The Dangerous Kind by Deborah O'Connor is a thriller that kept me engaged. 
Jessamine is a reporter and a radio presenter who is approach by a woman asking her to look into the disappearance of her friend.
Cassie is a young girl living in care that gets in with the wrong sort of people.
A story of abuse, lies and manipulation.
Thank you to NetGalley and Bonnier Zaffre for my e-copy in exchange for an honest review.

Really really good read.  I like how the story switched back and forwards.   Not difficult to follow, but kept you engaged.  Very relevant to recent stories in the press which is, I assume, probably what gave the idea for the story.   But with a good twist at the end, and not quite as expected.  I thought it was going to end another way - for one part of the story.   A very good read, very enjoyable and would recommend it.

The Dangerous Kind is a thriller for today's society.

Bleak, harrowing, startling, unsettling and downright frightening in places. It deals with areas that are uncomfortable and deeply worrying but it is a worthwhile and perhaps even essential read given that is so well written and plotted.

The characters are well drawn and you identify with them and I found myself enticed into a book which took hold of me and never let go.

The Dangerous Kind.  Deborah O’Connor

Two stories, one in the present, one a from few years earlier, both on collision course for an explosive finale. 

Jassmine Gooch is a radio journalist working for the BBC. She presents a late night radio show about Potentially Dangerous People. Well she does until she’s sacked for an outburst unbefitting of the BBC. 

Jassmine had been approached several times by a woman who is concerned about a missing friend, a friend she feels is being let down by the police who do not appear to be taking her disappearance seriously.

With time on her hands Jasmine decides to look into the missing woman, Cassie Scolari, and stumbles across a juicy mystery that has her considering a new career.

Meanwhile the story that is taking place years before involves Rowena. A girl who is in the care of social services, but who has fallen for a man that grooms her and pimps her out at parties.

Rowena’s story is tragic, a 13 year old girl passed around like a sex toy, but somehow, she is a survivor. She becomes mature before her time and battles to survive.

Meanwhile in the present day Jasmine has decided to turn her investigation into a podcast with the help of a stuttering intern at the BBC. Jitesh is a great character who uses social media to stalk people. He could turn out to be one of the best characters going if this story is the spark for a series.

Between them Jasmine and Jitesh are moving ever closer to finding out what happened to Cassie in a thoroughly enjoyable and very believable story.

It’s hard to review this book without including spoilers.

Deborah O’Connor has found a great character in Jassmine Gooch. A single lady of a certain age that is struggling with the menopause, struggling after losing her job, and struggling with her relationship to her teenage daughter.

Jitesh, a student who has been given an unconditional offer to join Cambridge University, but decides to take a gap year and work as an IT intern at the BBC, is just as good a character. Bullied at school, and suffering from a stutter, he shows a moral strength that leaves the reader no choice but to feel an empathy with him.

The story is original and takes place over a ten year spell. It incorporates the problems that have been uncovered over the last few years about underprivileged children being groomed by certain elements of the community, and the illicit actions of a celebrity.

The story is very on point, up to date, and spine tingling in its reality. 

I have no idea if Deborah O’Connor has any intensions of writing more books involving Jessamine and Jitesh but I hope she does. 

I will be right at the front of the queue to buy the next instalment.

