BOOK REVIEW

TRULY DARKLY DEEPLY BY VICTORIA SELMAN.

Going to be released on 7th July 2022. I got my free copy from Netgalley.

SYNOPSIS: twelve year old Sophie and her mother Amelia-Rose leave Massachuetts for London. Amelia-Rose then meets Matty, who is charming and loving. However, Matty is sent to prison for murder. A 32 year old Sophie receives a letter from Matty asking her to visit him.

I really enjoyed this book. The synopsis makes it sound like the book is set when Sophie is twelve. However, it is actually set when Sophie is 32, and she is going back over her childhood memories of her, Amelia-Rose and Matty. It makes you question if Matty did kill all of the people that he was charged with. It made be question multiply times if he was guilty or not.

I think if you like watching murder documentaries and enjoy did he didn't he? Books, then this is for you. There was a twist at the end that I did not expect at all! However, reflecting I probably should have guessed the twist.

It is a slow burner, and there were at times, where I was getting irritated. However, the chapters were short (the shortest was around 3 or 4 pages, and the longest being around 11 pages).

Star rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Warnings - description of how people were killed, cohesive control

Truly, Darkly, Deeply is a twisted psychological thriller that will keep you on your toes and leaves you with a haunting and captivating ending. This is my first book by Victoria Selman, and her writing style grew on me.

Sophie and her mother, Amelia-Rose, move to London for a fresh start. Yearning for a shift from the mundane, Amelia-Rose takes a chance on the insistence of her friend and crosses paths with Matty, who exudes charm and calm. Over the years of their long-term relationship, Matty has successfully woven himself into this family of two and is the unspoken father figure to Sophie. Amidst this domestic bliss, there are multiple gruesome murders taking place near their residence. Eventually, Matty is arrested for these murders and is in prison.

This absorbing read explores Sophie's childhood, the highs and lows with her mother and Matty, and the past ghosts that haunt her twenty years later. Victoria Selmen breathes life into her characters by fuelling varied emotions. I appreciated the mix of newspaper articles, podcasts, and magazines to shed light on the murders.

I had an inkling when it came to the ending, but nothing could prepare me for the unexpected twist! An excellent read. 4 stars all the way.

A thank you to NetGalley and Quercus Books for giving me an ARC. This honest review is left voluntarily.

Sophie’s mum’s new boyfriend Matty is everything she could wish for in a father. He is fun, kind, doting, warm and Sophie feels her and her mum have won the lottery by having him in their lives. But when Matty gets sent down for the murders of over ten girls, Sophie’s world falls apart.
Question is, did they get the right man?
20 years later Sophie needs to find the truth no matter what and where better to start than by speaking to the man himself..,

I thought this was brilliantly written! I could feel Sophie’s emotions through the page, the love and admiration she had for Matty was so well described. Her slight obsession with him was portrayed so well that I really felt their bond and her emotional highs and lows. Her relationship with her mum was also expressed well, I could envision the family dynamic so clearly.
As we take a look back in time the darkness builds until we reach the climactic end, which is where I was a little disappointed with the big reveal. I felt the entire book had been building up to this point and unfortunately the ending just wasn’t for me. Despite being slightly underwhelmed I did not see the twist coming at all. So bonus points for that!

Overall I enjoyed this book greatly, a dark and engaging plot written for anyone who is a fan of the macabre!

Wow!
This book is great!
Told in the first person the whole way through, it is the haunting fictional story of a woman who as a young girl, learnt that her mother’s boyfriend ‘could’ be a serial killer.
It’s original, fast paced, and I couldn’t put it down until I finished it!
A great read.

******CONTAINS SPOILERS!******


Having seen this book advertised I was delighted to be chosen to read and review it before release.

This is the story of Sophie, told in her own words about the crimes and convictions of her mother’s boyfriend Matty who when she was 12 is convicted of a string of murders on young women and a girl in London and Ireland. Sophie and her mother move from America to London after leaving her grandparents house where they were living after her father left them. Her mother wants to start fresh and make a new life for them both, but one night she goes out with her friends from work and meets Matty, which is where the story gets interesting. When young women start going missing and turn up murdered, Sophie starts to question if Matty could be behind them even though she loves him like a father when things start to happen.

The story jumps from events at the time to 20 years later with Sophie now an adult when she receives a visiting order from Matty because he’s dying of cancer and wants to see her even though she’s not seen him since he was sent to prison, we go through and feel all emotions with her as she decides if she will go and visit, she’s been seeing a therapist for a number of years since and doesn’t know what to do,

I loved this book, it was gripping, and you could really relate to the characters and understand the relationship between them not only between Sophie and Matty but between Sophie and her mother as well as Matty and her mother, would highly recommend, well written and even though it jumps between past and present a lot it’s easy to follow and the lines so blur like in some stories where it’s easy to get confused as to if it’s the past or present.

