Sophie had a great relationship with her mum's boyfriend, Matty. Well at least she thought he did, until Matt was arrested on supicion of murdering a number of young women. Surely it couldn't be true.

I liked the way the author framed the novel with a letter from Sophie to her childhood self. It must have been really hard for her to equate the father figure she loved as a serial killer.

The main character was well painted and I felt invested in her story. The author has an engaging writing style and I would be keen to read more of her work.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC,

When she was twelve Sophie & her mother Amelia-Rose left Massachusetts to start a new life in the UK. Amelia meets Matty. He is good looking, good fun & Sophie falls under his spell. He is the only father she really knew & she would do anything for him. Young women looking strikingly like Amelia are being killed Sophie begs her mother to take care. When Matty is imprisoned for multiple murders & the questions it leaves behind it destroys their life. Now Matty is dying & wants to speak to Sophie.

This was a rather claustrophobic scary tale. I found it hard to like the characters but I also wanted to find answers. Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for letting me read & review this book.

Maybe it’s only me but I just couldn’t get into this book. I read it to the end, but even then I couldn’t really understand the point of it all. I found it a slow read with not much actually happening, and Sophie and her mum began to get on my nerves. I couldn’t understand why they put up with what was happening and didn’t take any action. It just all seemed a bit wishy washy. I appreciate that it was well written but I’m sorry, this was not for me. Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for allowing me the ARC.

Victoria Selman’s Book Truly, Darkly, Deeply is written in a style that will keep you guessing from beginning to end. Personally, I found it extremely difficult to put down.
Amelia-Rose meets with a man, Matty Melgren when her daughter Sophie is only 12 years old.

Matty and Sophie bond like Father and daughter but later Matty is arrested and imprisoned after several murders had occurred.

But was he guilty? Sophie mulls everything over in her mind as she and her Mother traverse the views towards them of society in general. The story is told through Sophie’s eyes, and I found her character to be well rounded out and quite deeply sad whilst she looks back over 20 years. An excellent read with a delicious twist!

Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This really took me quite a while to get into and I really had force myself to even go back to it purely because I hate not finishing a book. It's a very different take on a serial killer type book so that's make it unique and a bit different from most of the other books out there. I just struggled with a lack of any real plot development. If you prefer a slow burn and can stick with a story through to the bitter end then yes, there is a bit of a twist in there and there is some kind of conclusion but this just wasn't for me unfortunately.

Dark, Chilling And Unpredictable….
Dark, chilling and unpredictable serial killer chiller with an astutely observed and credible cast and with a swiftly moving storyline. Immersive but tense with an edge of darker menace throughout to the twisting, turning and unexpected denouement. A premise that delivers in droves. Read this one with the lights on and the door firmly locked.

A really enjoyable book that is pretty dark all the way through. Definitely a unique storyline with some twisted characters. Unfortunately, I felt that the ending was just a bit too much and was left feeling rather deflated.

This book was incredible. It was completely gripping, it snatched me into its pages and spat me put at the end and I couldnt wait for it to happen again. It was atmospheric, tense, chilling and gothic, with such a level of unopredictability that I didnt know who to trust or what to believe. I loved it

Wow!! What a read! This book screamed at on its virtual shelf with such an amazing cover! I am glad to say, it did NOT disappoint. I was absolutely hooked & would most definitely recommend!

This book is very dark, chilling, atmospheric, gripping, compulsive and immersive. I connected with all the characters and I loved living through Sophie's eyes, even though it gave me goose bumps and chills throughout. Sophie is a brilliant character and her relationship with her step father Matty is amazing and she doesn't want to believe the stories she hears from her Mum Amelia Rose, about Matty's strange quirks and disappearances, which turn out to be very very disturbing. I LOVED the darkness, the duplicity and the lies. This book definitely lives up to it's title. The plot is consistent and doesn't stray from the main point. It's a PHENOMENAL serial killer thriller with one hell of a WICKED, UNEXPECTED TWIST that blew my mind. This will definitely be the MUST READ of 2022. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, LOVE IT. Highly recommend this twisted read.

