Category Archives: Christobel Kent

January 23, 2019 · 11:57 pm

Review: What We Did by Christobel Kent

Title: What We Did by Christobel Kent
Publisher: Sarah Crichton Books
Genre: Contemporary, Suspense
Length: 320 pages
Book Rating: B

Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through NetGalley

Summary:

He stole her childhood . . . she’ll take his future

Something happened, she didn’t know what, something spun, the world turning, back, back, too fast. She would be sick. Bridget put out a hand to steady herself against the wall.

Bridget has a secret—one she keeps from everyone, even her husband. One that threatens to explode when her childhood music teacher, Carmichael, walks into her dress shop. With him is a young girl on the cusp of adulthood, fresh-faced and pretty. She reminds Bridget of herself at that age, naïve and vulnerable.

Bridget wants him away—away from her, away from that girl. But Carmichael won’t leave her alone, won’t stop stalking her. And Bridget’s not a little girl anymore. When he pushes her too far, she snaps. But what she thought was a decisive act only unravels more insidious threats—more than she could have ever imagined—and from which no one is safe, not even her family.

The bestselling British author Christobel Kent has written yet another thrilling page-turner with a twisted, riveting conclusion. What We Did is a nightmarish, impossible-to-put-down tale of the secrets we keep from our families, of chilling childhood abuse, and of long-awaited retribution.

Review:

What We Did by Christobel Kent is a suspenseful novel that deals with difficult subject matter in a discerning and thought-provoking manner.

Bridget Webster is a happily married mum and business owner.  From the outside, there is little sign of her troubling past which is exactly how she likes it. She has not confided in her husband, Matt, nor her younger sister, Carrie, about the dark secret she has kept for over two decades. However, when her former music teacher Anthony “Tony” Carmichael suddenly drops back into her life, Bridget is inundated with horrifying memories. After a confrontation with Carmichael goes horribly wrong, Bridget  desperately tries to keep the events from the past and present from being exposed. Carrie is unexpectedly drawn into her sister’s attempts to cover her tracks and Bridget is appalled to learn newspaper reporter Gillian “Gill” Lawson is asking questions about Anthony.  Will Bridget’s and Carrie’s efforts to  keep the truth under wraps be successful?

Bridget is content with the safe life she has with Matt and their son Finn. She feels quite safe with Matt who never delves too deeply beneath the surface. Bridget maintains tight control over every aspect of her life and she has deeply buried the troubling events that destroyed her teenage years. She loves her sister but their relationship has never quite recovered from her rocky teen years.  The sisters sometimes go for months without contact but Bridget always provides Carrie with a safe haven when she needs one. Carrie’s sudden reappearance could not come at a worse time for Bridget. However, circumstances force her to accept Carrie’s help when her sister literally stumbles across what Bridget is frantically trying to hide.

What We Did is an engrossing novel that is a little slow paced despite the suspense. One of the main story arcs revolves around Bridget’s attempts to conceal her present misdeed but this part of the storyline ends up being drawn out way too long.  A side plot line with her employee is interesting and provides another layer of tension to some of the unfolding events.  Bridget discovers she has grossly underestimated her husband but what effect will this have on their relationship? A late in the story situation with Finn neatly intersects with another thread in the plot and adds a sense of urgency as Christobel Kent brings this suspense-laden novel to a satisfying conclusion. This absorbing  novel deals with subject matter is very dark but it is handled with a great deal of sensitivity. An insightful novel that I highly recommend to fans of the genre.

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Filed under Christobel Kent, Contemporary, Rated B, Review, Sarah Crichton Books, Suspense, What We Did

February 28, 2018 · 11:56 pm

Review: The Day She Disappeared by Christobel Kent

Title: The Day She Disappeared by Christobel Kent
Publisher: Sarah Crichton Books
Genre: Contemporary, Mystery, Suspense
Length: 416 pages
Book Rating: B+

Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through NetGalley

Summary:

From Christobel Kent―whose psychological thrillers have been called “terrifyingly good,” “perfectly paced,” “addictive,” “tense, dense, extremely well-plotted and beautifully written”―a new nerve-racking novel about a disappeared barmaid and the friend who will do anything to find her.