Thank you very much for letting me read this book and well done Victoria!

This book has a way of grabbing you by the face and not letting you go until its finished. You have an idea of where it is going, and then as the story goes through little things begin to make sense, though even then they prove to be wrong. I was only eager to finish this book to finish the story, but at the end I was sad there was no more. A must read!

This was a great twisty psychological thriller that falls quite firmly into the serial killer sub-genre that really kept my attention throughout!

4+

A letter from Battlemouth prison lands with a thump on Sophie Brennans doormat, it’s where Matthew (Matty)Melgren has been for over 20 years. Matty was the partner of Amelia-Rose, Sophie‘s mother and he is the closest thing Sophie ever had to a father. Mattie was found guilty of multiple murders yet he is a killer with no stereotype, he seems so ‘normal’, handsome, well educated, well dressed. The news the letter contains is that Matty is dying and hasn’t long left and he wants to meet Sophie. Matty has haunted Sophie‘s dreams for years, can she confront him and lay the ghost of guilt to rest?

I really enjoyed the direction this novel takes as we view events through young and adult Sophie‘s eyes. It questions and weighs up the possibilities of innocence and guilt in several ways and this is reinforced through blogs that are interspersed throughout the narrative and also demonstrate the fascination some people have for serial killers. It looks closely at the scars and damage that are left behind by those convicted of serious crimes. The novel is well written and compelling especially the characterisation particularly of enigmatic Amelia-Rose and mesmerising Matty and you certainly feel Sophie’s angst. The feelings she has are palpable and the guilt she carries feels almost like a living thing, which I guess it is as it’s lived with her for years. Matty’s portrait dangles the is he, isn’t he conundrum in front of you and you speculate just as people did at the time of the killings in the early 1980s.

Contextually it’s very good too and you feel the paralysing fear that grips North London. I really like the way the author drip feeds little bombs of information and one or two are real jaw thunkers. The ending is a surprise but it most certainly works and helps to explain to some things you puzzle over.

Overall, it’s a very well written and well paced mystery thriller which is hard to put down. I’ve read books before by Victoria Selman but this is the one I’ve enjoyed the most.

With thanks to NetGalley and especially to Quercus Books for the much appreciated arc in return for an honest review.

Truly Darkly Deeply is a thriller based on the serial killer trope, told through the perspective of a woman who loved the man who has been imprisoned as a father figure.

The story is told through short sentences and short chapters, making this easy to read and fast paced. The narration switches between the past and the present, raising interesting questions around the reliability of memory and how time and hindsight affects perspective.

I liked how the book examines the complexities of various relationships; mother and daughter, child and father figure, adult partners, and questions whether we can ever really know another person.

There are also interesting questions raised around societal perceptions with elements of victim blaming, trail by press and uncomfortable examination of how we judge people by their appearance and the tragic consequences that can lead to.

As with all thrillers there is a twist at the end and I can honestly say I didn't see it coming and it left me feeling shaken, reconsidering many of the interactions throughout the book.

Highly recommended to all fans of thrillers.

Suspenseful whodunnit!”
HARDBACK EDITION

Well this book certainly kept me guessing until the end! I found a couple of the plot lines confusing but not so much that they diverted from the main story. The story reminded me in parts of “The Fall” starring Jamie Dornan which wasn’t a bad thing when visualising characters! The author did an excellent job of diverting my thoughts just when I thought I’d figured out who the killer was. A thoroughly enjoyable read and would highly recommend.
Thank you to net galley the publisher for allowing me to read and review!

This was a twisty psychological thriller which will keep you guessing to the end.
Narrated by Sophie, and moving between her childhood and adult self, it tells the story of Sophie, her mother, and Matty, the man she loves like a father but who may- or may not- be a serial killer. Sophie is haunted by this question and her conflicting feelings towards Matty and her mother.
I don’t want to give anything away, so I’ll just say that I found it ‘unputdownable’, the only reason I didn’t give it 5 stars is that in some of the sections about Sophie as a child, she came across as more adult than child.
Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Wow, what a ride! The premise is great and whilst I had guessed the main twists, the overall story is well done. Some small parts felt like they dragged, but I was interested enough to want to continue and find out how it played out.
Big thanks to the publisher and netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

My favourite book that I have read in the last 18 months. This novel gripped me fully and kept my attention captivated until the very end.

This is my first novel by Victoria Selman and I absolutely love how she writes.

