Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

For those of you who are new here, sometimes I like to run. Well, 'like' is probably too strong a word; 'endure' might be more appropritate. Anyway, one of the reasons I hate running is because I'm so aware of what I'm doing, and I'm therefore counting down the minutes until I can get back into the warm with a cuppa. However, in a bid to make my 'runs' more bearable, I decided to try audiobooks with the logic that if I distract myself, it might be easier.

And what a title to start with: MR NOBODY by Catherine Steadman is a brilliant thriller, with twists and turns, action, pace and suspense. If I was reading it, I would have loved it, listening to it, I *adored* it! Often, it's risky to have the author read their own book, especially in fiction but multi-talented Catherine Steadman (actress as well as author!) brings the story to life with vivacity and a raw realness. (She even does the different voices!😄) I was carried away by the narrative – especially the action-packed final scenes – lapping up the storyline with ease, and totally and utterly gripped.

And, yes, the biggest success is that the unputdownable nature of the novel actually motivated me to get out there and pound the pavement so I could hear the next installment. Congratulations, to Catherine and the publishing team.

Thanks to @netgalley @catsteadman @simonschusteruk for the free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book hooked me in pretty quickly, I really wanted to know who the man was and what the connection was! But by the end, I was pretty disappointed. This is not my favourite Catherine Steadman. I'm hopeful for better in the future though

Slow to start, picks up in the middle and becomes unputdownable and the ending is just disappointing!! Enjoyable at times but nothing that will stick with me in terms of memorable thrillers. A good read by the pool book!

This is such a hooky premise and I was so compelled to keep reading. I finished it in one sitting and couldn’t put it down!

It's great to be in a position to recommend much more diverse books to our young people at school. Building the senior school library as a place where students actually come and find books that they want to read as opposed to books that teachers think they ought to read is an important responsibility and one we take really seriously.
Books like this are such a positive move as they will appeal to a broader set of readers than we are usually attracting. Dealing with modern issues in a clear and captivating way with a strong narrative voice and characters that the students can relate to is critical as we move forwards. This book is both an intelligent and compelling read that will hold even the most reluctant reader's attention and keep them turning the pages long into the night. It keeps the reader on their toes and ensures that you give it your full attention too. I found myself thinking about its characters and events even when I wasn't reading it and looking forward to snatching kore time with it and I hope that my students feel the same. An accessible, gripping and engrossing read that I can't recommend highly enough. Will absolutely be buying a copy for the library and heartily recommending it to both staff and students.

A man is found on the beach, but who is he? Neuropsychiatrist Dr. Emma Lewis is put on the case, that soon hits too close to home ...

At times suspenseful and at times surprising story, «Mr Nobody» is not as good as Steadman`s debut. It was a bit of a let down for me, and unfortunately I dnf’ed it.

While the first half of this book was good, it does seem to lose its way somewhat in the second half, meaning it loses some of the impact it should have had.

Still, this is still an enjoying look at what happens when a neuropsychiatrist, Emma Lewis, is asked to support a John Doe washed up on the beach with no memories of who he is or where he comes from. As his memories start to return, it turns out that he knows something Emma is keen to leave in the past.

It's okay. Not great, but okay.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC without obligation.

I was disappointed with this book. I felt the plot and the characters were missing something. It lacked depth. The pacing was so slow that it became to be boring and not thrilling.

I was delighted to get approved to read Mr Nobody by Catherine Steadman as I had heard very good things about the author's previous book.I enjoyed the first half of the book but I felt the plot seemed to unravel in the latter half. I would though like to read from the author as I could see the potential in the writing.

3.5 stars
This was the first book I’ve read by the author and I’ll definitely be reading her others. I liked the writing style and the first half was intriguing and gripping. Then it became rather unbelievable and slightly confusing in places, with some unanswered questions. The ending was also disappointing.

