Published By: Hodder and Stoughton
Pages: 336
Released On: 03/02/2026
Wealthy and famous, Anna Finbow stands in court, accusing therapist Jean Guest of brainwashing her daughter Mary to gain access to her trust fund.
Jean claims that the dark memories she’s helped Mary uncover are real. That therapy has offered her a chance to finally heal from childhood trauma, and she would be better off away from her family’s damaging influence.
I’ll tell you now . . . you shouldn’t believe either of them.
*****
Thanks to NetGalley and Hodder and Stoughton for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.
This was a book I had on pre-order but had to cancel after money issues and I was so excited to read it. But sadly it didn’t completely live up to my expectations.
It had me hooked from page one, and whilst I did enjoy it for the most part, it did lose its way and struggled to regain that instant opening.
Whilst all of it was good, I preferred the scenes set in the current moment in court; I found those sections very enjoyable indeed and I’d have preferred slightly longer sections there because they are few and far between. The other scenes become this almost will-they-wont-they love triangle which I found myself not caring about.
I am a bit confused about it. I do understand how the past sections link to the present scenes at a basic level, but they generally felt like two different stories and I really struggled to find that strong connection.
Parts 1 and 4 were great and I thoroughly enjoyed them. But parts 2 and 3 felt slow and sloppy and repetitive and completely at odds to the rest of it.
I couldn’t get on with any character. That’s not to say they’re badly written, I don’t think that’s the case at all. They’re just very unlikeable. You’re not completely sure who you can trust, who is telling the truth. None of them are 100% good or bad, they’re all morally grey, some more grey than others, but I just didn’t like any of them. They all felt very distant, I couldn’t feel the love or chemistry or connection between any of them. They were quite flat and I was struggling to find anything to grasp hold of.
I am reluctant to call it a thriller, even a psychological thriller, it’s something completely different that I can’t quite fit into any one basket. It’s not a thriller, not a crime novel, nor a legal drama, it’s just sort of flitting between them all, never fully settling.
This book had so much promise. The synopsis was intriguing and there were elements I thought were good, but it promised to much but failed to deliver.
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