We meet mother Amelia-Rose, daughter Sophie and Am's boyfriend Matty. The novel starts with mother and daughter moving from America to London and Amelia-Rose and Sophie settle into their flat. Amelia-Rose goes out with her new friend and she meets the handsome and charming Matty. Their relationship is fresh and lasts many years. There are a string of grisly murders in London where they live and eventually in the novel Matty is arrested. The main story of this novel is how Sophie and her mother deal with the outcome of Matty's arrest and imprisonment and they both feel guilty that they were not aware of Matty's murderous rampage.

The chapters are from Sophie's perspective of being a young girl and fast forwarding to the present day where Matty is ill in prison, but is still declaring his innocence, and requests to see Sophie.

This novel is outstanding, amazing narrative and the storyline is gripping and fast paced.

Thanks to NetGalley, Victoria Selman and the publishers for allowing me a copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

Haunting thriller written by Victoria Selman which enthralled me from the beginning.
A serial killer is on the loose in London and is portrayed through the eyes of a twelve year old girl. Sophie and her mother, Amelia Rose, emigrated from America to London to start a new life. They meet a handsome Irishman, Matty Melgren, who quickly becomes a part of their lives and takes on the role of a father to Sophie and the two become very close.
Then a series of murders begin with the victims showing an uncanny resemblance to Amelia Rose and the relationship between Matty and Amelia starts to slowly become toxic.
Through Sophies eyes the story is written between past and present which slowly builds up to reveal the killers identity and the affect it has on all involved.
An exciting read - good book to start off 2022.

An incredibly clever and very tense novel. Very original and dark with compelling characters, Thought this was as brilliant read and I totally enjoyed it from start to finish,

Truly, Darkly, Deeply is an absolutely mind-blowing, dark rollercoaster of a ride And one that will stay on my mind for some time to come.
This is the tale of Sophie, a young American girl who moved to London with her mother Amelia-Rose. Soon after arriving in London, they mert the enigmatic Matthew 'Matty' Melgren.

Throughout the course of the novel, Sophie documents their relationship as a family amidst
the growing climate of fear in London as a serial killer continues his campaign against young women. With each alternating chapter, Sophie returns to the present day and her fears of visiting Matty in prison.

As the terrifying tale is unravelled, and we edge closer to the truth, I found my sympathies growing for Sophie but also my suspicions growing. Selman has brilliantly weaved her take so that at various times, I found myself doubting Sophie, then believing her, then wondering all over again.

This is one book that I gobbled up in one go!

* CONTAINS SPOILERS*

This book has all the feel of a true crime podcast/documentary which is a real winner for me. I could recognise various serial killers and their crimes combined into the imprisoned Matty and his murderous spree chimed as highly realistic. Sophie, the narrator was both believable and sympathetic, while also being gritty enough to have me rooting for her, and the end for her character was really satisfying. The only reason I haven’t given this 5 stars, was that I was never quite sure where the jeopardy was. I felt it was very obvious he’d done it and that she had somehow told on him.. so while it was a great read, and very well written, I didn’t have that ‘page turning’ sense.

"That's the problem with hindsight. It distorts memory, superimposes warning flags where before there were none." Truly, Darkly, Deeply is a serial killer mystery told from a very different perspective. By using 12-year-old Sophie as the narrator, who meets the serial killer through her mother, Amelia-Rose, dating him, the novel addresses the questions: surely families know their relative is doing these heinous crimes.

Like so many contemporary novels, this one bounces between past and present day, where an older Sophie still struggles to make sense of her life as the not-quite-daughter of a convicted serial killer. Knowing what she now knows, Sophie recasts each memory: "Knowledge of what was coming colouring my recollection of what actually happened." Without certainty (the killer maintained his innocence throughout) Sophie is adrift, feeling "the constant pull of quicksand, the suffocation of uncertainty."

Far from providing the certainty and closure Sophie craved, the court process left her, twenty years on, struggling "to reconcile the memory of the man I'd loved with the picture the prosecution painted." This left her with one option after the death of her mother—visiting the killer in prison—which had very interesting results. Truly, Darkly, Deeply is an interesting read that will likely encourage you to have more sympathy for the families of those who choose to kill. Their lives are ruined just as surely as those of the victims and their families.

Thank you to NetGalley, the Author and the Publisher with providing me with an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

This is a really chilling story that had the perfect level of atmosphere in it. The plot was wonderfully paced, and I really liked how the author explored the trope of an unrepentant serial killer. I didn't find the time jumps between the past and the present confusing at all (which I often do) and I loved how the author weaved in a twist in the plot.

Really enjoyed this book, the characters were so well created that I kept thinking I was reading a true account of a family who had been touched by a serial killer.

The perspective is one I’ve never read before and it’s so compelling.