Really gripping read.. But there was a point where I almost lost it as it was rather too far fetched. But I decided I would overlook that as I was generally enjoying it too much to stop. Nice twists and turns.

Sibel Hodge is one of my favourite authors and any book of hers that I've read has been brilliant. This one was no exception. It had me enthralled from the first chapter. I loved the way the book was written from the viewpoint of two of the characters. An absolutely fantastic suspenseful psychological thriller and one that will stay in my head for a long time to come.

An absolute must read for fans of psychological thrillers.

Max and Alissa are newlyweds, madly in love and the envy of all their friends; their world is shattered when Max is brutally stabbed to death in their home and Alissa manages to escape through a window. The police investigation begins with many questions. Why had Alissa escaped? What were the killer’s motives? As Alissa tries to pick up the pieces of her life and mourns the loss of her husband, the lead investigator, DI Carter, begins to wonder if she is telling the truth. After all, there are three sides to every story. His. Hers. And the truth…

Duplicity, by Sibel Hodge, is a novel full of suspense and psychological thrills. After reading some killer reviews of this book, I knew I had to read it, and to the top of my TBR pile it went! Every review was correct: this novel was utterly addicting and I was hooked from the initial moments.

The novel opens hours after Alissa Burbank has successfully evaded a killer in her home; her husband has been pronounced dead and she is resting in police custody. Detective Carter enters the scene, a honourable man with a tragic past, to take her statement and work the case. As he begins to unravel the scene, he begins to question everyone’s involvement in the murder and soon, he realizes, nothing is what it seems.

The novel is alternatively narrated by “The Detective”, who is DI Carter, as he tries to work the case and find out who is responsible for the murder of Max. I loved this character and found myself attached to him; Hodge gives him quite the back story. The other half of the book is narrated by “The Other One”; this character speaks of their atrocious upbringing and personal demons; it is obvious that this narrator is the perpetrator responsible for Max’s demise but it is not clear who this person is until much later in the book. This narrative style had me on edge; between the niceties of Detective Carter and the twisted, vile thinking of “The Other One”, I was violently flipping pages to come to the resolution of the plot! By the second half of the book, I couldn’t put this one down.

I do not want to give much more away about the plot, but let me tell you, the twists and turns in this one are awesome. The big one at the end, that one was completely unexpected! Well played!

Overall, this read was just plain fun; I’d highly recommend it to any lover of psychological thrillers (or someone who just wants to read a really, well-written thriller!). This was my first experience with this author’s work and it will not be my last! I cannot wait to see what else Sibel Hodge has up her sleeve! I gave this one a 5/5 stars on Goodreads.

Thanks to the publisher (Thomas and Mercer), the author (Sibel Hodge) and Netgalley for providing me with an e-copy of this novel; it was my pleasure to provide an honest review.

Psychological thriller done right!

This book totally surprised me, and then surprised me again. It's so hard to explain why it did without spoiling it. So I will do my best explaining why you need to read this book and why I need to read more Sibel Hodge! This was my first book by Hodge, and I am very interested in reading more.

I would like to thank NetGalley/Thomas&Mercer for the chance to view this book for an honest review. It was an absolute pleasure.

So, onto why this book wowed me.

Alright, so we have our two main characters, Alissa and Max Burbeck. Newlyweds, in love and all that jazz. One night while at home, they suffered a break-in, which left Max dead and Alissa running to the neighbors for help. So, why didn't the intruder hurt Alissa too? Alissa claims she saw the intruder, described them as wearing a disguise that covered the face and also covered the shoes. She then ran into the bathroom (where she had conveniently been bathing while Max was murdered) and escaped out the window to the neighbors. The police come and find that the bathroom was not especially hard to break into, so why didn't the intruder try to come after Alissa? Or is Alissa lying...and why? As the detectives do some digging, they find out that a lot of people are upset with Max due to his housing company. So, could it have been one of the tenants who murdered him? They wouldn't really have a reason to kill Alissa too.

