At last, Malcolm has found the perfect woman. Now he just has to keep her.
Malcolm Todd seems like an average older man – he lives a quiet life in an ordinary bungalow on a suburban street.
But Malcolm is hungry – he’s looking for love.
There was that young woman at work with the lovely hair. That didn’t work out.
And the one who worked at a delicatessen. That ended quite badly.
But now someone very special has come to stay, right here in his own home.
Josie is young, beautiful, spirited. And it’s clear to Malcolm that he and she have a very strong connection. A connection that could lead to a truly delicious future.
Josie might not immediately understand how happy they could be together. But Malcolm is sure he can find ways to persuade her…
Iain Maitland is the author of three previous psych thrillers, The Scribbler (2020), Mr Todd’s Reckoning (2019) and Sweet William (2017), all published by Contraband, an imprint of Saraband.
Iain is also the author of two memoirs, Dear Michael, Love Dad (Hodder, 2016), a book of letters written to his eldest son who experienced depression and anorexia, and (co-authored with Michael) Out Of The Madhouse (Jessica Kingsley, 2018).
He is also an Ambassador for Stem4, the teenage mental health charity. He talks regularly about mental health issues in schools and colleges and workplaces.
This is Iain’s fifth psychological thriller with Inkubator Books.
My thoughts: so this was very creepy and with a very unreliable narrator at the helm. Malcolm spends a lot of time hinting at things he thinks his son Adrian has done, but then he starts writing in his journal about the genuinely unpleasant and awful things he’s done himself. At one point, he actually seems to claim driving a man to suicide as a victory in his old job as a tax inspector at HMRC.
He’s an unpleasant and rather nasty man, never at fault, everything that’s gone wrong in his life, the crimes he’s committed, always someone else to blame. Even getting fired after harassing a colleague is not his fault. Then there’s the bodies in the old air raid shelter in the garden…
When his son brings home his girlfriend and her little girl, things get even more sinister, he quickly becomes obsessed with Josie, keen to keep her at his home, for himself, he even plans to get rid of her daughter. Her horrible ex is stalking her, and so she needs to hide out for a bit. His house is perfect for that, even with the police coming round with questions about his missing wife and her lover.
There’s lots of sudden twists, Malcolm is one of the most unpleasant protagonists I’ve read in a while, and his mood can change suddenly and violently. He’s not even honest in his own head. But it is gripping and clever and the end twist was worth it.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
ramblingmads 