Dark Secrets..
Accident, suicide or murder? That is the question when a pensioner plunges from a roof on the smart Balmoral Square Mansions. As police investigate, more questions arise and soon the matter is to become more complex than ever. Edgy, slick and fast moving with a well drawn cast of eccentric and eclectic characters, a narrative laced with wry commentary, a pacy plot and a solid mystery within. Nothing is as it seems…

Miss Arabella Pettigrew falls from her roof at Balmoral Square Mansions, adding another investigation to DI Strawberry's already busy caseload. There is also the undercover operation into a drug ring and a seagull serial killer, and by the end of the book, six total people have died and a cat is missing (the subtitle of the book is Six Dead and a Missing Cat). This was decent, and I enjoyed the story, but the writing style was a little off for me personally. I had the impression there might be a sequel, and I would give a second book a try as well. 3.5 stars rounded to 3.

‼️ DNF at 30%‼️

Thank you for the opportunity to read this ARC!

All the reasons I didn’t enjoy this book was purely up to personal taste.

I found the writing style difficult to engage with, and I think this book is definitely better for a slightly older age demographic.

The initial plot line was interesting, but I just found all the extra characters storylines to be dull, and found myself loosing interest in the story altogether.

I would rather DNF than continue and leave a 1 or 2 star review, but I think anyone middle aged and older is much more likely to enjoy this book.

An exciting read with fun characters and lots of twists and turns.
Great plot development only let down by the ‘clues’ to the next book and I personally dislike that style.
Despite that, an enjoyable read

“BODIES don’t usually fall off roofs in the West End of Edinburgh.” The first sentence of this book was promising and immediately captured my undivided attention. The description that followed of Arabella Pettygrew’s fall and its aftermath was viscerally vomit-inducing, but also had a subtle levity to it despite the tragedy of death. The narrator’s voice here was a mix of irreverence and a macabre sense of humour, which I enjoy and made me look forward to reading the book.

The initial chapters, with the introduction of the detective, Richard Strawberry and a few of the residents of Balmoral Square Mansions (the street where Arabella Pettygrew lived and plunged to her death), continued along a similar vein. I was prepared to be whisked into the posh, eccentric world of the old moneyed residents of Balmoral Square.
What followed instead was a convoluted tale with endless characters being introduced even halfway through the book. It wasn’t just that there were new characters, but the timeline was all over the place, though an effort was made to provide some sense of when and where we are; it got confusing very quickly with the back stories of each new character. There were just so many tales within tales and so much back and forth that it was impossible to get oriented at times, especially if I picked up the book after a gap of a couple of days.

The other issue I had was with the POV. I loved the narrator’s voice, but the universal narrative style was not to my taste. On every page, the perspective jumped from one character’s head to the other. There were so many times that two characters, A and B, were having a conversation, and one minute I was in character A’s head in the next line, I was seeing the world from character B’s head. While it may have served a certain purpose, I didn’t see it. All it did was confuse an already entangled plot even further.

There was one tangent that, in my opinion, wasn’t needed at all. I won’t go into details as it may be a spoiler. All I would like to mention is that it was told from the culprit’s perspective, got resolved early on in the book and had absolutely no impact on the main story other than being an annoying detour that this story could have done without. Towards the end, all the various threads did come together, and there was a resolution for each one. But there were so many loose ends to tie up that it took a while to bring everything to a close, which I found grating.

I liked Detective Strawberry and Officer Gunn. In fact, all of the characters were well put together and had a distinct personality and voice, even the minor ones. It was the one thing that made it possible to keep track of the myriad elements of this plot.

The descriptions of the settings, the characters and even the dialogue were engaging and brought the story to life. There were also some comic as well as ironic moments that made the story enjoyable. I would pick up the next book with Detectives Strawberry and Gunn if this turns into a series, as it is teased at the end. Just hope that the next book will be more concise and focused.

A Smart Address is sharp, stylish, and full of bite—a modern domestic thriller that had me hooked from the first page. A. Gill-Gray delivers a clever, slow-burning mystery wrapped in sleek prose and simmering tension. It’s about what it means to have it all… and how quickly it can all fall apart.

From the outside, everything about the address seems perfect: the right neighborhood, the right people, the right image. But underneath that glossy surface is a web of secrets, lies, and quiet desperation. I loved how the story played with themes of appearance vs. reality, ambition, and the cost of curated perfection. It’s timely, smart, and uncomfortably relatable.

The protagonist is complex and compelling—flawed but fiercely determined—and watching them navigate the layers of deception felt like peeling back wallpaper only to find rot underneath. Every chapter pulls you deeper into the mystery, and just when you think you’ve figured it out, Gill-Gray flips the narrative in the most satisfying way.

If you’re a fan of domestic suspense with a modern edge and characters who are anything but predictable, A Smart Address is a must-read. Tense, twisty, and unputdownable—I devoured it.