Twist of Fate by D L Mark
I would like to thank Anne from Random Things Tours and Aries Fiction for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for fair and honest review
Publisher - Aries Fiction
Published - out now
Price - £9.99 paperback £3.99 Kindle eBook
She says he's a victim. They say he's a killer.
When an armed man massacres several people in central London, Claudine witnesses the whole thing. To her horror, one of the victims is her brother, Jethro.
Riven by grief, Claudine retreats to the house in the Fens where she and Jethro grew up. When the police contact her, she is left reeling when they tell her Jethro orchestrated the attack.
Why would a gentle, if troubled, middle-aged man cause such bloodshed – and why would he include himself in the list of victims?
Claudine finds herself down a rabbit hole of mystery, caught up in Jethro's research on a medieval cult. If she can't solve the riddle in time, more people will die... and the darkness will claim her too.
Sometimes we only know someone really when it’s too late. Death may give you a fresh perspective on people you only ever saw one facet of while someone else may describe a totally different person. How much of anyone can we know. In D L Mark’s unusual thriller Twist of Fate a horrific set of murders unleashes many secrets and surprises for a woman who finds her brother held many secrets.
Claudine was once a high power communications director for political campaigns but has swapped Westminster for Corporate PR. She takes each day as it comes but is surprised to find her brother Jethro has arrived; Jethro since an unfortunate accident thirty years ago struggled with his mental health and Claudine was in no mood to listen to his explanations. But a sibling row ends violently when Claudine’s office sees a man armed with a knife enter killing both a security guard and Jethro in front of Claudine. But as Claudine goes back to the Fens where Jethro lived for many years she finds a brother she did not recognise and now may actually have been pulling strings. Claudine finds herself trying to make sense of the world she live sin and may find even more danger is lurking.
Twist of Fate is an unusual novel with a startling hook of Claudine ‘s world collapsing before her eyes. Her narration makes us witness annoyance at a brother turn into horror and painful grief; which as we discover is forever haunting Claudine thanks to her past. What could though have just fitted a thriller making use of various terrorist attacks actually goes into a very unusual direction. Surprisingly this story goes into a tangled world of cults, religions and just possibly the supernatural. There is an understandably a melancholic atmosphere after a tragedy with Claudine feeling guilty and alone; all told well in her point of view. We do get a slightly more genre off troubled police officer in the character of Billy who is working on the case but has the traditional divorce and drinking problem history which while delivered well was not quite as interesting for me as a viewpoint.
I was quite surprised where the story went as I was expecting the standard terrors thriller plotline but when we find out what is going on it was unpredictable! Twist of Fate is an unusual thriller with a dash of folk horror; a quick read those who enjoy very fast paced tales should enjoy!
