his is my first book by author Chris Brookmyre and I thoroughly enjoyed it. A tale of secrets, twists and lots of conspiracy theories, Fallen Angel is a standalone psychological thriller guaranteed to keep the readers on their toes and gripped throughout.

Fallen Angel is narrated by several of the main characters and alternates between 2002 and present day. 16 years ago on a summer holiday in Portugal 2 families lives were shaken to the core when tragedy struck and 18 month old Niamh was swept out to sea setting off a chain of events that ricochets and changes the lives of everyone who was there.

2018 brings the story back to Portugal and the families are gathering to mourn the loss of the patriarch of the family Max Temple, a famous psychology professor. His scattered and shattered dysfunctional family reunite for the first time in 16 years and the truth behind the tragedy begins to unfold.

Full of twists and several revolting characters, Fallen Angel was a gripping page turner which kept me entertained and guessing throughout. Whilst I did managed to work out the extra Twist before the reveal (go me!!) it didn’t stop my enjoyment at all. Recommended for fans of twisty thrillers with an added bonus of several conspiracy theories thrown in.

While there is a mystery throughout this, at it’s heart this is very much a family drama.

Here we follow a split timeline. Firstly the days leading up to when a toddler disappears on a family holiday to Portugal. Tensions are high in the villa, as the teen in the family brings her young daughter away for the first time.

The second part of the timeline is set 16 years later. The patriarch of the family has passed away and they are gathering at the villa to scatter his ashes.

This was a great exploration of family relationship, and particularly how different people handle significant events in their lives. It was an interesting mix of perspectives, showing the different family members as well as the views of the people staying in the villa next door showing a somewhat external view.

There were a couple of things which led to my 3 rather than 4 star rating. Firstly, the male perspectives very much focused on sex and women’s bodies including a middle aged man leering over a 16 year olds body (although I should call out that he is portrayed as not a great person). Additionally, there was a a part of the ending which felt like a bit of a stretch.

Overall really well written, and if it sounds like it’s up your street definitely give it a go! Just be aware of the trigger warnings, and it is a difficult read.

I love anything written by Chris Brookmyre, and this was no exception. He handles both character and plot so deftly you become effortlessly drawn into the story as secrets are hinted at then gradually revealed. This starts with a murder and develops in dual time, moving between 2002 and 2018, pulling all the strands together and building up to a satisfying conclusion. The plot centres on the Temples. a family with plenty of skeletons in their cupboards, but what really happened at their holiday villa 16 years ago? And what will happen when they all gather there together once again following the death of the head of the household, renowned psychologist and author, Max Temple? The shadows of the past can't be ignored, and the fall out affects every member of the family, and their neighbours.
I really enjoyed trying to work out the clues, and this got an extra mark for the plot twist I didn't see coming but was really happy about!

I always enjoy Brookmyre's books, because - rather than despite! - never being quite sure what to expect. With a long running base of crime, investigated for example by the redoubtable journalist Jack Parlabane (who took a bit of a break but is now back) and by Jasmine Sharp (I hope one day they will meet) Brookmyre also branches out into SF (Pandemonium, Places in the Darkness) and fantasy (Bedlam). In Fallen Angel, mostly a standalone (but with a couple of hooks into his wider universe) he has I think done something different again.

This book is essentially a dissection of an ill-functioning family, the Temples, told across two timelines (2002 and 2018) and from multiple characters' point of view: mainly in the third person, following different characters, but in first person for Amanda, a Canadian au pair flung into the maelstrom in the later timeline. Amanda, perhaps, comes closest to an investigator figure being a You-Tuber and aspirant journalist but this book doesn't really have a Parlabane or Sharp equivalent, until close to the end, rather than following an enquiry we're really just watching events unravel (and how!)

In 2018, the Temples have come together at their villa in Portugal to commemorate the life of patriarch Max, recently deceased. Max was something of a celebrity both as a controversialist - an academic psychologist, who in later life had taken to debunking conspiracy theories - and because of a tragedy suffered by the family, involving a young child, which is explored in the 2002 timeline but whose effects linger. Ironically this tragedy - about which I won't say much because Brookmyre reveals the details gradually, layer by layer - itself becomes the subject of conspiracy theories (perhaps an element of payback?) and the unravelling of events via Amanda's viewpoint in 2018 itself relies more than a little on those theories and the information (including red herrings) gathered by online enthusiasts.

