Today on my blog, I’m delighted to bring you my review of No Turning Back by Sam Blake. I bought a signed copy of this book from the lovely Sam Blake aka Vanessa O’Loughlin and started reading it last Friday sitting out in the sun. Below you will find the cover and description for the book, followed by my review.
No Turning Back by Sam Blake
Even perfect families have secrets . . .
Orla and Conor Quinn are the perfect power couple: smart, successful and glamorous. But then the unthinkable happens. Their only son, Tom, is the victim of a deliberate hit-and-run.
Detective Garda Cathy Connolly has just left Tom’s parents when she is called to the discovery of another body, this time in Dillon’s Park, not far from where Tom Quinn was found. What led shy student Lauren O’Reilly to apparently take her own life? She was a friend of Tom’s and they both died on the same night – are their deaths connected and if so, how?
As Cathy delves deeper, she uncovers links to the Dark Web and a catalogue of cold cases, realising that those involved each have their own reasons for hiding things from the police. But events are about to get a lot more frightening . . .
No Turning Back – My Review
This was my first Sam Blake book, but since finishing it I’ve ordered the other books in the series too. It didn’t really matter that I hadn’t read the previous books as with crime novels it tends to be a different case each book anyway. In No Turning Back, I got to meet Cat Connolly and O’Rourke and was instantly intrigued by both. I just knew I was going to have to go and read the previous books just to find out more about these two characters and their history.
The book starts with Cat not getting the promotion she’d gone for and she’s pretty angry about the whole thing. She’s also back in full-on kickboxing training and to top it off, there’s not one but two dead bodies.
I loved how this story flowed providing enough backstory so that I knew that characters as well as moving the book forward at an adequate pace. The story really picked up and the action was great once I was about a third of the way through.
I loved how the themes in this book were so relatable and it really did make me think about webcams and the dangers of hackers.
We get a few different points of view in the book as well. We have Cat, Anna, and the killer. It’s a great way to build suspense and add to the story and I really didn’t see a lot of the stuff at the end coming. From about halfway through things really started happening and the link between the two bodies started to come together. There were a lot of surprises and a few twists along the way and I really do hope that a fourth book will be released because I need to know what happens next for Cat and O’Rourke.
For me this book was more than just a crime novel, it has a bit of everything and I thoroughly enjoyed the slight romance, will they or won’t they, bit that was included. It made the characters feel real and more alive in my mind. By the end of the book, they became like friends and acquaintances that you know even though they were only from a book.
The writing was excellent, the plot and structure were flawless, and I could picture every scene in my mind as I read.
Overall, I am happy to give this book five stars and look forward to reading more from Sam Blake.
No Turning Back is available in ebook and paperback from all retail outlets and shops including Amazon.
Until next time,
Keep reading and writing,
Amanda
Amanda J Evans is an award-winning Irish author and writing coach. Amanda writes adult romance that often crosses into paranormal and fantasy. Growing up with heroes like Luke Skywalker and Indiana Jones, her stories centre on good versus evil with a splice of love and magic thrown in too. Her books have all won awards and her novella, Hear Me Cry, won the Book of the Year Award at the Dublin Writers Conference 2018. Amanda is also the author of Surviving Suicide: A Memoir from Those Death Left Behind, published in 2012.
