Gwen Leonard is a professional packer whose latest job is packing up a house in a very remote location. She arrives thinking this is just another ordinary job but things soon take a dramatic turn and she finds herself held captive alone in a cellar. She does not know who her captor is or why she is being held but she is not being mistreated and is being given food and water. We eventually find out that her captor believes she holds information about a young girl’s death but Gwen is proving to be a vert ‘tough nut to crack.’ But is this really a case of mistaken identity as she claims or does Gwen really know more than she is letting on.
If you like tense, mysterious, suspenseful story’s then this will be the perfect read. Neither of the main characters are written in a sympathetic way and their stories are not entirely reliable but this is not what the reader is concerned with. I was more concerned with who would prevail in this battle of wills between captor and captive, and by the end I could sympathize with the reasoning and motivation behind the actions of both of them.
Thank you to Pan Macmillan and Netgalley for this review copy.

This was a fascinating read which followed the lead character as she takes on a new job as a house packer. I loved how much pride she takes in her work - and also that this is a bonafide job!

To begin with, all seemed to be fine and the job was progressing well and I found the descriptions of the care she took with packing items to be quite delightful.

But it is once the story takes a turn and she is trapped in the cellar that things really get intriguing. The information drops which reveal snippets of the past and explain what has lead them both to this point and place in time and skillfully delivered.

Having read and enjoyed several books by Sarah Hilary before I had high hopes for Sharp Glass and I was not disappointed. It is a clever, layered and satisfying read.

My thanks to the author, Pan Macmillan and NetGalley for an ARC in return for an honest review.

It took me a long while to really engage with this book, I found the characters hard to grab a hold of and really care for.

This is a thriller, with two main characters, and as the story progresses you will flit between deciding who is the villain and who the victim – it was an interesting and promising premise for a story, but I don’t think I would be recommending it far and wide.

Thank you Pan Macmillan and Netgalley.
Brilliant absolutely brilliant!!
I really enjoy books about obsession and revenge and this didn’t disappoint.
The characters were great and I just had to keep reading to see what the outcome was going to be.
More please

In Sharp Glass, Sarah Hilary offers readers a gripping and psychologically complex thriller that expertly weaves dark secrets with emotional depth. Known for her intricately plotted crime novels, Hilary once again demonstrates her ability to craft characters who feel real and vulnerable, while placing them in intense situations that test the limits of human endurance and morality.

The novel centers around a fractured family, trauma, and the desire for redemption. Hilary’s strength lies in her portrayal of flawed but deeply human characters, particularly those who are navigating the fine line between survival and self-destruction. The protagonist is compellingly drawn, caught in a web of past mistakes and present dangers, as they face both external threats and the internal scars that have shaped their lives.

Hilary’s writing style is sharp and lyrical, bringing a visceral quality to both the emotional tension and the physical violence that punctuates the story. She doesn’t shy away from the brutal realities of her characters’ lives, yet she also imbues the narrative with moments of vulnerability and tenderness, making the stakes feel all the more real.

The plot of Sharp Glass unfolds with the precision of a well-crafted puzzle, slowly revealing layers of deception, guilt, and unexpected connections. Hilary skillfully maintains a sense of suspense throughout, keeping readers on edge as they navigate the twists and turns of the storyline. The pacing is deliberate, allowing the characters’ emotional journeys to take center stage, while still delivering enough action to satisfy fans of the genre.

One of the novel’s standout features is its exploration of the fragility of trust and the lengths people will go to protect those they love. Hilary delves into themes of guilt, forgiveness, and the consequences of choices made in moments of fear or desperation. This thematic depth elevates Sharp Glass from a simple crime thriller to a more profound meditation on the complexities of human relationships.

Overall, Sharp Glass is a masterful blend of psychological insight and suspenseful storytelling. Sarah Hilary has once again proven herself to be a leading voice in contemporary crime fiction, delivering a novel that is both thrilling and thought-provoking. Fans of psychological thrillers and crime dramas will find much to admire in this gripping tale of broken lives and dangerous secrets.

I do enjoy books about obsession and revenge and Sharp Glass didn’t disappoint. I was totally invested in both of the main characters and just had to keep reading to see what the outcome was going to be. Another tense and suspenseful read from Sarah Hilary that I thoroughly enjoyed ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I received this book from NetGalley and Pan Macmillan | Macmillan in exchange for a free and honest review.

An interesting psychological thriller whereby there is a battle of wills between a captor and their captive with each believing that the other knows more than they are saying. This is a complex book that tackles memory and how traumatic events may lead to amnesia or/and avoidance, healing, and obsession. This is story is told in a series of flashbacks. I would recommend to mystery/ thriller readers who enjoy character study books.

Dark, gripping and suspenseful with twists galore and a jaw dropping ending
It’s a story of obsession and revenge - who is telling the truth?
It did jump around a lot so you need to concentrate
Thanks @sarah_hilary999 @panmacmillan & @netgalley for the perfect slow burner thriller

Sharp Glass is the third standalone novel by critically acclaimed author Sarah Hilary. A very different kind of read to her fabulous DI Marnie Rome crime thriller series of books, it has a dark, intense and claustrophobic feel to it that draws you in from the very first page, hooking its claws into you and never letting go as it delves deep within the psyche of two, what appear to be, very damaged individuals. A powerful and thought provoking read, this is a book that I haven’t been able to stop thinking about since I turned the final page.