To UK readers, the location - Portugal - and the nature of the events in 2002 will inevitably suggest the tragedy that befell the McCanns, especially given the bizarre theories and speculation which built up around that. Bookmyre is at some pains to distance his story from this: he makes clear he is not writing, however obliquely, about the McCanns, both through the standard disclaimer and, more pointedly, by referring to their tragedy, in his imagined universe, when it happens some years later. Nevertheless, the link made, we can't help but compare the mythmaking and intrusion suffered by that family with those that afflict the Temples here.

It gives that part of the story a bitter taste. The events of 2002 have - it's clear - lefts scars. Ivy, who we meet at the start of the book in the 2018 timeline, has been hardened and has obvious "issues" (eating disorders, drugs, sex). In fact we eventually learn that she has actually changed her name - ostensibly this is because her work, in a reputation management firm, requires that she not attract attention herself but perhaps in reality there is more to it than that.

Gradually, teasingly, Brookmyre explores his characters - the formidable matriarch Celia, a former actress who manipulates and dominates her unfortunate children, Max himself, who might be gone by 2018 but who casts a long (and far from benevolent) shadow (he seems to have put his psychology skills and understanding of conspiracies to work in controlling his own family), their neighbours, Vince and Laurie (in 2002 - by 2018 he's with Kirsten) and Amanda, who insists that with two dads, she doesn't miss a mother because 'what you're never had, you never miss'. With other Temple children, and some grandkids plus spouses, partners and hangers-on in both timelines there are a lot of people to get one's head round (especially given that the two narratives mean some have changed a lot). However Brookmyre makes them all real - there are no cardboard cutouts here - and all these lives weave together to make a complex, believable (and sometimes funny) web. The book is also sharply observed. For example, here's creepy Vince pondering the teenage Temple daughter: 'He remembered how she had developed through her early teens. he had watched her blossom...' or there's Ivy, taking advantage of a friend: '...she knows he'll help right now too. He's a good person. Good people want to help you. It's why they get hurt by people like her.' (That last quote encapsulates Ivy so well - hardened, ruthless in business, but regretful - elsewhere she ruefully observes that good people need to be protected from her.

You could get hung up about what genre this book is, but really there's little point - as I said, for much of the story nobody is investigating anything so I'd hesitate to call it "crime" and besides, the incident that is ostensibly at the centre of focus is elusive, and it's unclear whether a crime was committed. The focus on family dynamics is however fascinating and the book doesn't pull its punches on the hurt and derangement that can exist behind closed doors, more so when there's a determination to present an image of ideal lives, and to protect that image.

A gripping novel, with a real twist of darkness to it and an excellent addition to anyone's shelf of Brookmyre.

After having enjoyed Chris Brookmyre’s historical crime novel The Way of All Flesh (written in collaboration with Marisa Haetzman) last year, I was interested in reading some more contemporary work. His latest book, Fallen Angel, which came out yesterday seemed a good place to start as it’s a stand-alone novel.

I think this might be a good book for anyone who’s ever been slightly envious of the seemingly perfect family holidaying in the next villa or on the neighbouring sun loungers to them. It’s a salutary reminder how often things are never quite the way they appear, and that there are downsides to both fame and families.

Fallen Angel starts with a murder and a family coming together for a commemoration at their two villas in Portugal. In the third villa of the group, there is a young Canadian girl, Amanda, the baby she is looking after this summer, and his mother. While they wait for the child’s father to join them, Amanda’s interest is piqued when she finds out whose family is staying next door and what happened here sixteen years ago.

Quoting passages and using theories from the family patriarch’s book on conspiracy theories, and switching between the 2002 holiday, which is mired in tragedy, and this tense reunion in 2018, Chris Brookmyre explores the personalities, dynamics and dark secrets within the Temple family. He switches perspective between Amanda and the inhabitants of all three villas, suggesting where the tensions and cracks are behind the carefully-curated veneer, and that this is far from being one big happy family.

This combination of conspiracy theory suppositions and shifting perspectives also helps to put more people in the frame, raising questions about their behaviour, making the reader suspicious of everyone and diverting attention from where it should be focusing. With each twist and turn in the story, the tension builds inexorably, something which kept me sneaking an extra chapter at work and reading late in to the night, before reaching its climax.

