Title: The LoverAuthor: Helene Flood
Published by: Mobius on Jul. 12, 2022
Genres: Mystery/Thriller
Pages: 320
Format: Hardcover
Source: Mobius Books US
Book Rating: 8/10
Is it worse to lie to your husband or the police?
Rikke is deceiving them both. When their upstairs neighbor Jørgen is found dead, she’s questioned alongside her husband Åsmund.
How can Rikke admit in front of Åsmund that Jørgen and she were having an affair? Or explain to the police the complexity of her feelings for Jørgen? The hint of relief that he’s dead. And, as the investigation closes in on the neighborhood, how long can she conceal the affair from her neighbors, her husband, and her teenage daughter?
Rikke knows she can’t hide the phone calls, emails and messages from the police. So she cuts herself a deal. In return for a few days’ grace to tell Åsmund before anyone else does, she’ll share everything about the affair.
But before she can summon the courage to confess, Rikke is struck by a chilling revelation. Jørgen can only have been killed by someone living in their small apartment building.
Review:
Slow burning, sinister, and sophisticated!
The Lover is a thought-provoking, character-driven thriller that takes you to the Tåsen neighbourhood of Oslo and immerses you into the lives of four families living in a house of flats whose worlds suddenly intersect, unravel, and collide when an affair between neighbours turns deadly.
The writing is taut and intense. The characters are multilayered, secretive, and suspicious. And the plot, including all the subplots, unravel and intertwine into a suspenseful tale about life, loss, family, drama, deception, mayhem, infidelity, disillusionment, morality, murder, and the weight of a guilty conscience.
Overall, The Lover is a tight, intricate, cunning tale by Flood that does a wonderful job of reminding us that secrets and lies often eat away at the soul and leave more than a little wave of destruction behind them.
This book is available now.
Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.
Thank you to Mobius Books US for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.
About Helene Flood
Pseudonym used by Helene Flood Aakvaag
Helene Flood is a psychologist who obtained her doctoral degree on violence, revictimization and trauma-related shame and guilt in 2016. She now works as a psychologist and researcher at the National Centre for Violence and Traumatic Stress. She lives in Oslo with her husband and two children. The Therapist is her first adult novel. It has been sold in 27 counties and film rights have been bought by Anonymous Content. Her second novel, The Lover, will be published in English in 2022.
Photo courtesy of Goodreads.
Great review, Zoe. It sounds like a good one.