#BookReview-‘Trance’ by Adam Southward

About the book…

Many thanks to Thomas & Mercer for the blog tour invite for debut novel,‘Trance’ by Adam Southward !My gifted paperback copy kept me great company on my trains back and forth to placement and I only missed a couple of stops…#noregrets!

“A brilliantly original idea with a terrifying villain at its
heart.” Claire McGowan author of ‘What You Did’

“Trance is a creepy, dark, and highly original debut. I couldn’t
put it down!” Victoria Selman, CWA Dagger Award
shortlisted author of ‘‘Blood For Blood’

His victims are powerless.

He is in control.

This is his
revenge— and he’s only just begun.

Three university scientists are found dead in a gruesome
murder-suicide, and the only suspect in the case, Victor Lazar, is quickly captured.

When the spate of violent suicides follows him
to prison, he is moved to solitary confinement, reserved for the highest-risk inmates. And then his assigned psychologist inexplicably takes his own life.
Alex Madison, a former forensic psychologist turned private therapist, is brought in to interview Victor. He suspects that Victor is controlling his victims, somehow coaxing them into a suggestive trance.

It seems like science fiction, but as Alex digs deeper he uncovers a frightening reality of secret research and cruel experimentation—and the perpetrators are closer to home than he could ever have imagined.
Too late, Alex learns the true extent of what Victor is capable of and who he’s after.

With everything he holds dear at risk, can Alex take control of a dangerous mind—before it takes control of him?

Taking elements of ‘Firestarter’, ‘The Dead Zone’ and ‘Children Of The Night’, meded with one of the scariest villains since Hannibal Lecter, ‘Trance‘ starts with a horrific murder, grabs you by the scruff of the neck and runs with you to the very last page.

It’s a suspenseful debut novel with a strong male protagonist in Dr Alex Madison-something really bad has happened on his last case as a forensic psychologist, something that gives him flashbacks and has destroyed his relationship with his wife and daughter. New girlfriend Jane isn’t too thrilled with his intense brooding, but after what he has been through(details are dripped into the plot, slowly revealed)she starts as un sympathetic at best and comes off like a spolit brat when you realise just what happened.

This is ok though as you are really rooting for Alex to get know the lovely Sophie from HMP Whitemoor, the place Victor has been sent to after the murder/suicide which began the novel.He has been brought in to try and assess exactly what has gone on. The surveillance footage of 2 of his inamtes committing suicide after contact with Victor is terrifying so by the time you ‘meet’ him, expectations are running high.

Adam Southward does not disappoint. Victor is truly memorable and after his inital contact with Alex, things go wrong very quickly and very badly. It becomes a Europe wide cat and mouse chase as details of his past are revealed, making him a complex, multi-layed villain not a slash and burn type affair at all.

Without revealing spoilers, he is on a very specific pathway for very specific reasons and your moral compass is pulled at very ingeniously as you will Alex and Sophie to catch him but also you root for Victor in a very odd way…it takes somebody in full control of their writing process to make you care about a villain as nasty as Victor whilst introducing a protagonist as likeable as Alex.

This genuinely is an original debut with mass appeal for mystery lovers, thriller readers and I would say it crosses into horror as well!
Very much looking forward to seeing what happens next for Adam Southward…..

About the author…

Adam Southward is a philosophy graduate with a background in IT.

The main character’s anxiety disorder in Trance is inspired by Adam’s personal experience of mental health.

His philosophy degree inspired ethical questions in the book, such as:
which is stronger, nature or nurture? How far is too far in the name of scientific progress?

Adam lives on the south coast of England with his young family.

Twitter @adamsouthward

@AmazonPub

@ed_pr