Review – Duplicity by Sibel Hodge

Duplicity

The Blurb

There are three sides to every story: Yours. Mine. And the truth…

Max and Alissa have a fairy-tale life – newly-wed, madly in love and enviously rich. Then Max is stabbed to death at their home and Alissa, miraculously, escapes with her life. But why was she spared?

The hunt for the killer begins, uncovering a number of leads – was Max’s incredible wealth the motive? Had his shady business practices finally caught up with him? Or was it a stalker with a dangerous obsession?

Devoted friends rally around gentle, sweet Alissa as she is left to mourn the loss of her husband and pick up her life. But not everyone is who they seem…deep-rooted jealousies, secrets and twisted love lie just beneath the surface, and not all fairy tales have a happy ending.

Duplicity is a suspenseful thriller from the best-selling author of Look Behind You and Where The Memories Lie.

My Thoughts

‘Love was a blessing and a curse. Love could destroy you. If you let it.’

Sibel Hodge has done it again with another fantastic thriller. I had planned to read Duplicity slowly over the course of a few days but I ended up devouring it and reading it really quickly.

I don’t want to give away any of the plot so I’m not going to touch on it at all as I want you to experience the book as I did, but Sibel has created a dark and twisted tale which takes you where you never expected. Revolving around the murkier, negative emotions that human beings experience – jealousy, obsession, arrogance – but taken to the absolute extreme, Duplicity is an enthralling read.

When reading a thriller I love to get inside the head of the ’bad guy’ and understand them. Sibel has achieved this perfectly in Duplicity creating a well rounded character for whom I felt a degree of understanding and empathy for despite their horrendous behaviour. This is important to me as, after all, humans are influenced by their experiences and behaviour is not often the result of merely being ’mad or bad’. Duplicity got me thinking about the whole ’nature – nurture’ debate and I love a book that makes me think beyond it’s pages.

‘…if you grow up without love, you don’t know what it is. I don’t have the same kinds of feelings as other people. I don’t feel guilty. I don’t feel much, most of the time. Not about humans, anyway.’

Sibel has created the epitome of the sociopath and charted the rise in their tendencies with an intelligence and understanding.

The novel switches between two narrators, both of who tell their stories in the first person and Sibel has carefully made their individual voices easy to differentiate and given each their own character. Detective Warren Carter was easy to warm to with enough of a back story, and his own unique views to make him a believable character.

The first chapter drew me in immediately, urging me to read on to find out more about the narrator, whose identity is kept from the reader until later in the book. This works so well as it keeps the reader intrigued and desperate to know more. The pace is perfect throughout with a momentum that never stops. Duplicity is responsible for a couple of very late nights and the twists and turns will leave you holding your breath while muttering ‘oh my God‘.

Utterly compelling with keep-you-on-the-edge-of-your-seat suspense and characters who leave you wondering who to trust, Duplicity is the perfect psychological thriller. You need to read it! Just be sure to have time set aside for it as you will not want to put it down until you reach the end of that final page!

A huge thank you to Sibel Hodge for the advance copy. This is my unbiased and honest review.

Published on 27 December 2016 by Thomas and Mercer.

You can purchase a copy of Duplicity HERE.

4 thoughts on “Review – Duplicity by Sibel Hodge

    1. You’re very welcome. Thanks for the opportunity to read and review before publication day.

      Reply
  1. Oh my, this sounds like a must-read! I love it when an author nails the multiple POV in thrillers and we get to creep inside the minds of very different characters. Empathy for an unlikeable character or a villain only happens when the writing skillfully plays with emotions and it sounds like this one does it well!

    Reply

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