You Belong To Me By Samantha Hayes

I became a fan of Samantha Hayes after reading her “Until You’re Mine” a few days ago. That book is the first in this series with DI Lorraine Fisher and her family at its centre. I started reading her “You Belong to Me”, the third book in this series, with great expectations and I am blown away. Though the plot seems a bit far-fetched, it is terribly addictive and I would have finished reading it in one sitting if time and my eyes permit.

Isabel is working in a small hotel in India where she has escaped to hide away from a very traumatic past and a sinister ex-boyfriend. For the first time in months, she is beginning to feel safe. Then she receives a letter with the horrific news that her parents had died in a car accident with her ex-boyfriend as the driver. And her ex is paralysed and in a coma. Feeling shattered, she reluctantly returns home determined not to let fear rule her life any more. She starts to feel less fearful once she sees for herself that the source of all her paranoia is lying in a coma. But she’s unable to shake off the feeling that someone who knows her better than she knows herself may be following her, watching her and waiting for the right moment to step back into her life and take control all over again. Her world becomes more and more sinister and she starts questioning her own sanity.

Detective Inspector Lorraine Fisher is under great stress investigating the suspicious deaths of two young women who had filed complaints of being stalked by ex-boyfriends. She suspects the two deaths are related but her boss Bob and her detective husband Adam do not believe her. Seeing that she seems to be cracking up, her boss tells her to take a holiday and leave the cases to others to investigate. Behind the backs of her boss and her husband, she secretly continues with her investigation.

I can feel the tension the author creates with Isabel’s story. Just when I think things might be settling down she cranks the story up again and takes it in a direction you’d never imagine in your wildest dreams. This is one hell of a psychological thriller, one that shakes you with unexpected twist and turn.

I have started reading In Too Deep by Samantha Hayes. That makes it three Samantha Hayes’ books in a row.