The Old You – Louise Voss

About the Book: 

Nail-bitingly modern domestic noir
A tense, Hitchcockian psychological thriller
Louise Voss returns with her darkest, most chilling, novel yet…

Lynn Naismith gave up the job she loved when she married Ed, the love of her life, but it was worth it for the happy years they enjoyed together. Now, ten years on, Ed has been diagnosed with early-onset dementia, and things start to happen; things more sinister than missing keys and lost words. As some memories are forgotten, others, long buried, begin to surface … and Lynn’s perfect world begins to crumble.
But is it Ed’s mind playing tricks, or hers…?

About the Author: Louise Voss has been writing for the past eighteen years, with many twists and turns in her career. She started her publishing life with four novels for Transworld/Black Swan, the first of which, To Be Someone, was published in 2001 with its own CD soundtrack. This was followed by three more contemporary women’s fiction novels, Are You My Mother? Lifesaver, and Games People Play, until she switched to publishing thrillers with Mark Edwards.

She and Mark were the first British indie authors to reach No.1 on the Amazon charts with Catch Your Death, where they stayed for the month of June 2011, with their novel Killing Cupid also at No. 2. This led to a four-book deal with Harper Collins; then two books in the DI Lennon series, From the Cradle and The Blissfully Dead (Thomas & Mercer).

Her first solo thriller was The Venus Trap in 2015 and her second, a twisty tale of domestic noir, is out in May 2018: The Old You, published by @OrendaBooks.

My Review:  If you ever wanted to know what “domestic noir” was then you need to read The Old You.  This is a proper creepy, clever and carefully plotted story which grabbed me from the first page and when I forgot to feed the kids and walk the dog, I knew I was going to give this book 5 big stars.

I have read several of Louise’s books with Mark Edwards and also her first solo book The Venus Trap, but in my opinion The Old You is possibly her best work so far.

The Old You starts with Lynn and her slightly older husband, Ed, being diagnosed with early onset dementia and at first you can truly empathise and feel Lynn’s pain watching the man she loves change so drastically.  The story continues with Lynn dealing with the affects on her family and friends as Ed deteriorates rapidly.  It’s heartbreaking to read and written so realistically that it’s impossible not to get emotionally involved.

I don’t want to give anything away, except just when I was settling in following Lynn and Ed’s story – WHAM!  The entire story does an abrupt u-turn, spinning me round 180 degrees and leaving me rather shocked.  The twists and turns are constant, the cleverly crafted plot proves just how talented Louise Voss is and it was an absolute pleasure to read something so original in such a popular genre.

My thanks to the publisher and Anne Cater for the advanced copy.

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