She knows there’s a killer on the loose.
But no-one believes her.
Will she be next?
Hannah had a normal life – a loving husband, a good job. Until she did something shocking. Now she’s in a psychiatric clinic. It should be a safe place. But patients keep dying.
The doctors say it’s suicide. Hannah knows they’re lying. Can she make anyone believe her before the killer strikes again?
They All Fall Down by Tammy Cohen was published in paperback by Black Swan / Transworld on 13 July 2017.
It is no secret that I am a huge huge fan of Tammy Cohen. I've been reading her books for years, ever since she published The Mistress's Revenge under the name of Tamar Cohen. She's also written under the name Rachel Rhys for the historical fiction story A Dangerous Crossing.
Tammy Cohen never fails me, her writing is as tight as a drum; her writing is fresh and exhilarating and her plots are always solid. She has a very special knack of leading her readers up quite a few paths before blocking their way with an in-your-face, shocking twist, she never fails to amaze me.
They All Fall Down is set in a private psychiatric clinic and is Hannah's story. Hannah was a successful woman with a great job in publishing, married and flourishing. All she wanted was a baby and the reader is immediately aware that there's a baby at the centre of this mystery, but this author very cleverly avoids the reveal, instead she slowly and shrewdly drip feeds little snippets until she feels that the time is right to expose the facts.
Two of Hannah's co-patients have died. Reported as tragic suicides, Hannah is convinced that neither of them would have taken their own lives. She is determined to prove this, yet she's a patient in a psychiatric hospital, her senses are dimmed by anti-psychotic drugs, she has a history of erratic behaviour - why would anyone believe her?
One of the main strengths of They All Fall Down is the realistic setting. This author has clearly researched how a clinic such as this is run, with the stringent security measures, the attitudes of staff and the therapies offered. As a reader, I appreciate this, it shows a respect to the reader that I have found to be lacking in recent novels that are set in similar institutions. For me, this aspect added so much to the story.
I devoured They All Fall Down, it kept me guessing right up until the end. The writing is intelligent and Tammy Cohen's use of description for her settings and her characters is quite masterful.
I was both absorbed and at times disturbed, but always always completely consumed. This is another amazing story from one of my favourite authors.
My thanks to the publisher who sent my copy for review.
About Tammy Cohen, in her own words (from www.tammycohen.co.uk)
I was born in Ibadan, Nigeria where my anthropologist father happened to be doing fieldwork at the time. Sabbatical years in far-flung places were a feature of my childhood and I attended school in both Sierra Leone and California. Otherwise, I mostly grew up in the suburbs of London where my adolescence was spent either in the local library or waiting for the last tube home.
After taking an American Studies degree at Manchester University I taught English in Madrid. While working as a secretary back in London, I started writing features and hand-delivering them to the magazine publishing house around the corner. The day the first one got accepted, I packed in my job and declared myself a freelance journalist, which is basically what I remained for the next twenty years, writing features for national magazines and newspapers, such as Marie Claire, The Times and The Telegraph, and then moving on to non fiction books. My dream was always to write fiction but it wasn’t until I was forty-seven that I finally conquered the self doubt and my first novel, The Mistress’s Revenge was published.
These days I live in North London with my partner and three (nearly) grown children and one very badly behaved dog. Together with my family I spent four happy years living in Spain from 2004 to 2008 and I live in fear of people finding this out and asking me something in Spanish at which I remain shamefully inept.
My first novel, The Mistress’s Revenge, was followed by three more contemporary fiction titles under the name Tamar Cohen – The War of the Wives, Someone Else’s Wedding and The Broken.
In November 2014, my first crime novel, Dying For Christmas was published under the name Tammy Cohen, followed by First One Missing a year later, and When She Was Bad in April 2016. My latest, They All Fall Down is published in July 2017.
Writing as Rachel Rhys, Dangerous Crossing, my first foray into historical mystery was published in March 2017.
I am a member of the Killer Women collective of London-based female UK crime writers.
For more information visit www.tammycohen.co.uk
Follow on Twitter @MsTamarCohen
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