Although I’d had my suspicions about where things were leading, I’m still not sure how I feel about how neatly it was all tied up. That’s not to say it detracts from the overall reading experience, though.

No amount of sun can bleach clean the darker shades of human behaviour and personality on display here in Fallen Angel but Chris Brookmyre ensures that he leaves us with the survivors and some hope for their futures. His novel is a slick and accomplished look at the dark side of personality, fame and family life: Fallen Angel is inextricably tense and murky even in the full glare of its Algarve sun. Highly recommended.

This book is told in two time settings, 2018 and 2002. The story is mainly about the Temple family. Max Temple, a famous scientist, his wife Celia, who was a popular actress who no one remembers now, and their children. Most of the book is set in Portugal and centres around the holiday villas which are owned by them. Vince has always rented one of their adjoining villas and returns every year to holiday with them. In 2002 he was married to Laurie, but he has remarried since her death to Kirsten and they have a baby. When Max dies in 2018 the family all return to the villa to scatter his ashes. Vince, Kirsten, the baby and Amanda, their nanny, are also travelling to the villa. We discover that in 2002 a suspicious death occurred in the Temple family whilst they were at the villa and this has never been resolved. This, we learn, affected them all in different ways and they all have their own secrets hidden away. This book was a little slow to get going but I enjoyed all the ccmplica5edb relationships, secrets, jealousy and blackmail. Just pleased they weren’t my dysfunctional family! A perfect holiday read.
Thanks to Netgalley and Little, Brown book group for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.

Some names are go-to authors and your fingers doesn’t need your brain to accept to review a book. When I received an email asking me if I was interested in reading Chris Brookmyre’s latest novel, I almost laughed. Do you really need to ask???? We are talking about the man who had my head explode over Black Widow! (you can read my review here, then buy it!) and had me fangirl when signing my book last year during Bloody Scotland. I love many authors and enjoy an illegal amount of books, but few people can really shake my brain and emotions the way Mr Brookmyre does. So, OF COURSE I wanted to get my hands on a copy of what could only be another riveting read. No, I needed it.

Anticipation created expectations. Expectations lead to bitten nails. Bitten nails don’t help you reading with your Kindle. Your Kindle gets the sweat, the shakes, the gripping hand (if my Paperwhite was a person, it would have died from strangulation a million times during this read as I held to it for dear life).

At first, I found the title Fallen Angel to be a slightly curious choice. Many ideas floated around about its meaning – would I be met with a story about redemption? Was there a more literal sense to it? Aren’t we all fallen angels at some point in our life? As you never, ever, never know where Chris Brookmyre is going to take you, the possibilities are endless so I couldn’t blame my little grey cells to go all crazy.

I remember not even reading the blurb before deciding to read the book. I apologize to the person who wrote it. It’s great, it really sells the book, but all I could think of was “another Brookmyre storm!!!!” Sorry!

Back to the novel. Do you like your books enigmatic, challenging, and utterly absorbing? Because the prologue of Fallen Angel immediately sets the tone. Like a snake sneakily wrapping itself around you, the cold and effective words made me shiver both with trepidation and excitation. This feeling never left me, even after meeting the cast of characters I would be following under the Portuguese sun. Cold, yes, that is the word I would use to describe everything about the Temple family. No amount of UVA and UVB can burn this flesh!

Family and holiday. Two words we should stop associating for our own sake! The author proves it with a resplendent wicked masterpiece.

Two parts, multiple narrators, two timelines, and a lifetime of secrets, personal feelings bottled up, and dark corners left to gather dust: the promise of a hell of a book!

What do you mean, “We want to know more about the book, stop fangirling?” I can’t process your request. When a book feels like lightning slicing you in half (in a very good way, if such thing is possible!) you need to shout about it, even if you are just rattling on and on about how good it is. I will give you evidence of what I am saying. Actually, I already did. And if reading truly is your thing, you don’t mind a bit of suspense, do you?

