A suspenseful thriller of a book- with echoings of the Lord Lucan mystery. I didn’t see the ending coming which is rare in these types of books. Kept me on the edge of my seat throughout.

Claire doesn’t know where her father is. In fact, no one does since he disappeared the night her childhood nanny was killed. Now a doctor in her 30s, her life is still haunted by the unanswered question: was her father a murderer? Unable to move on, she decides to launch her own investigation and befriend the people who last saw him alive: her father’s friends.

This thriller stays relatively true to the real-life scandal that inspired it: the mystery of Lord Lucan. Up until the end, I found this story very believable – almost understated in the way it built the story to its slightly more improbable ending. If you don’t know anything about Lord Lucan and his recently deceased wife, Lady Lucan, I recommend reading up on it before attempting this book as fact is always much more interesting than fiction. However, I think the writer has done a great job imagining how the child of Lord Lucan could have gone looking for their infamous father now.

It is no secret that I am incredibly fond of books that use true crime as a starting point for a fictional account and so I simply had to read Flynn Berry’s second book which is loosely based upon Lord Lucan, the man who killed his nanny and then disappeared in 1974.

Claire Alden was eight years old when one night she was woken by some noise and found her beloved nanny, a young woman by the name of Emma covered in blood on the kitchen floor. Some time later she was scooped up and removed from the house. Her mother was in hospital and she was sent to stay with one of her friends with her young baby brother Robbie while she recovered. Her realisation that her father was suspected of the murder was slow but the effects it had bred an obsession that has lasted a lifetime.

In the present day Claire is a doctor. A caring woman who every now and again gives us a run-down of the ailments she’s treated that day. But she has a secret, her name isn’t Claire and she’s been in hiding for so very long whilst also watching, trying to find out what happened to her father. What sparks the latest flurry of obsession is that the police have been in touch, there has been a sighting and once again Claire lets herself believe that this might be the one, they actually might find him.

This is a dark book, full of foreboding as to what might be waiting for Claire. She looks back to their days in Belgravia followed by flight from the media and prying eyes to Scotland. What makes it all so much worse is her father’s friends seem to be working to a different reality. One where Claire’s mother had set him up for the murder, and that she’s an unfit mother.

Alongside the main theme is that of friendship, particularly that forged at a typically English public school with its societies where bonds are formed to last a lifetime no matter what. James and Rose were two of her parent’s best friends and so they are one of the subjects who Claire has tracked over the years. She’s followed them to work, she checks them out online and she wants to get inside their house and lives to find out what they know. There is a resentment that the life of privilege has not only protected her father but those friends who she suspects know more than they’ve ever let on.

Claire might be a highly functioning member of society but her younger brother has fared less well although he has no memory of their father it has marred his life too. These two damaged souls give the reader the chance to think about the often forgotten victims of crime. The children of murderers often overlooked and yet in this case they have grown up under a dark shadow indeed.

I was taken with the dual time line that works forward through the days from before the murder alongside Claire’s search for the truth. The tension is constant and the ending explosive.

I’d like to thank the publishers Orion for allowing me to read an advance review copy of A Double Life, a fascinating read that has already had me seeking out a copy of Flynn Berry’s debut novel Under the Harrow, winner of the Edgar Award for Best First Novel in 2017.

First Published UK: 31 July 2018
Publisher: Orion
No of Pages: 288
Genre: Crime Fiction
Amazon UK
Amazon US

loved Under the Harrow so I was excited to read this and it did not in any way disappoint.

I love how Flynn Berry creates and breathes life and soul into a character- in this case Claire, whose father killed her Nanny, attempted to kill her Mother then disappeared seemingly into thin air…

There is such an atmosphere here as Claire researches and travels , takes care of her brother, goes into a kind of life catatonic state every time the police believe they’ve caught up with her errant Father . I love how its really not about whether he’s guilty or not but about how the lives he left behind him are indelibly altered. His friends who covered for him, their children and at the heart of it all Claire who watches and waits and plans..

Themes of privilege, victim blaming, history and consequences run throughout the narrative and it is at turns chilling and emotionally resonant. Beautifully written, stand out characters and a hugely immersive sense of place and time make A Double Life an absolute must read.

Highly recommended.

