If you're looking for an edge of your seat thriller about what happened to two women in an elevator in which one ends up dead, this isn't for you. If you want a slow burn conspiracy novel with some of the most boring and lengthy legal paragraphs I've ever read, this is for you. Do not be fooled by the summery, the elevator scene is the first chapter only. However, there were parts I did enjoy.

Shay Lambert is an interesting multi faceted character that I would love to read again, in a different setting. The writing was quite good (bar all the technical legal jargon) and at it's heart, the story could have been an amazing cat and mouse game with the ultimate revenge ending. There were just too many slow parts that lost my attention that kept me from giving it more stars.

Thank you Netgalley for this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

I enjoyed this book, I wasn't blown away - but it was an easy one to dive into and watch the story unfold. There was SO MUCH going on in this book at times it felt like it took a lot of concentration to navigate. Though I did like how strong and fierce the female lead was.

I liked how it dove straight into action, I liked the unreliable narrator, and I liked seeing how she dealt with issues as they came up - with the ideas being developed enough to draw interest.

I didn't like how drawn out it was in some places, I didn't like a LOT of the characters which is the entire point of the plot, but it just left me with an uneasy feeling.

A good, quick read. Super clever, I just felt like a key component was missing for me.

Locked door style psychological thriller with rippling undertones of corporate sabotage. Bonnie Kistler gives multiple twists and suspense during the thriller and displays female dominance at its best. Brilliantly written.

Two women walk into a lift only one walks out alive. I was hooked just from that one line on the front cover. This book was incredibly captivating right from the start. Shay and Lucy both get into the lift as they are heading home for the day. Whilst they are in the lift the lights go out. Then there’s a bang. Shay walks out alive. Lucy is dead. The big question now is was it murder or was it a suicide?

The burden is on the police to prove which one it is. Shay tells them it was suicide however Lucy’s husband is adamant that his wife was in a good state of mind and that Shay must be charged with her murder. As the book goes on it soon becomes clear that there is much more to this case than was it suicide or was it murder.

When Shay is arrested and charged with murder she is convinced that she is being set up by her current boss. Shay knows to much about the company, what is going on behind the scenes and her boss needs her gone and out the way where she cannot expose the company for their wrong doings. Things look pretty hopeless for Shay with her husband turning his back on her and no other close friends or family the burden is on Shay to prove her innocence.

I really like Shays character and right from the start I found myself touting for her. She was in a hopeless situation, a drug addict for a husband, a mountain of debt and no luck seemed to come her way. After her husband threw her out all she had was her job which she was determined to do and to do it well however even that didn’t turn out to well for her.

Right from the start I had come to a conclusion whether or not Lucy was murdered or whether she killers herself and I did guess right. The only thing I found slightly challenging whilst reading this book was the amount of legal termination used and I occasionally found myself a little bit lost. But over all this book was a good read and I would certainly recommend it to someone who is looking for something a little bit different.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for an advance copy of this book in exchange for this review.

The title of this book caught my eye as I was thinking, it can’t just be that simple, there must be more to it, and there is!

Both Lucy and Shay work for the same company. Lucy heads up HR and Shay is part of the legal team. Lucy is down on her luck, her marriage is failing, she has enormous debts and has been out of legal work for several years until she landed this job just recently. Lucy is a high flyer, hard working and well turned out with her designer clothes, but she is harbouring a secret.

As the title suggests, they both get into the lift after work one day but only one walks out alive. Was it suicide or murder? You will keep guessing until everything wraps up at the end!

Written in chapters in both the current timeline and the past. Fairly short chapters making it easy to follow. It is also clear that the author is extremely knowledgable about the legal system.

A first class, well written legal thriller which will have you page turning right until the end.

A solid 4.5 stars.

Many thanks to netgalley, the publishers and the author for an arc.

The description of Seven Minutes Later grabbed me immediately and the book did not disappoint. It was a highly addictive story that I couldn not put down.

Thank you to NetGalley and Canelo for my ARC.

