I am delighted to be part of the #blogtour for Renee Knight’s latest book THE SECRETARY and my thanks to the publisher, Random House UK, Transworld Publishers, Netgalley and Anne Cater of Random Things Tours for inviting me on board.
About the book:
‘A cool, contemporary, whip-smart thriller.’ – Paula Hawkins, author of THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN and INTO THE WATER
Look around you. Who holds the most power in the room? Is it the one who speaks loudest, who looks the part, who has the most money, who commands the most respect?
Or perhaps it’s someone like Christine Butcher: a meek, overlooked figure, who silently bears witness as information is shared and secrets are whispered. Someone who quietly, perhaps even unwittingly, gathers together knowledge of the people she’s there to serve – the ones who don’t notice her, the ones who consider themselves to be important.
There’s a fine line between loyalty and obsession. And when someone like Christine Butcher is pushed to her limit, she might just become the most dangerous person in the room . . .
The eagerly anticipated new thriller from the No.1 bestselling author of Disclaimer.
About the author: Renée Knight worked as a documentary-maker for the BBC before turning to writing. She is a graduate of the Faber Academy ‘Writing a Novel’ course, and lives in London with her husband and two children. Her widely acclaimed debut novel, Disclaimer, was a Sunday Times No.1 bestseller. The Secretary is her second novel.
My Review: I absolutely LOVED Renee Knight’s debut novel Disclaimer which I read in August 2015 and eagerly (impatiently) awaited her second novel which FINALLY has arrived.
The Secretary is a tense and gripping page-turner which I absolutely devoured in less than a day. The main character Christine Butcher is a secretary/personal assistant to Mina Appleton, a TV personality and CEO of a national supermarket chain. She’s been a loyal and trusted employee for 18 years and narrates the story through her own slightly warped and often unreliable point of view.
Now, I was a secretary for over 12 years and believe me when I say that the line between being professional and appearing obsessive can get very blurred (let’s not talk about the time I had to go shopping with my boss’s heavily pregnant mistress to furnish her nursery and ensure his wife and children didn’t find out!), so I was quite empathetic towards Christine and understood why she was unwavering in going that “extra mile” for her boss.
We know from the start of the book that something has happened and the entire story is filled with a sinister and tense undertone. Christine’s voice throughout the book appears to be calm and collected, but her actions are anything but. The Secretary is, in my opinion, a fantastic psychological thriller with fascinating characters and an intelligent story line. Highly recommended by me.
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