I am such a fan of Will Dean’s writing and the diverse nature of his books. He is a master of both Nordic Noir crime thrillers and dark and twisted psychological suspense novels. This is a deviation from his last novel, The Last Passenger, but very similar to The Last Thing to Burn in terms of topic and writing style. The pace is not fast but rather quite slow as Peggy and Samson’s lives unravel and that is exactly what this sort of books needs. It’s a painful read because of it, but this story-line needs it.

This book can only be as good as it is because there is quite likely personal in it. The situation that Peggy and Samson finds themselves in is harrowing, the abuse and the bullying are written in a very realistic and powerful way. It’s claustrophobic, tense and at times almost impossible to continue reading, but curiosity and the need to see this story end wins over.

This is a coercive control thriller perhaps unique of its kind. Minimal settings, only three main characters, and set in the nineties with, at times, an air of nostalgia.

About the Book

Three of them adrift on the narrowboat.
Mother, son, and wickedness.

Peggy Jenkins and her teenage son, Samson, live on a remote stretch of canal in the Midlands. She is a writer and he is a schoolboy. Together, they battle against the hardness and manipulation of the man they live with. To the outside world he is a husband and father. To them, he is a captor.

Their lives are tightly controlled; if any perceived threat appears, their mooring is moved further down the canal, further away from civilisation. Until the day when the power suddenly shifts, and nothing can be the same again.

The author of the ‘master class in suspense’ (Shari Lapena, Sunday Times bestselling author) The Last Thing to Burn returns with a high-tension thriller about a family’s descent into darkness that is perfect for fans of Denis Lehane and Lisa Jewell.

About The Author

Will Dean grew up in the East Midlands and had lived in nine different villages before the age of eighteen. After studying Law at the LSE and working in London, he settled in rural Sweden where he built a house in a boggy clearing at the centre of a vast elk forest, and it’s from this base that he compulsively reads and writes. His debut novel in the Tuva Moodyson series, Dark Pines, was selected for Zoe Ball’s Book Club, shortlisted for the Guardian Not the Booker prize and named a Daily Telegraph Book of the Year. Red Snow was published in January 2019 and won Best Independent Voice at the Amazon Publishing Readers’ Awards, 2019. Black River was shortlisted for the Theakstons Old Peculier Award in 2021. Will also writes standalone thrillers: The Last Thing to Burn, First Born, the top twenty hardback bestseller The Last Passenger and The Chamber.

Author photo credit: Blake Friedman

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