A brilliant serial killer thriller told from the partners perspective. I really enjoyed this unique and unusual perspective. Great characters and great story. Highly recommended xx

So we start this novel in 1981 with Sophie and her mother (Americans recently moved to north London) worrying whether mum's new man, Mattie, is, in fact, a serial killer. Flashforward and Matty is found guilty and sent to prison while protesting that he is innocent. Then flash forward 20 years to Sophie in the 'current world' deciding whether to accept Matty's invitation to visit him in prison.

300 pages later, and Sophie and her mother are still worrying about Matty being the serial killer, Matty is still protesting his innocence and grown-up Sophie is still worried about the impending visit. In other words, nothing's changed. And here is the problem - the novel gets stuck in a groove and doesn't get out of it until the Big Reveal at the very end. It doesn't progress at all, except anxieties get more intense but that's it. No plot development to speak of, just 300 pages of the same.

And I'm afraid I did not buy the Big Reveal at all. I thought no way did it ring true. So contrived.

I did like young Sophie but otherwise, no, this novel didn't work for me at all.

Oh, btw: if the 'current day' part is meant to be happening "nearly 20 years" after Matty's conviction, ie about 2002, Sophie would not be looking up Google Maps on her iPhone!

Truly, Darkly, Deeply by Victoria Selman is a thriller which makes you guess. Is he or isn't he guilty and what are the reasons that his girlfriend and her daughter believe either answer.

Amelia-Rose and her daughter Sophie meet Matty Melgren and he soon becomes a father figure for Sophie, the only real father she has ever known. So when he is arrested for murder, her world is turned upside down. I really enjoyed this book as told by the family of a killer and the ups and downs they go through and how they are treated by society.

There is a real twist to this story too.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC in return for an honest review.

I struggled a bit with this at first. The plot was a bit jumpy and hard to follow. It soon settled though and I found myself really enjoying it. The ending was really good.

A slow-burn, emotive novel that goes beyond the titillations of true crime podcasts to really delve into the lives of the people caught in the repercussions - and implications - of a serial killer’s activities. Not one to read if home alone.

I love the way that Sophie tells her life story, weaving it into the plot effortlessly. She and her mother moved from the US to London, where her mother made one friend, Linda, before getting involved with the charismatic Matty, who protests his innocence of a series of murders. He writes from prison that he is dying, and Sophie wants to know the answer to the question of whether he killed those innocent victims, or was it a mistake. Will she find out or not? That is the big question. A tense thriller, I could not stop reading until I had finished the novel.

Truly, Darkly, Deeply - Victoria Selman

Twenty years ago, Sophie was twelve, her mum Amelia-Rose met a charming man, Matty. Matty became the closest thing Sophie ever had to a dad.

Following a string of murders Matty was eventually arrested and imprisoned. This is Sophie's story as she looks back on that time and questions how much they knew at the time and impact it has had on her life.

Told through Sophie's memories and tinged with a questioning hindsight it is rather bleak and melancholic. More of a deep intimate character story than a thriller.

I found if very readable but would have liked a bit more progression in the characters and the plot.

The Widow by Fiona Barton is the closest thing I've read to this, I felt the same about that book (which I know many people loved) so perhaps this style just isn’t quite for me.

Thanks to Netgalley and Quercus.

#TrulyDarklyDeeply #NetGalley
Awesome.
Sophie and her mother, Amelia-Rose, move to London from Massachusetts where they meet the charismatic Matty Melgren, who quickly becomes an intrinsic part of their lives. But as the relationship between the two adults fractures, a serial killer begins targeting young women with a striking resemblance to Amelia-Rose. When Matty is eventually sent down for multiple murders, questions remain as to his guilt -- questions which ultimately destroy both women. Nearly twenty years later, Sophie receives a letter from Battlemouth Prison informing her Matty is dying and wants to meet. It looks like Sophie might finally get the answers she craves. But will the truth set her free -- or bury her deeper?
I loved it. Wow. What a read.
Thanks to NetGalley and Quercus Books for giving me an advance copy.

I received a copy of this for Quercus' Word of Mouth 2022 event.
I really like Victoria, her previous books were very enjoyable, as was this one. I liked the way the narrative unfolded, moving back and forth and that with a narrator who is relying on childhood memories, not knowing the full story, she's unreliable and doesn't have the complete picture. The ending is shocking and a really surprising twist that I couldn't see coming.