SIX COUPLES. ONE LUXURY RESORT. AND THE PERFECT MURDER . . .
You're on your honeymoon at an exclusive couples-only resort.
You receive a note warning you to 'Beware of the couple at the table nearest to yours'. At dinner that night, five other couples are present, and none of their tables is any nearer or further away than any of the others. It's as if someone has set the scene in order to make the warning note meaningless - but why would anyone do that?
You have no idea.
You also don't know that you're about to be murdered, or that once you're dead, all the evidence will suggest that no one there that night could possibly have committed the crime.
So who might be trying to warn you? And who might be about to commit the perfect murder?
The Couple At The Table by Sophie Hannah is published in hardback on 27 January 2022 by Hodder & Stoughton. My thanks to the publisher who sent my copy for review as part of this blog tour.
It's been a while since I read a Sophie Hannah novel and I went into this one with a sense of high anticipation, and finished it with a feeling of joy. It's a book that will make the reader grimace, smile, give a wry snort every now and again, and delivers a hugely enjoyable reading experience. What fun this has been!
The style is very much Golden Age of Crime, but in an up-to-date and very modern setting. It's a kind of locked-room mystery, but there are no locks on the doors. It's packed with a cast of characters who are superbly crafted; not many of them are particularly likeable, but they are all individual and a bit odd!
The style is very much Golden Age of Crime, but in an up-to-date and very modern setting. It's a kind of locked-room mystery, but there are no locks on the doors. It's packed with a cast of characters who are superbly crafted; not many of them are particularly likeable, but they are all individual and a bit odd!
Set in Tevenden Estate, an exclusive resort where luxury is the norm and centring on a group of couples who are all there for different reasons, the actual story begins a few months after the events.
Lucy, one of the guests at the resort writes a letter to the as yet, unknown killer of Jane - another guest. Jane was murdered whilst they were all staying at Tevenden. The intricacies of the relationships of some of the guests are finely wound. Jane was there on honeymoon, with her new husband. Lucy is the ex-wife of Jane's new husband ....
Also on holiday there are another married couple; police officers Simon Waterhouse and Charlie Zailer.
Also on holiday there are another married couple; police officers Simon Waterhouse and Charlie Zailer.
Jane had received some threatening notes before her death, but who sent them?
Hannah expertly builds the story, nipping back and forth, bring the reader up to date with the current position in the investigations and then going back to the actual events, dripping clues and multiple red herrings along the way. The cast of characters are a bit bonkers, to put it politely. Lucy is like a dog with a bone and investigating officer Simon couldn't be more determined (and grumpy) if he tried!
Sophie Hannah always brings something a little different to her stories. She's the master of the quirky character and excels at creating a web of a plot that lures the reader in and traps them, right up to the final page.
Hugely enjoyable and recommended by me.
Her psychological thriller The Carrier won the Specsavers National Book Award for Crime Thriller of the Year in 2013.
Sophie is the author of the bestselling Poirot continuation mysteries.
The Point of Rescue and The
Other Half Lives have been adapted for television as Case Sensitive, starring Olivia Williams and
Darren Boyd.
Sophie is also a bestselling poet who has been shortlisted for the TS Eliot award.
Her poetry is studied at GCSE and A-level. Sophie is an Honorary Fellow of Lucy Cavendish
College, Cambridge.
She lives in Cambridge with her family.
Instagram @sophiehannahwriter
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