You know the feeling when you read the first line of a book and think to yourself “yes, this one is going to be a good one”? That’s how I felt when I started the Beautiful Bad and it carried on throughout.
A massive thank you to Quercus Books and NetGalley for the advanced copy and trusting me to write about how I felt about the book.
Beautiful Bad – Annie Ward
5 out of 5
Published 21 March 2019 by Quercus
You can order a copy from Waterstones
Free copy in exchange for an honest review
Blurb: Maddie and Ian’s romance began when he was serving in the British Army and she was a travel writer visiting her best friend Jo in Europe. Now sixteen years later, married with a beautiful son, Charlie, they are living the perfect suburban life in Middle America.
But when an accident leaves Maddie badly scarred, she begins attending therapy, where she gradually reveals her fears about Ian’s PTSD; her concerns for the safety of their young son Charlie; and the couple’s tangled and tumultuous past with Jo.
From the Balkans to England, Iraq to Manhattan, and finally to an ordinary family home in Kansas, the years of love and fear, adventure and suspicion culminate in The Day of the Killing, when a frantic 911 call summons the police to the scene of shocking crime.
But what in this beautiful home has gone so terribly bad?
My thoughts: Holy Cow, another remarkable thriller, right up my street! A gloomy, twisted tale that’ll have you biting your nails whilst hastily turning pages until the penny drops with a twist you will not see coming.
Beautiful Bad follows the three main characters – Maddie, Ian and Joanna. Timeline alternating between the years when the three characters met and the weeks before the killing, making you believe authors deceit into how they arrived to the point where the 911 call was made in the opening chapter. I cannot remember the last time I was so wrong about the characters and the plot twist. This one hit me like a ton of bricks out of the blue and I LOVED IT!
Annie Ward is a new author for me, so I had no idea about what I was getting myself into. I absolutely love psychological thrillers and Beautiful Bad is just that- a slow burning, yet entirely captivating tale of deceit, jealousy, greed and suspense. I was completely mesmerized throughout and for once I did not foresee the ending!
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