The Boyfriend by John Nicholl
Genre: Psychological thriller
Read: 26th April 2025
Published: 4th April 2025
★★★★★ 5 stars
DESCRIPTION:
Not every love story is a fairytale romance…
When Anna first meets Mark, she thinks he’s the perfect boyfriend. Wealthy and charming, he showers her with gifts, compliments, everything she has ever desired.
But Mark is less a prince than a man with a dangerous secret, and as their love life becomes ever darker, Anna flees him.
There is nowhere safe from him, though. Not for Anna. Nor for the girlfriends who follow her.
Because this is a boyfriend who would kill to make sure he can continue to kiss sleeping princesses…
A pulse-poundingly gripping suspense thriller, perfect for fans of Daniel Hurst, TM Logan and Anita Waller.
MY THOUGHTS:
Not every love story is a fairytale romance...
I love John Nicholl's thrillers. I love their dark and disturbing nature as he draws on his experience as a police officer and child protection social worker to weave his tapestries a vivid array of deep dark colours. And yet despite their nature, they are quick easy reads easily devoured in hours...as I did this one.
This tale is different from some of his others which are more character driven by those involved rather than from the police. Whilst this too is character driven, it revolves primarily around the police persepctive but with a personal touch, bringing home the dark nature of the disturbing tale.
Anna thought she had the perfect boyfriend in Mark with his good looks, his charm and his wealth, but as we see from the very first chapter he is anything but. With only a few paragraphs in we see that he is Shady by name as well as by nature. And as Anna takes her allegations to the police and then to court we are left wondering what hope does she have up against him?
She said no. Mark doesn't take no. Ever. He wants what he wants and he knows he will get away with it - again. He always does. He played her like a fiddle. Lured her in with his good looks and charm, showering her with gifts, and was the perfect boyfriend. Until he wasn't. Until he turned nasty and wanted what he felt was rightfully his to take whether she consented or not. Let her report him. Let her tell her story. No one will believe her. Not with her word against his, an upstanding businessman.
DS Ray Lewis has walked beside Anna from the moment she came in to file her report against Shady. He knows what type of person he is and knows he will not stop. He needs to be stopped but proving rape is notoriously difficult. And Shady was a slippery fish that could talk his way out of anything. None of the allegations against him have stuck thus far so in the eyes of the law he has no criminal record. But Ray knows different. And he knows what Shady is capable of. Particularly when Anna reveals a secret that she never let on before the trial, giving Ray even more reason to be concerned.
What's even worse - Shady has a new girlfriend. The daughter of a colleague of Ray's and he fears for the girl's safety. Shady is a monster who needs to be locked up but until they can nail him and get him off the streets, Ray and his colleagues can only sit by and wait for him to make a mistake.
But then Shady makes things personal and it takes all of Ray's strength not to react. He knows he is goading him for a reaction. But then he gets some frightening photos in the post. And suddenly all bets are off.
This is an incredibly dark and disturbing tale with an antagonist that will make your skin crawl. DI Laura Kesey returns as she pops up in each of Nicholl's standalones but I can't remember whether Ray does or not. I seem to recall him but he plays a far bigger role in this one that any other before, if so. I absolutely loved Lewis. He is an old school copper, not one for the new ways of policing but too close to retirement to jeopardise his pension.
This is a hard one to review because I don't want to give too much away but it is a tense read from start to finish. I read this in one sitting devouring it in an afternoon (dinner was put on hold until I swiped that last page). Let it be said that if you love John Nicholl's thrillers you are going to love this one. It has his dark signature all over it with a surprising, yet brilliant, end.
I would like to thank #JohnNicholl, #Netgalley and #BoldwoodBooks for an ARC of #TheBoyfriend in exchange for an honest review.
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