The Choice by P.D. Viner
Genre: Psychological thriller, Suspense
Read: 20th July 2023
Published: 13th October 2022
★★★ 3.5 stars
DESCRIPTION:
To save your life
You must kill the one you love
Can you do it?
Sarah is madly in love with boyfriend Theo, and can’t wait to go on their first weekend away.
But by the end of the first night, Theo is dead. And Sarah has killed him. But she swears she had no choice.
She was forced to kill Theo because of something that happened a lifetime ago … something buried in her past.
Now, Sarah has one week to find the truth of what happened back then and prove her innocence, before she’s turned over to the police.
She’s spent years running from the truth – but now the choices of her past might destroy her future.
A fast-paced, addictive thriller that fans of Gillian McAllister and Linwood Barclay won’t be able to put down.
MY THOUGHTS:
To save your life...kill the one you love...
This is certainly an action-packed thriller with a twisted plot. Just how I like my thrillers. Give me dark plot twists and crazy psychopaths and I'm happy.
Rebecca is woman of many secrets (what protagonist isn't?) having grown up in an abusive household. Marrying her high school sweetheart who turned out to be a petty crim which involved a bank robbery and disappearing money. In cahoots with some serious crims who then kill him and go after Rebecca, she finds herself a widow at 23. When she "plays dead" (ok so it's a little more than that but let's just leave it at that), they brothers believe her to be dead. Rebecca wakes in hospital, shocked by the death of her husband and her attack. Fearing for her safety and not trusting authorities, she flees and reinvents herself as Sarah.
Fifteen years late, Sarah lives a quiet life and has found love again in Theo. Or so she thinks. But less than an hour after telling him that she loves him, Sarah is forced to make a choice. To kill or be killed. Then emerging from the Brighton AirBnB covered in blood, she must flee once again to escape prison.
There isn't much I can say without giving the plot away except that Sarah's journey involves a lot of running and petty theft as needs must. The story unfolds from Sarah's first person narrative with occasional flashbacks.
It is action-packed with drama and plot holes but there are also some nail biting moments and a few good twists along the way as well as some welcome dark humour. But the moving in and out of herself was just a little too weird.
Overall, an entertaining pageturner that will keep you gripped.
I would like to thank #PDViner, #Netgalley and #HeraBooks for an ARC of #TheChoice in exchange for an honest review.
MEET THE AUTHOR:
After attending a Guardian Masterclass with internationally-bestselling author Sophie Hannah (whose novels include The Monogram Murders) Phil fine-tuned the manuscript for his first novel and started to contact agents. Within 24 hours, he was taken on.
Phil’s first book, The Last Winter of Dani Lancing, was published by Ebury/Random House in 2013 and is currently being turned into a 13-episode TV show by Warner Bros. Three years since attending a crime writing course at the Guardian, we caught up with Phil to discuss his path to publication – and what tips he has for people keen to see their own writing in print.
He lives in Brighton, UK, with his wife, academic, blogger and author Lynneguist, and their teenage daughter.
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