‘Invisible’ by Christine Poulson

Published by Accent Press,
22 May 2014:
ISBN: 978-1-76375-429-8

I have enjoyed Christine's series set in Cambridge and opened this book with high expectations.  They have been admirably fulfilled.  Here we have a stand alone thriller about two lonely people who pursue a relationship of monthly weekends together in remote spots.    Suddenly one of these two fails to get to the rendezvous-vous and the other realises how very limited her knowledge of her erstwhile companion is.  Why has he disappeared without a word?  Lisa is mourning the death of her father and caring for her teenage son who has cerebral palsy and she valued her weekends with Jay more than she realised.  Jay was in a witness protection programme and mourns the deaths of his wife and son.  He didn't mean to love Lisa but it crept up on him and he only realised it after he is recognised and must cut himself off from Lisa for her safety.

The story follows parallel tracks about these two and others.  Gradually the reader pieces together some of the facts as an atmosphere of rising tension envelops everything.  The story moves around within England and in Hongkong and Sweden and includes many interesting characters.  The intelligent way Jay, Lisa and others plan their actions is enjoyable and the suspense of the tale is palpable.  It is an enjoyable story up to the very end.
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Reviewer: Jennifer S Palmer

The series set in Cambridge features academic Cassandra in 3 stories beginning with Death is Academic.

Christine Poulson writes I was a respectable academic, lecturing in art history at a Cambridge college before I turned to crime. My first three novels featured literary historian and accidental sleuth, Cassandra James, and my most recent is Invisible, a standalone suspense novel. Something that I didn’t expect when I started writing crime fiction was that other crime writers would be such good fun and so convivial. I’ve made some excellent friends and Martin Edwards is one of them. He knows a huge amount about Golden Age crime fiction – an interest we share.

http://www.christinepoulson.co.uk/

Jennifer Palmer Throughout my reading life crime fiction has been a constant interest; I really enjoyed my 15 years as an expatriate in the Far East, the Netherlands & the USA but occasionally the solace of closing my door to the outside world and sitting reading was highly therapeutic. I now lecture to adults on historical topics including Famous Historical Mysteries.