3.5 upped to 4
There's a lot going on in this world: a women who find herself in the darker side of life, cults, violence, a man who could be the who organized a massacre or not.
I loved the descriptions of the Fens and found the book interesting enough to read it but it's a bit confusing at times.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine

This story should be classified as horror or gothic. It has themes involving drugs, religious fanaticism, death, loss, and betrayal. Claudine is thrust into this dark version of the world by none of her own actions. She has to navigate the twist and turns of the journey while dealing with grief and guilt. The mystery that surrounds her slowly unfolds to the dramatic ending. It reminds me of Edgar Allen Poe’s story The Tell-tale Heart.

This book was a little odd and I really did not follow the plot easily. Well written but too obscure for my liking though many others have found it great.

I found this a bit tricky to follow with the story jumping from an illicit tryst in a graveyard resulting in murder to a attack in London by a knife wielding man and then the introduction of the Fens location and a dark religious element to the story.
There was no real thread to follow and I never felt that the various storylines and characters came together in a satisfactory ending.
The characters were a little lacklustre and that, combined with the fractured storytelling, made it a difficult book to invest time into reading.

Prolific author David Mark has released his eighth standalone novel, Twist of Fate under the author’s name of D L Mark. Opening with a clandestine meeting of two married people in a cemetery, their tryst ends in their bloodied deaths. Then we meet another couple trying to finalise their divorce when both get called back to work, as there has been a terrorist attack in London. Finally, we meet Claudine, whose brother was a victim killed in the murderous rampage and yet the police suspect he may have been involved. With its flowing narrative and interesting characters, this promised to be an engaging police procedural, with its London terror attack basis. However, it strangely morphed into a gothic vibe with a supernatural element, fixated on religion that seemed somewhat malapropos. Having not encountered the author’s works previously, it is hard to know how representative this thriller is, but it was an okay two and a half stars read rating. With thanks to Aria & Aries and the author, for an uncorrected advanced review copy for review purposes. As always, the opinions herein are totally my own and freely given.

Writing: 4/5
Character Development: 4/5
Plot: 3/5

Warnings: Language

Themes: Mystery, Horror, Thriller

Twist of Fate was different from anything I read. It was well writen and the characters were well developed but the story was not what I was expecting. It is a good book if you like a story that has a lot of moving pieces and jumps around. I can see how others could really enjoy the story and the different relationships between the characters, it just wasn’t for me. I will be interested to read other books by this author it just so happens this one didn’t click.

I received a free copy of this book and am leaving an honest review.

Thank you for NetGalley for providing me with this book for review. This book is complex, thought provoking and chilling, I'm left thinking about the ending, what an ending, loved it.

Unusual. Both the style of writing and this version of a psychological thriller. And yet there is something about the tortured nature of each character that is believable and, if nothing else, shows that we all have our demons to conquer.

Not for me this one!

Let’s start with the characters: Billy, the policeman, he wasn’t your usual tortured soul policeman battling to do the right thing despite his demons. Instead he was just an arse. Claudine, I really couldn’t have cared less about. And Jethro was made into a caricature.

Then there was the plot, which was confusing and (in my opinion) badly paced. Followed by an ending which was mildly ridiculous.

I hate leaving bad reviews for books and I’m sure lots of people will enjoy but it just wasn’t for me.

Gosh, where do I begin??
If you are into religious cults/fanaticism, massacres, unhinged detectives, and the supernatural, then this is gonna be right up your street!

This was super atmospheric with some very intense, complex characters.

I thought this was a really unique, gripping page turner. I was fully invested and found the ending wrapped up the story perfectly.

**I did not like Billy though. And in relation to his relationship with Claudine, I would suggest checking for trigger warnings.

This was a real twist to your normal thriller mystery novel. I genuinely found myself edging to know more at every turn & the outcome was a real plot twist moment! Such a great writer with real talent.

The writing style in this book was so unique and interesting and I found it to be a really unique and enjoyable read however a lot of it was really weird and I was confused it parts. It's a nice quick read with a decent mystery but not the most amazing book out there as some parts were hard to understand.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Aria & Aries for an advance copy of Twist of Fate, a stand-alone thriller set in London and Lincolnshire.

Claudine Cadjou is horrified when her brother is stabbed to death in front of her, one of five victims of a crazed knife man. Then the Police say he orchestrated the attack, but she finds it hard to believe as Jethro was a gentle, kind man. Then she digs deeper and finds strange religious beliefs are a part of Jethro’s life.

