Renee at It’s Book Talk began Throwback Thursday as a way to share some old favourites or books that you’re finally getting around to reading that were published months or years ago.
This week, my Throwback Thursday ‘old favourite’ is another book that I had the pleasure of reading via Readers Favorite: Brittle Shadows by Australian mystery thriller writer Vicki Tyley.
When soon-to-be-wed Tanya Clark is confronted with her fiancé’s naked corpse hanging from a wardrobe rail in the upmarket Melbourne apartment they share, her life is torn apart. Two months later, distraught and unable to cope, she drowns her sorrows in a lethal cocktail of alcohol and prescription drugs.
On the other side of Australia, a grieving Jemma Dalton struggles to come to terms with the suicide of her only sibling. Despite there being no evidence to the contrary, Jemma refuses to accept Tanya had intended to kill herself. Not her sister. Then the coroner’s report reveals that at the time of her death she had been six weeks pregnant. The will, too, raises more questions than it answers. How did a young woman on a personal assistant’s wage amass shares worth in excess of $1,000,000?
In a desperate bid to uncover the truth, Jemma puts her own life at risk and starts to probe the shadows of her sister’s life. But shadows, like bones, grow brittle with age. The consequences can be deadly.
* Goodreads | Amazon UK | Amazon US | Amazon Aus *
This is my review from 14 February 2014:
“Vicki Tyley continues her rise to be one of the best modern thriller writers around with Brittle Shadows, a disconcerting but compelling mystery about one woman’s belief that her recently deceased sister did not, as recorded, take her own life. Jemma Dalton flies into Melbourne from Perth convinced that her sister, Tanya Clark, did not commit suicide, despite her sorrow at the death, two months earlier, of her fiancé, Sean Mullins, in an apparent sex act gone wrong. Jemma moves into her sister’s erstwhile apartment, intending to deal with Tanya’s estate, but instead finds evidence that she did not know her sister as well as she thought, and herself the focus of Tanya’s circle of friends and associates, one or more of whom seems to have something to hide.
I loved reading Brittle Shadows and think that it is Vicki Tyley’s best book so far; I could not put it down and read it in practically one sitting. Everything about it had me hooked from the first page: the premise, characters, dialogue and plot development. The book was, as ever, well written, but flowed particularly smoothly, gradually piling on the tension and revelations, and revealing its secrets cleverly. The ending came completely out of the blue to me and not once did I guess it correctly. Tyley is very adept at creating strong and original female characters and female-driven stories, but this does not mean that they could not be enjoyed by everyone. Another five star recommendation to all thriller lovers.”
I can highly recommend all of Vicki’s stand-alone thrillers. Each one features an ass-kicking female lead, a gripping mystery storyline and a satisfying conclusion:
Thank you for reading this week’s Throwback Thursday. If you enjoyed it, please consider liking and/or sharing and, of course, buying the book:
juliapalooza.com 