E.V. Seymour

Well written thriller full of pace and action, with some romance, and some predictable moves coming ‘out of the blue’. The plan of the novel is quite simple: we keep following Paul Tallis, who has had a troublesome youth, has a brother who is his opposite (a bend copper and a racist), and has a bad name due to an incident where he shot a suspected terrorist, who turned out innocent. O yeah, he also had an affair with his brother’s wife, who was abused by her husband and works at forensics (always convenient). Anyway, everything falls in place in this thriller (no contradictions or good guys turning out bad – such a pity!), which is probably why it got such low scores on library.com. The interesting thing is that MI5 actually keeps a tap on the whole story, though it only starts to act for real towards the end. Seymour could have used that as a parallel plot (which is so popular these days that you’d almost expect it; all these editors and creative writing course mentors tell you to do the same thing).

Well what is it all about? It is about a UKIP type, racist, Britain for the British kind of movement with its own Nigel Farage (upper-class fat cat that claims to fight for the man in the street) and a dodgy illegal arm of cells that takes care of the street fights. MI5 wants to get to the bottom of the links between the illegal cells and its link to a ‘respectable’ right wing party. And that’s where a female lesbian operative comes in who blackmails Tallis into catching four foreigners on the loose (recently released from justified prison sentences and wrongly put out on the street instead of being deported). Tallis traces one cruel abusive character after another, allowing the writer to describe a dodgy underworld consisting of sadistic male women traffickers, female child traffickers amongst immigrant seasonal labourers, and a case involving human trafficking of refugees (perhaps ‘Traffic’ would have been a better title?) . Things go ‘wrong’, leaving a trail of (unintended) killings and incriminating evidence for our hero. The last case (‘exile’) involves a wrongly convicted gentle soul from Iraq – the good guy! And then the story takes a twist, where our hero finally starts to investigate who his commissioners are. Well for the rest, read it yourself.… (altro)

E. V. Seymour writes a hugely engrossing and entertaining novel that deals with some serious issues in this gripping thriller full of suspense and lies.

Molly, the daughter of a retired police officer, is devastated when her sister, Scarlet, is killed in a random accident following an argument that leaves Molly feeling horribly guilty. Scarlet's husband Nate, also feels responsible for other reasons, but, astonishingly, their parents, who doted on Scarlet, accept the accident at face value - so why is it only Molly who feels like it was a setup? As Molly searches for the truth, she discovers more and more questions and secrets than any member of her family including herself, would not wish to be answered or revealed.

E. V. Seymour delivers an unrestrained and exuberant story of family drama with a toxic concoction of police corruption, secrets, affairs, sex, drugs and deception. Everything eventually crash-lands around Molly as she unravels the story that follows one fateful moment many years ago that has haunted family and friends.

Her Sister's Secret is a cracking story and a book that I revelled in all the way through. It brought no disappointments and everything was beautifully wrapped up in the fabulous finale. A riveting tale of familial dysfunction, unscrupulousness and the burden of truth, I'm very happy to recommend this book.

I received a complimentary copy of this novel from Harper Impulse via NetGalley at my own request. This review is my own unbiased opinion.… (altro)