A Double Life

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What to expect

'A THRILLING PAGE-TURNER' Paula Hawkins
Some wounds need more than time. They crave revenge.

Claire's father is a privileged man: handsome, brilliant, the product of an aristocratic lineage and an expensive education, surrounded by a group of devoted friends who would do anything for him.

But when he becomes the prime suspect in a horrific attack on Claire's mother - a pretty little thing who married into the elite ranks of society and dared escape her gilded cage - fate and privilege collide, and a scandal erupts. Claire's father disappears overnight, his car abandoned, blood on the front seat.

Thirty years after that hellish night, Claire is obsessed with uncovering the truth, and she knows that the answer is held behind the closed doors of beautiful townhouses and country estates, safeguarded by the same friends who all those years before had answered the call to protect one of their own.

Because they know where Claire's father is. They helped him escape. And it's time their pristine lives met her fury.

Read by Candida Gubbins
(p) Orion Publishing Group 2018

Critics Review

Berry skips between Claire’s present-day investigations and her reconstruction of her parents’ lives almost three decades earlier in this beautifully paced and satisfyingly ominous story.

Observer

As well as confirming the promise of Berry’s debut, Under the Harrow, the book demonstrates that fusing fiction and true crime can be mesmerisingly effective.

The Sunday Times

Flynn Berry writes thrillingly about women raging against a world that protects cruel and careless men. She’s less preoccupied by scenes of abuse than the psychological toll of its threat. Her protagonists seethe over their knowledge of violence and are fueled by a howling grief for its victims. Berry proved in Under the Harrow that her prose can be as blistering as it is lush. Here, too, the writing is rich and moody, without any unnecessary fuss… The ending is as shocking as it is satisfying.

New York Times, Editor's Choice

[An] interesting … reimagining of the Lord Lucan story… Berry brings the story to a satisfyingly shocking conclusion.

Guardian

A compulsive page-turner

Daily Mail

A Double Life isn’t just a whodunit but a damning dissection on class and privilege too. Fans of Elizabeth Day’s The Party will love this.

Sarra Manning, Red Online

A stifling air of unease builds with every page

Prima

A quietly menacing thriller by up-and-coming talent Flynn Berry.

Good Housekeeping UK

Psychological suspense has a new reigning queen

New York Journal of Books

A detailed and compelling story of a family’s fallout from a brutal crime, and the search for truth and retribution.

Fanny Blake, Woman & Home

Berry gives the well-worn story of Lord Lucan a fresh twist with this clever tale which tells the story of a woman determined to bring her father’s high society friends to justice.

i - Independent, Best Beach Reads for Summer

Engrossing

Mail on Sunday

Thrilling

Good Housekeeping (The 25 Best New Books for Summer 2018)

Berry’s sophomore effort is just as smart and haunting as her Edgar-winning debut, Under the Harrow

CrimeReads (11 Crime Novels You Should Read This Summer)

Flynn Berry vividly re-imagines one of the most notorious crimes of the 20th century. A Double Life is a thrilling page-turner, but it is also a compassionate and angry book: with forensic precision, Berry picks apart lives derailed by violence and the ways in which class privilege protect the guilty.’

Paula Hawkins, author of THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN and INTO THE WATER

What a book! A skilful and compelling exploration of families, crime, and class.

Clare Mackintosh, author of I LET YOU GO, I SEE YOU and LET ME LIE

Clever, thrilling writing that wound me in and left me heartbroken when I turned the last page and realised it was over.

Fiona Barton, author of THE WIDOW and THE CHILD

Thrilling

Laura Lippman, author of SUNBURN (O Magazine, Summer's Best True Crime-Inspired Thrillers

Astute… With exquisite pacing, Edgar Award-winner Berry (Under the Harrow) guides us to a stunning conclusion.

Seattle Times

There are obvious hints of the Lucan case, but Berry makes the story her own, weaving in details that snag at the mind’s edge… The story dances between rage and compassion. This struggle between opposing values propels the book to its startling conclusion

Spectator

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