A scorcher if ever there was one....involving demons, monsters, egomaniacs, and those wholier than thou who swear they're the saints when sinners are running scared!
Twist of Fate is exactly as the name implies because when toxic individuals gaslight the ending is a ball full of fury.
Gosh, I could write the book on narcissism especially in reglious settings as my own ex-spouse from an eleven year marriage became a Deacon upon tossing me & our threee kids to the curb homeless and destiture w/o income while he wined and dined the next victims.
Speaking of victims is that truly what we have here?
As it turns out there's victims, killers, and an armed man in a murderous rampage scenario fit for a King going back to the ruling of time when evil could cast spells upon the damned.
Claudine and her brother Jethro were two of the unfortunate ones caught up in this type of 'cult-like' setting.
Reverend Talbot and his sidekick Peg are quite the duo as we find them dressed in white robes preaching it .
Some of the most hideous are cloaked in such attire and often have a loyal following that go to the end's of Earth...sometimes never to return.
One can only aspire to not use individuals for such private gain to gain wealth, power, and status but we often find that's precisely why they're in such positions of authority.
While hallucinogenic drugs swirl, visions haunt, and the dead rise we learn that there's innocence among us..a child...Esmerelda.
The Leader of Scripture may have just met his match with a child grinning on the other side to welcome the person Claudine had lost.
A great new thriller by an author I've not read prior so I'll be interested in seeing this progress.
Thank you to DL Mark, Aria/Aries, Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for this honest review.

The plot is as deep and dark as it gets, multi-layered with 'who knew what when?' as the strands come together and the finer details get filled in. This is an absolutely compelling, gripping book full of mystery and suspense. Only a few authors can write deeply involving psychological drama of the very highest quality. Thank you very much to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

I enjoyed this creepy and ultimately very sad tale of loneliness, zealots and broken relationships. It was an unusual mix of drama, supernatural thriller and mystery.

I love David Mark’s writing style and this was no exception. I was immediately drawn in by the mysterious opening and the tension was well sustained.

Things were tied together well but I did feel things became a little chaotic towards the end. The character of DS Dean was also a slightly hyperbolic stereotype of the washed up, bitter cop. I empathised with him initially but towards the end his actions verged on the incredulous.

Overall a spooky, solid read.

4-5 stars

Thirty years ago, late at night, at a Cambridgeshire village, church, a couple meet illicitly and get caught up in …what exactly??? In the present day at Mount Carmel House on the Thames embankment, Claudine Cadjou receives a surprise visit from her eccentric, clever but troubled brother, Jethro. Why is he at her place of work? Before he can explain his presence, a dramatic incident occurs when a blood covered man, knife in hand, enters the building. he looks at Claudine, utters words no one recognises, raises the knife and Jethro steps in to save her with shocking consequences.

Meanwhile, D S. Billy Dean of the Metropolitan Police MIT is having a difficult conversation with his wife, Fran, aka Detective Superintendent Steadman. The emotional meeting is interrupted by calls about the tragic incident which transpires to be a violent spree.

Wow. Right from the creepy, tense start you can cut the atmosphere with a knife (poor choice of word in the circumstances) and the short, clipped sentences, add tremendous tension and intensity. The book starts with not one bang but several and yes, Mr Mark, you most certainly have my attention which wavers not the whole way through.

I’m not sure I’ve ever read anything quite like it! It’s hauntingly full of atmosphere throughout as much of the action takes place in the Fens where Jethro lives and you get a Grimm fairytale nightmarish vibe swirling about, fog like, adding a bleak but mysterious tone to the proceedings. The weather, the low-lying wet landscape, the isolation and loneliness further enhances the creepy atmosphere.

A fascinating picture of Jethro emerges via Claudine and from this we have several issues concerning mental health, there is a strong religious element (mania? Fanaticism?) which also encompasses Myths and Legends and we stray on more than one occasion into the supernatural with more than a smidgen of horror. This blend sure works for me as it’s a never a dull moment read. The plot is clever, complex and absorbing, the pace is fast though we do get an occasional breather!

