Thursday 7 April 2016

The Truth About Julia by Anna Schaffner


Thanks to Alison Davies from Corvus, Atlantic Books and Allen & Unwin, I received an ARC copy of this in exchange for an honest review..............

Meet Julia White, a beautiful and intelligent young woman but in June 2014 she blows up a busy coffee shop in central London, killing twenty-four people before turning herself in to the police. Apart from publishing a potentially sarcastic manifesto, she refuses to explain the reasons for her actions but investigative journalist Clare Hardenberg has been authorised to write a biography of the convicted mass murderer Julia and try to seek why she would carry out such an atrocity.  Was it the people she was friends with?  Was she brainwashed or corrupted??  When we meet Clare at the start of the novel she is on her way to prison herself and awaiting trial for a crime as to which the details are not revealed until the end of the novel. What has brought her to this point??

Wow, what a debut The Truth About Julia was, it was fantastic. I really enjoyed reading this, I raced through this mostly in one sitting.  It had me gripped from the first few pages right through to the end. I even had to slow down reading it as I didn't want it to end.  I really  liked the element of the mystery and only been drip fed bits of information throughout the chapters.  As I was reading this it reminded me of something similar to what has happened in Homeland or American Odyssey.  It does look at the psychological aspect too, can people really be converted or brainwashed by certain people she was friends with, was it her upbringing or was she just born bad???   I'd HIGHLY recommend this book if you're a fan of  programmes such as Homeland, American Odyssey or if you like mystery or psychological thrillers, it definitely didn't disappoint.  I am really looking forward to reading more work from Anna Shaffner.

The Truth About Anna is published on 7th April and is available in all good bookstores and is on Kindle for £3.79 at the time of publication of this review.

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