With two characters who you’re never quite sure are telling the truth, this is a book unlike any other I’ve ever read before. All we know to begin with is that Gwen is a packer, employed to empty the homes of people ready to move on to pastures new. But this time, for reasons yet unknown, she finds herself knocked out and locked in the cellar by a young man named Dan. He believes that Gwen holds the answers of why a young girl was murdered a year ago. But does she? Or is there so much more to this mystery and to these two damaged souls than at first meets the eye?

I don’t want to go into too much detail about the plot as this is a book you need to read and experience for yourself, but I will say it is a deeply unnerving read that had me on the edge of my seat as the claustrophobic feel of the setting began to stretch my nerves to almost breaking point.

Sarah Hilary’s writing is as superb as ever, her ability to go deep beneath the surface of the human mind taking her gift of storytelling to a whole new level. There is an authenticity to her writing that brings these characters vividly to life, my heart aching for them as the layers are carefully peeled away in what is a complex and uncomfortable psychological thriller that really does reveal its secrets slowly

Sarah Hilary is an author who just keeps on going from strength to strength and I can’t wait to see what brilliance she is going to come up with next. Sharp Glass is a stunning standalone thriller that I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend. A dark, intense and unsettling read that will stay with me for a long time to come.

Outstanding!

I enjoyed this book, it was a very good and interesting read. A strong sense of the remote nature of the setting and the helplessness she felt.
Very unusual plot line.
A good read.

My very first blog post, almost 10 years ago, was of Sarah Hilary’s debut novel, Someone Else’s Skin. I have been an avid reader of her books ever since. In that time she has honed her already considerable craft and now produces some of the best writing I have read. Her characters are so three dimensional and multi-layered and in Sharp Glass, she peels back the layers of her characters until we start to understand what’s going on in their minds.

Sharp Glass is, in that sense, a psychological thriller. It delves deep into the characters, making you at first believe one thing about them and showing you that what you thought was going on is just the surface; these are people with much, much more going on under the surface.

Sharp Glass is literary fiction, too. Of that there can be no doubt. Structured in three parts it first introduces us to a young woman. This woman is a professional packer; the kind that understands how important your most valued possessions are and will wrap and pad and look after them with all the care and precision that she can. When we first meet her we understand that this is a role that allows her to lead a life where she can work in isolation, surrounded by other people’s treasures and she gets quite obsessive about them. She has her own treasures, too. These she carries with her, in a shoe box. Not always perfect, they are nevertheless the things she values most and she can’t bear them to be out of her sight.

Now, she is working in a remote, currently unoccupied house in the country, working for a client who hired her over the phone. Or at least she would be if she hadn’t been trapped in a cellar by an unknown male assailant. She doesn’t know why he has held her. She isn’t being mistreated; this man brings her food and water, but he won’t let her out.

As she spends time in her isolated darkness, unable to find any way out, we hear all her thoughts and speculations over what is happening to her and why. We learn a little about this woman. Her life has not been easy and her thoughts ramble as she gives us clues into who she is, but not why she is an abductee, confined to the overwhelming dark that shrouds her like a blanket. For three days, she lets her imagination run riot. It is an intense and deeply claustrophobic experience made more so by her thoughts. You can’t help but wonder if everything she thinks is entirely rational. Can we believe everything she says?

Then we learn more about her captor. The two have conversations and we learn that he is a successful ophthalmologist. He is clearly intelligent and just as clearly he has no personal designs on this woman. Yet, he too, has mental health issues he simply prefers not to deal with. Both these characters are fragile and both have had very difficult childhoods and adolescence. Both are damaged individuals and it is not clear whether you can wholly believe either of them, but you are caught up trying to work out which you think might be the more reliable. It isn’t east and this slow burn of a novel catches you in an intense war of words between the two, trying to navigate the lies and find the spots of truth in what they say.

As their conversations develop it becomes clear that there is one event that they have in common. An event that was so tragic and traumatising that neither has fully recovered from it. As the perspective changes between the woman and the man and then we are privy to the back and forth of their conversations, we think we have a handle on what happened and why these two are at each other’s throats, but Sarah Hilary allows the narrative to wrong foot us at every turn.

The reader’s emotive intelligence switches between these characters are the layers are slowly revealed, but even then we can’t be sure that we are placing our empathy in quite the right place.

There is cruelty here and violence, but most of all there is a damaged and emotional game of cat and mouse that switches from anger to calm and from hope to despair. Deeply buried secrets seep out and there are some shocking moments that pivot the relationship between these two.

Verdict: This is such a well written psychological novel. It is a tense, claustrophobic and astonishing read; one that is so well worth taking time with. I am so impressed with Sarah Hilary’s ability to give her reader such a deep insight into these flawed but highly memorable characters. Unquestionably Sharp Glass is a 5 star read!