The premise of the book is that two women get into a lift and only one of them gets out alive but obviously the plot is far more complex than that and it is only the tip of a very big iceberg.
The women in the lift are the Head of HR of a large successful company who has an incredibly privileged past and from a family of money, albeit made from links in the past with slavery. The other is a lawyer who has recently gained a position with the company and desperate to claw her way back into solvency as she and her husband had fallen from a great height and are beyond penniless. There is a lot riding on this job for her.
The themes of the book are quite brave and contemporary and make you think about how cutthroat business can be and how the love of money can cause humans to do some pretty unspeakable things to other humans. There is a lot of corporate and legal jargon and talk in the book but not so much so that I turned off, it was more a glimpse into anther world.
The pace was good as the story and backstory developed, I didn’t feel an affinity with any of the characters nor have much faith in the Police in the story, all which are slight problems but overall an enjoyable thrilling story.

I really enjoyed this book, the first page pulls you right in and does not let go until the very end.

Brilliant characters, brilliant plot, what else could you ask for in such a great thriller?

The premise of this book grabbed me straight away and all in all I did enjoy it. I really wanted to love it but there was just so much legal jargon I found myself getting bored. The writing was very good however and I will look out for more by this author.

Two women walk into a lift. Only one walks out alive. Was it murder or was it suicide? 🤔 What follows is a rollercoaster of a mystery of why and how that will keep you turning the page.

The great thing about this book was that despite there not being a mystery of who you are kept intrigued into the why and what the company is happening. I have never picked up a legal thriller before but this was just great! The writing in this was also great.

This will be released on 15th February 2022.
Thank you to Netgalley and Canelo for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Two women who work for the same company walk in to a lift together at the end of their shifts, the lift breaks down and when it starts working again only one is alive - but what happened?

Lucy is the director for HR for the company and is the envy of all who have met her, she has the perfect life, perfect clothing and appearance and seems to have it all.
Shay is a young Lawyer who’s only just started her job after being down on her luck in recent years, she’s not as well dressed but she feels lucky to have been given a chance after being unemployed for so long.

Shay tells police that Lucy committed suicide in the lift by shooting herself but is that the true story?

This was one of the best books I’ve read for a while, I loved the twists and turns, and just when you think you have worked out what happened something changes!

It’s clear the author researched information for this book very well, and it’s explained in a way that it’s easy to follow and understand even if you know little of how the law system in America works.

Thank you for letting me read this - I really enjoyed it!

If you loved Apple Tree Yard and Anatomy of a Scandel, you will love this book. A smart and intelligent legal thriller. Highly recommended xx

Lucy is a high flyer,she looks perfect but she has a dark secret that will rip her family apart if it comes out.
Shay is a young lawyer at Lucy's firm,she's lucky to get the job after being made redundant.
She's no snappy dresser she can't afford to be.Her marriage is not a good one and she fears what her husband will do next.
Lucy and Shay walk into a lift and seven minutes later only one walks out.The woman left says it was suicide but is she telling the truth?.
I was hooked till the end and couldn't put it down,highly recommended.
Thanks to Netgalley and Canelo Books for the ARC.

This was a totally gripping read that I couldnt put down. It was supenseful, mysterious and full of unpredictability, I just couldnt call what was happening and who the villain was. I really enjoyed reading this book.

I would like to thank the author, the publisher and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read an ARC of this book. It was a great read that kept you guessing right up to the end, I would definitely recommend it.

I just had to read this book after reading the blurb - I love a unique concept (hard to come by in such a saturated market) and this one sounded great!

I wasn't disappointed. I was absolutely hooked by this novel. The pacing was really good and the plot advanced at speed until I really couldn't put it down without discovering exactly what was going on. Obviously there was the main mystery (murder or suicide?) but there was so much more to uncover than that, and I really enjoyed the journey of doing so. The ending was satisfying, it tied up all loose ends for me and I felt like all the characters ended up where they deserved to be.

The only drawbacks were that some of the legal bits flew over my head (possibly as I'm British and don't really understand the American system) and there were a lot of side characters who didn't have much to do with the story and I found it a bit difficult to keep track of who was who.

Overall though this was a fantastic novel and I would definitely recommend it. 4.5 stars rounded up.

So good! All the way through I had no idea if it was suicide or murder.

