📖 Publication Day Book Review ~ All of Us are Broken by Fiona Cummins

 

Macmillan
25 July 2023

DC Saul Anguish #2

My thanks to the publisher and Laura Sherlock PR for my copy of the book

It’s been a long time since the Hardwicke family has been on holiday. But thirteen-year-old Galen has wanted to see the wild dolphins at Scotland’s Chanonry Point for as long as she can remember, and her mother Christine – a lone parent since her beloved husband left – is determined she gets her wish. But their serene trip is about to be interrupted.

When DC Saul Anguish is called to investigate the shooting of an ex-police officer in Midtown-on-Sea, Essex, he quickly discovers that this is the first in a string of killings by Missy and Fox, a damaged young couple hell-bent on infamy, their love story etched in blood. In pursuit, Saul follows their trail north.

The paths of the Hardwickes' and the deadly couple are about to collide. When Saul and his forensic linguist partner, Blue, arrive on the scene, they witness the unthinkable: a mother forced to make an impossible choice.

Saul must uncover the truth about the couple. But can he find the strength to lay the ghosts of his past to rest before they break him?

📖 My Review..

The dramatic, and nail-bitingly chilling, opening chapter sets the scene perfectly for this roller coaster of a drama which never loses pace or fails to serve up an emotional thriller which pulls you in and doesn't let go until the dramatic ending. Missy and Fox are perhaps two of the most unlikable protagonists I have ever come across and yet this talented author makes you feel an emotional connection to them even as their killing spree takes the story to a whole new level of horror. Countered against this evil is the inevitability of the lovely Hardwicke family, who have their own share of troubles, and who are inadvertently drawn into Missy and Fox's trajectory by simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

When I was reading this fabulously addictive crime novel all I could think of was what a wonderful TV drama it would be as both Missy and Fox, a modern day Bonnie and Clyde, would translate to television very well. By the time the story was done, and I read it over the space of one sitting as I literally couldn't put the book down without carrying it from room to room so I could snatch a few minutes to read some more, I felt like I had travelled everyone one of the hundreds of miles that Missy and Fox take towards their own inevitable destiny.

I won't spoil All of Us Are Broken by giving away any details about the plot as this is one story you really should read with no idea of what is about to happen next, so all I will say is that this is 320 pages of sheer brilliance, and it is, without doubt, my crime read of the year.

Twitter @FionaAnnCummins #AllOfUsAreBroken

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