister, Poppy, returns home to Brighton for the first time in years. Unconvinced by official explanations, Poppy begins her own investigation into India’s death. But the deeper she digs, the closer she comes to uncovering deeply buried secrets. Could Matthew Temple, the boyfriend she abandoned, be involved? And what of his powerful and wealthy parents, and his twin sister, Ana? Enter the mysterious and ethereal Jenny: the girl Poppy discovers after hacking into India’s laptop. What is exactly is she hiding, and what did India find out about her? Taking the reader on a breathless ride through the winding lanes of Brighton, into its vibrant party scene and inside the homes of its well-heeled families, The Other Twin is a startling and up-to-the-minute thriller about the social media world, where resentments and accusations are played out online, where identities are made and remade, and where there is no such thing as truth.

Praise for The Other Twin:

‘Superb, up-to-the-minute thriller and an amazing crime debut. Prepare to be seriously disturbed’ (Paul Finch)

‘Hays’ impressive debut is a complex, twisty, disorienting tale that truly keeps readers guessing until the very end’ (Karen Dionne)

‘A cracker of a debut! I couldn’t put it down’ (Paula Daly)

‘The writing shines from every page of this twisted tale … debuts don’t come sharper than this’ (Ruth Dugdall)

‘This chilling claustrophobic tale set in Brighton introduces an original, fresh new voice in crime fiction’ (Cal Moriarty)

‘Wonderfully layered and gripping, I had to take breaks just to catch my breath’ (Jendella Benson)

‘A fresh and raw thrill-ride through Brighton´s underbelly. What an enjoyable read!’ (Lilja Sigurðardóttir)

‘Slick and compulsive’ (Random Things through My Letterbox)

‘A propulsive, inventive and purely addictive psychological thriller for the social media age’ (Crime by the Book)

‘Delightfully disorientating’ (Chapter in My Life)

‘This will stay with me forever’ (Emma the Little Bookworm)

‘A whirlwind of secrets and emotional turmoil’ (Cheryl M-M)

‘Rolls along at a heart-pounding pace!’ (Ronnie Turner)

‘A contemporary thriller with a heart of darkness … terrific’ (Live & Deadly)

‘Blinding, surprising and simply magnificent’ (Chocolate ‘n’ Waffles)

Format: Paperback Publisher: Orenda Books Pages: 300
Publication: 1st Jul 2017 Genre: Thriller

Purchase Links*
Amazon.co.uk ǀ Amazon.com
*links provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

Find The Other Twin on Goodreads

My Review

The apparent suicide of her younger sister, India, forces Poppy to return to her hometown of Brighton to support her devastated family. Despite what everyone else says, Poppy is convinced India would never have committed suicide. Embarking on her own private investigation, Poppy attempts to piece together the events in the months leading up to her sister’s death using posts from India’s blog, online chat exchanges and social media contacts. Alongside these very contemporary sources, Poppy also tries to question the people who knew India – including the mysterious Jenny – but comes up against either obfuscation or downright hostility.

‘Confusion clouds my mind.  Every time I think I have the thread of a revelation, it unravels on me again and pulls me even deeper into its tangled web.’

As events unfold and Poppy gets closer to the truth of what happened – uncomfortably close from the point of view of those involved – she realises she may be placing herself in danger as well as she begins to wonder whether there is anyone she can trust.

‘And now, it’s as if I’m standing back, taking in the entire picture, comprehending, at last, how each piece fits together.’

It turns out there are some family secrets that people will do anything to keep hidden.   The reader gets a sense of this early on as the story of Poppy’s investigation is interspersed with scenes between an unidentified man and woman that have a disturbing undercurrent of aggression, misogyny and coercion. The backdrop to the story is Brighton with the pristine houses of the well-to-do juxtaposed with the much seedier, rundown side of the town. It’s a far cry from Poppy’s childhood memories of arcades and funfairs.

The standout element of the book for me was not so much the unravelling of the mystery of what happened to India, although this was well-plotted and satisfyingly resolved, but the character of Poppy. Not that she’s easy to like with her messy personal life of alcohol-fuelled one night stands and failed relationships, untidy flat and money worries following redundancy from what was only a supply teaching contract not a permanent job. (I would have to say the one wrong note is that Poppy seems a very unlikely teacher.) The author skilfully creates a believable picture of a troubled young woman with her own personal demons.  Whereas India comes across as a free spirit, Poppy seems more like a lost soul, still acting like she’s eighteen although she’s actually thirty-one.

