Having read from this author before, I had high expectations. I really enjoyed the book and I would buy it for a friend, but it didn’t quite hit the level I was expecting

Omg talk about a roller coaster read wow this book kept me on the edge of my seat threw out I just couldn't put it down this writer keeps you hooked and once your hooked your not letting go I found this book thrilling the characters were fantastic and well thought out and the little clues all the way threw keep you guessing until the end this book stays with you long after you close the book this book is well worth the read I promise you wont be disappointed

How Far We Fall byt Jane Shemilt is a slow burning thriller about ambition, power, revenge and love

I always enjoy the descriptive way in which Jane Shemilt writes and this book certainly didn't disappoint.

Unfortunately this book wasn’t for me and I struggled through it. I didn’t care what happened and couldn’t like any of the characters,

An excellently written book by a talented author. The book is set against a modern day MacBeth and I found that very interesting and compelling. Recommended.

I found this book a bit hard going at first but then the plot got moving along more and I began to enjoy it. The medical detail was interesting without dominating the story and the characters were interesting and authentic. But then the MacBeth parallels began to feel overdone and started to annoy me as they made it obvious how the story would end. I went from admiring the modern retake to being frustrated by it.

I think I missed something in this book!! I couldn't really get my head around why what was happening, was happening 😂 I didn't like the characters much, Beth was selfish and self centred, Albie just seemed dense and no one else stood out for me! When the story got going it was better, but still not great. I was going to DNF it at just over the half way point but I pushed through. Please let me know if I missed something! *

This is a story of love, lies, betrayal, ambition, jealousy and so much more.

Beth is married to Albie and they seem to be blissfully happy. Albie, however has no idea that his wife had an affair with his boss, Ted, many years ago. Beth has never forgiven Ted for leaving her and taking away so much from her.

When Albie is handed over the reins from Ted his future looks bright. However things start to fall apart and Beth sees the ideal time to promote her husband as well as get revenge on Ted.

This is a great psychological thriller with lots of medical procedures and experiments. Although slow at the beginning the pace soon builds.

Thank you to Penguin UK, Michael Joseph and NetGalley for a digital copy of this book.

The author of Richard and Judy bestseller Daughter takes us behind the closed doors of a marriage consumed by ambition, lies and revenge – ultimately culminating in murder. Perfect for fans of Doctor Foster and Apple Tree Yard, Jane Shemilt has drawn on her personal experience in the medical profession, creating a fastinating, authentic, dark tale of obsession that will hook you in right from the start and refuse to let go.

Meeting Albie gave Beth a fresh start, a chance to leave her past behind. Now she has her new, ambitious, talented, young neurosurgeon of a husband. Beth feels safe however Albie does not know of the multitude of secrets that Beth has kept. He does not know that years ago, Beth had an affair with Ted, the boss now helping Albie progress his career. Nor that the affair’s devastating ending will have consequences for their own future. When Ted’s generous patronage begins to sour, Beth senses everything that she has built could crumble. Beth sees an opportunity to satisfy Albie’s ambitions and her own desire for revenge. How far will the fall take them?
I read this not realising that it is the follow up to Shemilt’s book, ‘Daughter’ however I soon realised and was looking forward to catching up with the characters. One thing I should point out is it is absolutely necessary to have read ‘Daughter’ before reading this. As I said I was eager to get going with this and initially things looked promising, there is an intense start, full of apprehension but then things started to fizzle out. The tension disappears, the danger fades in and out and I found myself bored for the majority of this read. There are moments of promise but these fade into oblivion and I was left uninterested yet again. I think part of the problem is this is too long for what actually happens, had this been shorter it may have vastly improved, but this is not what we find ourselves with. The other thing I have to say is I found Shemilt’s way of constructing the timeline confusing, the beginning of the chapters provide the place, season and year we are in but I struggled to connect it all together and remember how much time had passed, thus finding large sections very confusing!
The positive in this book, is revisiting the character of Beth and learning about Albie. I enjoyed the portrayal of both of them, seeing their relationship blossom and then Beth working to have her revenge on Ted was very interesting. Towards the end of the book, Beth does not feature as much and she is almost forgotten, I think Beth could have been used a lot more than she is. As this is a follow-up, we have other characters to catch up with and this I always find interesting, seeing where they are and what they do, and in this book this is no different. The other positive I have, is Shemilt’s knowledge of medical procedures and related that are in this book, there is a lot of detail, Shemilt clearly knows her stuff and writes it well and a lot of it is fascinating as well, at times the plot is lost to medical procedure which is a shame.
‘How Far We Fall’ starts off promising but any excitement and intrigue soon fades, I found a lot of this book unbelievable and could not really see the characters completing some of the actions that they do in the book. This was an okay read but easily forgettable.
Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin UK for an advance copy.

