Published By: Bedford Square
Pages: 416
Released On: 19/06/2025
The twistiest murder mystery you are ever likely to read?
A story about a family that does the unthinkable in order to save the life of one of its beloved members?
Both? Or something else altogether?
You’ll have to read until the very last word in order to find out…
You think it will never happen to you: the ring of the bell, the policeman on the doorstep. What he says traps you in a nightmare that starts with the words, ‘I’m afraid…’
Sally Lambert is also afraid, and desperate enough to consider the unthinkable. Is it really, definitely, impossible to escape from this horror? Maybe not. There’s always something you can do, right?
Of course, no one would ever do this particular something – except the Lamberts, who might have to.
No one has ever gone this far. Until Sally decides that the Lamberts will…
*****
Thanks to Anne at Random Things Tours for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.
I’m not overly sure how to review this book, because I liked some of it but I didn’t like most of it. It had a lot going for it but I didn’t find it a particularly enjoyable book to read. I hadn’t been able to move for praise for this book, so I was excited to get a chance to read it, but sadly it didn’t live up to my expectations, but there are some positives.
For starters – assuming it’s the same in the finished copy – a lot of the book happens on June 17th, which is my birthday, which made me smile.
Thrillers are probably my most read genre and so I know what I like, but they can get a bit samey. This was completely fresh. It still had elements I recognise and expect, but it did feel completely new.
However…
I couldn’t really get into the writing, because it’s sort of like a stream of consciousness by an unknown character, and I struggled with that. I couldn’t connect to the writing or the character.
And talking about the characters, they’re very……character-ish. Some books have characters that feel very real and relatable. Whereas I found they were very OTT in this, they’re bizarre and eccentric, and whilst it does sort of fit this story, I did find them very annoying.
The pacing felt off. I know it’s like a stream of consciousness and so it is very wordy, but for pages and pages it was describing hardly anything of relevance, and I was beginning to wonder if I could skip bits because I felt I wasn’t going to miss anything.
Books don’t have to be realistic to be good. By their very nature, fictional novels are unrealistic, because they’re fiction, that’s fine. But this was so unrealistic that I couldn’t get into it. I didn’t like any of the characters, they were hard to pay attention to. The plot was convoluted and OTT and just didn’t make any sense to me, and the dialogue was very rambly.
It all seems to stem from a like or dislike of a pet dog. I love dogs so much and I have a dog, but I understand that not everyone does like dogs and that’s fine. But this is so anti-people-who-dislike-dogs that instead of it being a quirky characteristic, it was uncomfortable.
I also felt the ending was odd. Nothing seemed particularly finished for me. I don’t mind an open ended ending if it gives you something to think about, but it didn’t give me that. I just felt even more confused.
It is unique and quirky, but it’s confusing and disjointed and underwhelming.
I think this is my first of her books. I may have read one of her Agatha Christie ones at some point but I’m not sure. It hasn’t completely put me off her work, but it definitely didn’t live up to the hype. But looking at other reviews…it shows you either love it or hate it. There doesn’t seem to be much middle-ground.
Books By Your Bedside 