The Sleeper Lies by Andrea Mara

 

This is another, earlier (2018) Andrea Mara novel in which she is at her scariest, most stress-inducing, most intriguing best. Although Marianne has a flat in Dublin, she has been spending time working from home in the old cottage in the Wicklow Hills she has inherited from her father.

The story slips easily from Marianne’s present to cover events in her past dating back to 1999, including her relationship with Ray, a successful author who was a complicated man, to put it mildly; and her visits to Denmark to learn more about her late mother. Although complex, the book is never confusing and there was, for me, no frantic searching through back pages to keep track of who, what or where bits of the story fitted in. 

Marianne’s cottage is in a relatively isolated spot, it is snowy weather and she is feeling particularly vulnerable when things like footprints in the snow and the strange objects start appearing. I have the feeling I always describe Andrea Mara’s books as nail biters, and I have to say this one was a nail biter par excellence ! There was no way I could guess the ending, and isn’t that just how a psychological crime novel should be?

Published by Poolbeg, Crimson Press Ltd.

One Click by Andrea Mara

This is another cautionary tale by Andrea Mara about the possible consequences of carelessly using social media. Lauren is a psychologist with two daughters; her husband has left her and moved in with a woman who lives two doors along, she has an unreasonable boss at work, and a particularly difficult client. She finds release from her stressful life in posting on social media lots of comments and pictures of her daily happenings.

While she and her daughters are holidaying in Italy, Lauren takes a photograph of a young woman sitting on a beach and posts it to Snapchat, saying: “*All* the envy on my morning run - this is #howIwishIspentmytwenties”.”. She then shares the picture to Facebook and Twitter. She ignores her 13- and 15- year old daughters’ advice that she should not take photos without the subject’s knowledge or consent, telling them this was just a ‘candid’ shot’, completely harmless to anyone. The daughters are right, of course, and the proverbial can of beans which has been opened makes for another tension filled thriller in Andrea Mara’s dark, nerve wracking and compulsively readable style.

Lots of classic thriller style twists and turns, and an impossible (for me) to guess outcome!

Published by Crimson of Poolbeg Press Ltd

The Other Side of the Wall by Andrea Mara

 Reading-wise, 2026 has been a mixed bag so far. My first book of the year was the brilliant The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell, then came two eminently forgettable books, and now here is Andrea Mara’s first novel, The Other Side of the Wall. Since I only post reviews of books I have enjoyed and would recommend, this one gets a guernsey, absolutely! I thought I had read all of Andrea Mara’s books, so coming upon this one, published in 2017, came as a hugely welcome surprise,

This is a fabulously creepy psychological thriller. Sylvia looks out her window one night and sees a child’s body floating in the pool in her new neighbour’s back yard. Or does she? Sylvia is exhausted from going back to work after the birth of her baby, on top of which the man who replaced her during her maternity leave is trying to sabotage her; she must have imagined what she saw. Sam and Kate are the people who have bought the next door house, and there is trouble brewing in their relationship as Kate is becoming ever more suspicious of Sam’s  behaviour.

This is the ultimate nail biter, page turner, unputdownabler. Andrea Mara obviously began the novel-writing part of her career in the  manner in which she intended to continue. In this one the suspense begins to build from page l and gathers momentum right up to the last line, leaving this reader needing a cup of tea, a Bex and a good lie down!

Published by Crimson

The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell

 

The Marriage Portrait is historical fiction based on the true story of Lucrezia Di Cosimo de’ Medici who in 1560 left Florence as a fifteen year old to live with her new husband, Alfonso Il d’Este, Duke of Ferrara. As a duchess, Lucrezia was dressed in the finest clothes and lived in luxurious surroundings; however, be they aristocrat or peasant, women  in Lucrezia’s world were all subservient to men; chattels whose very existence depended on the whims of their masters. Of course, men of low standing were inferior beings as well.

