Published: June 23rd, 2022
Publisher: Hera Books
Genre: Mystery, Suspense, Thriller, Psychological Thriller, Crime Fiction, Domestic Fiction, Urban Fiction
Format: Paperback, Kindle, Audiobook
I’m finally getting around to posting my review for this tense and twisty thriller after my stop on the tour was delayed by Covid. Thank you to Danielle at The Reading Closet Tours for the invitation to take part and Hera Books for the gifted eBook ARC.
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SYNOPSIS:
She has your back.
And may stab you in it.
Wealthy, pampered Susan is living the perfect life in leafy Kingston. She’ll never let anyone see the darkness she’s concealing behind the diamonds and rosé.
Grace is new to the group, seemingly the perfect wife and mum. Yet no one knows the truth of what’s happening behind closed doors.
Loner Natalie hides the pain of her childhood behind a carefully ordered life. But how long can the past stay hidden?
Three unlikely friends, brought together for a weekly class run by beautiful, friendly, instructor, Jade.
But when Jade goes missing in mysterious circumstances, the group starts to unravel. And as their darkest secrets come to light, it seems that no one can be trusted. Even their closest friends…
A heart-in-your-mouth thriller that builds twist after twist, culminating in an unforgettable ending. This shocking, tense and gripping read will delight fans of T.M. Logan, B.A. Paris and Big Little Lies.
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MY REVIEW:
“It was never meant to go this far. All I wanted was for her to be taught a lesson.”
Friendly fitness instructor Jade’s weekly class brings together an unlikely group of friends: wealthy Susan whose picture perfect life is hiding a much darker truth, newcomer Grace whose image of the perfect wife and mum belies what is really happening behind closed doors, and loner Natalie who is trying to control the trauma from her childhood with a carefully structured life. When Jade fails to turn up to class one day the group begins to unravel and their dark secrets begin to surface. Can any of them be trusted? And could one of them really have had a hand in Jade’s disappearance?
Shocking, surprising and suspenseful, The Loyal Friend is another dark and twisty thriller from A. A. Chaudhuri, who has proven herself to be a must-read addition to any thriller lover’s list. It is a dark maze of twists and turns that will make your head spin. Fast-paced, tense and exquisitely written, Chaudhur teases us by slowly revealing fragments of the many secrets being kept, keeping us on the edge of our seat as we desperately wait for the next piece to be revealed.
The varied cast of characters are all compelling and well written. Natalie was a very sympathetic character who was easy to root for, Grace also sparked sympathy, though her character was much more complex and layered. But the one I enjoyed reading most was the villain of the group, Susan. She is so unlikeable from the start and I loved her for it. She is unapologetic about who she is and though she is someone you’d hate to know in real life, she makes a very entertaining fictional character. Each of them is a suspect, filled with fear and acting suspiciously as they try to avoid the glare of the police. What are they hiding? I had my ideas and felt like one of them had to be involved in Jade’s disappearance, but I was never quite sure which of my two suspects it was, which raised the tension and kept me on tenterhooks from start to finish.
Heart-pounding and unpredictable, The Loyal Friend is a high-octane psychological thriller that keeps you guessing. And that ending! I am still thinking about it weeks after finishing the book.
Read it now.
Rating: ✮✮✮✮.5
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MEET THE AUTHOR:
A.A. Chaudhuri is a former City lawyer, turned thriller writer, who lives in Surrey with her family.
Once a highly ranked British junior tennis player, competing in the national championships and a member of the national squad, she went on to tour the women’s professional satellite circuit as a teenager and achieved a world ranking of 650.
After returning to full-time education, she gained a BA Honours 2:1 in History at University College London, and a commendation in both the Graduate Diploma in Law and Legal Practice Course at the London College of Law, before training as a solicitor at City firm Norton Rose and then practising as a commercial litigator at two other City firms, Kendall Freeman and Travers Smith.
She left law in 2008 to pursue her passion for writing and in 2010 passed the NCTJ fast-track newspaper journalism course, in respect of which she was awarded The Oxford University Press Public Affairs Award for the most outstanding public affairs central government paper.
In 2013 and 2014 she self-published two women’s fiction novels under the name Alexandra Sage: Love & Limoncello and the sequel Love & Loss. Love & Limoncello has sold more than ten thousand copies to date, reaching number 53 in the Amazon Kindle Bestsellers List in October 2014.
The Scribe and The Abduction, published by Lume Books in July and December 2019, are her first crime book series, plunging readers into London’s glamorous legal world and featuring series’ heroine, Maddy Kramer, fiction’s first female City lawyer amateur sleuth, who teams up with charismatic DCI Jake Carver to solve a gruesome series of murders and a puzzling abduction.
Both books have hit the bestsellers lists in the UK, Australia and Canada, with bestseller tags in Australia and Canada.
THE SCRIBE and THE ABDUCTION were published as audio books by Isis Audio on 1st January and 1st March 2021, both read by David Thorpe.
She has also contributed an original short story THE ENCOUNTER to crime anthology GIVEN IN EVIDENCE published by LUME BOOKS in May 2020, has written many articles and short stories for The Crime Writers’ Association.
In February 2021, Alex signed a two-book contract for two standalone psychological thrillers with Hera Books, the first entitled She’s Mine was published on 18th August 2021 in eBook and 26th August in paperback. The Loyal Friend will be published 23rd June 2022.
Besides being an avid reader, she enjoys fitness, films, anything Italian and a good margarita!
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BUY THE BOOK:
Waterstones*| Amazon*| Bookshop.org*
*These are affiliate links
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Thanks for reading Bibliophiles 😊Emma xxxx
Please check out the reviews from the other bloggers taking part in the tour.
Emma's Biblio Treasures 
2 replies on “BLOG TOUR: The Loyal Friend by A. A. Chaudhuri”
Aww love this review and I think I recognise that hand 😂 😉
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Thank you. And, yes, you should 🤣
LikeLiked by 2 people