Beth a theatre nurse, had been having an affair with Professor Ted Malcom for seven years, their relationship ends badly so that when she meets Albie at a party and they marry, she keeps it a secret from him that his mentor Ted and her had an affair.

Ted promises his prodigy Albie his job but when Ted starts to cool towards Albie, Beth a woman scorned plots Teds downfall!!

I devoured every word of this book, enjoying the medical aspect. I admit to being hooked on medical dramas so this book was definitely for me. The Neurosurgery was very well explained and had me gripped at every word.

Jane shermit is a master when describing scenes, you actually feel like you are there, whether it was at the lab or at Jura you can feel the dark atmosphere!!

Definitely a book that needs to be cherished and not rushed. Thank you to netgalley for my copy in exchange for a review.

Having previously read Jane Schmitt’s other books, I was excited to find this one available. Unfortunately I really struggled with this one.

How far we fall is a story of betrayal and manipulation, power and love. Beth and Albie, seem to have the perfect marriage, but it couldn’t be further from the truth. Dark secrets and deep jealousy sets the picture to this psychological tale with surprising twists.
I can’t say I didn’t enjoy this story, I really like Jane Schmitt as an author and thoroughly enjoyed her previous books, I just feel that this didn’t have the same grip that her others have had. It won’t stop me from reading another book from this author and I look forward to the next.

A very enjoyable twisty murder mystery. A slow burner with some pretty horrible characters but a good read, especially for fans of domestic thrillers.

Beth is a nurse in the operating theatre at the hospital where Ted Malcolm is the all powerful consultant neurosurgeon. They have history, a painful, raw history which leads Beth to move departments to Trauma and Orthopaedic where she won't have to work in the same circles with him every day. Nobody at work knew about Beth and Ted's involvement only that "happily married family man Ted" had a girlfriend whose identity he managed to keep under lock and key.

Time moves on and Beth is at an awards evening for the hospital. She sees Ted and manages to keep away from him for the majority of the evening. She does however meet Baird 'Albie' McAlister, Ted's protégé and registrar. It transpires that Albie made a rookie error in theatre and in order to keep him professionally safe, Ted took the rap with the hospital authorities meaning that Albie is forever in his debt. Ted has all but promised Albie that his consultancy will pass to him when he retires yet once he realises who Albie's new partner is things start to change in Albie's promising career path. The reader realises what is going on, however neither Beth nor Ted disclose this information to Albie so he is left in the dark as to why his star is not shining so brightly and why things feel like they are going in the wrong direction.

Ted's son Ed is in the loop, and his friend and journalist Jake senses something is awry between Beth and Ted and is desperate to find out the facts. All the characters are extremely flawed whether it be through ambition or for their own personal gain. None are particularly likeable, with only the occasional glimmer of hope that perhaps the medical profession are doing good for their patients. But at what cost?


The first half of this book is quite a slow burner, but once pennies start to drop regarding the relationships between the different characters and their possible intentions the pace starts to ramp up. The main vibe running through the whole of this book is revenge. The triangle between Beth, Ted and Albie gets more and more nasty and gets to the point where things can only go one way. Who is pulling the strings though? Is Albie's mental state so messed up that he makes the decision to sort things himself, or is Beth's influence and her need for revenge so strong that he just acts on her advice? Is Ted deliberately trying to rock the boat? I'm still not sure even now which of the three is more desperate.