People are people, though, and in the 1500s the human spirit wasn’t any easier doused than it is today. Only one thing was expected of poor little Lucrezia, and that was to bear a child, hopefully a son, before one of Alfonso’s sisters did. Her feelings for Alfonso were of absolutely no consideration, but she got her emotional support from her maidservant, Emilia, and her self confidence from her art as she honed her skills as a painter. She loved nature and admired and respected animals, and although she is just a fictional character, wouldn’t it be good if the real Lucrezia felt that way as well, centuries before animal rights were to be recognised out here in the real world?

I fully expected to love this book after reading Hamnet, Maggie O’Farrell’s other brilliant historical novel, and I did. It has drama, beauty and ugliness, happiness and sadness, and love and hope. It was published in 2023 and I’m sorry I didn’t find it sooner than I did at the lovely Collins bookstore in Orange.

Published by Tinder Press.

Our Beautiful Mess by Adele Parks

 

I didn’t get up until 11 o’clock this morning. My dogs were waiting  patiently under my bed for me to make a move; however, I was enthralled by this book and had to stay put until I got to the end. When the first chapter is titled ‘The End’, you know you’re going to be in for a tantalising journey to find out how ‘the end’ came about.

Connie and her husband, Luke, are happy to have their three girls home for the holidays but when their eldest daughter, Fran, introduces her boyfriend, Zac, Connie is stunned at Zac’s resemblance to someone from a time in her life which she has tried to put behind her. It was at this point that I thought I had an idea how the story was going to go but as matters became more and more complicated, none of my guesses were proved to be right. 

Connie is not the only one keeping a secret. Someone else is in the most awful trouble, facing dangerous, even deadly consequences. There are twists and turns galore in this nail biter, and as the story came to its conclusion, I had a feeling of dread about which way it would go, always keeping the first chapter in mind.

I’m a big fan of the way Adele Parks casts a cynical eye over her stories. Her characters are always only too human: I’m thinking here of the book in which two couples shared a lottery ticket. That one had a twist in the tail too!

Highly recommended.

Published by Harper Collin’s

Someone in the Attic by Andrea Mara

 

Julia’s young daughter, Isla, has been following the latest craze on her phone where, through the wonders of photoshop (or some such), it appears that a black clad figure can emerge from the attic into the living area of a specific house, when one day Isla realises the house she is looking at is the same one she and her family have moved into after their arrival in Ireland from America.

There have been lots of books with a stranger in the attic theme, they are always creepy, and this one is no exception. It has the usual elements of fear and suspense but also explores making evidence fit a narrative. When videos keep coming showing more of the interior of the house and they have obviously not been made from copies of Isla’s  earlier posts, Julia has to try and work out who is targeting the house and why, and this involves delving into her past before she left Ireland.

There are some great red herrings and I did lots of second guessing which made this a most enjoyable book for me. I am a rusted-on Andrea Mara fan, and Someone in the Attic did it for me, as always.

Published by Penguin

The Piano Woman by Rozzi Bazzani

 

The Piano Woman by Rozzi Bazzani is a dual timeline story, one of my favourite genres. Maddison, a successful novelist living in Melbourne, is surprised to receive a letter from a solicitor in England informing her that she is the last surviving female relative of Lady Rose Hampton of Hebden in Kent, and it has taken many ears to find her. As such, Maddie reads, she has inherited an antique grand piano.

Maddie has been going through a troubling time, having discovered the man she loved had been pretty much a serial betrayer; to make matters worse, she is experiencing writer’s block for the first time, and the deadline for her new book is looming. Maddie has been an orphan since she was eighteen when her mother died, and has only vague memories of her grandmother, Abigail, who had died years before then. She makes a decision to go to Kent to claim her inheritance and, hopefully, learn about her family background.

This is a beautiful story which, as Maddie is finding connections to her English relatives in the present day, switches to the early twentieth century. The main characters are easy to keep track of because of each one’s individuality and it was easy to picture them and become lost in the drama, mystery and romance they were all part of. It is a very different book to the Detective Bec Harpin series, and just as engrossing. I read it in a day because I couldn’t put it down!

Top marks, Rozzi.

Published by S & B Books