You need to know who your husband really was…
When Paula Gadd’s husband of almost thirty years dies, just days away from the seventh anniversary of their son, Christopher’s death, her world falls apart. Grieving and bereft, she is stunned when a young woman approaches her at the funeral service and slips something into her pocket. A note suggesting that Paula’s husband was not all that he seemed…
When the two women eventually meet, a series of revelations challenges everything Paula thought she knew, and it becomes immediately clear that both women’s lives are in very real danger.
Both a dark, twisty slice of domestic noir and taut, explosive psychological thriller, After He Died is also a chilling reminder that the people we trust the most can harbour the deadliest secrets…
I’m guessing it must be a bit of challenge to write authentically from the point of view of the opposite sex, but I’ve read (or listened to) a few books lately where the author seems to be able to do just that. After He Died, by Michael J. Malone is one of them.
The story starts with Paula Gadd being approached by Cara Connolly at the funeral of her husband, Thomas, and the note she is handed sends her on a path where the truth seems to want to stay tantalisingly out of reach. Cara blames Thomas for the death of her own brother, but how can Paula trust what she’s being told, when the man being described is nothing like the man she’d been married to for many years?
Michael expertly spins a tale of mystery from a web of family relationships, where the faces people portray are thin masks hiding their problems – or ambition. After He Died is an entertaining novel that keeps you hooked, with an ending that does not disappoint.
Oh, and I should mention that After He Died is published by Karen Sullivan’s Orenda Books. If ever there was a mark of quality, Orenda is it!
djpaterson 