Psychological Thriller4*s
Hello book lovers Mel Sherratt has delivered her latest book, She Did It, which is not only a brilliant psychological thriller but also is also set in the world of book publicity, and yes the trusty book blogger gets more than one mention!
Tamara is the classic poor little rich girl. Despite on the surface having all the connections and the family money she feels a bit of a failure especially as her three siblings have done what was expected of them, settled down to a good career or motherhood. Not Tamara, she has just launched her own PR firm and is knuckling down to win a contract to deliver the PR for a new debut novelist. But she has too many tasks to complete and advertises for an assistant.
Esther’s moment is here, she attends the interview and gets the job. She’s soon ensconced in Tamara’s dining room helping her pull together her presentation to win the contract. A contract that is badly needed as Tamara, despite her nice clothes, is living a pretty much hand to mouth existence unwilling to go to her parents and beg for money.
Both of the main characters have secrets and neither are quite what they appear but at the beginning they forge a relationship albeit with an obvious power imbalance and a more shadowy version which tips the power in the other direction. Mel Sherratt has really got a feel for her characters and even though it is obvious quite soon who we should be wary of, there is just enough detail to stop this developing into full-blown dislike. Instead I spent much of this book hoping that the journey I feared we were on would be re-routed.
With a very British outing to the races, expensive dresses and a book launch mixed in with dangerous weapons and drugs, this really was a story of two very different lives brought together to produce a thrilling read.
I have to admit I’ve drawn back from overly dramatic psychological thrillers lately but this is up there with the best in the ‘ooh I just can’t put this down’ so mesmerised by the power-struggle disguised as friendship and awaiting the awful events that were obviously on route to the devastating train-wreck which was going to occur. Quite what twists and turns we would hurtle around on the way was impossible to predict (I had to squint through one eye to read most of them).
The narrative of the book does shift backwards and forwards with both main characters detailing not only their plans but their past to reveal more about them. As I said earlier, this isn’t a book where the reader looks on with amazement while fundamentally dislikeable characters wreak destruction, there was far more subtlety to She Did It which added a layer of integrity to the storyline. I’m just hoping that Mel’s publication day, today, doesn’t have the same hazards particularly as I was one of the very lucky readers chosen to read the book before release day.
If you want one of those compulsive reads that so many of us are addicted to, I suggest you pick up a copy of this book and enjoy the journey!
First Published UK: 19 September 2017
Publisher: Blood Red Books
No. of Pages: 255
Genre: Psychological Thriller
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