This is one of those books that I can't say that I enjoyed purely because the characters are so horrible. The writing is very good, perhaps the pace of the book could have been a little quicker to get to the explosive part but on reflection this is rather clever as it proves that time only makes some things fester and get really rotten if left to their own devices.

Not a book I would choose to read on my holidays, but perhaps more suited for autumn/winter evenings when the nights are drawing in and you want something grittier to get stuck into when snuggled in front of the fire.

I started reading, and found this book to be slow, detailed and quite complex. All of which did little to hold my attention. I continued but have placed this one “not for me category”

However if you like a slow burner. With lots of detail it will definitely suit you. Without a doubt with all books some will love and some won’t.

I appreciate Shakespeare's impact on the world and know he was a great writer, but I can't really get along with his work. I once went to see a play of Macbeth and I'm afraid I found it rather dull. So the fact that How Far We Fall is a modern day version of Macbeth was perhaps a little wasted on me. As I was reading though, there were little things that jogged my memory of that play, for instance the three witches. And having read up on Macbeth since finishing this book, I can see how very clever Jane Shemilt's plotting and characterisations are and how well she has managed to stay true to that story whilst making How Far We Fall an utterly compelling story in its own right.

I really don't think I can do justice to this book in my review but I'll try and explain a bit more about how affecting, how engrossing it is.

The story centres around Beth, Albie and Ted. Beth is a theatre nurse, previously having worked alongside Ted. She also had an affair with him which ended badly. Ted is a brilliant neurosurgeon, self-assured, arrogant at times. He's also Albie's boss. Albie is up and coming, hoping to take over where Ted leaves off one day. He also falls in love with Beth. Oh, what a tangled web!

This is an intense story. One of power, revenge, ambition and betrayal. I loathed Ted throughout the whole book. He's Svengali-like with his influence over Albie until Albie realises that Ted is playing him. Given that, and various aspects of his previous relationship with Beth, he was a man I could only dislike.

My feelings towards Albie and Beth were more complicated. Because of how Ted treated them I couldn't help but side with them, but as the story proceeds the boundaries between what is acceptable or not are blurred by Ted's behaviour.

I've read and enjoyed both of Jane Shemilt's previous books but I think with this one she has gone onto another level. It's such a clever book with some absolutely jaw-dropping moments where I actually commented out loud to myself about what the characters were doing. It's not a book to rush, and actually I just couldn't do so. It was one where I wanted to take in every detail, every nuance, every character trait, every brilliantly described location. Talking of the latter, the action is either set in London or the Scottish island of Jura. Both were so perfectly portrayed that it was almost as if I was there alongside them all, either in the Hampstead house or at the hospital, or alternatively on the remote, windswept and beautiful island.

I thought the level of detail about the operations that Ted and Albie were doing was brilliant. I soaked it all up and it's quite obvious that GP Shemilt is using her own medical knowledge (and that of her neurosurgeon husband) to great effect. It always strikes me that there is so much that only medical staff see and that the rest of us are protected from. Not here though, we are not spared the detail. On that note, there's quite a lot about animal testing in the storyline which I found quite difficult to read. However, it's a part of medical research that goes on and it is very relevant to the story.

I think it's obvious that I loved this book. It had a slow build up to some explosive events and it's one of those that is staying with me after I've closed that last page. How Far We Fall is simply an exercise in masterful writing and deft plotting. It's superb!