We first meet Ivy, a woman my chosen word seems to fit like a glove. Cold. But clearly, there is more to her than meets the eyes and I was captivated by this character. I won’t hide that Ivy was my favourite and I couldn’t wait to remove her layers one by one to discover more and more about her! Except the author doesn’t make it so easy. Soon, I met the Temple family. A big ball of personalities. Do you remember those spider things on playgrounds on which we can climb on? Well, as soon as I learned I was embarking on a family holiday with the Temple, it felt as if my feet was reaching the first rope on this spider, and the narrative took me on an trip to the top. The rope felt either fragile or strong as steel, smooth at times and painful at others.

Stuck in a set of three villas in a small village in Portugal, the whole family reunites after the death of the father. His shadow can be felt on the place at all times, through quotes inserted in the book, and many other details which left me unsettled and crept out!

The Temple share the villas with a man called Vinnie, whose wife, toddler, and young nanny Amanda, arrive around the same time, ready to enjoy some down time. Well. Don’t we always say we need a holiday to recover from our holiday? In their case, it has never been truer!

This little secluded world was the setting of a tragedy, the death of little Niamh, sixteen years ago, and I couldn’t for the life of me understand why they would decide to come back. Even a tribute to the man who had created this family shouldn’t have been enough for them to set foot there again! But hey, we all do weird things… And the Temple family is no exception. Underneath the picture perfect that mother Celia tries to maintain, old cracks left unattended start spreading, opening a gap from which no one can hide. Gathered in one place with no shades to hide under, suspicions are bound to surface…

My favorite thing in the world is to dissect humans and their behavior. I am the crazy girl who sits for hours in the lounge of an airport to observe people and try to uncover what they hide under their sunglasses, loads of bags, tabloids, and plane tickets. Chris Brookmyre has a unique and spectacular way of showing what hides beneath the water. I don’t need airports when I have his books. All families have issues, but this one is marked by the unspeakable, by a shocking and tremendously dark wound fed by each of its member. Yes, there is a big secret. Yes, there is a big bad guy. But everyone is to blame. For talking. For not talking. For simply being. Wow. It takes a professional mind to write about such deep, meaningful family dysfunctionalities while injecting the perfect dose of intrigue to both get the reader to connect and care, but also to have them taste and enjoy the thrill of impending doom.

Fallen Angel is a complex tale of what family means. It grabs you with its multi-layered characters and the ominous cloud hovering over a little corner of paradise hiding hell. Chris Brookmyre’s writing is sophisticated without ever feeling heavy. It is candy melting on your tongue, leaving the bittersweet taste only the best of psychological thrillers can offer.

Chris Brookmyre does it again. I enjoyed Fallen Angel so much I have been banned from talking about it to my friends because they can’t take it anymore! 😂

I loved this novel, I really did. The plot is unpredictable, the characters are enigmatic, and the setting is so beautiful. With a clear and intelligent prose, Chris Brookmyre created a gripping and suspenseful story of a dysfunctional family and the dark and disturbing secrets of its members.

On the splendid setting of the Portuguese seaside, two families live side by side in their villas. One villa is the holiday home of the Temple family: the once-famous actress, the renowned well-known professor, and their three children. On the outside, they look like the perfect family, but there are secrets, resentment, rivalry, and a tragedy in the past that risk to come to light when the family reunites again to mourn one of their own. In the other villa, there is Amanda Coolidge, a young blogger, a future journalist spending her summer working as a babysitter for a family friend before going back to Canada to start college. She is intrigued by the family next door. It’s clear that there is not much love between some members of the Temple family and what really happened that summer in 2002 when a tragedy hit the family? The truth may be much more sinister than Amanda thinks…

The characters are not easy to like, but they are very intriguing and compelling. There are the three women of the Temple family: narcissistic Celia, the matriarch of the family, once a famous actress and now living in the shadow of her more famous husband; indulgent Marion who always put her family first; and ice-cold Ivy, the youngest daughter with a troubled past who changed her name to distance herself from her family. And then there is Amanda. She is curious, investigative, and she wants to find out the truth about the Temple family, even if that may get her in danger. Using different timelines and different points of views, Chris Brookmyre slowly unravels the truth and keeps the tension always high.

FALLEN ANGEL is a superb, unpredictable, and compulsive novel, one of my favourite novels of the year, so much so that I am still thinking about it days after I finished reading it.

