Helen Forbes – Deception

Helen Forbes new thriller Deception is a book I was never going to refuse an invitation to on its blog tour. I have read her work before and have enjoyed it.

Lily Anderson has it all. A beautiful son, a wealthy fiancé, and a luxury apartment in Edinburgh. But Lily is living a lie. Estranged from her family, she’s tired of covering up the truth about her relationship with Nathan Collesso.

Lily’s not the only one with troubles. Her friend, Sam, is being pursued mercilessly by a rogue cop determined to silence him. Living on the streets, Sam sees and knows too much.

As Lily’s wedding approaches, a desperate bid to escape leaves her with a head injury and a missing fiancé. Did she harm Nathan? Did she kill him? She can’t remember.

The net tightens, entangling Lily and Sam in a web of deception that stretches from Edinburgh to Poland. Hard truths come to light, and every decision Lily has made since the day she met Nathan Collesso comes back to haunt her.

One false move, and she could lose her son, her friends and her life.

A crime thriller that is set in Edinburgh, Scotland. It is not always an easy read as she tackles some of the hardest social issues that are prevalent in our modern days. This doesn’t make the story hard work, though. Helen Forbes still manages to bring a gripping and atmospheric book with the twists and turns to keep you immersed in the plot.

Her characters are skillfully and cleverly drawn. We get to know them through the short chapters that are told from the different characters’ points of view. This allows the reader to see the individual characters and get to know them or not.

Deception is a character driven story, and every character plays their own unique role in the story. All of their roles are relevant and do help to drive the story forward. This is no predictable thriller; you can’t even really predict the characters, which adds to the story immensely.

The sense of place Helen Forbes has so expertly created is so good that I could feel the damp air of Edinburgh and see the cobbles on the streets. It is a place I have always wanted to visit, and Helen Forbes has made me feel like I could have been already.

As the story unfolds, we see the events play out, and just as it seems that we know what’s happening, things go off on a tangent. This throws everything you think you know out of the window and really brings doubt to your mind about the characters you thought you knew.

A book that definitely doesn’t rest on its laurels and one that had my mind going into overdrive as I really wondered who was innocent and who wasn’t. I finished this book way too fast, but it was such an amazing read that I couldn’t put it down.

Thanks to Anne Cater of Random Things Tours and Helen Forbes for my gifted copy of the book.