Twist of Fate is an unusual read, not so much in the theme, religious cults are a mainstay of crime fiction, but in the way I reacted to it. On the one hand I was intrigued by what was going on and so desperate to get answers that I wanted to read on, on the other I kept putting it down after a few pages as it didn’t hold my attention.

The novel is mostly told from the points of view of Claudine and DS Billy Dean in the present tense. This gives the novel a stream of consciousness feel at times and I found it disconcerting at first, but soon found the immediacy of the emotions a strength. It also allows a closeness between reader and protagonists that isn’t always possible in a third person narrative and offers greater character development than usual in a relatively short novel.

The story in the novel is told piecemeal, in between religious explanations and character exploration. I wasn’t overly impressed by this as I like a straightforward story that goes from A to B and I think that is what led to my disengagement, although, having said that, I liked what the author imagined. I lost my critical thinking facility years ago so the “theology” left me cold, well, to be honest, I couldn’t be bothered to think about it, although the author makes some interesting comments about the nature of faith towards the end.

Speaking of the ending. I liked the neat twist in the final sentences, but wasn’t too sure about what went before. It could be supernatural forces at work or it could be the imaginings of a mind that has had too much to cope with. I prefer the latter solution as it better fits the final twist, but, then, I’m of the touching is believing school of suspicious old gits.

Twist of Fate is an interesting read that is worth a look.

Intriguing dark atmospheric thriller with several threads running through it. There are several unexplained killings which are seemingly random. Add to that undertones of the unexplained and supernatural, history and the occult.
I dipped in and out of this one a bit, parts held me captivated and intrigued but other parts didn’t hold my interest quite so well. The characters in the main story were good and well rounded and I finished the book fairly quickly to see how it would all end. Worth a read.

The story of this is great but at times the writing become quite hard to keep working through as it felt a bit confusing in it's style.

Jethro is Claudine's brother. He visits her in London and is murdered alongside several others by an armed man. Claudine is a witness.
She travels to the family home in the Fens where she finds that Jethro was involved in research into a medieval cult..

Claudine is at work when her brother Jethro shows up unexpectedly one day. Her brother lives as a virtual hermit in the Fens, dresses like a hobo, is eccentric, intelligent, disturbed, and impossible, and fanatic, amongst other things. He never leaves the Fens, and absolutely never comes to London. But here he is. Claudine is embarrassed by him showing up like this in her place of work, and is not listening to him and what he is rambling on about, making no sense trying to tell her, she is just focussed on getting him to leave and asking him to meet her elsewhere later. Then the killer strikes, a madman with a knife, massacres several people in London, and Jethro is one of them. He is killed right in front of Claudine, who is left grief stricken at her loss. But when she goes to clear out her brothers remote and ramshackle house in the marshy Fens she finds herself caught up in something she never would have imagined. Her brother was researching some very odd religious material, and Claudine is suddenly wrapped up in a series of events that could lead to more deaths if she can’t figure it out.

This was a very unusual read, bouncing from a police crime drama. We had DS Dean being a stereotypical brash, washed up cynical cop, browbeaten, but passionate about the job and keen to solve the reason for the murders. We then had Claudine, a powerful woman of influence, who falls to pieces when she sees her brother killed, and starts spiralling into depression, despair, and losing track of reality.

Is it a crime drama, supernatural, or horror? The scenes set throughout the book lead you down every path, often at the same time. Jethro is portrayed as an ever evolving personality, kind, caring, naive, manipulative, manic, scheming, fanatic. We are brought along on a journey of discovery along with Claudine, as she tries to learn who her brother really was, and why he and others died that day. She soon realises that she may not be ready for the answers. It is a dark and twisting read, often keeping the reader as confused as the lead characters. Not a light read, but one that will leave you thinking long after you have put it down.

*I received this book from NetGalley for review, but all opinions are my own.

Liked the idea of this book and it started pretty positively but I felt it just got bogged down after around a third of it and to be honest I only kept reading it to the end as I'd invested time in it and was interested to find out where it went. In summary it was ok but not exceptional. Sure it will appear to many readers who are fans of this type of genre.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review the ARC..

I still don’t really know what I read with this book. It was a little too religious & unbelievable for me. It was a very hard read. A book this short, I can normally finish in a day. Maybe 2. It took me 6 days to finish this & I had to absolutely force myself. I was constantly confused at whose POV each chapter was. This just was not a book for me.

I’m afraid this was a bit too weird for me. I reached 20% before having to start again because I just hadn’t a clue what was going on. I managed to finish it, and although a few things slotted into place I found it strange, confusing, complex, creepy and too over-the-top. Well written, and others seem to love it, but it just wasn’t my cup of tea. Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the electronic copy though.