Fallen Angel is predominantly set in the Algarve across a dual timeline; 2002 and 2018. It concerns a missing child and the repercussions that flow from that. Echoes of Madeleine McCann, you might think and you’d be right, but only to the extent that one of the central themes of this book is conspiracy theories and how they abound, especially in a world of fake news.

Three villas sit at the end of a long track by the sea just past the village of Praia Mexilhoes. Two are owned by the Temple family and one by a lawyer named Vince and his wife, Laurie.

The Temples were Max, the patriarch, a psychology professor who found a degree of fame in analysing and tearing down conspiracy theories following a lively television appearance which made him instantly famous. Max’s wife Celia was an actress, most famous for playing a Servalan like character in a long running sci-fi TV series. Max and Celia have three children.

At the crux of this story is what happened to baby Niamh in 2002. Niamh disappeared, presumed drowned, during a party thrown by Vince and Laurie for the occupants of the three villas. Nothing has ever really been quite the same since then. Niamh’s mother, Ivy has become estranged from her family and has only returned to Portugal in the summer of 2018 to attend the scattering of Max Temple’s ashes.

Ivy now works in PR, and is a highly skilled corporate reputation manager who has more than earned the soubriquet ‘Poison’ Ivy. Keeping her distance from her brother and sister, their respective children and her mother, it is hard to work out just why she has come at all, so little grace does she show towards them all.

Vince’s new and much younger wife Kirsten is also there with their baby son, Arron and an 18 year old Canadian nanny, Amanda. Vince is reportedly on his way, having got held up due to last minute work issues.

Through flashbacks to 2002, we slowly build a picture of Max and Celia and their children. As you might expect, the perfect power couple have a less than perfect existence and we begin to understand why their children are the way that they are.

The nanny, Amanda has journalistic aspirations and is already a YouTube Vlogger, so she is usefully able to research the Temple family and help flesh out some of the family’s history for the reader.

Brookmyre constructs a multi-layered plot with well-defined characters, scope for many conspiracy theories and a particularly harsh view of the corporate PR world to which he seems to assign responsibility for much of today’s corporate weaseliness and fake narratives.

But it’s not just that world that is complicit in this novel; Brookmyre also looks hard at the wielding of fame and power; the responsibility that brings and how it can corrupt and poison everything it touches if left unchallenged and not held to account. He spins a tale of wanton deception and misdirection that is both evil and twisted. The old maxim of ‘power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely’ is held up here in all it’s tarnished glory.

Fallen Angel is a dark and disturbing story with characters that pin you to the page. You want to look away but you can’t. A domestic noir that raises the bar by several notches into an utterly compelling, spellbinding narrative about power, corruption and the vilest of conspiracies that lurk in the darkness, inside your home.

Verdict: This is chilling, tense and superbly crafted fare; beautifully constructed and sublime storytelling.

Blog tour review

Since belatedly discovering Chris Brookmyre a couple of years ago, I’ve been burning my way through his backlist and appreciating the sheer range of his books, (although I must admit to a particular fondness for the anarchic earlier works).

In his last novel he returned to science fiction with the space noir Places in the Darkness, but Fallen Angel is a more character-driven thriller in the style of the recent Parlabane novels.

Four generations of the affluent and glamorous Temple family are on their way to their holiday home in the Algarve. This is apparently a celebration of the life of the recently departed Max, who dominated all their lives. Max was a media-savvy academic who specialised in the psychology of conspiracy theories.

However the Temple family was itself at the centre of such a theory after toddler Niamh Temple disappeared at the villa, believed drowned, on another family holiday 16 years earlier. This is the first time since then that the whole family has come away together.

Max’s widow, Celia is a former actor who was herself something of a cult figure, until Max’s fame eclipsed hers. The family have all come into contact with publicity and its distorting effect following the tragedy.

This is a complex, cleverly crafted book, taking in both the two timelines – the aftermath of Max’s death and the events surrounding Niamh’s disappearance all those years ago – and the points of view of all the major characters. As the family arrive at the villa, we also see them through the eyes of Amanda, a young nanny for the family at the neighbouring villa, herself an activist and YouTube vlogger. The reader is (intentionally) in the dark for a while, trying to work out the different relationships between the characters, and even who are the parents of Niamh.

This only adds to the suspense. This is a world where nothing is certain, where even established facts cannot be taken at face value, where a family of adept manipulators may or may not be lying to the world, to one another, or even to themselves.

