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The Score
The Score
Oct 28, 2024 4:28 PM

Author:Howard Marks

The Score

DS Catrin Price receives a series of cryptic messages from an old school friend. When Cat visits him at his isolated house in the depths of the Brecon Beacons she discovers that his beloved daughter is missing. But she’s not the only one. Other girls in the area have been disappearing, and when one of them is found dead in an abandoned mine shaft, Cat fears the worst.

Ignoring instructions to leave the case well alone, she embarks on a desperate hunt that will take her to one of London’s most notorious drug gangs and into the darkest corners of her mind. Cat will stop at nothing to uncover the truth, but there are people who will do anything to keep it hidden – and they are watching her every move.

Reviews

An engaging, well-paced crime novel

—— UK Regional Press Syndication

I found the character of Cat Price interesting and well drawn. She’s a tough broad with a well hidden soft centre and a love of fast motorbikes

—— CrimeFictionLover

A very easy and fulfilling read

—— Viva

Jack Reacher is a man's man, a loner, a renegade crusader for justic...The harder-than-nails hero is on the top of his form...You'd better read it.

—— Sun

This may well be the best of the bunch...some of the best, wiliest writing Child has ever done.

—— Scotland on Sunday

As always, Reacher's laidback style of narration belies a propulsive pace,although Never Go Back finds Reacher emotionally vulnerable for once, and a warmer, more satisfyingly empathic character for the experience.

—— Irish Times

Fast-paced, taut and punchy, fans will love this.

—— Sunday Mirror

Engagement reminds us too of the power of fiction, both within the story and outside it. Liese feels threatened by the stories she herself has told, and we in turn flip the pages breathlessly, suspending disbelief.

—— John Self , Guardian

In terms of myth, it is rather like Bluebeard’s castle...in film terms, it recalls Psycho.

—— David Grylls , Sunday Times

A gothic tale, filled with brilliantly creepy details.

—— Suzy Hansen , Financial Times

If Fifty Shades is your thing, you might just love The Engagement.

—— Wendy Holden , Daily Mail

Hooper serves up a chilling story of obsession, delusion, and the slippery nature of sexual identity.

—— Claire Allfree , Metro

There’s more than a shade of Fifty Shades in this erotic, psychological thriller...the unreliability of the narrator will have you guessing till the end of this dark and thought provoking tale.

—— Sunday Mirror

This is a tense, elegant, psychological thriller about an emotional tug-of-war... This tale of self-willing entrapment keeps us guessing to the end... Compelling and memorable.

—— Viv Groskop , Red Magazine

Hooper has constructed a modern fairy tale of a kind, complete with Bluebeard and his castle, and using some of the fictional paraphernalia of Gothic horror and melodrama she delivers a compelling, at times disturbing, but always humorous and readable cautionary tale.

—— Brian McCabe , Herald

The difficulty with a thriller - even if it is literary - is not to fall into cliche and predictability. At the points where it seems as this may happen, Hooper wrong foots the reader without losing any credibility, leading to a very clever ending.

—— bookmunch

This beautifully crafted psychological thriller really got under my skin.

—— A.N. Wilson , Readers Digest

Hooper is a very clever writer. Her prose is uncluttered, but every phrase is packed with meaning.

—— bookoxygen.com

A chilling, compulsive read.

—— Fanny Blake , Woman & Home

New, dark literary thriller...read it for its seductive plot.

—— Tatler

A dark unsettling read which will appeal to fans of the gothic as well as those who enjoy tales of twisted relationships such as Gone Girl.

—— lisabooks.blogspot

Literary thriller The Engagement by Chloe Hooper takes a Fifty-shades style plot about erotic games between estate agent Liesel and business man Alexander to a darker place.

—— Good Housekeeping

Part gothic novel, part thriller, this will keep you guessing until the end.

—— Glamour

Hooper has crafted a terrific tale full of dark corners and dead-ends that leave the reader wondering what to believe. The result is a collision between a psychological thriller and a very dark romance that has something for fans of either genre.

—— Irish Examiner

The Engagement has all the ingredients of a top psychological thriller with the bonus of literary style. I think it could be a huge hit. I hope so. I really want to see the film…

—— Literary Sofa Blog

Beautifully crafted and sleek psychological thriller… The Engagement, by one of Australia’s newest and brightest writers, explores mind control, power games and emotional abuse, so do not expect it to be a romance novel as it is, most definitely, not!

—— Yattar Yattar

An unsettling thriller... A book which deftly explores the power of money and property, romance and sex

—— Marie Claire

A dark, erotic and tense tale

—— Grazia

Plain and lucid, with beautifully accurate word-choice, and plenty of grace-notes that one pauses to appreciate... A highly intelligent, unpredictable, very grown-up, and crazily readable novel

—— Brandon Robshaw , Independent on Sunday

A sleek and sly two-hander, a thriller almost, that sets everything out clearly for the reader and yet remains filled with uncertainty

—— John Self , Guardian

An intense psychological thriller, strewn with enough red herrings to satisfy the most demanding reader

—— Mail on Sunday

Hooper's writing is singularly challenging and confrontational... For those who prefer their erotic literature less Fifty Shades of Grey, more Jane Eyre

—— Daily Telegraph

A fine, literary thriller; cold, at times almost nauseatingly disturbing

—— Alison Flood , Guardian

A fascinating, subtle, really original modern Gothic thriller

—— Rebecca Chance , Daily Record
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