Smorgasbord Posts from My Archives – Past Book Reviews 2020 – A Year in the Life of Leah Brand: A #Psychological Thriller by Lucinda E. Clarke

I read some amazing books in 2020 and I would like to share them again with you, updated with the authors most recent releases and their biography.

This is my review from July 2020 for A Year in the Life of Leah Brand: A Psychological Thriller by Lucinda E. Clarke and can certainly recommend its gripping story line.

About the book

Leah’s nightmare began the day the dog died.

A few years earlier a fatal car crash took the lives of Leah’s beloved husband and their two babies, leaving her disabled. Life looked bleak. She was approaching forty, unemployed, broke and desperate.

Then she met Mason. He was charming, charismatic, persuasive, and a successful businessman, well respected in the community. His teenage daughter did nothing to welcome Leah into the family, but life is never perfect.

Then, two years into her second marriage, Leah Brand’s world is turned upside down; inanimate objects in the house move, her clothes are left out for the rubbish collection, pieces of furniture change places, there are unexplained noises and hauntings.

As the disturbances increase, everyone accuses Leah of losing her mind. Soon she begins to doubt herself and she starts to spiral down into a world of insanity. Is she going mad, or is someone out to destroy her? And if so, why?

A gripping, psychological thriller for fans of Mary Higgins Clarke and Louise Jensen.

My review for the book July 2020

A tense thriller that hurtles towards a cliff…..

I don’t think that I could have lived through the year that Leah Brandt did in this psychological thriller by Lucinda Clarke. Even when attempting to deal with the events and doubts that are causing such mayhem, in a rational way, Leah is drawn deeper and deeper into madness.

Surely this woman has already faced enough tragedy in her life? To lose your family and become disabled, would by daunting enough. However, it would seem that the fates have not finished with her just yet.

We are carried along on a roller coaster ride over the year, as each of the main characters, her dismissive new husband Mason, his stroppy teenage daughter Belinda and the seemingly warm and supportive next door neighbour Andrea Coe,  all adding levels of manipulation, rejection and secrecy. There is little respite, even in her mother’s home where she might have assumed to be free of the disturbing goings on in her own house. Layer upon layer of self-doubt results in a crisis of identity, and it is painful but compelling to watch the spiralling  descent into despair.

The characters were all well drawn and it was easy to have very clear opinions about their personalities. At times you almost you could reach into the pages and make your presence felt with a few choice words….. it is not easy to stand by and see someone being victimised and to remember this is a story!

Who is behind this personal vendetta and why? Will Leah be saved from this train wreck of her life? Who can you trust? I recommend that you read the book for yourself….

Read the other reviews and buy the book: Amazon US – And : Amazon UK

A selection of books by Lucinda E. Clarke

Read the reviews and buy the books :  Amazon US –  And : Amazon UK – Blog: WordPress Lucinda E. Clarke — Follow Lucinda: Goodreads – Twitter: @LucindaEClarke

About Lucinda E. Clarke

Lucinda E Clarke [not her real name] was born in Dublin, but has lived in 8 other countries to date. She wanted to write but was railroaded into teaching. She had a habit of “falling” into other careers, announcing on radio, then scriptwriting for radio and television. She has been a professional writer since 1986 winning over 20 awards for her work, including mayoral speeches, company profiles, drama documentaries, educational programmes for radio and television, adverts, news inserts, court videos, National Geographic, cookery programmes, to name but a few!

She lectured in scriptwriting, had her own column in various publications, and written for national magazines. She was commissioned for two educational books by Heinemann and Macmillan, and book reports for UNESCO and UNICEF.

She graduated into running her own video production company in South Africa.

 

Thanks for visiting and I hope you enjoyed my review for Lucinda’s book and will check out her others. Thanks Sally.