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After He Died by Michael J Malone #BlogTour

Hello dear friend, oh how I have missed you!

I have read some fantastic books recently, however a few chapters in to After He Died I realised how long it has been since I had read a gripping suspense thriller  - Gone Girl, Girl on A Train, Before I Go To Sleep, all released years ago now and I hadn't realised how much I had missed stonking examples of this genre until the beginning of After He Died awoke something in me. I relished the chance to read further.

"When Paula Gadd’s husband of almost thirty years dies, just days away from the seventh anniversary of their son, Christopher’s death, her world falls apart. Grieving and bereft, she is stunned when a young woman approaches her at the funeral service, and slips something into her pocket. A note suggesting that Paula’s husband was not all that he seemed…

When the two women eventually meet, a series of revelations challenges everything Paula thought they knew, and it becomes immediately clear that both women’s lives are in very real danger.
Both a dark, twisty slice of domestic noir and taut, explosive psychological thriller, After He Died is also a chilling reminder that the people we trust the most can harbour the deadliest secrets…"

As with all good books in this genre I had no idea who to trust and suspected just about everyone as the chapters progressed (could it have been the pot plant?!) The ending was climactic and I found myself genuinely liking Paula, Father Joe and the "other woman" Cara.

I was most surprised by how evocative Paula's grief was. An unusual theme to be tackled in such depth by a book of this genre, it was really well written and Malone dealt with it realistically and sympathetically.

As with anything remotely Scottish I loved the setting having also taken a ferry from Gourock! (totally unrelated but Western Ferries provide an excellent service and humorous twitter feed). 

I liked how Paula and Cara's relationship developed and whereas Malone illustrated the contrast between their two worlds perfectly, I did at times feel like Cara's chip on her shoulder about rich people felt slightly too pushed upon the reader. Not to give too much away I also didn't think the Enterprise Initiative fitted in with what we knew about Thomas (Paula's husband), but that's me knit picking.

It was tense, twisty and everything a soul starved of suspense thrillers needed but with a little bit extra.

My thanks go to Orenda Books who courtesy of Anne Carter at Random Things Through My Letterbox provided me with a copy of the book in return for an honest review.

My companions on the blog tour today are @destinylover09 and @katiejones88. Go check them out.




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