‘Mr Todd’s Reckoning’ by Iain Maitland

Published by Contraband,
25 April 2019.
ISBN: 978-1-912235-45-2 (PB)

If you want the ride of your life, you could do no better than reading this book.  Norman Bates is alive and well…he’s living just next door.

Mr Todd, the narrator of the story, is a tax inspector who, recently fired from his job, is nursing a huge grudge. He is the father of Adrian, a twenty-five-year-old, unemployed obsessive. They live a humdrum life, stuck at home with each other sharing a run-down two- bedroom bungalow located in Ipswich, and get on each other’s nerves.

The book opens in the middle of a heat wave when Mr Todd begins to keep a journal chronicling the minutiae of everyday life and Adrian’s irritating habits and mannerisms.

In the first half one has a certain sneaking sympathy for Mr Todd. The second half takes an altogether new and darker direction. The author ratchets up the tension in such a skillful manner that has the reader thoroughly unsettled and engaged. And when Adrian brings home a girlfriend and her young daughter things turn very nasty.

The twists and turns of the plot are edgy and gripping, the characters driving the story towards insanity and murder. The author has an eye for detail, a dry wit and a gift for dialogue; creepy and electrifying incidents keep one on tenterhooks and the writing is uniquely and chillingly immersive.  It certainly packs a punch. This is a thriller that will stay with you long after you’ve finished reading it.

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Reviewer: Serena Fairfax

Iain Maitland has been a professional writer since 1987. He has written over 50 books, mainly on business, and been published as far away as Russia, India, Japan, USA and Australia. He has also written for the Sunday Times, Which? and the Financial Times amongst many others.

http://www.iainmaitland.net

 Serena Fairfax spent her childhood in India, qualified as a lawyer in England and practised in London for many years. She began writing by contributing feature articles to legal periodicals   then turned her hand to fiction. Having published nine novels all, bar one, hardwired with a romantic theme, she has also written short stories and accounts of her explorations off the beaten track that feature on her blog. A tenth, distinctly unromantic, novel is a work in progress. Thrillers, crime and mystery narratives, collecting old masks and singing are a few of her favourite things.

www.serenafairfax.com