A thrilling crime fiction which ticks every one of my boxes, don’t miss out on The Quiet People by Paul Cleave.

The plot:

Cameron and Lisa Murdoch are successful New Zealand crime writers, happily married and topping bestseller lists worldwide. They have been on the promotional circuit for years, joking that no one knows how to get away with crime like they do.

After all, they write about it for a living.

So when their challenging seven-year-old son Zach disappears, the police and the public naturally wonder if they have finally decided to prove what they have been saying all this time…

Are they trying to show how they can commit the perfect crime?

Gnarly crime fiction and everything I could want in a book wrapped up in a pretty dark bow

I’m going to start off this review by saying this book is one of the easiest 5-stars I’ve rewarded. It is divine and ultimately nails the crime fiction genre.

The by-line, “can crime writers get away with murder?” reeled me in, and I stayed for the brilliant writing and once we’d hit the first (of many) twist, I knew this would make a top read of the year.

I loved this book’s mantra and why it’s titled The Quiet People. It unwinds over the period of a week and booooooy does it get intense very quickly. It starts fast-paced and ends fast-paced with no breaks for the reader. All aboard the rollercoaster.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve read quite a few books and think that author is not ok and perhaps needs to be checked on; add this concept into a book and make it about a kid going missing? You’re absolutely right I’m invested.

One of the key highlights for me was the characters – each distinctive and integral. You have an insight from Cameron and Lisa, being the crime writers and can easily grasp how they’re feeling because they’ve written about it before, but also a police procedural element.

The Quiet Place is a well-needed breathe of fresh air into the crime fiction genre. You have the twists and epic conclusion, but also a plot which is so well crafted, you wonder if this is actually a non-fiction.

With the expert writing with enough imagery to make your skin crawl and envision everything that’s happening, and an inner dialogue to make you question everything, I loved every page, sentence, word, of this book.

Gnarly crime fiction and everything I could want in a book wrapped up in a pretty dark bow. I’m here for it.

The Quiet People, Paul Cleave, RRP £8.99 (paperback); Amazon

Pages: 341

Publisher: Orenda Books

Genre: Crime Fiction