Are women in fiction allowed to be unlikeable? 

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Are women in fiction allowed to be unlikeable?

A Richard and Judy Book Club pick

The Innocent Wife

HOW DO YOU CONFRONT YOUR HUSBAND WHEN YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW THE TRUTH? Gripping psychological suspense from a brilliant new voice in crime fiction 
 
NOW A TOP TEN BESTSELLER!

Looking for a brand new author? Brit @amylloydwrites won the Daily Mail’s first novel contest with The Innocent Wife. Woman marries a man on death row. Then things get scary. Ending a total shock. Superb psychological suspense.

Lisa Gardner, author of Find Her and Right Behind You

Gripping psychological suspense from a brilliant new voice in crime fiction, and one of 2018's must-reads!

You can hear the ominous music from the first line onward - this is a fantastic thriller.

I read The Innocent Wife in one sitting - a deliciously wry and dark exploration of fascinating subject matter that will keep you guessing until the last page. Amy Lloyd is a fresh and original new voice in thriller writing who deserves to go straight to the top.

Sarah Pinborough, author of Behind Her Eyes

If you're an addict of true crime documentaries, you will binge all night on The Innocent Wife. In this breathless, pounding ride, Amy Lloyd keeps us guessing about a convicted killer thrust into the world as innocent online hero and the woman who begins to reluctantly dig into his murky past.

Julia Heaberlin, author of Black Eyed Susans

The Innocent Wife is a stunner that leads the reader down a twisty path to a surprising, yet satisfying conclusion. You won't be able to stop turning the pages!

Karen Dionne, author of The Marsh King's Daughter

I devoured The Innocent Wife in one sitting! A unique setting, deeply flawed characters, a crackling mystery, and an unexpected ending make this one of 2018's must-reads!

Slick, smart and very timely, this confident debut will hook you in.

Written with panache, the book skilfully captures the nature of obsession and its consequences, and culminates in a climax Patricia Highsmith would have admired.

Good, fast paced and well written.

Absolutely brilliantly written, characters are well-drawn and believable and I cannot recommend it enough.

The Innocent Wife is a brilliant read. I was hooked from the start and read in within a couple of days. I loved how much depth there was to each character making you are the reader feel you really knew them. I cannot wait to read more from Amy Lloyd, I believe she will be an author to watch.

Ever since I learned about women who write to, fall in love with and marry men on Death Row, I've been fascinated by this phenomenon, so this book was a must-read. Lloyd keeps the first three-quarters or so beautifully on track as Samantha obsesses about a handsome killer, gets involved in the campaign to free him and marries him, despite him being effectively a stranger. Alongside this main story is a sub-strand which calls into question Samantha's own past behaviour and quite how balanced she herself is. This keeps the tension high and I changed my mind a couple of times as to where I thought the book was going, and ended up staying up late to find out whether I was right (sort of!)

A grim and unbearably tense debut chiller with an unexpected and utterly fitting finale.

Fans of Gone Girl, Serial and Making a Murderer will not be able to put this book down. I promise you all that!

Amy Lloyd studied English and Creative Writing at Cardiff Metropolitan University. In 2016 she won the Daily Mail Bestseller Competition for her debut novel The Innocent Wife which, when it was published, became a Sunday Times top ten bestseller. Amy lives in Cardiff with her partner, who is also a published novelist.

THE TOP TEN BESTSELLER 
 __________________________ 
You were obsessed with his case. You fought for his freedom. He was acquitted. 
 You married him. 
 But now you’re wondering if he’s so innocent after all. 
 __________________________ 
 As recommended by MY FAVOURITE MURDER: 'It is so really ****ing good!' 
 'This book had me hooked from the first page to the last.’ LISA JEWELL 
 __________________________ 
Twenty years ago, Dennis Danson was sentenced to death for a brutal murder in Florida. 
 
But there were flaws in the case, questions hanging over the prosecution, suspicions of a miscarriage of justice. Sam, an English schoolteacher, finds herself drawn into an online community obsessed with the case, and with the eighteen-year-old who tearfully protested his innocence. Who was the ‘Short Man’ that police never found? Why did they fixate on Dennis so early? What happened to the missing evidence? 
 
Sam writes to Dennis, and Dennis writes back. They become friends. She visits him. They fall in love. They marry. And, at long last, a confession from the real killer seems to prove Dennis’s innocence. He’s acquitted; declared a free man. 
 
Sam is overjoyed, but part of her starts to doubt Dennis, and the ways he seems to change once released. She pushes it aside. After all, they’re husband and wife. 
 
 Till death do them part. 
__________________________ 
Amy's readers are raving about the book they 'just couldn't put down': 
 
“I picked up The Innocent Wife this morning on my subway commute to work and couldn't put it down! I read it during my lunch break, commute home, on the stair master… It was just that addicting!” 
 