It was really fast paced and therefore easy to read and kept you guessing right to the very last page. Can't wait for another one by this author

This book is what all other thrillers aspire to be! It's so nuanced and subtley interwoven that you will just be captivated from the off. Its not action packed or drama filled but it is realistic and logical and intelligent! You won't see the twists coming and you will have to pick your jaw up off the floor more than once. It's got such a good pace to it and there's no dragging or rushed ending or making ridiculous plot leaps just to tie up loose ends, it keeps that same rigorous pace the whole way through as it unfolds and when the reveals do come.... they are just in the perfect place and at the perfect time. This is up there with the best of the best in terms of thriller writers, the karin slaughters and Sophie hannahs..... and I don't say that lightly. Its masterfully written, the characters are unique and have such depth that you can't help but love them or loathe them. The strong female protagonist is so amazingly written and she doesn't have any of the usual cliches or steroetypes! It was so refreshing!! It doesn't have pointless filler paragraphs or rely on the shock factor, it's all just crafted around this amazingly complex tale of..... well..... I dont want to give anything away! It is quite the tale never the less though. Its also very apparent that the author was in fact a lawyer in a past life! This means that the legal aspects of the story are so well detailed and realistic and you don't end up just focusing on a load of glaring errors that clearly would never happen in real life and getting frustrated with the stupidity of it all. This is written by someone who understands exactly what she is writing about and that gives the story so much more depth and stops you from getting distracted from the actual story by glaring errors. It really does just get so far under your skin and it just leaves you with that "where is this going to go next?" feeling that makes it so so captivating. Set aside some free time, once you start this, you won't want to stop! I couldnt recommend it highly enough. Its one of those rare, two or 3 a year, books that make every other seem basic in comparison. It's a thriller, it's a mystery, it's that domestic noir, it's crime drama novel..... and so so so much more!! Its just got such depth and so many aspects and it is so well rounded that all I can really say is, it's one of the best books you'll read this year. Regardless of your preferred genre, you will enjoy this!

Slick Suspense….
A slick and smartly crafted suspense which starts with a situation that pulls in the reader from the off and continues with an underlying, simmering menace and a well plotted storyline. The premise is certainly intriguing and, in this case, it delivers in buckets. Who exactly is telling the truth here remains to be seen as the reader is pulled one way and another through a tumultuous narrative to a, perhaps, startling denouement.

4-5 stars rounded up.

Two women walk into a lift/elevator at CDMI fashion Empire… sounds like the start of a stand-up comedians joke but the punchline of this one is that seven minutes later one of them is dead. The two women are Lucy Carter–Jones head of HR at the company and the other is intern Shay Lambert, drowning in debt with a relationship gone sour if not rotted. So what’s the story here then? It’s a simple premise (or is it?), murder or suicide, truth or fiction? The plot rises and falls like the proverbial lift/elevator they stepped into and only one stepped out of.

This is a character driven, slow burner mystery thriller that is riveting especially Shays story. Is she reliable??? The mood here constantly changes just as the investigating detectives Cruz and Riley’s does from suspicion to congeniality to hostility and keeps flip-flopping so you read on keen to get to the bottom of it. It becomes a battle between the corporate giant and an individual, David and Goliath scenario or cat playing with a mouse and you have no idea who will be the winner. The corporate version of events is driven by the men in designer suits who make your teeth clench and your fists curl with their smug power. You would just love them to be taken down a floor or three.

The book is very well written, it’s slick and smart with a plot that becomes very fishy if not positively stinky and reeking as it takes a dark unexpected direction. I don’t pretend to understand the US legalese but it doesn’t matter, in the same way you can relish a TV programme like Suits or The Good Fight, you can enjoy this tantalising conundrum. I enjoy the way it’s set out like a play in two acts and what a devious play it is as you try to figure out who’s play this actually is. The conclusion and epilogue are possibly a stretch but I like it as we move to game, set and match which is a very satisfying doozy.

Yes, this is another take on a locked room mystery but this one is elevated above the rest (sorry!). It’s clever, deliciously dark, some parts don’t sit easy as they’re not meant to but for me it’s one enjoyable ride/read.

With thanks to NetGalley and especially to Canelo for the much appreciated arc in return for an honest review.