Enter crazy ex-boyfriend Russell. Russell and Alissa dated for many years, childhood sweethearts. But, Alissa out-grew the relationship and Russell did not. As you can guess, he didn't take the breakup well, bordering on stalker. We find out that Russell crashed the Burbeck wedding reception, was totally plastered and seems to have a motive to have killed Max. He was attempting to stay in contact with Alissa and trying to tell her not to marry Max. Russell claimed that Max was a bad guy and that Alissa didn't really know him. So...he's a suspicious character.

One of the inspectors (DS Carter) on the case had recently lost his wife and was having a hard time at work. He lost a promotion to a younger, skeezy guy. DS Carter also had recently been reprimanded for trying to dig further into another case when they considered it over with. But he knows he was right then and something feels wrong with this case too. Something about Alissa seems off. But her friends describe her as loving, caring, totally in love with Max. She does seem to play the part of distraught widow but there is something else there, something he just doesn't believe. But, with the last reprimand, can he take another chance? He's a seasoned detective, so he's going off his gut. He seems to be alone in his thinking, so is his career worth losing over just a gut feeling?

The other part of the book describes a character who is unknown to us, who has an awful childhood living situation. We don't know if this is past or present. The child describes their horrible life on a farm with their family. The parents fight constantly and so badly the child often hides and the mother is left beaten. When the child goes to school, it's like a getaway. But, the child knows they are not normal. So they learn to act normal, by mimicking other children. Learning to say the right things and do the right things. Later on, we learn who this child is and their part of the story. (Loved this part! Totally caught me off guard!)

Man, what a thrill!

A 3.5 star read with a four for the first half .. kept you guessing and then surprised you .. I enjoyed this book told in two different voices ..
my thanks to netgalley and the publisher for my arc which I have chosen to review

So Sibel hodge does it again, another fantastic book that keeps you guessing and reading into the early hours!
Loved the characters and the storyline, which had me thinking about who and how along the way. Another fantastic book from her.
Read it!

This is a difficult book to review without giving too much away, but I can safely say it was an excellent psychological thriller with many shocks and twists along the way.

I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys a twisted story with some shocking moments that will make you gasp out loud and will keep you enthralled until the final page has been turned.

A thrilling 4 stars.

to NETGALLEY for allowing me to read and give an honest review.
This was a great read, I enjoyed the authors writing style. This was a very suspenseful novel,
there were so many ups and downs, twist and turns, the novel kept me guessing until the end.
The story begins with Max and Alissa, they have such a happy life together, then Max is brutally murdered and the story really begins. There are clues given throughout the story, all leading to the killer, however I changed my mind several times about who actually did it!
The story goes into the past, telling the characters stories, giving you insight into each different persons background, giving you the clues as to what happens to Max.
The characters were well developed, the authors gives you little tidbits into each person's life, she allows you to get to know them. You like them, you don't like them, you believe them, you don't believe them, you feel symphony , you feel anger, even disgust, understanding.
This is a fast paced, suspenseful, chilling novel.

Thanks to NETGALLEY and SIBEL HODGE for allowing to read and give an honest review.

Is there anything more exciting than discovering a new to you author that you really enjoy? Not to me there isn’t! Immediately after I finished Duplicity I rushed to Goodreads to see if Hodge had any other books and I was so thrilled to see she has others with outstanding ratings from some of my most trusted friends. Now to find the time to actually read them…

I was hooked by this one right away, there are two viewpoints, the Detective and the Other One. The detective is DI Carter who is looking into the murder of Max. I really liked Carter, in fact I think he’s the only character that I actually enjoyed. He is relentless in his pursuit of the truth even if it means risking it all. The Other One is clearly the person responsible for killing Max but you have no idea who it actually is until much later. I’m a fan of alternating timelines and it worked so well here, the truth was slowly revealed in bits and pieces and it left me hanging onto every word. Part one is the slowest section but I was still very interested, but when part two starts? BAM! The pace really picks up and there were so many plot twists I think I may have whiplash.

I can’t talk about the plot very much here, but I can say that it is dark, twisted and full of shocking surprises. I was patting myself on the back for being so clever and correctly guessing which direction things were headed, until Hodge decided to spin me around and smack me upside the head for being so bold and presumptuous. I love when an author manages to deceive me and I was mislead so many times here that I lost count. This is an excellently crafted psychological thriller with all the necessary elements that I need in the genre. The pacing was right on, the tension was heavy, you don’t know who to trust, and there are surprises up until the very end.

