By: Sibel Hodge
ISBN: 9781503941106
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
Publication Date: 12/27/2016
Format: Other
My Rating: 3.5 Stars There are three sides to every story: Yours. Mine. And the truth… Max and Alissa have a fairy tale life—newlywed, madly in love and enviously rich. Then Max is brutally 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 bestselling author of Look Behind You and Where the Memories Lie.
My Review
A special thank you to Thomas & Mercer and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Sibel Hodge returns following (2016) Untouchable and (2015) Where Memories Lie (both 5 Stars), with her latest, DUPLICITY, a twisty suspense with more twists, turns, and suspects than you can count. “Love is both a blessing and a curse. Love could destroy you. If you let it. But maybe the biggest curse was not losing your love, but never being loved at all by the one who stole your heart.” The book definitely lives up, to its title name: Du·plic·i·ty: “Deceitfulness in speech or conduct, as by speaking or acting in two different ways to different people concerning the same matter; double-dealing. The state or quality of having two elements or parts; being twofold or double. Synonyms: deceit, deception, dissimulation, fraud, guile, hypocrisy, trickery.” DUPLICITY has all of the above and then some.
Part One: Obsession Part Two: Revenge Part Three: Duplicity Part Four: Love
Alternating between “The Other One” (Nameless), written in the first person, and “The Detective” --the author spins a web of deceit, jealousy, obsession, dark secrets, and murder. Max Bureck and wife, Alissa have been married less than two months. An intruder has broken into their home and stabbed the husband to death. Alissa managed to flee the scene and is in the hospital. She did not know the offender. Max was in his study and Alissa was in the bathroom. When discovering someone was leaving, she jumped out the window and ran to the neighbor’s house for help. The Burbecks’ property was called the Orchard. A Georgian mansion. They had wealth. Did they have enemies? Why kill the husband and not the wife? Alissa Burbeck, age twenty-four, was model-like beautiful. Her photos did not do her justice. She was the kind of woman you’d describe as hypnotizing. Every little feature had been perfectly designed to make you unable to look away. The kind of woman men wanted and women wanted to be like. Max, age thirty-five was a successful business man. He owned a large property development company, Burbeck Developments, which was one of the top six developers in the country. He is worth a fortune. ADI Wilmott and DS Warren Carter are called to work the case. Carter has a grudge since he was passed over for a promotion by a less than competent fellow officer. Carter digs deep whereas the others just want to close a case. He has instincts and talent. He has to deal with his share of bull and politics. Plus there are plenty of complexities. Nothing is as it appears. The psycho mind, speaking as “the other one” takes us back to the early days. A horrible childhood, on a dairy farm. “When I was ten years old when he made me commit murder.” This is when he/she? first fantasized about killing the dad. Good at art, as a way to express. Biding time to escape this life. A mean dad and a weak mom, who would not save her/him. Leading up to the present day. Motive? Was it something to do with Max’s business? His crooked dealings, complaints from homeowners, or was it someone from Alissa’s past? Who would want to harm them? With many red herrings, a complex multi-layered web of revenge, dark secrets, obsession, and lies,-the author takes readers on a twisted ride. While the premise was creative, there was a lot of jumping around and this book did not grab me like some of Hodge’s other books. I am also a big front cover person, being in the design business, and a cover needs to sell the book. Did not care for the cover, and almost did not read, due to this fact. Does not sell the novel in my opinion. I would rank DUPLICITY as more of a domestic psychological suspense versus a gritty crime thriller. However, some good police procedural parts with the parallel story line of the detectives. The talented author is eclectic and able to cross a number of genres. For me, Duplicity was not as strong as her three previous books.
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About the Author
Sibel Hodge’s No. 1 Bestseller Look Behind You has now sold over ¼ million copies. Her books are International Bestsellers in UK, USA, Australia, France, and Germany. She writes an eclectic mix of genres, and she's a passionate human and animal rights advocate.
Her work has been nominated and shortlisted for numerous prizes, including the Harry Bowling Prize, the Yeovil Literary Prize, the Chapter One Promotions Novel Competition, The Romance Reviews’ prize for Best Novel with Romantic Elements, and Indie Book Bargains’ Best Indie Books of 2012. She was the Winner of Best Children’s Book by eFestival of Words 2013, Nominated for the 2015 BigAl's Books and Pals Young Adult Readers' Choice Award, Winner of Crime, Thrillers & Mystery | Book from a Series in the SpaSpa Book Awards 2013, Readers' Favorite Young Adult - Coming of Age Honourable Award Winner 2015, and New Adult Finalist in the Oklahoma Romance Writers of America's International Digital Awards 2015. Her novella Trafficked: The Diary of a Sex Slave has been listed as one of the top 40 books about human rights by Accredited Online Colleges.
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