“Absolutely fantastic book… couldn’t put it down” 
 
“a superb rendering of sustained storytelling that grips you from the off” 
 
“I read the book in two days, couldn't wait to find out what happened next” 
 
“Fantastic, gripping, page turning… Drew you in and kept you there until the very end” 
 
“A fantastic debut! … It gets you hooked from the very beginning, and yet it's never predictable, you're in for some surprises until the very last page” 
 
“The Innocent Wife was gripping. I read with heart racing” 
 
“I literally couldn't wait to steal five minutes with it during the day and loved my evenings completely immersed in the tension” 
 
“I couldn't put this down… thriller fans, you're in for a treat” 
 
“complex and fascinating… very clever and very well executed” 
 
“original and utterly compelling … I honestly feel bereft now that I've finished it and can't wait to spend 2018 talking about this fantastic novel”

Amy Lloyd

Written with experience and style… a thriller, a chilling one an’ all

I'm a huge fan of Amy's writing and I read One More Lie pretty much overnight. I really felt I got under the skin of 'Charlotte's' character straight away, I could sense her disorientation and despite knowing that she'd been accused of a dreadful crime, I really felt for her struggles. This is another incredible book from Amy, which I know will do really well. I found it gripping, intriguing, sinister and it really had me hooked from the first page! I will definitely be recommending it to everyone!

Karen Hamilton, author of The Perfect Girlfriend

I read it in a day. Superb. I’ll be thinking of this for ages to come. An absolute masterclass in suspenseful storytelling

Wow! What a compulsive, chilling novel. Both Charlotte and Sean are so thoughtfully and believably drawn, I felt almost as if I was intruding on their most private of thoughts – it makes it a really sinister and yet ultimately tragic story. I will definitely be recommending it.

Dark, chilling and totally gripping... What I loved about this one is how skilfully Lloyd builds up an almost unbearable dread, and how the effects of time, lies and memory mix to make the ground always unsteady beneath our feet.

A remarkable book. With complex characters, a pacy plot and a real sense of menace that gradually builds up throughout the novel, this is one hell of a read. 5 stars.

A thought-provoking, heart-breaking tale. I couldn’t have loved it more.

An evocative and stirring tale that really lingers in your mind

'I couldn't put this book down and read it in less than 48 hours. Amy Lloyd's second novel is a fast-paced psychological thriller full of scenes so tense they are almost claustrophobic [...] If you're looking for a fast-paced thriller that will keep you turning the pages, then this is it.

This chilling psychological thriller will hook you from page one

______________ 
How do you live with yourself as an adult when you were convicted of murder as a child? 
 
And when you can't remember the crime... 
HOW DO YOU KNOW YOU'RE GUILTY? 
 
Charlotte wants a fresh start. She wants to forget her past, forget her crime – and, most of all, forget that one terrible moment. 
 
It’s the reason she’s been given a new name, a new life. The reason she spent years in prison. 
 
But even on the outside, with an ankle monitor and court-mandated therapy, she can’t escape the devastating memory of the night that turned her and her only friend into national hate figures. 
 
But now her friend has found her. 
 
And despite the lies she tells to survive, she soon finds herself being dragged deeper and deeper into a past she cannot confront. 
 
Even if it’s going to cost Charlotte her life... 
______________ 
‘Written with experience and style… a thriller, a chilling one an' all’ 
ANNIE CLARKE, FROST MAGAZINE 
 
'I'm a huge fan of Amy's writing and I read One More Lie pretty much overnight. This is another incredible book from Amy, which I know will do really well. I found it gripping, intriguing, sinister and it really had me hooked from the first page! I will definitely be recommending it to everyone!'KAREN HAMILTON, author of THE PERFECT GIRLFRIEND 
 
'I read it in a day. Superb. I’ll be thinking of this for ages to come. An absolute masterclass in suspenseful storytelling.' 
JO SPAIN, author of THE CONFESSION 
 
‘A chilling, tragic story that feels like you’re reading behind the scenes in a real criminal case.’ 
ARAMINTA HALL, author of OUR KIND OF CRUELTY

Amy Lloyd

Praise for One More Lie

Written with experience and style… a thriller, a chilling one an’ all

I'm a huge fan of Amy's writing and I read One More Lie pretty much overnight. I really felt I got under the skin of 'Charlotte's' character straight away, I could sense her disorientation and despite knowing that s ...

I read it in a day. Superb. I’ll be thinking of this for ages to come. An absolute masterclass in suspenseful storytelling

Written with experience and style… a thriller, a chilling one an’ all

I'm a huge fan of Amy's writing and I read One More Lie pretty much overnight. I really felt I got under the skin of 'Charlotte's' character straight away, I could sense her disorientation and despite knowing that s ...

I read it in a day. Superb. I’ll be thinking of this for ages to come. An absolute masterclass in suspenseful storytelling

Written with experience and style… a thriller, a chilling one an’ all

I'm a huge fan of Amy's writing and I read One More Lie pretty much overnight. I really felt I got under the skin of 'Charlotte's' character straight away, I could sense her disorientation and despite knowing that s ...

I read it in a day. Superb. I’ll be thinking of this for ages to come. An absolute masterclass in suspenseful storytelling

Books by Amy Lloyd

Articles featuring Amy Lloyd

Are women in fiction allowed to be unlikeable?

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