When Beth disappears, everyone says she’s run off with another man. She’s just a fly-by-night party girl who can’t be trusted. But Natalie, her best friend, doesn’t believe it, not at all. She’s sure something more sinister is going on. So sure that proving it just might kill her . . .

Meanwhile, Victor, one of Beth’s and Nat’s favorite bar patrons, has fallen and ended up in the hospital. When he hears that Beth is gone, he doesn’t buy it either. And slowly, a hazy memory comes back to him. Something menacing . . . something important . . . something just out of his grasp . . .

As Nat tries to piece together the events―and people―in Beth’s life, it becomes more difficult to discern who can and can’t be trusted. The little town in the English countryside takes on an ominous air, with a threat behind every corner, outside every window. And someone is always watching . . .

Kent’s most recent novel, The Loving Husband, was an international bestseller, and it is in no way hyperbole to declare The Day She Disappeared her very best. It is as brutally unsettling as The Loving Husband, but even more intricate and surprising; as claustrophobic and atmospheric as The Crooked House, but even more heartbreaking in its truths.

Kent has been compared to such masters as Daphne du Maurier and P. D. James. With The Day She Disappeared, a new crop of writers will be compared to Christobel Kent.

Review:

The Day She Disappeared by Christobel Kent is a slow burning yet completely mesmerizing mystery set in small English town.

Natalie “Nat” Cooper seems to be the only one concerned about her co-worker and close friend, Beth Maxwell’s disappearance.  Their boss, pub owner Janine is not overly troubled that other than a handful of texts, no one has seen or heard from Beth since she abruptly left weeks earlier to care for her mum. Now discovering Beth is not returning, Nat is worried enough to do a little digging around and she is distressed to learn that her friend did not go to her mum’s after all. But it is not until Beth’s landlady makes a shocking discovery that Nat is convinced that something terrible has happened. No one, including the police, will take her fears seriously so Nat decides to investigate Beth’s disappearance on her own.

Nat’s life has not exactly gone as planned since after going off to college and living briefly in London, she is back in the town she grew up in. Now close to thirty, she is struggling to make peace with the choices she has recently made. She and Beth may not have much in common, but the pair were quite close.  Initially a little hurt that Beth left without warning, Nat was not worried that something was amiss until Beth’s out of character failure to return to work as scheduled.

Beth is a bit a free spirit who is quite popular with the male customers who come into the pub. Spontaneous and without many inhibitions, she enjoys going out with a variety of men.  Beth is a surprisingly supportive friend and a reliable employee.  Despite their close friendship, Nat is very surprised by some of the information she uncovers about Beth when she begins trying to find out what happened to her.

Around the same time Beth fails to return, Nat’s friend, Victor Powell has been hospitalized after a fall.  In his early nineties, Victor is quite active and well-liked by the rest of the townspeople. While still in hospital, he is afraid for his safety but the reason for his fear remains tantalizing out of reach.  Although he cannot quite recall why he is danger, Victor is fully cognizant of his concerns that his daughter, Sophie, might be in danger from her controlling husband.

The Day She Disappeared is an intriguing whodunit that unfolds from three very different points of view: Nat, Victor and the killer. There is an underlying feeling of menace since Nat feels like someone is watching her but no one will take her fears seriously. Victor is a fantastic secondary character who desperately wants to recall information that might be relevant to what happened to Beth. Brief passages from the killer’s perspective paint a very chilling portrait of a smart but twisted person who has absolutely no remorse for their actions. Through a series of red herrings and misdirects, Christobel Kent brilliantly keeps the perpetrators identity cleverly under wraps until the novel’s action-packed conclusion.

