A Woman Scorned / Before Her Eyes by Jack Jordan #BookReviews @JackJordanBooks @CorvusBooks

Are you afraid?
You should be.

The husband: in over his head with no way of knowing the truth.
The mistress: blinded by love, betrayed by her family…
The neighbour: will stop at nothing to protect the life he has fought to create.
The wife: a woman bent on revenge, but how far is she willing to go…?

It seems like a lifetime ago that I was blown-away when I read My Girl, but even though it’s been a long wait for his new book, Jordan can take all the time in the world if it means he’ll deliver another phenomenal story like the one in A Woman Scorned.

I have no idea how to do this novel justice with my review but Jordan is such a master in writing amazing twists and turns into a story, it’s like I’m watching a David Blaine show. There are no frogs coming out of someone’s mouth just yet but let’s just say it’s a close call ;-). The whole story from beginning to end is delightfully twisted and I was surprised by new revelations with every new point of view. This was quite a rollercoaster read. It’s disturbing, frightening and so compelling that I really didn’t want to put it down. I couldn’t help it, it was just that good!

It’s no secret that I love my villains most when they look normal on the surface but calculating and cunning on the inside and you’ll know who you’re going to meet soon enough. It’s pretty obvious from the very start that Amber isn’t a woman to be toyed with. Only a few pages in and I knew she was a reckoning. Revenge is always a great motivator and when I met Amber and heard that she knew about The Mistress and kept it all in her pretty little head, well I knew she was dangerous, but how dangerous exactly? I was anxious and excited to find out :-). There was a lot more going on though, the story definitely doesn’t stop with Amber’s awesome yet disturbing introduction at the start of the story, far from it! Such fun to discover!

I only had one small disappointment, I wished it hadn’t ended so soon :-). Nah, I’m just kidding, the story wrapped up beautifully and I’m happy the way it ended!

If you enjoy psychological thrillers than this is a must-read so just go and read it already!

I bought an e-copy of this novel on Amazon. It’s currently on sale for 0.98 GBP. This is my honest opinion.

She can’t see the killer
But the killer can see her…

Naomi Hannah has been blind since birth. Struggling with living in a small, claustrophobic town, Naomi contemplates ending her life. But then she stumbles across the body of a young woman who has been brutally murdered. She senses someone else there at the scene – watching her. Naomi may not be able to see the killer’s face, but she is still the only person who can identify him.

As the police begin hunting the person responsible and more victims are discovered, Naomi is forced to answer the question on which her fate hangs: why did the killer let her live?

In a town this small, the murderer must be close, perhaps even before her very eyes…

 

What do you do when you turned the last page in a novel that gave you such a high? Exactly, you dive into the next one right away! I was so very happy that Jordan published two books, one novella and one full-length novel around the same time. Writing in pairs is such an excellent idea, I thoroughly enjoyed going from one novel to the next!

Both novels were vastly different though and alhough I really live for psychological thrillers that deliver twist upon twist, Before Her Eyes is more of a police procedural and made its own impact on me with a brilliant plot. Jordan makes the story that much more menacing by including a blind woman into the story and the tension ramps up when she crosses paths with a serial killer the moment she stumbles quite literally on the scene of a murder. This is stuff worth holding your breath for! She realises she’s not alone either and at his mercy she does make it out alive but wow, being so close and not knowing who’s in front of you must be terrifying and I got the goosebumps feeling how Naomi must have felt at that moment. Before Her Eyes was a nerve-wracking novel, even I could feel the killer breathing down my neck. Naomi’s blindness was definitely a major advantage to the story and created the perfect amount of tension.. she feels like she might be in danger and I couldn’t blame her for one second. I’ve never seen the killer so close yet being unable to figure out who he or she was at all.

A missing person’s case of the past undoubtedly has something to do with the present case. It’s all pretty vague for the reader and for Detective Markus Campbell who’s told to drop this line of investigation but luckily, he’s like a dog with a bone and tries to find out more. At least one detective with common sense or is it true that there’s something to be said of corruption in the office after all?

I had no sympathy whatsoever for the killer after a particularly horrific action towards Naomi which made my heart bleed and made me want to shout some – not to be misunderstood – profane words. Detective Lisa Elliott wasn’t exactly on my friend list either. I hoped veritably that Marcus would be able to star as the hero of the day even if he had to pull a one man show. The picture of where to look was muddled though, Marcus struggled and couldn’t make heads or tails of the killing spree and I was none the wiser either but I was certainly drawn into the story and let it unfold with a few surprising and shocking revelations, ruling out suspects and getting new ones in my sight as I went along, only to find them killed unceremoniously with the progression of the story. Jordan has written a complex story with a clever plotline, a past that runs through into the present and where everyone has their own set of motives. Some of it was set up to distract and I fell victim to this as well so eyes on the prize if you want to do better than me :-).

Then, just when you think Jordan has given it his all, he adds that one perfectly amazing touch and that one final sentence that just hits the ball out of court. Oh yeah, talk about ending on a high note! It makes me want mooore!

I received a free copy of this novel from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for my honest opinion.

If you want to check out his earlier work, you can also read my reviews of Jordan’s previous novels by clicking the links : My Girl and Anything For Her