I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Under Your Skin by Rose McClelland Published by Dark Stroke on 21st May 2020
Genres: Abuse, Crime, Domestic Partner Abuse, Ireland, Marriage & Divorce
Pages: 227
Format: eBook
Source: Publisher
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When Kyle’s wife Hannah goes missing, the whole town is out in force to try to find her. One person knows where she is. One person is keeping a secret.
Detective Inspector Simon Peters and Detective Kerry Lawlor have been brought in to investigate the case but Hannah has left no traces and Kyle has no clues.
Local Belfast resident Julia Matthews joins the #FindHannah campaign and becomes friendly with Kyle, sympathising with his tragedy. As Julia becomes more involved in the case than she bargained for, she begins to uncover more secrets than the Police ever could. Julia was only trying to help but has she become drawn into a web of mystery that she can’t escape?
TRIGGER WARNING
SEXUAL ABUSE & DOMESTIC ABUSE
Oh my gosh, it really is a bit of magic when just a few pages into a novel that you concur that you have something quite special being shared with you. That is exactly what Under Your Skin is. The book community has been raving about this story but somehow, I just didn’t appreciate just how powerful and how much of an impact it would have upon me. I’m very wary of hyped books but in this case, the hype hasn’t been enough. This book crackles with electricity with every page turn.
Reading this story is a sound investment. It is medicine for your cerebral cortex. It’s worth the emotion and the dedication. The cover and the contents just scream out “read me.” It isn’t an easy book to read and rightly so, it shouldn’t be. The subject matter is hard and disturbing and there were parts were my blood pressure wanted to explode. Anger and upset were common emotions during my experience of reading Under Your Skin.
As I said previously, this book blew the socks off of me. Its unexpected unadulterated power shocked me. It brought out a passion in me that I didn’t wholly expect. The pace of the narrative felt like a train. It flew through me and left me reeling. It was outstandingly written, to the extent that I felt every ounce of pain and suffering the pages emitted.
Kyle’s wife is missing. He’s frantic and doesn’t know where she could be. He involves the police, but things don’t move as quickly as he’d like. The questions fly and the inevitable question of mental health surfaces. Was Hannah depressed or is something more sinister at play? Kyle, despite his worry for his wife, seems very hesitant to give anything away. Is he hiding something? Under Your Skin gave me serious Netflix feels – think of The Sinner series, or silent witness. I would love to see this on the small screen.
Rose McClelland’ skills at having me gasp in disbelief was first rate. I was a witness to unbelievable events, events that led me down a path that I never thought I’d have to step foot on again. The rotating multiple point-of-views worked well for various reasons. One, the author never makes it feel forced or unrealistic. The narratives a razor sharp and the balancing act is exquisitely nailed. She gives you just enough information, leaves just enough titbits to have that doubt creeping in in the corner of your mind.
My mind did double takes, and my loyalty shifted pretty quickly. Hannah’s point-of-view is one that quickly garners compassion and empathy. She has a heart of gold, but she has absolutely been dealt a shitty hand of cards. We get two sides of the same coin – past and present and we see the unravelling threads of Hannah’s life. It makes you look in the mirror and assess how you would feel in her shoes.
This book was inhaled and left me lying awake at 3am. The thoughts and the feelings left me reeling from an astounding work of art such as Under Your Skin.
Under Your Skin was so gripping I struggled immensely to put it down. It was hypnotically readable, and I wait on baited breath to see what this author releases next.
Thanks so much to the blog tour organisers, Booktamins for my place on the blog tour.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
“Under your skin” is Rose’s fourth novel. Her previous three novels were romantic fiction published by Crooked Cat. She has made the genre jump from “chick lit” to psychological thriller and is enjoying delving into a darker corner of her mind!
Rose has also written two short plays which were performed in the Black Box theatre in Belfast.
She discusses book reviews on her You Tube channel and writes theatre reviews for her blog.
She loves nothing more than curling up with her cats and a good book. She has two rescue cats – Toots, who is ginger with an inquisitive face and Soots, who is black and hops along on his 3 legs looking ever so cute.
