#BookReview ‘The Couple On Maple Drive’ by Sam Carrington

About the book…

Have you heard about the couple on Maple Drive?

Isla barely leaves the house after her brutal mugging.

Her boyfriend Zach moved in with her after the attack. To look after her.

But something else has happened now. Right on their doorstep.

I don’t want to say that someone’s out to get her…

I just hope they find out the truth before it’s too late.

Published by Avon books in paperback and e-book, ‘The Couple On Maple Drive’ is out, where all good books are sold, from December 9th!

My thanks to the team at Avon Books for approving my review request, I think this is my first book of hers and I will definitely be looking out for more.

To start with, I found it a bit hard going, Isla and Zach’s relationship didn’t seem particularly healthy. Zach, Isla’s boyfriend of a few weeks, has moved in to support her following a horrific attack which has left her with PTSD, and struggling to cope.

Is this an altruistic act, or is there a darker reason?

Zach and Isla’s relationship is the focus, where he is trying to be patient with a woman who is struggling to remember what happened that night, and is obsessing over true crime docu-dramas and podcasts in order to try and shake loose her memories.

This split narrative, between Isla and Zach, is interspersed with the transcripts from true crime podcast, Christie’s Crime Addicts, reporting on a possible murder in Maple Drive, no victim is clearly identified, and all you know is that a potential suspect has been taken away by the police.

So the suspense is immediately there, and your inner detective is turned on-is the couple the one whose intimate lives we have been involved with? If it is them, which one is dead? And will there be further attacks?

At about the half way mark, the book kicks into gear and doesn’t let go, this sounds horrible and unsympathetic(apologies!) but I got it, Isla was struggling to do any of the daily functions that many of us take for granted. But because this was a little laboured, by the time she actually got busy working out what was going on, and not taking it (literally) lying down, it seemed like too much of a leap from fragile to fighter overnight.

The way that the podcast was interwoven with the story was really interesting, it reminds you that whilst it may feel, or appear, like the victims of crime are essentially public property, there is a real story and real people behind the headlines about which we should be mindful. You really do begin to panic that Isla is in danger, especially as the podcast hosts/story narration begins to overlap and you see where things are going (but not necessarily how things end).

It was an engaging story where the notion of truth and lies in business and at home are explored in depth. Trust and life or death situations are realistic, and well conveyed, and you can see how the balance between expectations of your friends, and family, can let you down when you need them the most. It can also stop you seeing beyond the appearance of a person because you are too tied up in this to see the person behind the mask. And, in a situation like this, there is always someone waiting there to do the unmasking….

About the author…

Sam Carrington lives in Devon with her husband, two border terriers and a cat. She has three adult children and a new grandson!

She worked for the NHS for fifteen years, during which time she qualified as a nurse. Following the completion of a psychology degree she went to work for the prison service as an Offending Behaviour Programme Facilitator. Her experiences within this field inspired her writing.

She left the service to spend time with her family and to follow her dream of being a novelist. ‘Saving Sophie’, her debut psychological thriller, published in September 2016.

It became a Kindle eBook bestseller, with the paperback hitting The Bookseller Heatseeker chart at #8. Sam was named an Amazon Rising Star of 2016.

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

Twitter @sam_carrington1 @AvonBooksUK