‘Killing Cupid’ by Louise Voss and Mark Edwards

Published by HarperCollins,
2 August 2012.
ISBN: 978-0-00-746071-7 (PB)

This story starts opens with the graphically described murder of a woman being pushed to her death from the top of a fire-escape; by the end of the first page the book had me completely hooked. And then the story begins.   Siobhan is a creative writing teacher; Alex is one of her students. Alex falls in love with Siobhan, the love isn’t reciprocated and here the stalking begins-creepy, sometimes amusing, but all very unsettling. And then the story moves on, and in ways one would never expect. That probably is as much as I will reveal about the plot as to do any more would be to give too much away. What I will say is I read it very quickly because I couldn’t put it down.

It is written from two different viewpoints- that of Alex and that of Siobhan, which in itself is unique. One knows of other working partnerships such as Nikki French, the husband and wife who write as a team, however their prose are written together -whereas Voss and Edwards have written clear, and separate voices in alternating chapters from Alex or Siobhan’s view-point, and put them together to weave a first class story.

The story is full of suspense and totally unsettling; just as you think you know what is going to happen, the story makes an about turn and goes off in a completely different direction. Their journey will take you across Europe into Amsterdam and then back to London. It has a nice balance of dark humour, a lot of pace, and more twists than a packet of liquorice aniseed, plus a climax that I guarantee will be totally unexpected. This is their second book as a team; I look forward to many more.

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Reviewer: Linda Regan
www.lindareganonline.co.uk

Louise Voss and Mark Edwards met after Louise saw Mark on a TV documentary about aspiring writers, and a writing partnership was born.  Their first two thrillers, Killing Cupid and Catch Your Death, were huge hits when the pair self-published them online, becoming the first UK indie authors to reach No. 1 in both the Amazon Kindle and Amazon Fiction charts. They are currently working on the sequel to Catch Your Death.

Linda Regan is the author of six police procedural crime novels. She is also an actress. She holds a Masters degree in critical writing and journalism, and writes a regular column, including book reviews, for three magazines. She also presents the book-club spot on BBC Radio Kent. She is an avid reader, and welcomes the chance to read new writers.