Woman with a Secret - Sophie Hannah

First line: (from a internet dating site) "Are you looking on here because you're hoping to find something that stands out from all the dull one-line I-want-a-blow-job-in-my-hotel-room-type adverts?"

In Sophie Hannah's ninth Waterhouse and Zailer crime novel, Damon, Blundy, a controversial newspaper columnist, is found murdered in his home office. The scene is peculiar: Blundy's hands and feet were secured; a large knife sharpener is in the floor--used to knock the victim out but not kill him; "HE IS NO LESS DEAD" is painted on the wall in red paint; and a knife is taped to the victim's mouth, the packing tape covering both his mouth and nose causing him to suffocate. Simon Waterhouse is convinced all of these details are a message from the killer, but he just can't figure out what the message is.

Nicki Clements has a dirty little secret. She's managed to hide it from her family for years, but the murder of Blundy--a man she's never met--is about to rock her world in ways she never could have imagined.

Woman with a Secret started out a little disorienting for me as it hopped between an online advertisement, the narrator's perspective, a newspaper article and the crime scene investigation. The novel oscillates between these elements of the story but the very beginning leaves the reader discombobulated. Once the concept starts to meld, however, the story is captivating.

Hannah twists the plot like a pretzel. As soon as the reader feels that he/she has a firm grasp on the players and their roles, a new twist with an additional layer is added to the mix, making the novel that much more addictive.

Simon Waterhouse's quirky doggedness is endearing to everyone except Detective Inspector Giles Proust. But his sharp mind, intuitions and deductions are fascinating. He's not always correct and that helps to make him more believable, but he is always plausible which serves the same purpose.

Hannah's exploration of the psychological nature of her characters and their actions is eerie and gripping. Her ability to take the commonplace--online dating sites, opinionated journalists, unfaithful politicians--and mold it into a horrifically spellbinding scenario is astonishing.

Intelligent, complex and engrossing, The Woman with a Secret will easily steal readers' hours as they lose themselves in the mystery and the mayhem.

Woman with a Secret is available in hardcover from William Morrow (9780062388261) and as an unabridged audio (9780062350763), narrated by David Thorpe and Julia Barrie, from Harper Audio. Also note that this book was previously released in the UK as The Telling Error.

   

    

My review today is part of the TLC book tour for Woman with a Secret. Check the schedule to see what other bloggers are saying about this book.

Disclosure: I do some contractual work for one of the owners of TLC Blog Tours. My work with them does not obligate me to a specific kind of review. The reviews are still my own opinions and reflect only my thoughts on the novels. If you care to read more, you can find more information on my Disclosure page.

Five on Friday - Sophie Hannah

Happy Friday all! It's been a bit of a crazy week on my end. Hope you've had a little less chaos and a lot of good reads.

I'm going to do the round-up of contests and then go straight to our special Five on Friday guest.

Friday Reads has some print and audio copies of Hank Phillippi Ryan's THE WRONG GIRL to give away this week.

Criminal Element has a hefty October Reads bundle to give away.

Lesa shifted her giveaway day on me, which is why I haven't posted anything from her recently. But she posts her new contests on Fridays now, so hop over to her site and see what she has for this week.

O.k. that's it for this week. Now on to the feature act!

Sophie Hannah is a rather diverse writer. We know her around these parts for her psychological thrillers. But she's also quite the poet. She's even delved into some children's books and translations. A woman of many talents!

Her most recent publication here in the States is the thriller KIND OF CRUEL, which features her recurring characters Simon Waterhouse and Charlie Zailer. But over in the UK she's a book ahead of us with THE CARRIER. She's also stuck her toes in the supernatural water with THE ORPHAN CHOIR which will make it's appearance in the US in January.

Also coming up and very exciting is the fact that Sophie will be writing a new Hercule Poirot novel!

There's a bit of something for everyone!

Now let me quit yakking and turn things over to Sophie!

No warnings for Sophie!