The characterisation is subtle and layered and the family tensions are brilliantly evoked. This is a family which is outwardly shiny and successful but is full of secrets and dark dynamics (and of course the worst characters get the best lines).

As always with Chris Brookmyre, there are all the twists and tricks you expect from a crime novel, but there is something more. In Fallen Angel, the ‘more’ is a clever and timely examination of why we believe what we believe, and how evidence, reason and rationalism are easily trumped (pun intended) by people’s desire to be drawn into a good story, one that confirms their prejudices, explains their own unease, or even just entertains.

Why are conspiracy theories so powerful? Why are people drawn to them, and why are they so willing to overlook the feelings of those who get hurt? I also can’t help thinking that there are some parallels between crime fiction and conspiracy theories. In crime fiction you would never want the obvious, predictable suspect to be the killer, you want to believe that there’s a cleverly malevolent force at work. It’s when people apply that same impulse to real life that it gets tricky.

Fallen Angel is a page-turning thriller with smart, spiky characters and stylish locations. It’s also a powerful reminder of how, in the oversharing economy where we think we know everything, the power to beguile with a story, to create a public persona which obscures a private truth, is more potent than ever.

Chris Brookmyre is one of those writers who has been on my radar for a while, who I have seen on various panels at book festivals but whose books I have never read. Until now. Fallen Angel was my first Chris Brookmyre novel and I don’t think it’ll be my last. It is brilliantly written and plotted with well drawn characters and an intriguing premise.

A dual timeline and multi-person narrative (two of my favourite things) combine to unveil a multi-layered story. Set in both 2002 and in 2018 it features the Temple family who own villas in The Algarve, Portugal. In 2002, a small child, Niamh, died, an event which caused Ivy, her mother to become estranged from her family. In the present day, the family have reunited at their villas to mourn the death of the patriarch of the Temple clan, Max. This is the first time Ivy has spent time with her family in 16 years and the tension and fraught relationships are observed by Amanda, a Canadian teenager who is acting as a nanny to the family who own the neighbouring villa.

Amanda is perfectly placed to observe what is going on. She is a vlogger with an interest in conspiracy theories and as Max famously debunked these myths she is a huge fan of his. She also knows that the Temple family themselves are subject to a conspiracy theory or two relating to Niamh, so sets out trying to work out what really happened all those years ago.

The dual timeline and multi-person narrative is brilliantly executed especially when it comes to the contrast between the 2002 and 2018 Temple family. There is something rotten within this family and it is often what is unsaid that is most important. Layers of intrigue, deception and the unveiling of secrets propel the story forward and make this a page turner of a novel.

This is an excellent read which I was unable to put down. Yes, it is a mystery; somebody dies on the very first page after all, but more than that it is a delicious study of family, power and secrets. The remote setting of three villas in the searing summer heat is the perfect backdrop to meet the Temple family in all of their messed up glory. Max is a celebrated and famous Professor, his wife, Celia a former actress who, in her day was a pin up. Narcissitic, emotionally abusive and unkind are just some of the words I can use to describe this couple. Celia is perpetually disappointed in her offspring; for marrying badly, getting pregnant young, for not having a good enough job and she doesn’t do a great deal to hide it. They are wealthy, snobbish and really easy to dislike – but great fun to read about.

Whilst I loved trying to work out the mystery, I really loved the psychological drama of the book. It is cleverly constructed with just enough hinted at to set you in the right direction before the rug is pulled out from under you. It makes it incredibly difficult to review though because if I tell you this, you’ll know THAT and you need to discover THAT for yourself. What I will tell you, is that it is brilliant and a perfect book to escape into. I highly recommend it if clever psychological thrillers with great characterisation and insightful writing is your thing.

I haven’t read any of Chris Brookmyre’s work before but I was soon hooked on his style of writing. The book takes place in two different times, 2002 and 2018. There are a lot of characters to remember including one who has changed her identity since the tragedy in 2002.

I was fascinated by the whole situation and whilst I’m not normally a lover of books shifting in time, this book worked. I was also eager to understand what the prologue meant.

