Louisa became this possessive girlfriend, where the idea of Adam cheating on her haunted her dreams. And that's fair, but she should have known what kinda guy Adam was before getting into all of this. I mean, he WAS seeing a girl when she met him, remember? He dumped that girl for Louisa, who's to say he won't dump her for someone else? The Skeleton Key was published in 2022 and it included references to a song that was created by Ben Walker, Kirsty Merryn& violinist Basia Bartz to accompany the book. [5] Bibliography [ edit ]

So we come to the present. Knowing just that Paul is treated as a witness and not as an accomplice to the murder, which murder you ask, yes, I'll get to that. And he'll be getting sent to some place in the meantime until the Trial starts, and that place is where Louisa works, and also hides herself from the world. Did he scream in anguish, knowing after recollecting who Louisa is, she isn't alive anymore? Or knowing she isn't alive for him to kill her again with his own hands? As, you know, she WAS the reason he lost all his memories and has had this terrible headache all these years.What about Daniel's trial? What about Paul's poor mother? She's already expecting, how did she feel she's about give birth to a new life knowing her first born is no more? Throughout the novel, I had to keep reminding myself that the past story actually took place in 1997. It is because of the author’s detailed descriptions of Biba and Rex, how they lived, behaved and socialized that made me think the story took place in the mid-1960s – the hippie era. Despite the slow build-up, Kelly makes it very clear that nothing good can come from these dynamics. And whilst I did predict a major part of the “twist” (I read A LOT of these mysteries), I was still invested to watch the slow descend into disaster as both Karen and Rex act as if remote-controlled by Biba’s destructive hand. I love a good character study, and the way poor Karen gets drawn into the Capel siblings’ world was well executed. I related to some of Karen’s fascination with the Capel’s lives – “straight A student falls for more exciting personalities” is a theme that really does play out in real life. A wonderful premise for a novel that is part character study and part domestic thriller and will undoubtedly stun some readers with its twist. The Poison Tree is a bit of a change in direction for you - why did you decide to go from big Hollywood films to a relatively small British TV drama? From an incredible new voice in psychological suspense, a novel about the secrets that remain after a final bohemian summer of excess turns deadly.

I loved Karen, too; she's very believable and the narrative really gets under the character's skin. She's a self-confessed unremarkable girl who's had a sheltered existence, cosseted by a trio of vacuous friends and an equally boring boyfriend throughout university, and her revelatory entrance into a life where she no longer feels 'invisible' is wonderfully evoked. While there are some slightly irritating inconsistencies and mistakes (such as when Karen is given her first ecstasy tablet, has a wonderful time partying all night and then has absolutely no comedown?!), the overall effect is so arresting that small errors don't really dent its power. British journalist Erin Kelly’s debut suspense novel is a richly shaded work crammed with atmosphere, quirky characters and intricate plotting. Oh yes, there were so many... [they] were incredible. In Biba's room she hangs dresses on the wall like paintings. She adores the fabrics and the colours and the jewels. She surrounds herself with them all over the floor and they're like bedding - she has them across her bed . I felt her characters fell flat, which seemed to be a strength for this author, and I didn't connect with them. I thought, for the book being a psychological thriller, they main characters were kind of "meh" Why is she hiding? Or more like WHAT is she hiding? We don't know. She has this weird ritual now and then, where she gets herself drunk and watches Adam's videos and listens to his songs and cries. Clearly he's dead, but why is she doing all of this? We don't know.Anyway. Such behavior makes them move to a different place, where he was treated like a normal student, but not for long. The bullying started again soon by some nasty students, but then Paul makes a friend called Daniel. These people, for various reasons, because of some trauma in childhood or whatever...they are the most important person in their own world. So, in an extreme situation you could see how that would affect and inform their decisions. So, that was where I started from, and obviously I've had the benefit of reading the whole script, so I could decide what would have happened when she was younger to have such an extreme effect on how she behaves in adult life."