A Double Life

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It was a page turner and a fast read I will give the book that: it was just missing a strong ending. The inevitable result of privilege and power versus a victim’s truth forces the family to move and change their identity. No missing or damaged pages, no creases or tears, no underlining or highlighting of text, and no writing in the margins.

Confirms the promise of Berry’s debut, Under the Harrow… Mesmerisingly effective’ The Sunday Times | ‘Shocking’ Guardian | ‘Berry gives the well-worn story of Lord Lucan a fresh twist with this clever tale’ i (Best Beach Reads for Summer) | ‘A compulsive page-turner’ Daily Mail | ‘ A damning dissection on class and privilege. Twenty six years ago, while Claire and her brother were asleep upstairs in their London home, her father brutally murdered Claire’s nanny and then attempted to murder her mother. A totally addictive page-turner about terrible secrets within a marriage, perfect for fans of Big Little Lies and Sally Hepworth.

Heylin’s more controversial phrases are often picked apart by Dylan fans on social media; in a previous book, he pictured the African American musicians Arthur Crudup and Charley Patton “spinning in their cottonpickin’ graves”. The singer once complained that his scholars “wish to see every scrap of paper he has written on or hear every studio outtake he has rejected”. Loosely based on the Lord Lucan case, A Double Life is told from the adult perspective of one of the surviving children who was in the house when her father murdered her nanny, beat her mother and vanished. In our large family home on a peaceful, tree-lined street, I clear away the breakfast things whilst my husband ignores me, his eyes on his phone. Almost thirty years ago, Claire woke to noises and went downstairs to discover the body of their nanny—Emma—covered in blood.

Today his voice is almost unrecognisable from his 1960s peak, and the man whose songs had been devoted to dissecting his romantic relationships has become focused on mortality, solitude and getting old. When this occurs, it brings all of those memories back into focus and increases her attempts to find out what really happened.

Both narratives exude a palpable sense of menace as the two women find themselves becoming progressively more isolated and vulnerable. I just needed more: Increase the tension in climactic scenes; allow the reader to feel how horrible it is to go to school with your father's face in the tabloids; and, for Claire, when closure comes, let us know it's worth it. Flynn Berry’s first novel was like stepping into an inviting pool that seemed shallow, finding yourself over your head, and then taking pleasure in submersion.

What an unbelievable book, I’m absolutely flabbergasted by the ending… it’s a cliffhanger, so I hope Philby is already working on a sequel because I NEED to know what happens next.Soon Ripley's fascination with Dickie's debonair lifestyle turns obsessive as he finds himself enraged by Dickie's ambivalent affections for Marge, a charming American dilettante, and Ripley begins a deadly game.