The book is also told from multiple points-of-view. Unfortunately, this is something I’m not a lover of and so the book took a little bit more of my concentration and time to read than normal. Whilst the change between different POVs was done well and you always knew which person you were following, and which time zone, I’m just not a lover of multi-point-of-view books, but this is just my preference and may people love them.

The book is compelling, gripping and leaves you feeling anxious and cold at times as if you are on the edge of your seat knowing that something is lurking around the corner such as a twist in the plot or a shocking scene.

I will have to go back and read some of Mr. Brookmyre’s earlier work now.

Fallen Angel is a psychological thriller that keeps you guessing about everything right from the first page – someone was murdered, but who was it and why, and just who was the killer? It was a quiet killing and it looked as though the victim had died of a heart attack. It is only at the end of the book that victim and the murderer are revealed.

In 2018 the Temple family are spending the summer at their seaside villa in Portugal for a reunion after the death of the head of the family, Max Temple, who was a psychologist, specialising in debunking conspiracy theories. The last time they were all there together was in 2002 when one of the children had disappeared from the villa, and was presumed drowned. It was ironic considering Max’s speciality, that there was a lot of speculation on the internet about how she actually died, with suggestions that the drowning story had been fabricated to conceal abuse or neglect.

I found the opening chapters a little confusing as the members of the family are introduced and their relationships are established. There are a lot of them, none of them are very likeable and there’s plenty of tension as they don’t get on well with each other! It is not made clear for a while who the parents of the baby were. What is clear is that this is a dysfunctional family with a multitude of problems!

Joining them are the family at the next door villa, lawyer Vince, his second wife, Kirsten, and baby Arron, with their nanny, Amanda. A Canadian student and aspiring journalist, she is a fan of Max and is thrilled to discover that she is staying next door to the Temple family. She had read the reports in the press and on the internet about the tragedy of their missing child. But although her attempts to find out more are not welcomed, she gradually she uncovers layers upon layers of secrets and lies.

The narrative moves between events in 2002 and 2018, seen through the various characters’ perspectives. After a slow start, the pace increases, the tension rises and I became totally gripped by the mystery. I really didn’t want to stop reading. I liked the setting at a beautiful resort in the Algarve, providing an idyllic backdrop to the story of this truly dreadful family. It’s a novel about a family in crisis, about toxic relationships and about the psychology of conspiracy theories.

My thanks to the publishers, Little, Brown Book Group for my review copy via NetGalley.

I was hooked right from the start when it came to Fallen Angel. The blurb and the cover had intrigued me and I was really thrilled to feel right from the beginning that this book engrossed me. Fallen Angel is the story about the death of a little girl, Niamh, sixteen years ago. No body was ever found, but everyone assumed she drowned in the sea. Now the family is back in Portugal where it all happened. Across the Temple villa is Amanda working as a nanny for a family. She finds herself drawn to the Temple family and the more she starts to spend time with the Temple family the more she feels that they are hiding something.

Fallen Angel is my kind of thriller with family secrets and untrustworthy people. Honestly, not many in the book are especially sympathetic with the exception of Amanda. It's the kind of book that you just want to read one more chapter and even though some of the twists were perhaps not that unexpected were they interesting and made the story fascinating to read. I liked how the story also showed us flashbacks to the past, events that led to little Niamh death. I found the book to be a great thriller and I can't wait to read more from Chis Brookmyre!

Raise your hand if you love stories about dysfunctional families!

The Temple family seem to have it all. Max is a famous professor, his wife Celia a former actress and their three children have all grown up to be successful. But then Max dies and Celia invites her children to a holiday at the family villa in Portugal. The same villa where sixteen years earlier, little Niamh Temple died.

In the neighbouring villa, Amanda is working as a nanny for Vince and his wife, Kirsten. Being so close to the Temple family, she soon realises things are not what they seem and she begins to suspect one of them might be hiding something terrible.

And thus begins a thrilling ride as we delve into this family’s dynamics, while all the while trying to figure out what really happened to Niamh. There are some truly dark secrets lurking in the past and to be fair, none of these characters are particularly likeable but boy, is this story a gripping one! The prologue alone is a fantastic attention grabber. We know someone is murdered but we don’t know who, why or who did it. With a dual time frame and multiple points-of-view, the truth about the Temple family is slowly revealed and it’s pretty ugly and shocking.

