Strangers by C. L. Taylor #DontTalkToStrangers

The million-copy bestseller returns with a gripping new novel that will keep you guessing until the end.

Book blurb

Ursula, Gareth and Alice have never met before.

Ursula thinks she killed the love of her life.
Gareth’s been receiving strange postcards.
And Alice is being stalked.

None of them are used to relying on others – but when the three strangers’ lives unexpectedly collide, there’s only one thing for it: they have to stick together. Otherwise, one of them will die.

Three strangers, two secrets, one terrifying evening.

My thoughts

There are three main characters in this book whilst they do not know each other personally their lives intertwine on some level throughout the book.

Each are leading lives they would prefer to be different. Ursula’s life has been going downhill ever since the death of her partner Nathan. She misses him and has become cut off from friends and family. Alice still has her daughter, at least sometimes, since Peter left and work fills in a lot of time but in those days when she is by herself she finds it difficult. Gareth looks after his mum, she has dementia and it’s getting worse. He’s just about managing financially as a security supervisor at a local shopping centre but he has no social life any more.

They are each struggling with being alone. They are each trying to fill a void. Ursula tries to help Nikki and her baby. Gareth decides to ask his neighbour out. Alice is looking for someone to spend her free time with.

As we follow each of them their circumstances bring them in a spiral of events that culminates in a tragic, fatal meeting.

This is a book in which I found myself liking all three lead characters who, for all their faults, are decent folk making their way in life as best as they can. Life doesn’t throw them many roses, that’s for sure! Still through everything that happens they are battlers.

I liked that the author ensured that everything had a conclusion, sad or happy, liked or not.

Oh, and – terrible and rather sinister though it was – I couldn’t help enjoying the solution to a particular mystery which runs through the book!

This is the second C. L. Taylor book that I have read, the first being Sleep, and I have enjoyed them both. With her unique style the author keeps you gripped in the unfolding story. It moves along at a good pace and is eminently readable.

I would certainly recommend The Strangers and indeed Sleep to all you psychological thriller lovers. In fact, I would recommend it to anyone who is looking for a good book to read.

Thanks

With thanks to Sabah Khan, Head of PR at Avon for the invitation to the BlogTour and to Avon via NetGalley for an eCopy of Strangers by C.L. Taylor. All thoughts are my own, I have not received any payment for

Blog Tour

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Information

Publisher: Avon (HarperCollins) | ebook and hardback on 2nd April 2020 | paperback on 1st October 2020

Buy: Your local bookshop | AmazonSmileUK | Hive | Waterstones

Author

Cally Taylor was born in Worcester and spent her early years living in various army camps in the UK and Germany. She studied Psychology at the University of Northumbria and went on forge a career in instructional design and e-Learning before leaving to write full time in 2014.

She started writing short stories in 2005 and was published widely in literary and women’s magazines. She also won several short story competitions. In 2009 and 2011 her romantic comedy novels (as Cally Taylor) were published by Orion and translated into fourteen languages. HEAVEN CAN WAIT was a bestseller in Hungary and China and HOME FOR CHRISTMAS was made into a feature film by JumpStart Productions. Whilst on maternity leave with her son Cally had an idea for a psychological thriller and turned to crime.

C.L. Taylor lives in Bristol with her partner and young son.

Books

Her books have sold in excess of a million copies and hit the number one spots on Amazon Kindle, Audible, Kobo, iBooks and Google Play. They have been translated into over 25 languages, selected for the Richard and Judy Book Club, and optioned for television. 

THE ESCAPE won the Dead Good Books ‘Hidden Depths’ award for the Most Unreliable Narrator and SLEEP won a Capital Crime Amazon Publishing Readers’ Award.

C.L. Taylor’s eighth crime novel will be published in March 2021 by Avon Books, an imprint of HarperCollins UK.

She has also written a Young Adult thriller, THE TREATMENT, published by HarperCollins HQ. Her second young adult standalone THE ISLAND will be published in January 2021.

Facebook: CallyTaylor | Twitter: CallyTaylor | Instagram: CLTaylor | Website: CLTaylorAuthor

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