After reading and loving The Lamplighters I was really looking forward to this book by Emma Stonex. But I just couldn't settle into it. I didn't like the characters and the plot just seemed flat to me.

A stunning and evocative exploration of how neglect and abuse can lead to horrifying consequences for all involved.

This was beautifully written with evocative settings due to the accomplished prose.

James and Birdie are such tortured souls and their journeys were both heartbreaking and soulful.

An immersive reading experience and one that broke my heart.

Up on Goodreads now, live on the blog on 28 April:

I couldn’t wait to get my mitts on The Sunshine Man, because I adored The Lamplighters and I’d been waiting for another book by Emma Stonex for a long, long time. Before diving in, I did realise The Sunshine Man would be a completely different book contentwise, but I did hope to experience that same kind of bookish magic. Alas, I’m afraid I did not.

The Sunshine Man tells the story of Birdie, both past and present. In the present, her sister’s killer has been released from prison, finally, and she is ready. She’s been ready for years. She has a plan, sort of, she has a gun, she will make him pay. The chapters set in the past show Birdie’s childhood. We learn how she rolls and just how much she loves her baby sister. I loved Birdie, revenge plans and all, and I really enjoyed these storylines.

What, unfortunately, worked a lot less for me, was Jimmy’s storyline. His chapters include loads, and I do mean LOADS, of F-bombs, noted as “— – ing”. That got real old real quick. I don’t mind swearing, not in real life, not in books. I’ve read reviews in which reviewers comment on all the swear words used and I’m like “Seriously? Swearing? I didn’t even notice.” The use of “— – ing” just made me notice them more and even though my brain knew perfectly well how to read them, it snagged on the dashes like a millisecond every time, which was really tiring and tiresome. I honestly would have minded less if the word had just been spelled normally. (I’m avoiding it here myself so Amazon won’t refuse to post my review 😅)

Jimmy’s storyline also includes a few letters with poor spelling and poor grammar, and more F-words. And I do get it, I understand why the author / editor / publisher opted for this. And many readers will not mind it at all, they’ll love it, they might applaud the authenticity. But for me, personally, it grated. The form detracted from the content, distracting me in such a way that I wasn’t fully able to take in what I was reading because I only noticed the form it came in, and I started speed-reading to escape it and get back to Birdie. I’m pretty sure I would have enjoyed The Sunshine Man more had I listened to it instead.

Overall, for me, The Sunshine Man was a mixed bag. I found the nostalgia of Birdie’s past and the urgency of her present riveting, but it took me a long while to get a feel for Jimmy and to start caring about him. As the story progresses, the use of “— – ing” becomes more sporadic, that definitely helped, but sadly, I never became fully invested in his side of things. A reveal towards the end makes me regret that even more.

Don’t get me wrong, The Sunshine Man is a great book, it’s an intricately woven story with an unsettling undercurrent throughout, and I’m sure I would have loved it if I’d been able to look past those issues I had with it. I would recommend it, but beware, if you think you might have the same issues I had, you might want to check out the audiobook.

The Sunshine Man is out in hardcover, digital formats and audio on 1 May, with the paperback to follow in November.

Massive thanks to Picador and NetGalley for the DRC. All opinions are my own.

Page turning tense thriller. Floyd really plays a part in this story, but to what depths will he sink and the hold he has over James?

James, is he a victim of circumstance with his family being dysfunctional or was he mentally unstable from birth. Revenge is a meal that can destroy all in its path.

A book that must be read.

Thank you Netgalley for letting me read this book.

An interesting case study of revenge and retribution, Providence and her murder lie at the heart of this novel, ever present. Even though the formatting of this eARC wasn’t the best it proves a great deal that I was still immersed in the story from start to finish. Another success from Stonex.

As soon as I saw Emma Stonex had a new release I was desperate to read it and it was even better than I had hoped . The opening line is shocking and grabs you straight away. What unfolds is a sad tale of broken childhoods, neglectful parents, friends doing the best they can, and Gamma who is just a wonderful redemptive character. The names of the girls, Birdie and Providence, give us a kind of clue to their characters and impact. I read this in one day, I couldn't put it down, and I felt a terrible loss at the end. (That the book had ended- not a spoiler)

Birdie hears the news that Jimmy Maguire has been released from prison. The man that killed her sister. She leaves her family behind and sets off, with a gun, to find him
Told from different viewpoints as Birdie follows Jimmy and we discover, through flashbacks, what happened in the past.
I found this hard to read, particularly the diary entries when Jimmy was in prison, and discovered that I didn't really like any of the characters enough to care what happened.

