#BookReview ‘The Fall’ by Rachael Blok

About the book…

The sins of the past echo in the present in the new literary thriller from Rachael Blok.

The wind is cold this high up. The man shouts out, but nobody hears. The cathedral roof has caught his fall, but it will not hold him for long. The night is dark. And it is such a long way down…

On Good Friday, the verger of St Albans cathedral was supposed to be preparing the Easter service. Instead he discovers a man lying dead, fallen from the famous fifty-foot-high spire. Did he jump, or was he pushed?

For DCI Maarten Jansen, it’s a simple case of suspected suicide. Until a stranger, Willow, who witnessed the jump, prompts a deeper investigation into a long-buried past, involving a mental hospital, a pregnant woman, and fifty years of silence. As Willow’s own family history entwines with the case, Jaansen starts to wonder how everything is connected.

The Fall is a haunting literary thriller about loss, trauma, silence, and how our past shapes who we are.

Hugest of thanks to Sophie Ransom of Ransom PR for inviting me on the tour for this fantastic thriller, ‘The Fall’ by Rachael Blok which is released on 14th April 2022 in e-book and hardcover formats from Head Of Zeus.

I am so very sorry to be so hideously late with this review, this year has been a particularly challenging one thus far, and I am actually so glad that I took the time to absorb and fully enjoy this gloriously gothic thriller.

The fall works on so many levels-from the  Biblical allegory which is made by one of the principle narrators, Willow, it also represents scales falling from eyes and truth being set free after decades of subterfuge and hidden agendas.

Willow’s first major exhibition, highlighting the diaries and notes of those who worked in, and were patients in the mental institution which stood so close to St Albans cathedral, did not imagine that the worries she over the speech she needed to make on opening night, would be overshadowed by the death of a local verger. His dive off the cathedral tower is a catalyst not only to open an investigation into whether it was murder or suicide, it precedes another attempted murder and a missing person’s enquiry. presiding over this is Detective Maarten, originally from Holland, ably assisted by sidekick Sunny. Sunny, is involved in more ways than one, his bride to be being Willow’s twin sister, Fliss.

And when the wedding party which was due to intertwine with Willow’s exhibition arrives, past and present collide in a hideous expose of family secrets, hidden trauma and a damning indictment of the way society at large treats those with mental health issues.

From the perspectives of those who underwent what we would now regard as barbaric treatments, there are two concurrent storylines aside from Willow’s-that of the detectives investigating the fall, and the other is a young girl from the 1960’s , also a twin, who was blamed for a crime and locked away.

As each narrative thread pulls closer, the final reveal is both breathtakingly shocking and brutal. You , the reader, are so invested in seeing appalling wrongs righted that the story just sweeps you away with it. It is a masterful exercise in exposing not just the investigative process, but also the justice process of what is done versus what is seen to be done.

I am kicking myself for not knowing about this writer earlier, The Fall is just fantastic, so well plotted and full of memorable characters that are multifaceted and complex .I am hugely grateful to Sophie Ransom for the review opportunity!

About the author…

Rachael Blok is a best-selling author of the UK crime series set in the cathedral city of St Albans. Here, DCI Maarten Jansen struggles against his plain-speaking Dutch upbringing when faced with the seemingly polite world of the picturesque city.

‘Under The Ice’ and ‘The Scorched Earth’ are out now.

‘Into The Fire’ arrived in November 2020.

About writing, she has said: ‘I’m constantly surprised how differently stories turn out on paper than in their original planning. Fiction has a life of its own’.

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

Twitter @MsRachaelBlok @HoZ_books @soph_ransompr