The characters are unusual which I especially like. Some are tortured souls whose actions are hard to fathom, and sometimes accept as they can act irrationally or harshly but they carry weights such as grief or pain and they are all intense though in different ways, this is especially true of DS Dean. Jethro is particularly mesmerising as a character as he is central to all that has happened.

Overall, this is a very different novel and takes the reader on quite a journey, which I’m more than on board for.

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

This was a well-written book but it confused me at times and I was left feeling very drained at the end of it. I think some people may really enjoy it but it wasn’t for me.

I found this a very strange story ,it started with muliple killings in London and ended on a supernatural note .It was atmospheric but I really didn't like the policeman Billy Dean he was awful and I am sure his behavior would have got him suspended in real life! A weird storywith creepiness twists and turns quite hard to follow .Thank you to Net Galley for my ARC

I’m struggling a bit with how to review this. I really enjoyed the first 80%, the story was gripping and I liked the main characters. It is also extremely well written. Unfortunately, in my opinion, the last 20% let the book down. It became unbelievable and slightly farcical and I wasn’t sure what to make if the ending, which felt a bit rushed and inconclusive.

This was my first novel by this author and it was definitely a positive experience.

Whilst the story was confusing in parts, I am not sure if that was just me but I did definitely enjoy the premise of the story and the writing style.

This was a dark, riveting, and twisty thriller. D. L. Mark has an ongoing detective series, and some of his engaging stand-alones rank among my favourite books. Each one is different in mood, themes, and storyline, and I have admired how he keeps his novels so different from the others.

Twist of Fate was grim, creepy, and intense, with a wonderful descriptive atmosphere. There was a touch of the supernatural and spiritualism. Some passages were disturbing and made me cringe. I admit to being confused sometimes, but we were dealing with emotionally/mentally confused characters.
I wished the timelines were more clearly marked. The author accomplished his goal of keeping the readers riveted and feeling off-kilter.

Within the story are religious zealots, people with a tenuous hold on reality, cult-like behaviour, and a search for medieval artifacts in a burial site. A sister, Claudine, working at a prestigious job in London, is trying to understand why her gentle, harmless brother, Jethro, has been killed in her presence. He lived as a hermit in the Fens, in a shack surrounded by swamps. She is driven by grief and guilt that she has not done more to keep Jethro safe.

He perished from knife wounds in London in a violent attack that killed several others while Claudine watched in horror. He exhibited no resistance to the stabbing. Jethro had come unexpectedly to her London office the previous day, anxious to talk to her, but she was too busy with her work to pay him much attention. She is now a witness in the police investigation. Her main contact is an angry and unstable police officer. She returned to Jethro's derelict shack in the Fens to go through his belongings and understand what happened and why. She is comforted and given support in her grief by the motherly figure she hired to keep watch over Jethro. The woman insists Jethro was incapable of harming humans or animals. Now the police are blaming Jethro for planning the vicious knife attack.
Thanks to NetGalley and Aries {Head of Zeus) for this gripping, hair-raising thriller that is unlike the author's other engaging novels.

When an armed man massacres several people in central London, Claudine witnesses the whole thing. To her horror, one of the victims is her brother, Jethro. The police think Jethro orchestrated the attack. Now Claudine is on a quest to prove them wrong in Twist of Fate by D.L. Mark.

This definitely reminded me of a Ruth Ware story. It was sometimes hard to get into and understand what was going on. But the more I read, the more I got involved in the twists. I really had to think and pay attention to what was happening. It was a weird book, though, but it came together at the end.

I would recommend this book and would rate it a 3.75 out of 5 stars (rounded to 4) because sometimes it was hard to follow.

#TwistofFate #NetGalley @Aria_Fiction @AriesFiction

Possible spoilers

I very much enjoyed this one.
The complicated relationships involved. Not just the main character, but the policeman, and his obvious hostility.
I could have read a whole lot more about Jethro and Claudine.
The shocking killings at the beginnings lead to a slow build of low level creepiness, until everything slots together in quite the ending.

Very well done.