I absolutely adored Ms Kelly’s first novel “The Poison Tree” so I did approach this with some trepidation. However by three chapters in I knew I had nothing to worry about. The story sucked me in, and I completed the book in under a day. The synopsis available (see below) is all the plot detail you need to decide if this novel interests you, so I won’t go into any more detail because I think that the less knowledge you have about where this is all going, the better for your enjoyment. However, I will say this – about half way through the book, the author pulled the rug out from under me, with a superb twist in the tale that I really did not see coming. From then on it was a breathless rush to the finish to see how the heck it was all going to turn out. So Thank you Erin Kelly – Quite Brilliant.
Synopsis:Of course it was love for my children, love for my son, that caused me to act as I did. It was a lapse of judgement. If I could have foreseen the rippling aftershocks that followed I would have acted differently, but by the time I realised the extent of the consequences, it was too late. The MacBrides have always gone to Far Barn in Devon for Bonfire Night, but this year everything is different. Lydia, the matriarch, is dead; Sophie, the eldest daughter, is desperately trying to repair a crumbling marriage; and Felix, the youngest of the family, has brought a girlfriend with him for the first time. The girl, Kerry, seems odd in a way nobody can quite put their finger on – but when they leave her looking after Sophie’s baby daughter, and return to find both Kerry and the baby gone, they are forced to ask themselves if they have allowed a cuckoo into their nest . . .