My pet peeve: People who warn you about things. 'Whatever you do, don't trust X.' 'Don't put your kids in daycare - they might end up emotionally warped.' 'You know, you really shouldn't eat too much sugar - you're more likely to get cancer.' 'Be careful which taxi you get into - I hear there's a rapist taxi driver striking regularly in your neighbourhood.' Those Who Warn probably firmly believe, and indeed often persuade you to believe, that they have your best interests at heart and they're just looking out for you. Not true. What they're actually doing (in terms of the character of the energy they're releasing into your life) is saying, 'This terrible fate might not befall you, but just in case it doesn't, I'm going to put the idea of it into your head anyway, so that even if you don't get cancer/raped/psychotic kids, you can at least be miserable for a while as you contemplate your possible future misfortune.' So, that's a longwinded way of saying that Those Who Warn are annoying because they dump a load of negative energy and pessimism on you, and disguise it as thoughtfulness and concern.

Caveat: Yes, of course there are circumstances in which warning someone is acceptable. 'Move out of the way, quick, or a giant hippo that I can actually see falling will land on your head.' There may be other acceptable manifestations of the Warning format, but mainly, if there's no giant falling hippo, warnings are a bad idea. Oh - warning people never to warn people is okay too!

Last book I recommended: The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty - a gripping masterpiece. It moved me to tears and I couldn't put it down.

 Five favourite songs on my iPod at the moment:

• You Win Again - The Beegees 
• You're the One That I Want - from the Grease soundtrack 
• Milkshake - Kelis 
• Return to Innocence - Enigma 
• A Boy Like That/I Have a Love - from the West Side Story soundtrack 

I consider Agatha Christie a hero because she created narrative suspense more effectively than any other writer, and is the Queen of Crime Fiction. She also understood the darkest parts of the human psyche.

No 1 item on my bucket list: I don't have one specific thing I want to do - just what I do already, really. Write more and better crime novels. Do a lot of swimming, in swimming pools, lakes, the sea. Eat lots of very hot curry. Spend as much time as possible with people I think are ace. If there was one specific thing I wanted to do, I'd just go and do it straight away. I'm not a 'deferred gratification' kind of person, really - I'm much more the 'have lots of fun now' type. So, as soon as it occurs to me that I fancy doing something, I rush out and do it. I tend, therefore, not to accumulate lists of things I want to do and haven't yet done!

Now that folks, is the way to live life! I love it. You can find out more about Sophie at her website or you can meet up with her on Twitter. And by all means, watch out for falling hippos this weekend!

Happy Reading my friends!

THE OTHER WOMAN'S HOUSE - Sophie Hannah

My review of The Other Woman's House appeared in Shelf Awareness. I am reprinting it here with their permission.

First line: "I am going to be killed because of a family called the Gilpatricks."

Connie Bowskill logs onto a real estate website in the wee hours of the night after her husband is asleep. She is obsessed with a house in Cambridge and it has gone on the market. When she clicks on the virtual tour, she is mortified to see a dead woman lying in a pool of blood. She immediately summons her husband, but when he opens the virtual tour, there is no dead woman. Connie is determined to find the answer to this mystery because she isn’t crazy, she saw a dead woman. But her obsession with the house and with the mysterious dead woman may cost her everything.

Sophie Hannah (The Wrong Mother) employs vivid imagery and suspense to build a haunting atmosphere that envelops the reader. While the novel is set in England, it isn’t difficult to imagine the same scenario in your own neighborhood, making the reading experience that much more intimate.

The Other Woman’s House, progressively brings into focus a distorted world created by obsession. Alternating between first and third person points of view helps to keep the images blurry for the reader, knowing enough to make out shapes but not enough to clearly recognize what’s lying beneath the surface.

The Other Woman’s House produces a fascinating phenomenon similar to watching an accident. The darkness of a sick mind is chillingly terrifying, but readers will likely find it difficult to tear themselves away from the book until they reach the conclusion.

The Other Woman's House is available in trade paperback (ISBN: 978-0143121510) from Penguin Books.