Book Review: "The Devil's Work" by Mark Edwards

Yes I am back to reading more Mark Edwards and needless to say, I read this one in just one sitting. One, tension-filled and very atmospheric sitting. To this day, I have read quite a few Mark Edwards books and yet, I have plenty to go (this is great since I've basically finished Lucinda Berry's novels - or at least 99% of them. I sit in hope that more will be released). Mark Edwards is a great writer who often works a possibility of supernatural or paranormal something into his stories that are sooner or later seen to be something that can be explained by reality but the reality is often more terrifying than the possibility of the supernatural. Yeah, it's complex. When past and present collide, the past is coming up fast to catch people. And perhaps, it will end in bloodshed.

Sophie Greenwood is a woman who is getting back into the workplace after her daughter, Daisy, has started going to school. Her husband, Guy, has a job as a freelancer and even though that's great, it doesn't really pay enough of the bills for their liking. Fortunately enough for Sophie though, she has a publishing job at the one place she had wanted to work ever since she was a young girl. But as she meets the new gang, she finds out that her predecessor may have disappeared under mysterious circumstances - nobody is being clear about it. Mark Edwards sets us up in hope from day one (I mean except that bloody weird prologue). Sophie is someone who is constantly hinting at something more but for now, we are comfortable because she is comfortable. Of course it is a false sense of comfort though because shit is about to hit the fan.

We are taken back to Sophie's university days in another timeline where she makes friends with a girl called Jasmine and later, Jasmine's boyfriend enters the picture too. The boyfriend is someone whom Sophie is also attracted to but then, there's a the bully-type of girl named Becky who reveals the secret that Jasmine is the granddaughter of a famed publishing house executive to the whole university even though Jasmine wanted to keep that a secret. Becky's life is made a living hell by an unknown assailant until Becky is forced to leave her university life. But nobody seems to know who did it. Observation falls on Becky's ex-boyfriend who was jilted over Becky's infidelity. But of course, that was not it at all. Mark Edwards' other timeline presents us with problems that Sophie has that will come back later to haunt her - things she hasn't even told her husband.

At work, Sophie starts paying attention to one woman who seems to be making her life a living hell. We also have a man accused of a sexual assault he swears he didn't commit. We have a missing former boss who's assumed dead. We then have a murder when someone is pushed from the top of a building. Apart from this, we have a fire on a boat, a missing child, an apartment goes up in flames on purpose and much, much more. Mark Edwards knows how to write a thriller because even though this might seem like a lot going on, there's also a shit ton of atmosphere. The pacing is brilliant because it keeps you tense on right on the edge. You as the reader know that Sophie should be doubting herself because you know things aren't always what they seem - but as things start to mount even you don't think you can trust any of the characters.

I'm going to be perfectly honest when I say that as the story is slowly revealed to us, I kind of half-guessed where it was going and yet, it was still super tense to find out every single detail. The book in which things are detailed about a child being imprisoned and abused plays a vital role and yet, there's so many things that are left out of the entire picture until the final showdown. I really did love the way there seemed to be an explanation for everything - even the stuff that feels supernatural. Oh, I also love how you can most definitely trust no-one...

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