The Only Suspect: A 'twisting, seductive, ingenious' thriller from the bestselling author of The Other Passenger

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Oh, and lets invite a homeless colleague in to our home, who happens to be pregnant, without discussing it first. We’re in Rick’s head so we know he has the best of intentions but finds himself getting deeper and deeper in trouble nonetheless.

As always Louise Candlish has written a taut, unsettling, compulsive and ingenious novel with gasp-out-loud twists and fatally flawed characters forced into tragedy by circumstances. Now, more than 15 years after the killing, Mr Abdulhak has spoken for the first time about the incident and claimed to the BBC that Ms Vik Magnussen’s death was the result of a “sex accident gone wrong”. In 2008, 23-year-old Norwegian student Martine Vik Magnussen was killed after a night out in Mayfair. His throat has been slit but all the doors and windows of the room are locked, and there is no evidence of a murder weapon, or any footprints in the muddy flowerbeds outside. The story is told in dual timelines, the present and then 1995 where we learn about Rick and Rollo who share a flat.Told in dual timelines, the writing and pace is perfectly balanced with the ongoing suspense and character development.

Yet a post-mortem examination found that Ms Vik Magnussen died from “compression to the neck” and her body had 43 cuts and grazes that were said to be typical of an assault or struggle. Beth can’t understand his sudden interest in the nature trail and whilst Alex is keeping an eye on things, she is concerned that he doesn’t want to be photographed. Like The Other Passenger, here Candlish offers up a twisty tale with a narrator (well, two in fact) we’re not sure we can trust.

There were a couple of characters I didn’t really like but I think that made the book work for me even better. I felt the drama between Alex and Zara was inserted just to give some purpose to the present day scenes other than Alex spiralling with worry.