Not quite the gripping thriller I thought it would be, but still a very interesting premise and I particularly enjoyed the delve into neuropsychiatric practice offered by the window into the world of Dr Emma Lewis, a promising young consultant. Emma is asked to manage the care of an anonymous man washed up on a beach, with no memory of how he got there, his past or even his own name. However, it turns out something he *does* start to remember is something Emma is very keen to stay hidden. Surprise, surprise, the doctor has been running from a secret past of her own.

With thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an ARC.

Great novel. Really got invested in the lives of the characters. Some tense moments within the novel

This thriller is a real page-turner. An intriguing story about a neuropsychiatrist Dr Emma Lewis who is called in to assess a men found on a Norfolk beach with no identity and seemingly no memory of his history. However, Emma has her own personal memories of the location and reasons for keeping her own past secret. Really well written with pace and ingenious twists, building up to an exciting climax.

This was an easy to read thriller thaylt kept my attention all the way through! Lots of twists and surprises I didn't see coming. Very good, would recommend! I was so glad I got approved for this one!

A man wakes up on a Norfolk beach with a head wound and no memory of who he is. He has no identification and only the clothes he is wearing. Dr.Emma Lewis, is approached to work with him as media interest grows. Despite Emma’s lack of clinical experience the indications are that Mr Nobody’s condition is bona fide and it seems like a golden opportunity to prove her theories on fugue states. The flip side is that it also means returning to the town that she ran from fourteen years ago as a traumatised teenager and confronting the unhappy memories she left behind. As a teenager her family went into witness protection after an incident and Mr Nobodys situation seems to dredge up a lot of memories. Add the media interest in Mr Nobody to it all and the tension escalates.
I found the start of the book hard to get into but once I got to know more about Emma and her history I became more involved. The tension built throughout the book and came to a head in the latter end of it. This is the first book from Catherine Steadman that I have read but I definitely will read more of her.
Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Mr Nobody is a psychological thriller that contains many twists and turns. Emma is a neuropsychiatrist brought in to try and solve the mystery of a man, found injured in a beach with complete memory loss. Coincidentally, this occurs in the same area Emma was brought up in before a tragedy happened forcing her family to leave and enter the police protection programme.
I found the book to be well researched, and the detail given regarding how human brains function was intriguing. However, the ending was convoluted and far fetched which I found to be particularly disappointing after such a good read.

I was also interested to discover that the author Catherine Steadman was none other than Mabel Lane Fox on everyone's favourite period drama "Downton Abbey". MR NOBODY is her second thriller and its premise was so intriguing and unique in its concept I couldn't wait to read it. And I wasn't disappointed.

A man is found on a Norfolk beach on a cold winters day, soaked through to the bone and wearing no shoes. He has no memory of who he is or how he got there. His only clue is a name he had written on his hand and his mantra to "find her" and to "don't f*** it up this time"!

Dr Emma Lewis is a neuropsychiatrist and a leader in her field surrounding memory loss in a busy London hospital. She is chosen by a well-respected and more experienced specialist to take on the case of the man the media are calling "Mr Nobody" to determine whether he is suffering from retrograde amnesia, fugue and is malingering (faking it). There is only one small issue - it will require her to return to her hometown in Norfolk where she and her family escaped under a cloud of suspicion, before being given new identities, 14 years ago. But for Emma, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity as fugue cases are incredibly rare and she may never come across another one.

Early testing suggests the patient is suffering from retrograde amnesia or dissociative fugue. The onset is generally caused by severe trauma to the head, resulting either temporary or even permanent memory loss...or the patient could simply be malingering/faking it.

After careful consideration and talking things over with brother Joe, Emma decided to throw caution to the wind and take the job. After all, what is the likelihood she will be recognised now? 14 years later?

The man the hospital is calling "Matthew", while the media refer to him as Mr Nobody, hasn't spoken a word since he was admitted a week ago. He has latched onto a Jamaican nurse called Rhoda and between them they have formed a type of silent communication. But as soon as Emma walks into Matthew's room, he recognises her. He knows she's the one he's been looking for...only he can't remember why. He just knows it is her.

Then he speaks...just one word..."Marn?"...and Emma feels her past rushing back to haunt her. How could he know that name?

