Christobel Kent

What We Did by Christobel Kent is a suspenseful novel that deals with difficult subject matter in a discerning and thought-provoking manner.

Bridget Webster is a happily married mum and business owner. From the outside, there is little sign of her troubling past which is exactly how she likes it. She has not confided in her husband, Matt, nor her younger sister, Carrie, about the dark secret she has kept for over two decades. However, when her former music teacher Anthony "Tony" Carmichael show more suddenly drops back into her life, Bridget is inundated with horrifying memories. After a confrontation with Carmichael goes horribly wrong, Bridget desperately tries to keep the events from the past and present from being exposed. Carrie is unexpectedly drawn into her sister's attempts to cover her tracks and Bridget is appalled to learn newspaper reporter Gillian "Gill" Lawson is asking questions about Anthony. Will Bridget's and Carrie's efforts to keep the truth under wraps be successful?

Bridget is content with the safe life she has with Matt and their son Finn. She feels quite safe with Matt who never delves too deeply beneath the surface. Bridget maintains tight control over every aspect of her life and she has deeply buried the troubling events that destroyed her teenage years. She loves her sister but their relationship has never quite recovered from her rocky teen years. The sisters sometimes go for months without contact but Bridget always provides Carrie with a safe haven when she needs one. Carrie's sudden reappearance could not come at a worse time for Bridget. However, circumstances force her to accept Carrie's help when her sister literally stumbles across what Bridget is frantically trying to hide.

What We Did is an engrossing novel that is a little slow paced despite the suspense. One of the main story arcs revolves around Bridget's attempts to conceal her present misdeed but this part of the storyline ends up being drawn out way too long. A side plot line with her employee is interesting and provides another layer of tension to some of the unfolding events. Bridget discovers she has grossly underestimated her husband but what effect will this have on their relationship? A late in the story situation with Finn neatly intersects with another thread in the plot and adds a sense of urgency as Christobel Kent brings this suspense-laden novel to a satisfying conclusion. This absorbing novel deals with subject matter is very dark but it is handled with a great deal of sensitivity. An insightful novel that I highly recommend to fans of the genre. show less

One wintry night Fran Hall wakes up to find her husband absent and, after a frantic search, finds him dead in a ditch. As the police delve deeper into the case and Fran becomes the prime suspect, dark secrets are revealed. Just what was her husband keeping hidden about his life and is Fran hiding something herself? Nothing is as it seems!

This was quite an intriguing psychological thriller, even though I wasn't particularly enamoured of the writing style. It seemed a little disjointed but I show more wondered whether it was trying to depict the main character's agitated state of mind. Nevertheless, I found it a compelling mystery. I was eager to read on to find out how it ended. There were plenty of twists and turns to keep me on my toes and a fair few dysfunctional characters to keep me interested. I was never sure who the killer was until the final reveal.

This is the first book I have read by Christobel Kent and I enjoyed it enough to want to read another one!

3.5* show less

The first pages of this book introduce us to Esme. She's just returned from her friend's house and hid upstairs in her room so she doesn't have to talk to her parents. She wakes up with her hands over her ears to shut out the booms that reverberate through the walls of her home. We fast-forward thirteen years later where we meet Alison, who we soon realize is the adult Esme. Her boyfriend, Paul, wants her to go with him to the wedding of an old girlfriend. Alison is horrified to find out it show more is taking place in Saltleigh, the town where the murders occurred. She believes she might be safe to return since no one knows who she really is. Almost immediately it becomes obvious that things are not going to work out well. There are secrets and lies which are slowly uncovered, all leading up to a surprising conclusion. I really liked the dark and claustrophobic setting of the marshes. The story itself sounded like something I would enjoy. It did keep me guessing but the transition between the time periods was a little bewildering. The author's writing style seemed to meander too much for me. I like a nice straightforward psychological thriller and so I'm a bit disappointed. If you are looking for a slightly creepy story with a plot you need to pay extra attention to, I think you will enjoy this book. " show less

Waking up in the early hours a February morning as her baby needs feeding, Fran discovers her husband is not laid beside her and a few minutes later she discovers his murdered body outside their fenland farmhouse. The local police are cynical and Fran is too stunned to think rationally but as the fog clears and Fran starts to put the pieces together she realises that her marriage was not what she thought it was and her husband had secrets as well as herself.

Having read Kent's first novel show more 'Crooked House' I awaited her second to see if she had built on that excellent foundation, however I found 'The Loving Husband' hard to get into at first. This is mainly due to the fact that I found Fran an extremely unlikable character, I was not sympathetic to her and that made much of the premise of the book hard to access. I suspect this is not what the author wanted but it added another dimension to the story as I did get into the book, whilst Nathan had secrets so Fran was not exactly the naive innocent wife, she had engineered their marriage. What is brilliant here, though, is Kent's way of setting a story in a specific location and making that location almost like another character. The bleakness and isolation felt by Fran echoes the bleakness and isolation of the Fens in February, and the local characters seemed bedded in the location and contrasted with Fran's London life well. Kent is developing into an intriguing and clever writer. show less