As we learn more about Poppy’s past it appears her obsession with finding out the truth about her sister’s death is partly driven by guilt – guilt at her estrangement from her family, guilt at abandoning her ex-boyfriend, Matthew, at a time when he needed her most.  In her move to London, it seems not only did Poppy attempt to separate herself geographically from her unhappy memories but psychologically as well. Ironically, as Poppy delves deeper into the circumstances around her sister’s death, the family she relied on to be a refuge is revealed to be much less secure and cohesive than first appeared. Secrets and lies are everywhere and Poppy is finally forced to confront the bad decisions of the past.

I received a review copy courtesy of publishers, Orenda Books, in return for an honest and unbiased review.

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In three words: Dark, unsettling, suspenseful

Try something similar…Exquisite by Sarah Stovell (click here to read my review)

LucyHayAbout the Author

Lucy V. Hay is a novelist, script editor and blogger who helps writers via her Bang2write consultancy. She is the associate producer of Brit thrillers Deviation (2012) and Assassin (2015), both starring Danny Dyer. Lucy is also head reader for the London Screenwriters’ Festival and has written two non-fiction books, Writing & Selling Thriller Screenplays, and its follow-up, Drama Screenplays. She lives in Devon with her husband, three children, six cats and five African Land Snails.

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#ThrowbackThursday Poor Boy Road by James L. Weaver

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ThrowbackThursday

Throwback Thursday is a weekly meme hosted by Renee at It’s Book Talk. Throwback Thursday is designed as an opportunity to share old favourites as well as books that we’ve finally got around to reading that were published over a year ago. If you decide to take part, please link back to It’s Book Talk.

I’ve decided to delve back into the earliest days of my blog (not that it’s that old) and share one of my first reviews. It’s for the first in a series of terrifically entertaining action thrillers by James L. Weaver, published in March 2016. You can read my review of the sequel Ares Road here and if you happen to get hooked, you’ll pleased to learn a third book, Blackbird Road, is due out in 2018.

Poor Boy Road (Jake Caldwell #1) by James L. Weaver

poorboyAbout the Book

As a mob enforcer, Jake Caldwell is in the dark business of breaking kneecaps and snapping bones. But each job sends him one step closer to turning into the man he swore he’d never become – his violent and abusive father. Leaving the mob is easier said than done. When his boss offers a bloody way out, Jake has no choice but to take it, even if it means confronting ghosts of old. Arriving in his hometown, Jake has two things on his mind: kill ruthless drug lord Shane Langston and bury his dying father. Racing through the countryside searching for Langston, the web of murder, meth and kidnapping widens, all pointing toward a past Jake can’t escape and a place he never wanted to return – Poor Boy Road.

Purchase Links*
Amazon.co.uk ǀ
*links provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

Find Poor Boy Road on Goodreads

My Review

Poor Boy Road is the first in a series featuring mob enforcer, Jake Caldwell. In fact, Jake very much wants to be an ex-mob enforcer but the price for this is killing his mob boss’s rival drug lord, Shane Langston. This will mean returning to his hometown which holds nothing but bad memories – of his troubled childhood at the hands of his violent father (now close to death), the trauma of his brother’s death and his abandonment of the woman he loved.

Although the book follows a fairly well-trodden path for an action/thriller, that doesn’t make it any less entertaining. Despite his dubious past exploits, Jake Caldwell makes an really engaging protagonist who one feels still retains his moral compass. It’s to the author’s credit that we care about Jake, who comes across as something of a ‘lost soul’ seeking a path to redemption despite the ‘Devil’s bargain’ he’s had to make with his mob boss, Keats.

‘Sometimes he stared in the mirror at hollow eyes, seeing the face of a man who hid in the shadows, a man he swore he’d never become.’

In fact, many of the characters in the book are looking for a way out: from poverty, crime, drug and alcohol addiction, family breakdown or domestic violence. The author creates a convincing picture of life in small-town America where your life chances can be measured by which side of Poor Boy Road you reside.

‘Every town, every city had their economic dividing line between the haves and the have nots. Poor Boy Road was their line.’

The book is full of twists and turns with plenty of action as Jake teams up with his old friend, Bear, now Sheriff of Benton County, to frustrate the drug gangs that menace the community and achieve the goal that will give him the chance to make a new start in life.   Along the way Jake has to confront unpleasant memories, particularly his troubled relationship with his father, in the hope that he can stop trying to ‘outrun the ghosts’.

I really enjoyed Poor Boy Road and I can’t wait to read the next in the series, Ares Road.

I received a copy of this book courtesy of Lakewater Press in return for an honest review.

About the Author

James L. Weaver is the Kansas City author of the Jake Caldwell series featuring IAN Thriller of the Year finalist Poor Boy Road and soon to be released Ares Road from Lakewater Press. He makes his home in Olathe, Kansas with his wife of 19 years and two children. His previous publishing credits include a six part story called The Nuts and his 5-star rated debut novel Jack & Diane. Author note: a handful of the raters are actually not related to him.

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