📖 Book Review ~ The Only Suspect by Louise Candlish

 

Simon & Schuster
2 February 2023

Thanks to the publisher and Laura Sherlock for my copy of this book

There’s the obvious story. And then there’s the truth.

Alex lives a comfortable life with his wife Beth in the leafy suburb of Silver Vale. Fine, so he’s not the most outgoing guy on the street, he prefers to keep himself to himself, but he’s a good husband and an easy-going neighbour.

That’s until Beth announces the creation of a nature trail on a local site that’s been disused for decades and suddenly Alex is a changed man. Now he’s always watching. Questioning. Struggling to hide his dread . . .

As the landscapers get to work, a secret threatens to surface from years ago, back in Alex’s twenties when he got entangled with a seductive young woman called Marina, who threw both their lives into turmoil.

And who sparked a police hunt for a murder suspect that was never quite what it seemed.

And it still isn’t…

📖My Review..

Alex and his wife Beth live in an affluent area, in a leafy suburb, and their lives seem pretty much settled until something happens in his local area which forces Alex to reevaluate the memories of the time, when as a young man in 1995  he met a beautiful young woman called Marina who turned his world upside down. Keeping his memories of this time to himself, but forever watchful, especially when local events transpire against him, Alex must now reevaluate everything about his life especially the massive secrets he has kept from Beth. This suspenseful story looks at the minutiae of a marriage and lays bare the secrets which Alex has so carefully kept hidden. I enjoyed the forwards and backwards elements of the story with the 1995 sections being particularly interesting and the tension between husband and wife in the present day being especially thought provoking.

The Only Suspect is a clever, multi-layered psychological suspense story which reveals its deadly secrets ever so slowly and, as with all this talented author’s stories, there is always far more going on than at first appears. With some genuine jaw dropping moments and with a twist that I really didn’t see coming I was throughly entertained by The Only Suspect, in a story which kept me guessing until the very last page.

About the Author

Louise Candlish is the Sunday Times bestselling author of fourteen novels. Our House, a #1 bestseller, won the Crime & Thriller Book of the Year at the 2019 British Book Awards, was longlisted for the 2019 Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year, and was shortlisted for the Goldsboro Books Glass Bell Award. It is soon to be a major ITV drama made by Death in Paradise producers Red Planet Pictures. Louise lives in London with her husband and daughter.

Twitter @Louise_Candlish

@simonschusterUK @LauraSherlock21