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PC Connor Chantree was afraid he'd already ruined everything and was about to be sent abruptly on his way...
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It has recently come to my attention that I must make it clear at the beginning of my reviews that I received this book for free from Random Things Tours. I have not been paid for doing this and all opinions are my own. I am Bookshop.org affiliated, which means I earn a very small amount of money if you buy from there using my direct link. Although I include purchase links to Amazon, I am not affiliated with them. I include them to make it easy for you to navigate to them if you so wish.
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The Blurb
You think it will never happen to you: the ring of the bell, the policeman on the doorstep. What he says traps you in a nightmare that starts with the words, 'I'm afraid…'
Sally Lambert is also afraid, and desperate enough to consider the unthinkable. Is it really, definitely, impossible to escape from this horror? Maybe not. There's always something you can do, right?
Of course, no one would ever do this particular something – except the Lamberts, who might have to.
No one has ever gone this far. Until Sally decides that the Lamberts will…
My Review
This book was very different to any of the books that I have previously read by Sophie Hannah.
To be honest, I couldn't decide if I loved it or hated it and ultimately I have landed somewhere in the middle. I think it is a polarising book. Fans of the author's other books may be disappointed but newcomers to her work may well lap it up. I wouldn't say that I loved it but good on her for trying something a bit different. Personally, I don't believe that an author has to stick to their tried and tested genre in which they have been successful. An author of Ms. Hannah's calibre can well afford to go slightly off piste.
That said, there were things that I liked about this book. The main character is Sally who lives with her husband and teenage son and daughter. The book begins with a knock at the door by a police officer informing her that her beloved dog, Champ has been accused of biting one of her neighbours. Sally is certain of Champ's innocence and in a moment of panic and aided by one of the villagers, she packs up her family and flees to safety. What follows is a humorous account of a family on the run and their attempts to prove their dogs innocence. I think every dog owner will read this and understand why Sally went to the extremes she did.
The chapters change from person to person, and thus, we get multiple perspectives on the narratives which adds to the book. I think had this been told solely from Sally's point of view I would have questioned how reliable a narrator she was. The multiple points of view encourage the reader to believe what she claims and not to believe the neighbour who has accused Champ.
It is a quirky and humorous book that will appeal to some readers and not others. I would encourage you to give this book a read for yourself, and I would love to hear your thoughts on it.
Book Details
ISBN: 978 1835011607
Publisher: Bedford Square
Formats: e-book, audio, hardback and paperback
No. of Pages: 416 (paperback)
Purchase Links
About the Author
Sophie Hannah is a Sunday Times, New York Times and Amazon Kindle UK No. 1 bestselling writer of crime fiction, published in forty-nine languages and fifty-one territories. Her books have sold millions of copies worldwide. She writes contemporary psychological thrillers and, at the request of Agatha Christie’s family and estate, the new series of Hercule Poirot novels.
Sophie’s murder mystery musical, The Mystery of Mr E, was released as a feature film in 2023, directed by Martyn Tott, and is available on Amazon Prime and Apple TV+ and soon to be on several other platforms too. In 2023, Sophie won the Crime Writers Association’s Dagger in the Library Award for her body of work, and in 2013 her thriller The Carrier won the Crime Thriller of the Year Award at the Specsavers National Book Awards. Sophie is also a poet and has been shortlisted for the TS Eliot Award. Her poetry is studied at GCSE, A Level and degree level across the UK.
In 2018, she created the How to Hold a Grudge podcast, based on her self-help book of the same name. More recently, she has published two other self-help books: Happiness: A Mystery, and her latest, The Double Best Method, which was an Amazon UK Top Ten best-seller and is a guide to making brilliant decisions and avoiding second-guessing and regret.
Sophie is the founder and coach at Dream Author Coaching, a coaching programme for writers and anyone who wants to write. She lives with her husband, children and dog in Cambridge, where she is an Honorary Fellow of Lucy Cavendish College.
You can also find Sophie at:
(ARC and media courtesy of Random Things Tours)
(author bio courtesy of the author's website)
(all opinions are my own)
(Bookshop.org affiliated)
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