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Filed under Christobel Kent, Contemporary, Mystery, Rated B+, Review, Sarah Crichton Books, Suspense, The Day She Disappeared

March 12, 2017 · 11:57 pm

Review: The Loving Husband by Christobel Kent

Title: The Loving Husband by Christobel Kent
Publisher: Sarah Crichton Books
Genre: Contemporary, Mystery, Suspense
Length: 416 pages
Book Rating: B+

Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through NetGalley
Summary:

THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER

“Be careful, Fran,” the man said quietly. “About what you think you know.”

In a dilapidated farmhouse out in the vast waterlogged plains of the English Fenlands, Fran awakes groggily to her baby’s cries one February night and finds the bed empty beside her. Her husband, Nathan, is gone.

Moving uneasily through the drafty rooms, searching for her husband, Fran soon makes a devastating discovery that upends her marriage and any semblance of safety. As she tries desperately to make sense of what happened to Nathan, Fran is forced to delve dangerously into the undercurrents of his claustrophobic hometown and question how well she knew him in the first place. Fran, increasingly isolated, grows paranoid—but Nathan isn’t the only one hiding something. Though she can’t tell a soul, Fran is shielding a damning secret of her own: a hazy, dreamlike memory from the night of Nathan’s disappearance that might be the key to it all.

From the bestselling author of The Crooked House comes an utterly gripping psychological thriller spanning the traditions of Daphne du Maurier and S. J. Watson. Christobel Kent’s The Loving Husband is spooky and skillfully written, dragging readers deep into the unsettling world of the Fens and into a marriage of half-truths and past lives, where no one can be trusted—especially not your spouse.

Review:

The Loving Husband by Christobel Kent is a suspenseful murder  mystery set  in a rural village in Great Britain.

Fran Hall lives with her husband Nathan and their two young children, four year old Emme and 3 month old Ben on a rundown farm close to where Nathan grew up.  Since their move from London, Fran has become increasingly isolated as Nathan controls just about every aspect of their life.  Awakening to discover Nathan missing from their bed, she makes a horrifying discovery when she finds his lifeless body in a ditch on their property. The investigators assigned to her case, DS Doug Gerard and DC Ed Carswell, are convinced Fran knows more than she is telling but does this mean she is a killer?

Fran was never overly thrilled with the move from London, but it seems like the best way to put her mistakes behind her.  The farmhouse is isolated and somewhat dilapidated, but she is trying to make the best of the situation for her family’s sake.  While Nathan has a thriving business that takes him away from home quite frequently and an active social life, Fran’s days revolve around her children and keeping the peace with her husband.  It is not until Nathan is murdered that the inconsistencies in his life become more apparent and Fran is somewhat surprised to discover she does not much at all about the man she has shared her life with more than five years.

While DS Gerard  and DS Carswell are initially solicitous when dealing with Fran, it does not take long for her to realize they are not on her side.  She is not exactly forthcoming with all of the details of the night Nathan was murdered but under the circumstances, her hesitance is understandable.  The only person involved in the investigation that she feels comfortable with is Family Liaison Officer DC Ali Compton.  However, Fran is unsure she can completely trust Ali so she continues to maintain her silence about some of the events that occurred the night of Nathan’s murder.

Fran is horribly confused about the information that is uncovered during the investigation . As she reflects back on her relationship with Nathan, she begins to realize how  isolated she has become.  She also starts to recognize how much of herself she has given up over the years in order to keep Nathan happy.  Fran is dismayed by her inability to answer basic questions about her husband’s business dealings or who he socializes with in his downtime.  With every new clue that emerges, she cannot help but wonder about Nathan’s  motivation for marrying her but the reason for his actions eludes Fran.

The Loving Husband is a suspense-laden domestic mystery that moves at a moderately fast pace.  Christobel Kent cleverly keeps the killer’s identity and motive for the crime a closely guarded secret with brilliantly plotted twists and turns and a few well-paced red herrings.  The novel comes to quite a stunning conclusion that is virtually impossible to predict.  An absolutely riveting mystery that fans of the genre do not want to miss.

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Filed under Christobel Kent, Contemporary, Mystery, Rated B+, Review, Sarah Crichton Books, Suspense, The Loving Husband