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Sunday 2 October 2016

‘The Madam’ by Jaime Raven



Published by Avon,
19 May 2016.
ISBN: 978-0-0081-7146-9

Lizzie Wells was working as a high class escort, when she was accused of the murder of one of her clients. It was a set-up, she was innocent. However, with all the evidence against her, and having a baby son to care for, she took the decision to plead guilty, knowing this would lead to a shorter sentence.

While in prison she falls in love with her cell-mate Scar. A little later she receives the devastating news that her baby son has died of meningitis and she wasn’t there when it happened. Lizzie is beside herself and decides to get even. Along with her new lover and cellmate Scar, they vow to track down the real murderer who had framed Lizzie for the killing of her client, and then serve their own justice.
The books then takes an accelerated pace, as their prison release comes and they set off on their vigilante mission.

Lizzie and Scar are well written and a good compliment for each other in this thriller. Scar is the calmer, she thinks things through, although her prison sentence had been for cutting a man’s manhood with a knife, so not a person to cross. Lizzie, on the other hand is hot-headed, driven by her anger and jumps in feet first, making many nail-biting situations along the way.

Lizzie is the vigilante, and although, as readers we are one hundred percent on her side and we won’t be satisfied at the end of the book if she hasn’t found out the truth, and served a due punishment, there are many surprise twists and turns and unseen shocks, on the way.

I hope there will be other books with this character in them, or even both the women. I will certainly be looking out for anything by this writer. She (or is Jaime a he)? knows how to write page-turning suspense, knows how to construct a good story, and knows how to write a satisfying, but unexpected ending. Highly recommended for lovers of hard crime.
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Reviewer: Linda Regan
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Linda Regan is the author of six police procedural crime novels. She is also an actress. She holds a Masters degree in critical writing and journalism, and writes a regular column, including book reviews, for three magazines. She also presents the book-club spot on BBC Radio Kent. She is an avid reader, and welcomes the chance to read new writers



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