Blog Tour - The Lucky ones - Mark Edwards - Review

BLOG TOUR - The Lucky Ones by Mark Edwards

I'm thrilled to kick start the blog tour for this brilliant book with my review.

I'm fairly certain that if I start my review by saying Mark Edwards has a truly warped mind, he would take this as the huge compliment it is intended to be!

How he dreamt up this twisty thriller I can't imagine. He gets deep inside the malformed psyche of a devilish serial killer to take the reader on a vivid and skin crawling journey of terror.

Let me briefly introduce you to the authors work, whose page you can find here. He writes brilliantly different and terrifyingly unorthodox psychological thrillers, which have included Because She loves me, Follow you home and The Devils work. You can follow the links to read each of my reviews of his previous work and you just might come away with the idea that I'm already a big fan of this talented writer and you wouldn't be far wrong. So its always with a sense of worried anticipation that I open the pages of a new work by an author I've consistently praised - Like, "Wow I'm looking forward to this" Coupled with "OMG what if I really hate this one?"

I shouldn't have had any doubt, I really shouldn't. This cunning and capricious thriller enthralled me as much as his previous novels have.

Meet Ben Holland, you can probably relate quite well to him, he's just an ordinary bloke, a newly single Father of an eleven year son and things just never seem to go quite right for him. We've all had that feeling, right? That if only things could improve a little, life would be loads better? But they never seem to, they only seem to get worse.

Of course his marriage breaking down was probably the catalyst for Ben, finding your wife in your own home shagging another bloke is just never going to have a happy ending. Ben needs a clean break so he takes himself and his beloved boy Ollie away from city life and back to the sleepy Shropshire village of Ben's childhood. Only things are never quite the same when we try to go back are they? He moves into a rented house and ends up with the neighbours from hell. His attempts at freelance work don't take off as hoped, he has money worries, his Mum is terminally ill, he no longer has a soulmate and he's lonely, his relationship with Ollie seems to be floundering, he feels as though his life has, quite frankly, turned to shit.

But things are about to suddenly improve! Yayy, Ben IS one of the lucky ones after all.

Gradually his problems disappear, one by one. The turning point is finding work, he is so lucky to be offered some well paid freelance work that gives him the chance to feel in control of his life again. Then his noisy and aggressive neighbours from hell are no longer his neighbours and things are gradually and subtly looking up for him.

But maybe it's not all down to karma. Perhaps "not so divine" intervention is taking place. It's almost as though a guardian angle is watching over him. Well someone certainly is!

Meanwhile police investigator Imogen Evans is transferred from the Met to, usually tranquil, Shropshire tasked with finding a warped serial killer who is targetting seemingly random victims.

As Imogens case develops and Ben's life improves we are treated to glimpses of a warped mind at work and it becomes evident that Ben is on the radar of something dangerous and deadly and things speed up, so much that I was flicking the pages so fast they nearly caught fire.

This terrifying and gripping story is the perfect blend of gritty crime thriller and psychological chiller to delight readers of both genres. Read it, love it, but pray that you're not one of "The Lucky Ones".

The Lucky Ones by Mark Edwards is published by Thomas & Mercer on 15 June 2017 as an £8.99 paperback original.

The Blurb

It was the happiest day of her life. Little did she know it was also the last.

When a woman’s body is found in the grounds of a ruined priory, Detective Imogen Evans realises she is dealing with a serial killer—a killer whose victims appear to die in a state of bliss, eyes open, smiles forever frozen on their faces.

A few miles away, single dad Ben Hofland believes his fortunes are changing at last. Forced to move back to the sleepy village where he grew up following the breakdown of his marriage, Ben finally finds work. What’s more, the bullies who have been terrorising his son, Ollie, disappear. For the first time in months, Ben feels lucky.

But he is unaware that someone is watching him and Ollie. Someone who wants nothing but happiness for Ben.

Happiness…and death.