Safe With Me – K L Slater

Thirteen years ago someone did something very bad to Anna. Now it’s her turn to get even …

Anna lives a solitary existence, taking solace in order and routine. Her only friend is the lonely old lady next door. She doesn’t like to let people to get too close – she knows how much damage they can do.

Then one ordinary day Anna witnesses a devastating road accident and recognises the driver as Carla, the woman who ruined her life all those years ago. Now it’s Anna’s chance to set things straight but her revenge needs to be executed carefully …

First she needs to get to know Liam, the man injured in the accident. She needs to follow the police investigation. She needs to watch Carla from the shadows…

But as Anna’s obsession with Carla escalates, her own secrets start to unravel. Is Carla really dangerous or does Anna need to worry about someone far closer to home?

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Pychological thriller?  Very much so. The tension is relentless right from the start and you feel compelled to keep reading.

The prologue describes a chilling scene where an unknown arsonist starts a fire and then the story switches to the present day and the scene of a road accident ….

When Anna witnesses a road accident she recognises the driver as Carla, someone from her past. You realise she has been obsessed with finding Carla for many years who she considers ruined her life. Anna realises this could be her chance to set things straight and extract her revenge. She also sits with the injured motorcyclist, Liam, until the ambulance arrives.

She then visits Liam in hospital and ‘invites’ herself into his life, desperately wanting to to become part of it even although he lives with his grandmother.

I felt Anna was quite a sad character. You know right from the start she has some issues/problems. She has a job but doesn’t seem to socialise with her colleagues. Her only ‘friend’ is the old lady next door, Joan Peat. Anna seems to have a need to be needed. She must have order and routine just to keep functioning but as the story progresses you sense her obsessions escalating and things spiralling out of control.

Much of the story is told in Anna’s voice and her thoughts are very chilling at times but some of it is told from Joan Peat’s point of view. She has known Anna since she was a little girl and through her we learn a bit about Anna’s past.

The writing is good. It’s not a difficult read although sometimes I felt I would have liked a little bit of relief from the escalating tension. (That’s not really a criticism; in a thriller tension is good. Yes?) There are a few twists in the story which make it a very satisfying read.

It’s a really good debut novel and I would love to read more.

The publisher is Bookouture and Safe With Me is due out on 3 November 2016.  The author’s webpage can be found here.

(My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy).

French Rhapsody – Antoine Laurain

Middle-aged doctor Alain Massoulier has received a life-changing letter—thirty-three years too late.

Lost in the Paris postal system for decades, the letter from Polydor, dated 1983, offers a recording contract to The Holograms, in which Alain played lead guitar. Back then The Holograms had believed in their cutting-edge sound. However, the music industry remained indifferent, and eventually the band split up, each going their own way.

Alain is overcome by nostalgia, and is tempted to track down the members of the group. But in a world where everything and everyone has changed . . . where will his quest take him?

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I’m not sure exactly why, but I loved this book. It’s an effortless read and very entertaining.

Alain Massoulier is a middle-aged doctor who leads a comfortable, if perhaps predictable, life in Paris.

Out of the blue he receives a potentially life-changing letter that had been posted 33 years earlier and had languished in the French postal system all these years. In 1983 he had been a member of a band The Holograms and the letter was from Polydor offering them a recording contract – 33 years too late as having failed to make a name for themselves as a band, they all went their separate ways.

Alain is thrown by this letter and becomes quite nostalgic, searching the house for a box of band photos and a cassette recording, desperately wanting to listen to a particular track that had been playing in his head since the letter’s arrival.

As he reminisces we learn how the five band members from very diverse backgrounds got together to form the band. The more he thinks of the past and the letter, the more he experiences feelings of fury and injustice. He has thoughts of what might have been. I liked the lines in the book, “You think you have buried your youthful dreams, that they’ve dissolved in the fog of passing years and then you realise it’s not true! The corpse is still there, terrifying and unburied.” He decides to search for his former bandmates and try to make contact to tell them what has transpired. He is also hoping that one of them will have a copy of “Such Stuff as Dreams Are Made On”, the track that had impressed the record company.

I was never in a band, I’m not a doctor, I’m not even in my 50s (I’m older than that) but somehow I could connect with the story – maybe it’s wondering what might have been if another path had been taken? The book is funny, nostalgic, charming and at there’s a bit of satire in there too. It’s well written and has some great characters.

The characters are all very diverse. Some have made a name for themselves in the 33 years that have passed. They are all interesting and well drawn. I love how the present and the past are interwoven almost seamlessly. Oh yes, and there are a couple of nice twists in the story.

The book was translated from the French by Jane Aitken and Emily Boyce. Publication date is 11 October 2016 but it is available now from Gallic Books

(My thanks to NetGalley and Gallic Books for providing me with a review copy)