The Poison Tree: the addictive , twisty debut psychological thriller from the million-copy bestselling author

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Karen was a bit of a square at University specialising in languages for which she has a special gift. Her life was dull and safe until she met Biba a bohemian drama student whom she adored and whose lifestyle she coveted and adopted for one special summer.

What about Daniel's trial? What about Paul's poor mother? She's already expecting, how did she feel she's about give birth to a new life knowing her first born is no more? I’ve used the word formula and while there are certain conventions the genre has to follow – peril, mystery, misdirection and reveals - I don’t believe thrillers have to be formulaic. If you read a lot of psychological thrillers they can get a bit suburban and samey, so I try to keep my books fresh by writing about things I haven’t seen done before: for example, the plot and structure of He Said/She Said revolves around total eclipses of the sun, amongst other things. It kept me interested and offered something new for my readers. British journalist Erin Kelly’s debut suspense novel is a richly shaded work crammed with atmosphere, quirky characters and intricate plotting. Are there any tired tropes that you’d like to see less of and what would you really love to read and see more of? Louisa became this possessive girlfriend, where the idea of Adam cheating on her haunted her dreams. And that's fair, but she should have known what kinda guy Adam was before getting into all of this. I mean, he WAS seeing a girl when she met him, remember? He dumped that girl for Louisa, who's to say he won't dump her for someone else?

If this is not enough, the story is believable and satisfyingly justifiable; well thought out. It left me with things to think about, yet again, in my life long quest to understand the relationships of life; family, friends, lovers. At one point in the novel, Karen turns the tables on Alison Larch, a television journalist she suspects of investigating Rex, and interrogates her on her current roster of work. In what other ways did you draw upon your own experiences as a journalist? A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.

But, he didn't know he was doing that. He didn't know in another second, with just a stroke, he would lose his life by a weatherpane which the guy in front of him was holding. The old man, Ken Hillyard, dies. Just like that. When I was young, I devoured Barbara Vine, Daphne du Maurier, Ira Levin, Patricia Highsmith and Nicci French. I still re-read their books now and feel as though those writers are my mentors: that through them I absorbed the essence of storytelling and suspense, without realising I was learning at all. These days I still love Nicci French and also really respect Louise Candlish, Gillian Flynn, Sarah Hilary, Wil Dean, Megan Abbot, Dennis Lehane, Eva Dolan – I could go on for days. The brilliant thing is that new writers are coming through all the time. Where was he all these years? Started a family, has two kids too and his mother there is waiting for him to return?

In present, soon it's new years. Louisa had gone to her sister's place while Paul was snooping around trying to find information on Adam. There's news! Paul comes to know Adam didn't die after all. He was saved and lost his 2 years memory. Didn't remember any people except for his mother. And there's another news, Adam was his band name, his actual name was Alan Murray, and Louisa wasn't aware of even that. So much for being a girlfriend?

Brilliant!” “A beautifully crafted, evocative psychological thriller.” “Dark and gripping.” Just some of the words used to describe this novel. After reading the book, I totally disagree. Long-winded and mundane is how I describe it.Meanwhile, we hear the story of Paul, whose parents are darling. Paul witnesses a horrible accident early on that changes who he is and the dynamic of his family. Thrust into an unfamiliar environment he is taken under the wing of the illiterate Daniel who serves as his protector from bullies, but at quite a social cost. Anyway. Such behavior makes them move to a different place, where he was treated like a normal student, but not for long. The bullying started again soon by some nasty students, but then Paul makes a friend called Daniel. I loved the beautifully descriptive and poetic style of the narrative and the way it begins in the present and slowly reveals everything that has led up to this moment culminating with its twist at the end (although I must admit, I did see this coming a couple of chapters or so beforehand).

Crucially, I also disliked the ending. Where I had related to the younger Karen so much, I found the older version's final actions impossible to sympathise with. Sometime later in the book, when Paul gets paranoid about Carl's calls, when he's about to confess to Louisa about what his "crime" was in the first place, Louisa confesses hers, and tells she has killed Adam Glasslake.I liked the ending more this time, too; it might be a bit far-fetched but it's certainly cathartic. Biba and Rex live in a run-down old house that used to belong to their parents. Their mother committed suicide, and their father is a movie executive who wants nothing to do with them. As the days go by, they ask Karen to move in, and they spend the summer drinking and having fun. Rex and Karen begin a relationship, and Biba begins a relationship with a young man named Guy, whom no one likes.