I read, reviewed and loved Jane’s first book ‘Daughter’ a couple of years ago. So imagine my excitement when not only did I hear that she had a new book out but I was asked if I would like to take part in the blog tour for ‘How Far We Fall’!! I’ll give you a clue- it wasn’t pretty and thankfully only witnessed by my two Labradors. Anyway I digress so back to the review I do go. Back to the point- I eagerly picked up, opened and read ‘How Far We Fall’. What a read it turned out to be!! I absolutely loved reading ‘How Far We Fall’ but more about that in a bit.
I have to say that there was not one character that I took to nor liked in this book. In their own ways each and every one of them made me shudder a little and gave me the heebie jeebies. I wouldn’t like to think that they were looking after me. All three of the main characters are ambitious in their own way and they want to be the best of the best. Albie and Beth are quite happily married, although what Albie doesn’t realise is that Beth had a fling with his boss Ted. Beth is desperate to keep the affair hidden. But how far will she go to ensure that that remains the case?
Dear me, ‘How Far We Fall’ was certainly a read and a half. I have heard other reviewers comparing the book to the play ‘Macbeth’ by William Shakespeare. I can’t comment on that because I avoided learning or reading Shakespeare as much as I could while I was at school and that has carried on into adulthood. There is a similarity between this book and a play in that the book is written in four different acts and part of the story takes place within a theatre, albeit an operating theatre. The first act/ section of the book sets the scene and introduces the characters whereas the other acts focus more on the storylines themselves. The way that the author sets out the book is really effective and did make me think that I was actually in the theatre, watching a play. The author’s writing style is such that you can’t fail to be drawn into the book and before you know it you are hooked on the story. That was certainly the case for me. I had a feeling that a tense and dramatic conclusion was on the way and I raced through the book to see if my suspicions were proved correct. The pages were turning that quickly that it was almost as if they were turning themselves and before I knew what was happening I had finished the book. On finishing the book, I actually had to sit for a little while to recover from what I have read. There was that much adrenaline flowing round my body that I just knew that I wouldn’t be able to concentrate on anything else for a little while. My heart was racing and I had been holding my breath in anticipation of what was going to happen.
There are certain details in this book, which may upset some readers. Testing on animals and graphic surgical details are some of the most disturbing things in this book. The details didn’t put me off reading but I admit that I was momentarily stunned at what I had read and I had to re-read the sentence to make sure that I hadn’t misread the sentence. I am not that easily shocked as both of my parents were nurses (Mr GBG was a mental health nurse and Mrs. GBG was a theatre nurse just like Beth) and some of the conversations over the dinner table were ‘interesting and disturbing’ to say the least. The surgical scenes and details of certain medical procedures have more than an air of authenticity to them because the author is/ was a GP and her husband is a professor of neurosurgery. I have particular admiration for anybody who works within the neurosurgical field because it requires a special sort of person to be able to work in that area. I have had experience of the Neurosurgery department of my local hospital and I really came to admire how such doctors and nurses had the power to change lives literally. They certainly changed my life.
In conclusion I really did enjoy reading this book and I would definitely recommend it to other readers. I can’t wait to read what comes next from Jane Shemilt. The score on the Ginger Book Geek board is a well deserved 4* out of 5*.

With thanks to the publisher for the copy received. How Far We Fall is a novel that I am glad I persevered with. Part one, lays down the foundations with a lot of detail about the clinical trials that Albie is involved with and his career as a neurosurgeon. You can see how ambitious he is, and how he thrives on pieces of gossip that he hears regarding his career prospects. Much of the clinical and medical detail went way over my head but it is important to the novel to see this aspect of the novel. You also get to see his relationship with Ted and his blossoming romance with Beth. You do see glimpses of what happened in the past with Beth and Ted but Albie is oblivious to any of this.
When the novel changed direction slightly from part two onwards I was hooked.
I have seen references to Macbeth mentioned with regards to the storyline. There are parts that are theatrical but the only part of Macbeth I know concern witches. This is a part does feature slightly. As the novel progressed I could see how the need to get revenge had fatal consequences for all concerned.
It was difficult to like either Albie or Beth, even though I did have more sympathy for Albie initially but his more sinister attitude became more evident the further I read. It was the minor characters I liked more. Gita, Jake and Ed especially and I understood their way of thinking. And I was very impressed with the sisters!
It is very different to a lot of crime I read. This was more of a character study and explained the reasoning why the events happened. How revenge, obsession, loss and envy overtook the desire to change lives for the better.
I found it a chilling and unique read.

I enjoyed this book to a certain extent, but then the story fell apart and I felt very sad at the end. I know that this was the whole point of the story, that pride comes before a fall, but it still upset me to read of the suicide of the poor wife left on Jura. However it was a good read.