When two strangers end up sharing a cabin on the Trans-Siberian Express, an intense friendship develops, one that can only have one ending … a nerve-shattering psychological thriller from bestselling author SJI Holliday
Carrie’s best friend has an accident and can no longer make the round-the-world trip they’d planned together, so Carrie decides to go it alone.
Violet is also travelling alone, after splitting up with her boyfriend in Thailand. She is also desperate for a ticket on the Trans-Siberian Express, but there is nothing available.
When the two women meet in a Beijing Hotel, Carrie makes the impulsive decision to invite Violet to take her best friend’s place.
Thrown together in a strange country, and the cramped cabin of the train, the women soon form a bond. But as the journey continues, through Mongolia and into Russia, things start to unravel – because one of these women is not who she claims to be…
A tense and twisted psychological thriller about obsession, manipulation and toxic friendships, Violet also reminds us that there’s a reason why mother told us not to talk to strangers…
About the Author:
Susi (S.J.I.) Holliday grew up near Edinburgh and spent many years working in her family’s newsagent and pub before studying microbiology and statistics at university. She has worked as a statistician in the pharmaceutical industry for 20 years, but it was on a 6-month round-the-world-trip that she took with her husband several years ago that she rediscovered her passion for writing.
My Review:
If you enjoy atmospheric, creepy and tension filled thrillers with a touch of pyscho (bat-shit crazy) characters, unreliable narrators then you will love Violet.
Meet Violet – a young woman stranded in Beijing after splitting up with her boyfriend Sam in Thailand. She’s trying to get a ticket for the Trans-Siberian Express but can’t get anything until the morning.
Meet Carrie – a young woman travelling alone as her best-friend Laura broke her leg just before their planned trip and now has a spare ticket on the Trans-Siberian Express.
These two young women meet in a hotel and something instantly clicks between them so they agree to join up and travel together, and so it begins – the journey into hell with two highly unstable women with secrets to hide and pasts to run away from. As soon as their journey together begins, the reader knows this relationship is doomed and toxic and the underlying sense of darkness is evident from the start.
Violet is a dark and disturbing look at relationships and obsession. Susi Holliday has brought to life the unsavoury and grim aspects of travelling alone and trying to survive. Together with the incredible descriptions of each location Violet takes the reader on an uncomfortable journey from China to Moscow.
My thanks to Orenda and Anne Cater for the invitation to join the blogtour.
