While everyone else appears to have been digging into beach reads this summer, I've once again found myself digging into the thriller section of my TBR list.
Actually, that makes it sound like I've been reading thrillers that have been languishing on my Kindle, that's wholly inaccurate, I've been buying new thrillers and ignoring the ones I already own.
One of those being A Fatal Affair by A.R Torre, a thriller set in Hollywood where no one is what they seem, where no one can be sure who to trust and where everyone has a secret to hide.
From the back…
Actress Nora Kemp loves two men. One is Hugh Iverson, a philanthropic movie star who gives Nora security and respectability. The other is Hugh's twin brother, Trent, a Hollywood bad boy who brings out Nora's wild side. When Trent and an unidentified woman are found dead on the Iversons' Beverly Hills property, more than Nora's and Hugh's reputations are at stake.
An investigation suggests murder-suicide. But there's more to the crime than first meets the eye: suspicions of a serial killer with a bizarre motive, Hugh's unnerved and cautious staff, and a missing mother and son. As two LA detectives sift through the deceptions of the innocent and the guilty—some living and some dead—solving the case becomes a cunning cat-and-mouse game.
Because in a city of illusions, the truth—no matter how dangerous—is so easy to hide.
The thing that ultimately made me pick this book up was the Hollywood back drop, I liked the idea of a murky murder in the middle of the glitz and glamour of LA. I also wanted to know what the deal was between Nora and the Iverson twins.
Nora is Hollywood's new darling, beautiful, successful and engaged to Hugh Iverson. Together, Nora and Hugh are a fairy tale. He's the handsome Oscar winner and Hollywood's leading man – the world is invested in this relationship. However, Nora also has a thing for Hugh's wayward bad boy twin, Trent.
It's all a bit complicated.
It gets even more complicated when Trent and an unknown woman turn up dead in Nora and Hugh's guesthouse and let's just say this woman is not Trent's usual type, she's certainly not from Hollywood she's completely normal. It's a case that's proving to be quite the head scratcher for Farah and Kevin, the detectives sent to investigate.
I ended up hooked early on, A.R Torre gets straight to the point, there isn't a slow build up to murder, we're off trying to work out who the murderer is immediately. That's always going to be a win for me.
Alongside the murder, there's an added mystery to be solved, a mum (Kerry) and her six-year-old son have disappeared. They're in LA on a Make-A-Wish trip because little Miles is fighting cancer.
Clearly both incidents are linked, and I loved how they both unfolded and started to slot together.
Each chapter is told from the perspective of a different character - The Detectives, The Leading Lady, The Leading Man, The Mom, The Son, The Accomplice, The Dad – it's a writing style that keeps readers gripped. The short, snappy chapters often leave you on a cliff-hanger, before you know it you've torn through half the book eager to see what piece of the puzzle is going to fall into place next.
And then there's the characters, many of whom kept me guessing.
I did not trust Nora at all, I thought she was quite cold and calculating until her chapters started to give a little bit more away about who she was. I felt the same about Hugh too, there was something unnerving about him. The fact they were both actors meant I (much like the detectives questioning them) was never sure about what was real.
And then there was Kerry, who was far from being an angel herself. I don't want to give any spoilers away but the twists in her story were really intriguing.
So far, it sounds as though this is going to be one of my five star reads of the year, it seems as though it has everything you'd want from a good thriller and in a way, it does. However, it doesn't quite make it into my 'best books' list for one pretty huge reason……….
I wasn't sold on the ending.
It felt a little rushed and I was left with a few questions. There were some loose ends that I wanted to see tied up, it just felt as though some of these characters that I'd become quite invested in, were left hanging.
It's a fun, fast-paced read, I enjoyed it, it's just a shame the final five per cent fell a little bit flat.
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