This was an intriguing thriller to say at the least. The only problem that I had was I really felt like it was circular thinking and writing. So many times we analyze and go over the same narrative over and over again, to the point that I started skimming those parts. I understand that from the perspective of the police officer, he's only doing his job, but the author made him over-analyze and emphasize it in his head.

My first problem, which is my personal mistake, is that I got extremely confused with who our "mysterious" other POV was. For some reason, I don't that it was childhood flashbacks of DS Warren Carter. So for some weird reason, maybe until the middle of the story, I was dragging along my idea that this is told from a single POV, until I realized that this was a separate antagonist. That ruined the suspense of reading most of the first half of this thriller.

As psychological thrillers go, I thought that the outcome here was pretty unrealistic and coincidental. This "plot twist" is the type of thing that makes national news on TV (in my opinion) meaning that this wasn't a typical or ordinary case at all. Generally, I found myself staring at my Kindle in disbelief when the final reveal came because I just couldn't wrap my head around exactly how this happened.

<blockquote><b><i>I was ten years old when he made me commit murder. </i></b></blockquote>
Also, I know that this is part of the plotline, but some of the animal abuse that happened me, got really graphic and annoyed me. I know that this was a "plot device" to make an excuse for one character to become a vegan, and I can understand why the author would use that trauma. However, as a vegetarian myself I don't want to go into a book being specifically triggered in the descriptions of animal slaughter. No thank you.

<i>**Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy in exchange for my honest review.**</i>

This is a book that has to be read in one sitting as it is unputdownable. The twists and turns in the storyline had me hooked and I certainly did not foresee the ending. I loved the style of writing and cannot wait to read more from this author..

I've read previous books by this author and so was slightly dissatisfied with thgthge current offering tbh....I didn't really gel with any characters and wasn't very gripped by the book. Thought it was a bit boring, but my friend enjoted it so maybe its juyst me!!!

A truly fantastic read! This book is extremely well written with an amazing plot that is seriously mind blowing. A book split into three parts with each one giving a different angle, I cannot fault this book at all. Magnificently twisted and devious .

Max, a wealthy developer, is murdered and his newly-wed wife, Alissa, gets out of her bath and walks in on the murder. She escapes by locking herself in a bathroom and escaping out a window, running naked to a neighbor's home. Alissa is beautiful, sweet and gentle according to everyone that knows her so the police immediately take her off the suspect list, except Detective Carter. Detective Carter senses something is not as it seems with Alissa and Max based on his gut instinct as a experienced detective but as he digs everything seems to point at Alissa's ex-boyfriend, Russell, who still had not gotten over Alissa after 3 years of being broken up and gate-crashed the wedding reception trying to get her back. Even after Russell is arrested, Detective Carter is still looking for something that will rid him of the suspicion that they did not arrest the right person. This book has you guessing to the end on who actually murdered Max. There are actually chapters where the murder is talking to you but you have no idea who it is. A great mystery and psychological thriller I would recommend to anyone into these genres.

I gave this book a 4 out of 5 stars on Goodreads.

I received an advanced readers copy of this book from NetGalley for review consideration.

Yet another fab read from Sibel Hodge. This is an intriguing read! A great plot which had me second guessing throughout. Well written and I thoroughly enjoyed the chapters for the characters involved. I will be looking out for more books from this author!

<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31447013-duplicity" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img border="0" alt="Duplicity" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1478195794m/31447013.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31447013-duplicity">Duplicity</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3517050.Sibel_Hodge">Sibel Hodge</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1846650122">4 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
A really good book about the murder of a wealthy, newly married young man. There are many characters who could have committed this crime. Every time that I thought I had it figured out, some new facts would emerge. The ending was a real surprise!! <br /><br />Thank you to Netgalley, Thomas & Mercer, and the author Sibel Hodge, for the copy of this book.
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/12851291-karen">View all my reviews</a>