Review ~ Who Are You? by Elizabeth Forbes

Cutting Edge Press
2014

Post Traumatic Stress disorder is at the heart of this disturbing novel which rips away the veneer which all too often shrouds this distressing condition in secrecy and silence. Alex has been an elite career soldier, who is now attempting albeit unsuccessfully, to make a new career as a security advisor. Meanwhile, his wife Juliet and small son Ben are learning to adjust to life with Alex back at home with them. On the surface, all should be well, but Alex’s increasingly volatile and often brutal behaviour is set to spiral out of control and neither Juliet nor Ben can escape his mood swings.

This is a tight and well constructed psychological suspense story which grabs you by the scruff of the neck and wallops you into hanging onto every word. It’s a dangerous and vicious look at just how two individuals, who are both irrevocably damaged, can wreak havoc, and as their despicable behaviour reverberates throughout their personal lives there is little to choose between them in the unlikeabilty stakes. I felt like I should have liked Juliet more than I did, and believe me, I truly sympathised with her plight, but she also knew just how to wind Alex up so that he snapped, and then, of course, there’s Alex with his smooth talking charm, whose total disregard for what is right and proper really cranked up the menace.  Overall, there is much to both like and dislike about both Juliet and Alex as neither of them appears to be truly honest, but what really strikes a chord is the plaintive voice of five year old Ben, whose vulnerability in the face of his parent’s worst excesses is heartbreaking.

 It’s a long time since I read a story in which I was viscerally and emotionally involved with the characters to such an extent that I really couldn't put the book down but Who Are You really does get underneath your skin, so much so, I breathed a sigh of relief when the book was done and I couldn't be upset any further.

Highly Recommended.

My thanks to Harriet Ash..... at Cutting Edge Press for my review copy of this book.


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