Further testing reveals Matthew genuinely has no recall of anything beyond the week in which he was first discovered on Holkham beach. But there do appear to be some emotional responses even if the memories are not there...he definitely feels something about them. What does this mean?

I found the medical testing under fMRI to be intriguing as Emma seeks to gauge Matthew's responses to memory and his emotional reactions. It was all rather interesting. All throughout, even those the tests revealed he could not faking, the reader is still wondering if he is. Things don't seem to add up and you wonder just how reliable Matthew's narrative is.

The story unfolds primarily through Emma and Matthew's (The Man) perspective with the odd narrative by PC Chris Poole and his irritating parasitic journalist wife Zara. Everyone in the book has issues, they all have a backstory, which is slowly woven throughout.

My biggest niggle with the book was the author's inaccurate portrayal of staffies in the attack on Rhoda. It really irks me that people are so influenced by the media and society's opinion of this wonderfully loving, loyal and affectionate breed, resulting in an inaccurate portrayal. It would be more believable of a smaller more aggressive dog than of a staffy who love people and live to please us. And the way the attack happened - suddenly and unprovoked. That does not happen. And it saddens me greatly to see staffies misunderstood and misrepresented in such a way.

Anyway, that aside, whilst the ending may have been a little far-fetched, MR NOBODY is still a compelling read and had me hooked from the first page right up to the end.

With plenty of twists to keep you entertained, MR NOBODY is definitely an original concept to say the least that weaves two tales from the past and the present, leaving the reader pondering are they in some way related?

It's clever, it's original, it's an enjoyable read. Recommended!

I would like to thank #CatherineSteadman, #NetGalley and #SimonAndSchuster for an ARC of #MrNobody in exchange for an honest review.

For me, this read had a brilliant premise but lacked in execution. Starting with a man being washed up on a beach with no knowledge of who he is or where he is been, with nothing but a word written on his hand. I enjoyed this book as I was reading. I liked the author's voice but found the plot somewhat unrealistic. It is a brilliantly paced unusual mystery and will be even better if you could suspend your beliefs somewhat.

A new book from Catherine Steadman. I really doubted myself whether or not to read this book. to be honest, her first book Something in the Water didn’t impress me at all. It was fine, but that’s all I can tell. I can’t even recall what the book was about. But in the end I decided to give it a shot.
Emma Lewis is neuropsychiatrist, one of the big names in this field. She lives in London, hiding from her past. She looked for a chance to prove herself and make great discoveries in her field, especially researching people with a fugue. But this condition is so rare, only a bunch of people experienced it and was examined through the last couple of decades. You can imagine her enthusiasm when she has been offered to take over Mr. Nobody’s case. But who is Mr.Nobody?

A man woke up on the beach shore. Wet, disoriented with no idea who he is, he can’t recall any memories of his own. There is only one thought spinning alone in his mind – he has to find her and she shouldn’t fuck it up this time. Who is he, how he ended up on the beach? So many obscure facts.

As much as our heroine Emma wants to take this case, she is not sure if she wants to go back to the location where the man has been found. Why? Because she has to go back to her home town and to the past she is trying to run from in the past years. The author delayed as much as possible the moment in which she shared with us Emma’s secret. This may work both ways. For somebody, this may be the thing that engaged them with the book and make them keep reading. For others (including me) this secret was quite frustrating because, as it seemed like the Guy from the shore doesn’t remember anything except Emma’s secret.

To be completely honest, Mr. Nobody identity surprised me. So CONGRATULATIONS, Mrs. Steadman! You did a good job surprising me. Unfortunately, the author couldn’t find the right balance in her story. There are moments that kept my interest and made me read faster. There are lots of dead slow moments as well during which I skipped whole paragraphs and still didn’t lose the story thread.

If this slow unfolding of Emma’s secret doesn’t bother you much, this book is an overall enjoyable read. Although I have some mixed feelings about it (same as with Something in the Water), I will recommend this book if you want a light thriller to chill with after a day at work.