Blog tour: 22 to 30 November 2021
Synopsis
The one man she thought she could trust …
When a teenage girl is found brutally murdered, DS Amelie Davis struggles to keep her own trauma from clouding the investigation. After suffering years of abuse at the hands of her father, Amelie has only ever trusted one man – her husband Edward.
But he might be the most dangerous of all.
In the middle of the night, she receives a phone call from an unknown number. The voice at the other end asks:
Do you think you know your husband?
Suddenly, Amelie fears Edward is not the man she thought she knew. In fact, he might just be the killer she’s been hunting …
My review
When a 16-year-old girl is found murdered in a wooded area on Hampstead Heath in mid-October, Detective Sergeant Amelie Davis is part of the Major Investigation Team responsible for finding the killer. The victim was drugged, sexually assaulted and strangled.
Amelie has demons of her own – a difficult childhood, which continues to haunt her, especially at night when she suffers from terrible nightmares. She also drinks heavily. She’s married to Edward, who she met at university. He’s the only man she can trust after her traumatic past.
The morning after the murder, Amelie receives a mysterious phone call at 4.15am from a woman who asks, ‘Do you think you know your husband?’. Amelie is confused and begins to question everything she knows about Edward, becoming suspicious of his business trips away, locked home office door and his movements – since when did he like jogging?
As the investigation intensifies, the team struggle to find any leads. There are clues and the killer left some evidence, but they need a lucky break to find a connection and crack the case. There are some links back to the past, especially for Amelie, and things start to get even more complicated and intriguing.
The main protagonist, Amelie, was an interesting character, though rather flawed, and I enjoyed getting to know her.
The investigation developed well and it definitely kept me enthralled. The book contained some vivid images of murder and included some difficult, sensitive topics but these were all well written.
Overall, I really enjoyed this gripping and tense read. It was well plotted, fast paced and engaging and I found myself frantically turning the pages to see what was going to happen next. There were some good twists and turns and great misdirection – I fell for a few of the red herrings and was surprised by the reveals at the end!
This is the first book of the author’s that I’ve read but I’ve got The First Lie on my shelf so I must read that soon and check out his other books, written as Karl Vadaszffy. I’m looking forward to seeing what he writes next!
Buy the book
Don’t Speak by A.J. Park can be purchased from Amazon on Kindle and in paperback, and as an eBook from Kobo and iBooks. See also Ethical Book Search.
About the author
A.J. Park is the author of The First Lie, published by Orion Fiction. His second psychological thriller, Don’t Speak, was published on 25 November 2021. The translation rights to The First Lie have been sold to publishers in Germany, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.
His real name is Karl Vadaszffy. Karl Vadaszffy is the author of three novels: The Missing, which was twice a Kindle top 10 bestseller in the UK, peaking at number 6, as well as a number one bestseller in Australia, Sins of the Father and Full of Sin. The Missing has now been repackaged and republished as an A.J. Park book.
He is also a freelance journalist and the head of English at a secondary school in Hertfordshire.
Twitter: @AJParkauthor
Twitter: @KarlVad
Facebook: @karl.vadaszffy
Instagram: @ajpark_author
Website: www.karlvad.com
Blog tour
Thanks to Tracy Fenton at Compulsive Readers for my digital copy of Don’t Speak and for my place on the blog tour.
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