Sarah J. Naughton

I love a book filled with secrets and Sarah J Naughton crams in as many as she can in her awesome new novel, The Mothers. The story centres around a group of women, loosely called friends, who are so very different but similar in the way that they each carry around their own dramas in their bulging emotional baggage. With five characters, you'd think it would get complicated as to who was who but the way they are introduced one at a time leaves a lasting first impression of each woman.

After show more one mother's club meeting, Bella's husband Ewan and one of the friends go missing and so the story flashes back to the past as we discover the events leading up to the double disappearance. The dynamic of the group is very intriguing as apart from babies, which only four out of the five women have, they have absolutely nothing in common. It almost seems like they feel obliged to remain friends but as we know, appearances can be deceptive.

I loved reading each woman's story equally, which is a rare thing as I would usually have a favourite but they are so multi-dimensional and Sarah J Naughton paints such a vivid picture of their lives. I was so immersed in their life stories that I almost forgot about the mysterious disappearances, which turns out to be a jaw-dropping story in itself. Then just when you think all has been revealed, you ain't seen nothin' yet!

Twisted and chilling, The Mothers is a gripping thriller that reminds us to keep your friends close and your enemies closer. If you liked Liane Moriarty's Big Little Lies, you'll love Sarah J Naughton's The Mothers.

I chose to read an ARC and this is my honest and unbiased opinion. show less

‘Becoming Sherlock, The Magician‘ was an entertaining end to this innovative trilogy about a near-future Sherlock Holmes. It brought together the threads from ‘Becoming Sherlock: The Red Circle‘ and ‘Becoming Sherlock: The Irregulars’ via a complex and surprising mystery with Moriarty at its heart.

This was a solid mystery, full of spectacular violence, designed to be dramatic and distracting. The killings were vivid and bloody, but Sarah Naughton went beyond the splatter and show more shock and populated London’s gangs with engaging, credible characters.

Beneath the performative slaughter lay a deeper plot that pitted Sherlock against Moriarty. Moriarty’s manipulations led Sherlock down a path that brought him closer and closer to confronting his origins and his relationship to Moriarty. I loved that Sarah Norton gave enough information for the reader to work out where Sherlock and Moriarty came from without lengthy exposition. I particularly liked that the final confrontation between Sherlock and Moriarty was so subtle and unexpected that, despite occurring in front of others, only the two of them would have been fully aware of it.

I admired the way the plot moved forward the stories of all members of the ensemble cast, allowing their relationships to develop. I’ve watched Sherlock become increasingly aware of not only who he is and where he came from, but who he could choose to become. Watson has moved from being a lonely man on a path to alcoholism to a man with a purpose, friends and self-respect. His relationship with Sherlock was pleasingly complex and dynamic. I enjoyed the subplot with the Le Strade family. I admired how Sarah Norton used the thread to move the Moriarty vs Sherlock plot along by temporarily sidelining Le Strade while also providing an engaging emotional situation that pulled in Watson, Mrs Hudson and Sherlock in ways that illustrated their characters.

I’ve enjoyed the whole trilogy. I think it stands up as a complete story arc: Sherlock has, over the course of the three books, truly become Sherlock, but I hope that Sarah Naughton will write more books in this series. so that I can see what Sherlock does next.

This was another fine performance by Alfred Enoch, whose narration brought this trilogy to life for me. Click on the YouTube link below to hear a sample.

https://youtu.be/WWUBjcejhHM?si=Bui9l-KFsK1CyhWp show less

IN A NUTSHELL
‘Becoming Sherlock: The Red Circle‘ was excellent. An original idea, executed with style and conviction, delivering a genre-bending story with a solid mystery at its heart. It was clearly designed to be an audiobook, and it made the most of that medium without dropping into the see-how-immersive-our-sound-effiects-are? mode that I usually find distracting.

Ipicked this book up thinking that I was going to get a Sherlock Holmes pastiche, with Anthony Horowitz producing new show more Sherlock Holmes novels in the same way that he writes now James Bond novels. 'Becoming Sherlock' was cleverer and more original than that. It was an engaging reworking of Sherlock Holmes, set in the near future and with some twists to the characters.

I loved that, although it used characters from Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories, it changed them in fundamental and surprising ways. It was a bold thing to do, but it worked.

The near-future Britain-in-decline setting gave a lot of freedom for twisting the story into something new, while weaving in elements that are linked to Victorian London, like the use of horse-drawn vehicles and gas-powered lights, alongside gleaming tower blocks. laptop computers and crashing passenger jets.

The mystery was complicated and exciting. A big part of the mystery was who the man who becomes known as Sherlock Holmes is. He himself has no memory of his name and only fragmented and confusing memories of his past. He also has astonishing recuperative abilities and a logical mind that equals the abilities of his namesake.

The story is told from John Watson's point of view, but, unlike the Conan Doyle version, this isn't a first-person account written in admiration of his extraordinary friend, the great detective, Sherlock Holmes. We see John Watson from the outside, but we learn more about his thoughts than Sherlock's. I liked Watson. He came across as a competent and practical, recovering from the trauma and injuries of war and struggling to find his place in a disjointed world.

I won't go into how the other characters differ from their namesakes, as part of the fun of the novel is finding that out. I admired that the characters felt real, which made their divergence from who I expected them to be even more engaging.

This is the first book in a trilogy. This novel wasn't a cliff-hanger; the mystery of The Red Circle was solved, but I was left with a lot of questions that I'm looking forward to having answered in the next two books, not least of which is who it is that is 'becoming Sherlock'.

I strongly recommend the audiobook version. Click on the YouTube link below to hear a sample of Alfred Enoch's performance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jVQwhJ01rY show less

I loved Sarah J Naughton's previous book, Tattletale, but The Other Couple.......wow! This book is amazing. With this one, Naughton has, in my opinion, cemented her place in the psychological thriller hall of fame.

Asha is a Londoner who grew up without any particular privileges and had to work hard to get where she is. She works as a journalist and her work brings her into contact with Ollie Graveney, the man she will marry. He's very upper crust, very rich and completely different to Asha show more but they fall in love and have a lavish wedding and a very lavish honeymoon in an exclusive Vietnamese resort.

Vietnam is where the book starts with Asha in hospital with no memory of what has happened to put her there. From there the book flits around a lot between the hospital, the wedding and the honeymoon. A certain amount of concentration is required to keep up but if you can you will be rewarded by an incredibly twisty and well-plotted story.

From the beginning of the honeymoon there is a strong sense, both for Asha and for me as the reader, that something isn't right. Ollie is behaving out of character and Asha keeps seeing things that put the wind up her. To be honest, it started to put the wind up me too, especially when I was reading at night. It's all a bit sinister and a bit scary at times.

The other guests at the resort all fell under suspicion for me. David and Sophie are the people who seem to be on the same wavelength as Ollie but is all as it seems with them? What about the Mulgraves - Travis and Caspar? Their relationship seems unconventional, but is there more to them than meets the eye? And then there's Sean, who is on his own and doesn't seem to quite fit into the opulence of the resort. The big strength of this story is the unknown, the sense of foreboding and that something is afoot. The plotting and the eventual unfolding of the truth is brilliant.

I liked Asha a lot. She's gutsy, sharp, brave and clever. She's a really great creation. It was difficult to know who else to like as I didn't trust most of the other characters, but all are well-drawn.

The Other Couple is the perfect thriller. It's tense, exciting and made me say "oh my God" to myself as I was reading. I thought it was absolutely fantastic and a complete page turner. Thrilling stuff indeed. show less