Review: Duplicity by Sibel Hodge @sibelhodge

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Release date: December 27, 2016

Publisher: Thomas and Mercer

Genre: Psychological Thriller

Blurb:

There are three sides to every story: Yours. Mine. And the truth…

Max and Alissa have a fairy tale life—newlywed, madly in love and enviously rich. Then Max is brutally stabbed to death at their home and Alissa, miraculously, escapes with her life. But why was she spared?

The hunt for the killer begins, uncovering a number of leads—was Max’s incredible wealth the motive? Had his shady business practices finally caught up with him? Or was it a stalker with a dangerous obsession?

Devoted friends rally around gentle, sweet Alissa as she is left to mourn the loss of her husband and pick up her life. But not everyone is who they seem…Deep-rooted jealousies, secrets and twisted love lie just beneath the surface, and not all fairy tales have a happy ending.

Duplicity is a suspenseful thriller from the bestselling author of Look Behind You and Where the Memories Lie.

Review:

Is there anything more exciting than discovering a new to you author that you really enjoy? Not to me there isn’t! Immediately after I finished Duplicity I rushed to Goodreads to see if Hodge had any other books and I was so thrilled to see she has others with outstanding ratings from some of my most trusted friends. Now to find the time to actually read them…

I was hooked by this one right away, there are two viewpoints, the Detective and the Other One. The detective is DI Carter who is looking into the murder of Max. I really liked Carter, in fact I think he’s the only character that I actually enjoyed. He is relentless in his pursuit of the truth even if it means risking it all. The Other One is clearly the person responsible for killing Max but you have no idea who it actually is until much later. I’m a fan of alternating timelines and it worked so well here, the truth was slowly revealed in bits and pieces and it left me hanging onto every word. Part one is the slowest section but I was still very interested, but when part two starts? BAM! The pace really picks up and there were so many plot twists I think I may have whiplash.

I can’t talk about the plot very much here, but I can say that it is dark, twisted and full of shocking surprises. I was patting myself on the back for being so clever and correctly guessing which direction things were headed, until Hodge decided to spin me around and smack me upside the head for being so bold and presumptuous. I love when an author manages to deceive me and I was mislead so many times here that I lost count. This is an excellently crafted psychological thriller with all the necessary elements that I need in the genre. The pacing was right on, the tension was heavy, you don’t know who to trust, and there are surprises up until the very end.

Overall rating: 5/5

Thanks to Thomas and Mercer for my review copy.