It’s said that Claire’s aristocratic father, after the break up of his marriage, broke into the family home and attacked their nanny, before attempting to batter his estranged wife to death. Following this shocking crime, he seemingly disappeared without a trace. This, of course, is starkly similar to the facts of one of Britain’s most notorious mysteries.

The Lucan case may have inspired ‘A Double Life,’ but the plot is not a derivative rehash of its facts- Flynn Berry has constructed a riveting, taut and satisfying thriller. Claire’s voice is commanding and believable, her fixation with the horrific events of the past and her attempts to deal with them are evoked with genuine realism. The menace of her father and his shadow over the family is palpable.

Perhaps less credible are those on the periphery: the convenient effects of her friendship with Alice (whose parents assisted her father in the aftermath of the attack) aren’t wholly convincing, and the exploration of Claire’s relationship with her brother doesn’t feel complete.

I found myself reading ‘ A Double Life’ whilst recovering from an accident, and it certainly diverted me in the best way possible. A terrific novel that deserves to bring Berry to a wider audience.

This novel is based on the disappearance of Lord Lucan. However, although it is inspired by a real-life event, the characters are fictional and events are told from the point of view of Claire, a thirty four year old doctor in London. Claire started life with another name, and another life, until her father fled the country.

This novel looks at the aftermath of a crime and how it affected Claire and her young brother. Very few people know the truth about Claire’s real identity. Opening up to others has led to bad experiences for her and so she is very much alone, and lonely. Sometimes, it seems that life goes on, much as usual. She is a doctor in a busy practice, coping with issues, such as her brother’s reliance on prescription drugs, work issues and her obsession with her father.

Every now and then, there is a sighting of her father. If the police take it seriously, they may approach her and ask for a DNA swab, to try to prove that the possible suspect is the man that Claire last saw when she was eight. When this occurs, it brings all of those memories back into focus and increases her attempts to find out what really happened.

I found this quite a moving read. At essence, it is the story of a marriage between Claire’s parents – of class differences and a cover up, that, literally, saw the upper classes close ranks against Claire’s mother and who saw the perpetrator of a crime as the victim. The question is, how far will Claire go to learn the truth? An interesting, well written and thought provoking novel, which would be ideal for reading groups, as it has so much to discuss. I received a copy of this book from the publishers, via NetGalley, for review.

Where to begin with how much I adored this book? Well, for one thing, I read it in two sittings (which is almost unheard of for me). It was so much more than your average thriller ....Flynn wrestles with the complexities of class and privilege, guilt, loyalty, responsibility, family.. .yet the pace was never bogged down by the exploration of these themes. Compelling, thought-provoking and memorable, I'll be recommending it widely!

A classy stylish thriller. With major inspiration from the real life case of Lord Lucan, A double life tells the story of Claire, the daughter of a suspected murderer who in the eyes of the police and the public has mistaken the nanny for the ex wife and murdered her in cold blood before evading capture, never to be seen again. Claire and her brother have both lived the rest of their lives after this event in the shadow of this infamous crime and struggled in their own ways to deal with the effect on their lives.

Claire, terrified that her father will one day return to find her, decides to take matters into her own hands and finds a way into the lives of those she suspected helped her father escape the country. Friends who live a glamorous, privileged life, who look after their own.

A tale of revenge, of the destructive impact of a crime on a family, of a daughter needing to put the ghosts of the past to rest, and a damn fine thriller at that. The final section as tense as anything else out there but with a stylish hand to boot.

Bloody loved it!

Totally enthralling and fascinating! A novel based on the true story of Lord Lucan’s disappearance in the 1970s. Whilst the characters in the story are different, the story is pretty much the same, except the ending. Both thrilling and intriguing, this is a novel you won’t be able to put down. Claire is a doctor, whose father was at the centre of a huge news story in the 1970s. Her father disappeared, on the same night that her mother was attacked and her nanny killed by an intruder. Having disappeared without a trace, leaving only a blood soaked car in Newhaven, her father’s high society friends are the only people who can shed any light on what actually happened. Claire, her mother and her brother are left to pick up the pieces of their lives. Claire, now an adult, lives with a desperate need to find out exactly what happened that night and starts to shadow his old friends. Is her father guilty of murder? Or is he too, a victim? Read the book to find out exactly what happened.......
A great read. Highly recommended!