The award winning crime thriller writer, Steve Cavanagh, manages to both gently satirise the genre of psychological thrillers, demand for which has exploded sky high amongst readers and publishers alike in recent years, whilst at the same time paying homage to it by going on to incorporate as many twists as he possibly can. This is a standalone novel with the tongue in cheek and rather apt title 'Twisted', although Cavanagh just cannot resist slipping in a reference to Eddie Flynn, the hot shot lawyer from his ongoing series. JT LeBeau is a thriller writer with a huge following and sales for his books, only n0-one knows who he is, despite numerous attempts to discover who he is by the media, publishers and others. LeBeau's fame and notoriety revolve around his ability to write and plot killer twists that no-one ever sees coming. The novel kick starts with LeBeau's tantalising statement:

'BEFORE YOU READ THIS BOOK
I WANT YOU TO KNOW THREE THINGS:

1. The police are looking to charge me with murder.
2. No one knows who I am. Or how I did it.
3. If you think you've found me. I'm coming for you next.

After you've read this book, you'll know: the truth is far more twisted...'

Paul Cooper, a sales management consultant is married to Maria, and the couple moved to Port Lonely to live. Paul is a man with secrets who has maintained a distance from his wife, which has led to her feeling increasingly lonely and isolated in this tiny wealthy community. Maria has assuaged her inner need for human connection by taking a lover, Daryl, an impoverished country club instructor and waiter. As her feelings for Daryl grow, Maria teeters on the brink of making the momentous decision to either stay with Paul for financial security or to settle for Daryl and poverty. She feels an inner rage when she accidentally finds evidence that Paul has been concealing huge secrets that make her feel she barely knows her husband. She begins to concoct plans to make him pay for his deceit and consolidate her future with Daryl.

When Sheriff Abraham Dole, and his Deputy of very few words, Melissa Bloch, are called in to a break in at the Coopers home, they can feel something is off, particularly when nothing is taken. This turns out to be the beginning of an investigation for them that is to test them to their limits as it spirals in completely unexpected directions, and begins to take in a long ago case that involved the murder of a woman who was never identified in Port Lonely, a case Dole has never forgotten. This is a story of a rising body count in murders, of characters that are nothing as they appear, unreliable memories, and two authors in the process of writing their latest books, one a murderous predator, the other trying merely to survive.

Steve Cavanagh takes us on a emotional thrill ride of a read, with twists popping up left, right and centre, where you are going to need suspend your sense of disbelief time after time, as you enter the dangerous and warped world of JT LeBeau and what happens to anyone who finds out his real identity. A fabulously entertaining and fun read, full of suspense and tension, from an author who obviously enjoyed writing and plotting this compelling thriller. Many thanks to Orion for an ARC.

5 Stars from me - can I give it 10?

It's just bloody brilliant, go read it!

I could leave it there really, shortest review in history and truly accurate. I've not read anything by Steve Cavanagh before and I will now be seeking out a copy of Thirteen, the guy is a genius, mind you if I were his wife I don't think I'd let him take out life insurance against me. Or have any sharp knives in the house. Or plastic sheeting. Or turn my back on him. Or ever sleep... Other than that, I expect it's all good and nice and relaxed.

The writing style is superb, it is gripping, beautifully paced and has that magic quality of being 'unputdownable'. I raced through the pages loving every twist and turn and yet desperately trying to slow down as I knew the book was coming to a conclusion.

I don't want to give any spoilers - except maybe clear your diary and stock up on tea and biscuits - but if you enjoy a bit of clever killing with lots of twists and undercurrent of good humour then you need to read this book.

'Kill your darlings' love it and never has it been so true.



Synopsis: BEFORE YOU READ THIS BOOK 
I WANT YOU TO KNOW THREE THINGS:

1. The police are looking to charge me with murder.
2. No one knows who I am. Or how I did it.
3. If you think you've found me. I'm coming for you next.

After you've read this book, you'll know: the truth is far more twisted...

What we might call a stock archetypal thriller/crime novel, Cavanagh's new novel seems to follow the genre’s formula’s readily. This is an enjoyable book, to some extent, with plot twists, well written prose and often established, believable characters throughout. Having not read Thirteen, I am not at liberty to say how this compares, yet as a stand alone book, Twisted presents a clear formulaic attempt to use the mystery of the nom de plume and murder quite succinctly in places.

Borrowing or comparatively similar in themes, it appears, from the likes of the Harry Quebert Affair by Dicker, and often echoing narrative voices you would expect to stumble across in offerings from Jo Nesbo or Peter May, readers can relax into the story, and enjoy a page turning story of the mysterious, potentially dead, author of bestselling crime novels. The enigmas surrounding his whereabouts, his corruption, his identity and most notably his interactions with the other protagonists (or antagonists if I may be so bold?!). The latter chapters of the book shift up a gear, making the ending one of intrigue and much more engaging at times than in the preceding chapters of this book. At times, especially earlier in the tale, this establishes itself as a story which ruminates and often does not move forward with ease.