Pages: 448
Publishers: Zaffre
Publishing date: 16th May 2019

'The Dangerous Kind' refers to the people who hide in plain sight, those who mean us harm and whose patterns, if were able to recognise them, would alert us to the danger they represent.
Jessamine Gooch, ex newspaper journalist turned BBC Radio presenter, is a single parent of a teenage girl who volunteers answering phones at a local women's aid branch.
She presents a programme called 'Potentially Dangerous People', which looks back at historic crimes with the help of invited specialists in an attempt to find out any clues which could have prevented tragedies occurring.
Her show is hanging on by a thread, described as 'old and tired' so when a woman ,Marnie,approaches her, one snowy night as she is walking off a hot flush in the winter cold, and pleads for Jessamine to help her.
Marnie's friend , has gone missing, leaving behind a husband and small son and the police aren't very invested in finding her. Having researched Jess' background, she feels that Jess could be the one who brings Cassie home.
Interspersed with Jessamine's narrative is that of her daughter, Sarah, a sound engineer , Jitesh and flashbacks to a young girl called Rowena from the 90's/early 2000's..
Sarah is making unwise decisions on who she is talking to because her mother is too involved in her work, Jitesh is about to go to university but concerns about a fellow classmate are exacerbating his panic attacks, Jessamine is struggling to manage professionally and personally, and in the middle of this ,Rowena's history is the thread that ties them together, which becomes more obvious as the book progresses.
Uncomfortable truths that need to be frankly discussed-such as online security, social media access for teens, sexual abuse, bullying,domestic violence and grooming-without being graphic, monsters hiding in plain sight and the structures that allow such things to go unchecked , all of these things are brought into the light in 'The Dangerous Kind'.
Brutal, harrowing, mesmerising and unforgettable, reading  'The Dangerous Kind 'is an ultimately moving experience.
Many thanks to Bonnier Zaffre and Netgalley for letting me read this  novel in return for an honest review.

The Dangerous Kind is 2019’s Gone Girl but even better!

Told mainly from four different view points the story follows Jessamine, a radio presenter, her adopted daughter Sarah, Jitesh an intern at the BBC radio studios in present day London and Rowena in 2003.

Each with their own plot lines that slowly becomes ever increasingly entwined culminating into a finale worthy of a Hollywood blockbuster.

As Jessamine begins an unofficial investigation into missing woman Cassie, a suspected victim of domestic abuse, the trail begins to spiral into an even greater darkness taking her further and further down the proverbial rabbit hole.

As well as domestic abuse she uncovers some terrifyingly plausible crimes involving the exploitation of young people in care by people in authority, people in positions of trust, even a celebrity, how far they will go to keep their depravities secret and the effects it takes on victims, abusers and their families. It will instinctively bring to mind Rolf Harris and Jimmy Savile which makes this even more hard-hitting.

I have to say though, even though the storyline is centred around such horrific acts it is written and portrayed brilliantly, enough detail to bring the story and its characters to life without the need for graphic details. It is handled with an iron fist in a velvet glove and the writing style is so sublime the pages just keep on turning at a rate of knots.

And then of course – the obligatory plot twist and what a twist it is! As clichéd as that is it doesn’t take away the fact that this particular twist was an absolute stunner! I still can’t believe I didn’t see it coming or even where it came from! And just like that, it all makes perfect sense!

If you read one psychological thriller in 2019, my advice, make sure it is this one!

Now I will keep a keen eye out for the film that surely must follow!

The Dangerous Kind is set to be published on the 16 May 2019 in the UK.

Many thanks to the author Deborah O’Connor, publishers Bonnier Zaffre and NetGalley for my copy in exchange for an honest, independent review.

https://debbiesbookreviews.wordpress.com/2018/12/30/the-dangerous-kind-by-deborah-oconnor/

Utterly gripping. As the investigation into the missing person unfolds the seemingly separate Jitesh and Sarah's stories come together in a tense finale  and the mystery is finally solved. I really enjoyed this book , the subjects of abuse , domestic violence and social media obsession covered have been explored in other media but the writing and characters were fresh and believable.

At first I was worried wd be too dark ,my job carry’s sometimes the darkness and when I read ,though live a thriller I avoid ones with too much graphic description of abuse 
However after the initial and yes dark set up which paints it’s picture it doesn’t continuously go there .
It reminded me of so many headlines and sadly factually this does happen a lot more than we like to face .
I admired all the women really and felt for them a lot 
The men ,well ,it was hard to find a good one in this novel so be warned .
I guessed just before but only just before what happened was revealed . I had no idea till that point as was well written so you got the threads linking bit by bit .
I liked the ending and it does throughout grip u with fear and dread for the girls involved ,I wouldn’t go there again as like I said I do avoid novels with this subject matter ,only due to my work life but is educational and true in a lot of ways and u can’t help but be moved and saddened by the reality’s some children face