A psychological page-turner

This book won the Daily Mail First Novel competition in 2016 and went on to be a Richard and Judy Book Club pick for 2018, so I thought I’d give it a go. It’s a psychological suspense novel, Amy’s first. The premise of the book is the main protagonist, Samantha, falls in love with a man on death row. She starts writing to him at a time that a major campaign is underway to get him exonerated, and through their letters they fall in love. She travels to America and marries him, caught up in the whirlwind of his supporters. As new evidence emerges and he’s freed, that’s when the fun begins.

I wouldn’t say, as some have, that the ending was a total shock, but it was a jolly good read that kept me turning the pages to find out exactly how things would play out. Samantha is a decidedly flawed heroine which makes her believable and the situation she finds herself in, also believable. I’m sure many of us have marvelled at how some women can fall in love with prisoners on death row, and this book goes some way to showing their possible mind set.

Dennis, the convicted murderer, is also a well drawn character and his childhood experiences as well as how he has to adapt after 20 years in jail, are again believable with tangible settings that pull you into the story.

If you like books that will keep you in suspense, that major on character as well as story, then this will keep you reading.