An addictive read - tough to read due to the content at times but so well written. A cracking pace in places and a few unexpected twists in the story. Don’t start it just before bedtime!,

I enjoyed Stonex’ previous book the lamplighters immensely, and was looking forward to reading this. I’m afraid for me there’s an element of difficult second novel about the sunshine man - much like the first novel we have repeated use of different perspectives and use of reports from counselling sessions etc, which build an overall picture, but it’s less than the sum of its parts. I didn’t feel invested in either the “present day” revenge timeline, or the backtracking through past events, regardless of which perspective we were seeing events in. I’m not sure if the early foreshadowing of a psychological twist was meant to be so heavy handed but it felt very drawn out by the time it’s made explicit - I was rather glad when we got to the point so to speak.
Stonex does write effectively and the different times and places are well drawn, but for me it’s didn’t gel as much as I wanted it to

The Sunshine Man by Emma Stonex is a literary take on the revenge thriller and one that did not entirely work for me as much as I hoped but was still a thought provoking and tension filled read.
January 1989 and Birdie learns that the moment she has been waiting for has finally arrived, Jimmy Maguire, the man who murdered her sister has been released from prison. Time to put her plan into action. She heads to London with a gun and on a mission, to kill Jimmy before he can hurt anyone else. But there is another side to the story, one that Birdie knows nothing about and one that could change everything. Is this really a book about retribution or one about forgiveness.
I was drawn in by the premise of this book, and it started strongly as we get to know Bridie and her story, both past and present but where it fell apart a little for me was when we switched to Jimmy's perspective, these sections were more difficult to read and while that did align with the dissonance the character was experiencing it meant I just kept wanting to go back to Birdie's perspective. The dual timelines worked well and really did help to keep me guessing about what had actually happened as well as making me have some empathy for Jimmy's character, but it was not enough to make me love the book. The book however did give me plenty of food for thought about justice, grief and the fallibility of memory and I could appreciate the author's skill and ambition.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.

I unfortunately had a really hard time connecting to the characters in this book especially reading from our second characters POV, very difficult to get through. My first from this author and it may just not be a good fit. I did appreciate the detail regarding a lot of the justice system and the back stories were intriguing at times but it never fully captured my attention and was hard to finish.

This is a clever crime/psychological thriller that will have you very quickly turning the pages to find out just what is going on.
With lots of twists and turns Emma really gets the reader invested in the emotions and reasonings (or not) behind each action. While I clicked pretty early what was happening, the ending was still satisfying and well done.

Birdie is going to kill a man. A man she knows killed her sister. But Birdie is just a wife, a mother,, a sister. No one special. Can she really do what she plans? And were Jimmy Maguire's crimes perhaps even worse than those she can admit to herself?

Told from multiple viewpoints, with a mix of first and third person narratives, hospital diaries and so much more, The Sunshine Man is a complex tale, weaving through decades of hurt and pain to one singular decision that Birdie must make. The flurry of perspectives is, at first, disorienting, and may unnerve some readers, but once the book starts moving and once you're properly able to place the sequence of the narratives, a sequence of terrible events unfolds before you, holding secrets within secrets, and exposing characters driven by demons they might never admit to.

In the end, the novel's final sequences are darkly cathartic and powerful. Once you break through to the story's emotional core, you'll be swept up into the world of the Sunshine Man, and you may be surprised to find where your empathy lies...

Definitely recommend this. Brilliantly written with twists and turns. The characters were fantastic. Becoming an auto buy author for me

Unfortunately I struggled to read this as the formatting was so bad with mixed up text and repeated text. I wanted to be hooked anyway but it wasn’t enough to overcome the problems. I will read again with a proper copy as I loved the Lamplighters and have high hopes.

Set in the late 80's, Birdie Keller is waiting for news that the man who killed her sister is being released from prison,

Birdie wants revenge and this terrifying thriller is both pacy and intriguing.

This is a novel that could have been so much more, but that said it is a story that is well told and one that will satisfy any fan of this genre.

It is a perfect cat and mouse tale and one that combines Birdie sense of revenge and her love for her sister.

It has an element of emotion and I felt that I could see both sides of the two main characters. I didn't know who to side with.

I had high hopes for this after reading Stonex’s previous novel, but this one fell unfortunately flat for me. I was hoping for the unique story telling of her previous book, but it just wasn’t quite here

The Sunshine Man is an utterly gripping psychological thriller that will keep you hooked from the very first page.

In January 1989, Birdie wakes to the news she’s been waiting eighteen long years to hear: Jimmy Maguire, the man who killed her sister, has been released from prison. Determined to make him pay, Birdie heads for London with a gun in hand. But as she pursues her quest for vengeance, she uncovers a much more complicated story.

Is Jimmy truly the killer, or is he the one person Birdie can trust? As the layers of her family’s secrets and long-buried betrayals begin to unravel, Birdie must confront the haunting truth—and decide whether forgiveness or retribution is the answer.

Emma Stonex masterfully writes from multiple perspectives, much like she did in The Lamplighters. In The Sunshine Man, we hear from both Birdie and Jimmy, allowing us to form our conclusions about what happened all those years ago. This approach makes the novel a far richer experience, as we are never quite sure who is right or wrong.

The pervasive colour yellow in the story takes on a dark and unsettling significance, representing much more than just a cheerful hue. It lends a chilling edge to the book, turning what should be a symbol of warmth into a stark reminder of the past’s haunting shadows.

If you love tense, atmospheric thrillers filled with twists and moral dilemmas, The Sunshine Man is an absolute must-read!

Read more at The Secret Book Review.

Managed to work my through despite significant formatting issues which I have reported appropriately
An intriguing read and rather different from the usual. I had enjoyed The Lamplighters so was keen to read this.
Overall a good read and I suspect the ending will be good discussion for book groups
As I finished it I have reviewed but understand if Netgalley remove because it contains technical issues

Such a good book, thrilling, tense and un-putdownable! It rivals her first, you know you're getting a good read with Emma Stonex!