Published: 2016
Author: Jane Fallon
Brilliant and compulsive
One of the first books I read last year was Jane Fallon’s Getting Rid of Matthew and in an unintended coincidence the third book I’ve read in 2016 is the new Fallon novel Strictly Between Us
Tamsin and Michelle have been best friends since secondary school, and with Michelle’s husband Patrick are an inseparable triumvirate until rumours that Patrick is a womaniser reach Tamsin and she hatches a plot to uncover the truth. Enlisting the help of her perfect PA Bea, Tamsin sets a honey-trap for Patrick but the situation starts to spiral out of control for everyone.
I loved this book and rushed through it in a couple of days which is unusual for me these days, there are so many other calls on my attention that I don’t spend as much time reading as I did when I was younger (ok, I’ll admit that a lot of those calls are Facebook/Twitter based). I was absolutely hooked on Strictly Between Us and even put social media to one side to get through the story.
The tone is, as the title suggests, reminiscent of a chat between friends. Tamsin pours her heart out to the reader and I certainly grew to really like and care for Tamsin even though the introduction to her in the first few pages don’t give the best impression of her character. There were a couple of completely unexpected twists which blew me away and made me reconsider my opinions of the characters and their agendas.
It is by turns funny and touching and Jane Fallon uses her background in television production to great effect, I particularly enjoyed the depiction of a dreary industry awards ceremony with its warm wine and dull speeches.
Fallon has come up with another winner in Strictly Between Us, her sixth novel. It’s bound to be another best-seller and deservedly so. It’s witty, intelligent, brilliantly written and utterly compulsive. A complete star of a book.