There is potential for boredom on behalf of the reader ploughing through the pages of back and forth between the husband and wife team at the core of the plot; and you would be forgiving for wondering regularly if this tale was going anywhere beyond the illicit secrets of Paul and Maria’s marriage. Luckily the volta of the plot breaks through about two thirds of the way through and saves this book from it’s potential demise as a story not quite realised fully enough.

Sheerly for the final third, Twisted is a three-star offering from Cavanagh. No, it is not a breakout piece of crime-thriller writing, or even a stand out in the plethora of books available in the genre. However, perhaps some of it’s saving grace comes in the fact it does not try to reinvent the wheel. Often well written, this is a classic page turner in it’s latter development of the narrative, and will be pleasing to fans of this genre - easy to read, engaging to a point all the while offering enough escapism to absorb you into the world of Daryl, Paul and Maria for a little while.

#netgalley #bookstagram #Twisted #PaulCavanagh

Steve Cavanagh has recently become one of my favourite authors. His books are incredibly easy to read and so fast paced you can’t help but want to stay up late reading until you’ve finished! Thirteen was one of my favourite books of 2018 and this has followed suit. No Eddie Flynn in this one, but still likeable characters and a very good TWISTED storyline.

Twisted is definitely one twisty story.

I found the first part really gripping as the story of a writer using an alias is about to have his identify revealed progressed quickly and drew me straight in, I admit I did get a little lost in the middle at it felt like there was a little too much going on, but towards the ending I was flying through again as I wanted to find out how the author pulled all these strands together.

Really enjoyed the concept of this novel and would read more by Steve Cavanagh.

This is my honest opinion, thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to review this book.

Enjoyed this book but at times was a bit too twisty! And sometimes I lost track of where I was with it!! But generally a nice thriller

A new author to me and I loved it, a well developed story with excellent characters and a good paced thriller which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Thank you to Netgalley and Orion Publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book.

Was so looking forward to Twisted having devoured Thirteen and recommending it to anyone who would listen and I was not disappointed. Great plot fabulous storyline and a myriad of twists and turns x highly recommend

I really enjoyed Thirteen and on that basis was pleased to be offered Twisted to review. I suspect this is a Marmite book - people will like or dislike it. I'm in the latter group - there are plenty of twists but some were unreal and I got the feeling the writer was having a bit of fun with his readers.

JT Lebeau is the most successful writer in America but no-one knows him: he shuns all publicity but makes millions of dollars. Who is Lebeau? When Maria discovers a secret bank account belonging to her husband Paul which relates to Lebeau she tries to find out what secrets Paul is hiding with the help of her lover Daryl. This is followed by a trail of murder and attempted murder, with a determined police officer wanting to find out the truth.

I persevered until the end but it wasn't worth it really. Please write another courtroom drama as good as Thirteen next time round. Thanks to NetGalley and Orion Publishing for the opportunity to read and review Twisted.

Twisted is a perfect title for this intriguing book. The reader must pay attention or get lost as the true murderer becomes apparent. It is a story of disloyalty,double dealing and a single clever detective. As the story unfolds,the similarity between the book you are reading and the book the murderer has written is extremely cleverly handled. This is a book to read when you have time to see it through or you will be going back to remind yourself of what you have missed.

I love the Eddie Flynn series of books by this brilliant author and when I saw this book was a stand-alone, I was excited to read it. I wasn’t disappointed. This book certainly lives up to its title. So many twists right up until the end. I was hooked from the start. It's a must read brilliant.

My thanks to NetGalley and publisher Orion for the ARC,
The opening certainly catches attention and introduces J T LeBeau, a reclusive, unseen, multi-award winning successful author of crime stories. Paul Cooper and his wife Maria live an isolated life in Port Lonely; Paul's work takes him away a lot and Maria now has a boyfriend, Daryl, whom she met at the local country club where he is a waiter.. With the discovery of a bank statement detailing a hidden account in Paul's name and containing $20m dollars, Maria resolves, with Daryl's help, to confront Paul about the money in the belief that he is J T LeBeau.
Sheriff Abraham Dole and Deputy Bloch become involved to investigate an apparent break-in at the Coopers' home.
From there, well, this certainly was 'original' - not having read any previous books by this author I cannot make comparisons - but I'm not overly thrilled with it. I felt as though the author was playing a joke on the reader - just how many twists in a story could there be? In fact, too many; for me, the story became at times bogged down with narrative reminiscences of the main characters and put my speed-reading skills to the test in an effort not to give up on the book. Admittedly, I had to persevere if only to find out what ridiculously happened next.
Lots of unanswered questions for me, in an overly-complicated plot.

