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Kind of Cruel
The brilliantly chilling seventh crime thriller from the queen of psychological suspense – a must-read for fans of Clare Mackintosh and Paula Hawkins.
‘Utterly chilling’ Observer
‘Truly hair-raising’ Independent on Sunday
Some secrets are so dark you keep them even from yourself . . .
When Amber Hewerdine consults a hypnotherapist as a desperate last resort, she doesn’t expect that anything much will change.
She doesn’t expect it to help with her chronic insomnia . . .
She doesn’t expect to hear herself, under hypnosis, saying words that mean nothing to her: ‘Kind, cruel, kind of cruel’ – words she has seen somewhere before, if only she could remember where . . .
She doesn’t expect to be arrested two hours later, as a result of having spoken those words out loud, in connection with the brutal murder of Katharine Allen, a woman she’s never heard of . . .
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‘Utterly chilling’ Observer
‘Truly hair-raising’ Independent on Sunday
Some secrets are so dark you keep them even from yourself . . .
When Amber Hewerdine consults a hypnotherapist as a desperate last resort, she doesn’t expect that anything much will change.
She doesn’t expect it to help with her chronic insomnia . . .
She doesn’t expect to hear herself, under hypnosis, saying words that mean nothing to her: ‘Kind, cruel, kind of cruel’ – words she has seen somewhere before, if only she could remember where . . .
She doesn’t expect to be arrested two hours later, as a result of having spoken those words out loud, in connection with the brutal murder of Katharine Allen, a woman she’s never heard of . . .
Reviews
Hannah has outdone herself with KIND OF CRUEL . . . Her trademark precision-layered structure creates a multi-dimensional maze that holds at its centre a revelation which is truly hair-raising, even by Hannah's standards.
Intricately plotted and pleasingly sinister . . . guaranteed to get under the skin.
Cool, calculating and utterly chilling, KIND OF CRUEL is another compulsive book from Hannah, to be gulped down with all the lights on and someone to grab when the sense of menace grows too great.
Another triumph for one of the very best crime writers out there. Stunningly clever and compelling.
A terrific reading experience. Everybody loves Sophie Hannah.
Hannah excels at dissecting human behaviour, and the way she describes little acts of cruelty can send real chills down the spine.
Hannah concocts a mystery of satisfying complexity in which frequent clichés of the genre (the locked room, for example) are turned inside out. If that were all her novels did, they would be admirably cerebral but uninvolving. Unfortunately for her rivals, Hannah does texture, depth and character with similar panache.
A rich mix of the dark and the diverting. Brilliantly believable
An audacious puzzle of a novel that is impossible to second guess . . . Crime novels are often dismissed in literary circles for not being literary enough. Yet KIND OF CRUEL is exactly the intelligent, reflective and stunningly written novel that has "literary" critics swooning and judging panels lining up to reward.