Fallen Angel is such a compelling story with plenty of twists and I had no idea where it was going to end up. Brilliantly written, it digs deep into the psychology of these intriguing, complex and multi-layered characters while all the while teasing the reader with an impending sense of doom. Part psychological thriller, part family drama, it had me hooked from start to finish, trying to pick up little clues along the way, becoming completely immersed.

This is my first introduction to Chris Brookmyre but I have a feeling it won’t be my last. This is an author quite obviously capable of fantastic storytelling and I must have been living in a cave to have never heard of him before. I have no doubt Fallen Angel will appeal to both longstanding fans and people like me who are new to this author. Thoroughly enjoyed this and look forward to more!

Chris Brookmyre is back with a standalone psychological thriller with the requisite thrills and spills and not forgetting the all-important chills. Of course, like many other books in the genre, much of what happens requires a healthy suspension of disbelief, but if you go with the flow you're in for a wild ride so buckle up and enjoy. What really makes this a superb read is the complex characterisation of the family; they truly are a despicable mob whose sins of the past come to the fore in Fallen Angel unravelling what seemed to be an enviable existence to most outsiders. However, we all know that those with the most to hide put on the biggest show.

This is rather different from Brookmyre's previous novels but it is just as well written and unpredictable in nature. The surprises in the plot are done cleverly and your attention is captured for the whole duration after the first few chapters have sunk in. That said, it does take a little while (those first couple of chapters) to become acquainted with the large cast and changing viewpoints but after persevering I thoroughly enjoyed passing the time with the sneaky, sinful Temple's. I look forward to picking up more of Mr Brookmyre's writing in the future. Many thanks to Little, Brown for an ARC.

Something different again from Chris Brookmyre and another great book.

Full review will be done soon

Something a little bit different from this author and a great place to start if you've not discovered him before.
A gripping family drama starring one of the most toxic families I've come across, murder is just one of their crimes/sins. I really enjoyed the mixed perspective on the narrative and the insights into what drives the characters. There are some seriously unpleasant and damaged people, and the split timeline accentuates their development.
Some nice twists and turns make this a thoroughly enjoyable read.

Fallen Angel by Christopher Brookmyre was the first book by this author that I have read. Of course I have seen the books around before but just never got around to reading one. I enjoyed this book but I found it a bit slow and confusing to begin with. There are alot of characters to try to keep straight with multiple timelines and points of view. The further into it I got the clearer it all became. Most of the story is set in Portugal in both timelines which was a nice change. I will certainly give this writer another look.

The story of a well known family dealing with loss. In 2002 baby Niamh Temple disappeared. In 2018 professor Max Temple has been murdered. The Temple family are having a reunion at their holiday home in Portugal. Their neighbours with their Canadian student nanny Amanda are also enjoying a break there. Amanda is an inspiring journalist and finds her neighbours lives fascinating and the more she looks the more secrets and lies are uncovered. Maybe the lives of the rich and famous Temple family is not all it appears to be.

Thanks to Little Brown Book Group UK and NetGalley for my advanced copy of this book to read. All opinions are my own and are in no way biased

Fallen Angel is pretty good but not brilliant, I think. I love Chris Brookmyre’s Parlabane series, but I don’t think this is quite in the same league.

It’s a pretty familiar set-up, as an extended family arrives at their Portugese holiday villas shortly after the death of the famous intellectual who was patriarch of the family. Sixteen years before, they had endured a tragedy there as a young child was killed falling over a nearby cliff and her body was never found. We get a number of points of view (including one first person narrative) and the story cuts between the present and the time of the child’s death. Dark currents swirl and secrets begin to emerge…

Brookmyre is a good enough writer to make a decent, quite fresh-seeming story out of a rather hackneyed scenario; his characters are well drawn and the surprises are generally well hidden and fairly plausible. However, I did find that not much happened for a very long time and there are quite long digressions into dreadful parenting, the iniquities of PR companies and so on which, while accurate and shrewd, did feel a bit polemical and slowed things down even further. Add to this a very large cast which was hard to keep track of and consists of of almost entirely repellent characters and I began to struggle and to skim.

I don’t want to carp too much because this is a lot better than an awful lot of “twisty psychological thrillers”, but it does have its faults and I can only give it a rather qualified recommendation.

(My thanks to Little, Brown for an ARC via NetGalley.)