#Titanuary ‘Someone’s Listening’ by Seraphina Nova Glass

SHE WROTE THE BOOK ON ESCAPING A PREDATOR…NOW ONE IS COMING FOR HER

Faith Finley has it all: she’s a talented psychologist, a bestselling author and the host of a popular local radio program, ‘Someone’s Listening, with Dr. Faith Finley’. She’s married to the perfect man, Liam Finley, a respected food critic.

Until the night everything goes horribly wrong. Liam is missing—gone without a trace—and suspicion falls on Faith.

And then the notes begin to arrive. Notes that are ripped from Faith’s own book, the one that helps victims leave their abusers. Notes like “Lock your windows. Consider investing in a steel door.” As the threats escalate, the mystery behind Liam’s disappearance intensifies. And Faith’s very life will depend on finding answers . . .

The most massive thanks to Sarah Mather of Titan Books for asking me to review the latest novel by Serpahina Nova Glass, ‘Someone’s Listening’, which is out now in paperback !

For a debut novel of suspense, this is an accomplished and confident voice which utilises cliffhanger chapter endings, very carefully dropped nuggets of information and characters whose layers Seraphina peels away as the pages flip past. She reveals her hand slowly, focussing on getting inside the head of narrator, Faith, as you experience first hand how she reacts to, and copes with, multiple onlsalughts from her personal, and professional life.

As someone whose husband has gone missing, she is stuck in a limbo of what she experienced in the car crash that he mysteriously vanished from, and the forensic evidence from the police.

As a psychologist, her career and profession is on the cusp of being destroyed by one of her patients, whose psychoses are the basis for a complaint of inappropriate behaviour.

As a woman, her home, her base, is under threat from a mysterious letter sender who has torn specific parts from her self help book , and posted them under her front door.

Nowhere feels safe, everywhere feels a threat and as a reader, we have to seperate what is reality from the perceptions of Faith. Is she an unreliable narrator? Or she is a woman in torment? The fact that her name is Faith suggests that she as a character, and us as readers, need to make that leap into the unknown and trust that was is going on is what is going on.

There are so many juxtapositions in the book that provide opposing narratives and keeps the reader on their toes. You have the helpful new neighbour, himself a widower, and then the investigating police officer who views Faith as a potential suspect in her husband’s murder. Faith’s sister is the complete opposite of her, a stay at home mum whose chaotic life with her cop husband reinforces the way in which Faith and Liam have lived,that they can go where they want and are answerable only to each other. Then there is her professional life where she goes about supporting and helping people leave abusive relationships and situations, yet seems uniquely unable to help herself.

Are the letters coming through her door a warning or a reminder for Faith to keep herself safe?

I absolutely loved this book, it is spare, taut and compelling as it slowly unravels the facts in the case of the missing restaurant reviewer, and keeps you on a knife edge of suspense to the very last page.

About the author…

Seraphina Nova Glass is an Assistant Professor of Instruction and Playwright-In-Residence at the University of Texas, Arlington where she teaches Film Studies and Playwriting.

She holds an MFA degree in Dramatic Writing from Smith College, and a second MFA in Directing from the University of Idaho. She’s also a screenwriter and award-winning playwright.

Seraphina has had the opportunity to travel the world using theatre and film as a teaching tool, living in South Africa, Guam, and Kenya as a volunteer teacher, AIDS relief worker, and documentary filmmaker.

Links-https://www.seraphinanovaglass.com/

https://www.femalefirst.co.uk/books/seraphina-nova-glass-someones-listening-1260053.html

Twitter @SeraphinaNova @TitanBooks