I first met Lauren North at Harrogate Crime Writing Festival and I’ve been fortunate to meet her a few times now. I have to say she’s one of the loveliest, most supportive authors I’ve ever met. My partner, Graeme, has read a number of her books and urged me to read one. I started with All the Wicked Games, but I’ve heard her books just get better and better.
The blurb:
Are you ready to play?
Best friends Cleo and Rachel spend their evenings pretending to be people they’re not, inventing elaborate stories to escape the monotony of their real lives. It’s all harmless fun – until they play the game on the wrong person…
It’s your move now.
Five years later, Cleo is still struggling to come to terms with the night that destroyed her friendship with Rachel and almost cost them their lives. And then she receives a text: Rachel is missing. Have you seen her?
There’s only one person to blame.
Wracked with guilt for failing Rachel the last time they were in danger, Cleo races to find her friend. But could the past be repeating itself? Only this time, they’re caught up in a far darker game.
The rules don’t matter when the goal is revenge.
My review:
I’ve always enjoyed psychological thrillers. Partly the reason is because I enjoy a page-turner that has lots of dark twists and turns. So All the Wicked Games was the perfect book for that. I always like to connect with the main character and I found myself being carried along with Cleo as she relates her story. I enjoyed the flashbacks and how the story switches between the past and the now, so we begin to build up a picture of what really happened.
Though, do we really? Lauren shows she knows how to wrong foot the reader exceedingly well, and to keep them on their toes until the very last page.
I already have two more of her books on my TBR pile and I can’t wait to read them.
Esther Chilton 
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