🌞 Summer Read ~ The Writer by Valerie Keogh

Boldwood Books
15 July 2025

My thanks to the publisher for my copy of this book to review

Cara Jenkins is a successful author about to embark on her thirtieth novel. But as she sits at her desk to write, she realizes that she has no ideas left. And as the pressure mounts for her to deliver, she begins to fear that her career is over.

Then the letters start.

At first, they seem harmless. But as the messages grow darker, Cara becomes convinced that someone is watching her, waiting for their moment to strike.

Her husband, Artie, dismisses the notes as stupid pranks, but Cara feels them pulling her back to a past she can't escape. With no easy answers, Cara does what she does best and begins to write. But the more words that come, the more fantasy and reality begin to blur and soon her imagination, and her accusations, begin to run wild.

With reality blurring into fiction, Cara struggles to see the truth. Is someone really watching her, or is her unravelling mind feeding her paranoia? And how will this story - her story – end?

This time her deadline has never felt more deadly…

🌞 My Review

Best selling author, Cara Jenkins is facing that nightmare that all writers must have experienced, the dreaded writer’s block, and as this next novel is her thirtieth so much depends on her pulling another successful novel out of the hat but with no ideas to speak of Cara is feeling more and more anxious. With her anxiety increasing and with strange anonymous letters arriving at her house Cara is worried that someone is watching her but with her head buried in her writing is Cara blurring the boundaries between fact and fiction?

This is a quick fire read that keeps the tension ramped up to high and with a sinister character known only as him telling his part of the story, there is more than enough mystery to keep the pages turning, in my case faster and faster until the whole complicated plot was laid out before me and even then I didn’t see the twists coming. What I love about this author’s writing is her ability to surprise me - so that even though I think I have the conclusion to the story nicely sorted out along she comes and hits me with another surprise ending that I didn’t see coming.

Immersive and page turningly good, The Writer is the perfect summer escapism for a lazy afternoon in the garden or poolside with a long cold drink to hand.

About the Author

Valerie Keogh is the internationally bestselling author of several psychological thrillers and crime series, most recently published by Bloodhound. She originally comes from Dublin but now lives in Wiltshire and worked as a nurse for many years. Her first thriller for Boldwood was published in August 2022.

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Twitter @ValerieKeogh1 #TheWriter

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