The start was drawn out for me and I was honestly thinking of putting it to one side. I stuck with it once the background work had been done it started to pick up, and then it was like a run away train. The twists just keep coming to the end.
It certainly is worth trying to stick with it.

J T LeBeau is the most successful author in the world at the moment but no one knows a thing about him - no pictures on the dust jackets of his books, no personal appearances or signings. Maria Cooper and her lover Daryl have found that her husband Paul has been keeping secrets from her - $20 million worth of secrets - and she reckons he’s J T LeBeau. A tale of murder, blackmail and revenge with twist after twist. Absolutely gripping read that keeps you guessing from the beginning - loved it!

Thanks to Netgalley, Orion Publishing and Steve Cavanagh for the ARC of this book in return for an honest review.

Loved this book. Plenty well executed twists & turns, amazing characters would recommend this book to anyone.

I was intrigued by this book and the blurb sounded promising. It was rather disappointing, however: over-complicated plot (at times bordering on ridiculous) , the characters that had no depths and unrealistic, wooden dialogue... It seemed that the author got carried away, trying to shock the reader with multiple jaw-dropping twists and lost the sight of the bigger picture. I did finish the book - it wasn't bad, just nothing special, in my opinion.
Many thanks to Netgalley and the publishers Orion Books for the ARC.

realistically there is nothing that would normally appeal to me about this book, but having stumbled upon Steve as an author last year and found his books facinating, I felt compelled to read this one.

Once again, Steve manages to weave so many strands of the story together for a totally unpredictable finale, thanks so much, I thoroughly enjoyed this book in only two sittings!

Twisted by Steve Cavanagh was a bit of a let-down for me, to be honest. I absolutely loved Thirteen; Cavanagh's use of voice and characterisation was on point to the limit that he could have written a basic plot and I still would have read on. However, Twisted is the complete opposite of that. He appears to have focused so much on writing an intricate plot with many deceptive characters, no trustworthy narration and a multitude of twists that he has forgotten about his characters. Twisted by Steve Cavanagh is out now from Orion Publishing Group.

The story
Paul Cooper is a mysterious man who has been cold toward his wife, so now she is having an affair. After making the discovery that Paul might be J.T. Lebeau, a world famous thriller author writing under a pseudonym, she plans to confront him about it to find out who he really is. With many twists, the police have a firm investigation into who Lebeau is and what he has been up to the past few years.

Why I was disappointed...
Honestly, Cavanagh sets up a nice scene in the beginning; I enjoyed the intitial character building in Maria, Daryl and Paul and was excited to see where they would go and how their personalities and identities would shift over the course of the novel. Then my interest began to fade. As Paul ends up in the situation he does, and the police rehash details time and again in trying to track him down, it gets very dull. I didn't care for Paul or Daryl and Maria practically disappears from the narrative for a good percentage of it, when she was one of the only characters I actually sympathised with.
Because this is not laid out as a police procedural, the inclusion of the police scenes are so few and far between that it is obvious that they are simply being used as a plot device, but they don't actually find anything out that the reader doesn't already know. All they do is break up the monotony of Paul's narrative.
Additionally, the ending is so ridiculous and predictable, that you'll only be satisfied if you like your mysteries tied up in a neat little bow no matter where the ribbon comes from to tie that bow. I get that throughout Cavanagh is building toward the big twists all coming at the end, but this made the story drag as I was sick of every hundred pages a character saying 'do you know how hard it is to write twists convincingly?'. Well, I wasn't convinced so clearly it is that hard.

Overall, I was disappointed following my love of Thirteen. I personally believe that Cavanagh should stick to writing outlandishly cruel and evil characters, or police procedurals which ultimately work better in my opinion. Thank you Orion and NetGalley for my e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

The first novel I've read by Steve Cavanagh and I immediately want to read everything he's written (I do love it when that happens)!

Twisted really does live up to its name. The shocks and twists hit you out of the blue and are so skilfully done that the shock is all the greater. To try and describe the plot in much detail would be to give spoilers, but I was sufficiently gripped to read it in a couple of days. Highly recommended.

I think I need a long lie down after reading this! This is one of the most exciting, twisty and fast paced thrillers I’ve ever read (and I’ve read a lot). I’m a fan of Steve Cavanagh from his Eddie Flynn series, this is a stand-alone thriller surrounding the identity of mysterious writer J.T LeBeau. Although everyone wants to know who he really is, finding out isn’t a good idea as those who know are now dead. The book centres around three characters at the heart of the mystery and the unfolding of the story left me genuinely breathless.

If you’re a fan of Peter Swanson and Linwood Barclay then this is definitely for you.

Thank you Netgalley and Orion Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review