Pavlova’s novel A Double Life shook the Russian literary world when it was published in 1848, earning widespread praise for its revolutionary form and psychological acuity. . . . The slim mixed-genre novel—translated by Barbara Heldt and released this year in a new edition . . . follows the 18-year-old Cecily von Lindenborn as her mother attempts to find her a husband. . . . The book is remarkable for its insights about the workings of internalized oppression. Talya Zax, The Atlantic

This novel is based on the disappearance of Lord Lucan. However, although it is inspired by a real-life event, the characters are fictional and events are told from the point of view of Claire, a thirty four year old doctor in London. Claire started life with another name, and another life, until her father fled the country. Yeah. But I didn’t hear everything in Tulsa. I had access to some of that stuff in New York. But yes, all of the tapes are in Tulsa. It’s showing that human memory is very fallible. We don’t have computers in our heads to record things perfectly. And if you tell a story enough times, you don’t even realize that it slowly changes.But I really like the people, and working at the museum is a joy. I don’t know how the center is going to work out because that’s going to be a very different work space. We’ll have to see. But I agree with you that once the center opens, it’ll open up a lot of things. It will generate a dialogue. I was a big fan of Flynn Berry’s “Under the Harrow,” so I was delighted to score an ARC of her newest book, “A Double Life.” The novel is loosely based on the real life mystery of Lord Lucan, a British peer who disappeared after being suspected of the brutal murder of his children’s nanny and the assault of his wife during an ongoing custody dispute. To this day, it is unclear if he committed suicide or escaped England with the help of well-placed friends. He has never been found. I read the author's previous book, and while it was a reasonably enjoyable read, I thought it was slow going, with an ending that left me confused. However, I was still curious about her newest novel when I requested the ARC. Overall I have to say that I did prefer Under the Harrow to A Double Life since the former had more to offer in the way of atmosphere with its setting in the English countryside, but I did really enjoy this as well. If you prefer your thrillers to be character-driven and lean a bit more toward the literary side of things, I'd highly recommend giving Flynn Berry a try.

I did really enjoy this book but found the ending somewhat unsatisfying so I have only given it 4 stars! Maybe I will need to read this author’s next book to resolve some of my questions in which case the ending is rather clever! Are you tempted to do new versions of your song-by-song books now that you have access to all this stuff? As it stands at the moment. I tried to persuade my publisher in the U.K. and the U.S. to consider the possibility of three volumes, but it doesn’t look like it. I’ve explained to them that if it’s one volume, it’s going to be a bloody big volume [ laughs]. But they say, “OK.” As long as they’re happy with a 275,000-word second volume, they’ll get a 275,000-word volume.

Flynn Berry

Gabriela has the “double life” and the novel endeavours to explain how she has ended up in this position. Claire is a London physician living under an assumed identity. Time and again she finds herself disappointed when police tell her that their new search to find her missing father has not yielded any results. Twenty six years ago, while Claire and her brother were asleep upstairs in their London home, her father brutally murdered Claire’s nanny and then attempted to murder her mother. He fled the scene and was never apprehended. But Claire is determined to find her father and then discover the truth about what really happened that night. At that moment, she was not yet George, but someone else. Born Mary Anne Evans, she also used the name Marian and even Marianne, before assuming the pen name George Eliot, while letting herself be known as Mrs Lewes (not least to prospective landlords), and Polly to her beloved (whom in return she called Little Man). The woman we know as George had more than a double life: she made her way through Victorian patriarchy by any aliases necessary.

Gabriela had experienced unexpected internal challenges in the workplace, following her return to work from maternity leave. She felt that her position had been side-lined and that all her hard work had suddenly been over-looked. Gabriela always wanted recognition and success but this drive was to impact her life in ways she could never have imagined. The threads start to break and Gabriela’s world suddenly becomes unexpectedly complex and quite terrifying. I was intrigued by the author of this book- she is the granddaughter of the notorious Russian spy, Kim Philby, and wrongly surmised that it would be an espionage thriller.If you had the chance to ask Dylan one question, what would it be? What would you want to hear him talk about in an honest way? There is such an atmosphere here as Claire researches and travels , takes care of her brother, goes into a kind of life catatonic state every time the police believe they’ve caught up with her errant Father . I love how its really not about whether he’s guilty or not but about how the lives he left behind him are indelibly altered. His friends who covered for him, their children and at the heart of it all Claire who watches and waits and plans..