Sarah Hilary gets better and better. Her writing is always excellent, her plots intriguing and her characters fascinating. Sharp Glass is effectively a double hander involving captor and captured, and the plot revolves around who is responsible for a girl's death. However, roles can reverse and the outcome is withheld nicely throughout.

I have read all of Sarah Hilary’s novels and this is definitely the most complex and thought provoking of all of them.
There are a few characters in this novel but most of the focus is on two, Grace and Daniel. The others feature as part of the storyline but not in person if that makes sense, so I felt that I knew about their grief, anger and loss without actually meeting them. Until the latter stages.
Grace and Daniel are complex, disturbed and unhappy characters who initially appear to have little in common. But as their relationship progresses and they start to understand why they are in their situation, they open up to each other more. Grace is a professional packer, who tends to get too close to her clients, in particular Tess who is the mother of Elise whose murder has gone unsolved. Daniel, an ophthalmologist, is a close friend of Tess and her husband Clark and unbeknown to Tess, they along with two other friends have a Friday evening vigil at the murder site which gradually gets more violent as their grief and anger escalates.
Whilst the murder does feature this novel it is mainly about Daniel and Grace. Both seemingly successful, but both have issues that they struggle to accept. Their difficult childhoods have caused mental health issues for both of them that they both acknowledge have had an impact on their adult lives. But can their version of events be relied on?
It is in the latter stages of the novel that the truth about the murder and the reason why Daniel and Grace face their predicament is revealed and it all became clear. And my understanding of both of them was completely wrong. I thought I knew who the murderer was and I thought I understood the characters. I was wrong on just about everything. I don’t for a minute think I’m the only reader who experienced this.
This novel is one where I really needed to concentrate on reading. It is extremely clever, an addictive but not a quick read because I was constantly rereading certain parts checking that I had understood it correctly. If there is one thing this author has demonstrated it is that it is so easy to believe what people tell you.
I will definitely read this book again, it’s a brilliant story and I want to experience reading it knowing what actually happened

Thank you Netgalley, Sarah Hilary and Pan Macmillan for the eArc of Sharp Glass.

Sharp Glass is a twisty tale of Gwen, who is a professional house packer. After a call to do one, she gets knocked out and trapped in the basement while her captor barely feeds her or keeps her hydrated This is where Gwens thoughts tell her story of why she is there, some of it at least. Her captor finally lets her out, only to find that they can strike up a conversation and both start telling their stories. What you get is a psychological thriller where you are not sure if either of them are to be trusted. Are they both unreliable? Or are they both telling the truth?

This is the first book of Sarah Hilary and I have really enjoyed her writing style. The plot slowly unfolds from a 1st POV, firstly from Gwen and then from Dan, her captor. It soon gathers pace and with some nice foreshadowing, things unravel. The big reveal at the end was satisfying and I also liked how the book ended. The character building for both the MC's were really well rounded, relatable and I liked them both. Ill be looking out for more of Sarah Hilary's books in the future.

4.25 stars for StoryGraph and 4 stars for Amazon, Goodreads and Netgalley

Grace is obsessed with the killer of Elise, who is a 12-year-old child. Imprisoned by Dan, Grace turns the tables and becomes Dan's captor.
The story flows with ease from the outset, Sarah Hilary's captivating writing style making it a thrill to read as the scene between Grace and Dan teeters on a knife edge. The characteristics of the duo are excellent, and the interchanges between them fascinating.

There are surprises throughout, and the ending is truly inspired.

I am a big fan of Sarah Hilary's writing; she doesn't settle into a standard story-telling pattern but always stretches herself to achieve something even greater and more challenging than the book before. That's very apparent in her latest book Sharp Glass which is very different to her previous works; it feels more like literary fiction and less standard crime fiction.

'Sharp Glass' has not one but two unreliable narrators, a storyline that twists and turns on itself, changing the narrative and challenging the reader's perspective and understanding of the situation, who the characters even are and their motivation for what they are doing to each other and where they have found themselves.

The book opens with a young woman trapped in a house that she has been hired to pack up and move. She doesn't know who has captured her, what they want or how she can escape, but she runs through lists of what she does know in order to calm her mind. These lists are a recurring feature of the book, and you notice that the 'facts' that appear in one list are subtly changed in the subsequent lists, if indeed they appear at all. Her unnamed captor is also not what he seems, and doesn't necessarily know what he wants or why he has caught the woman.

This story requires concentration and focus, its not a book to be rushed but is all the better for that. I enjoyed unwrapping the layers of mystery and discarding what I thought I knew. It is so thoughtfully constructed, the mis-directions and dead ends in the story-telling are skilfully handled. I can't wait to see what Sarah Hilary will come up with next.

Grace Maddox is a professional packer. We meet her hurrying through the night to a job in a remote house. When she gets there she is attacked and wakes up in the cellar. The man, Dan, who has done this seems to think she knows something that he needs to know. He hasn't allowed for her survival skills - skills acquired in her traumatic childhood. In a twisting tale of murder, grief and guilt, Grace gradually turns the tables and gets Dan to remember why he is doing this and who is behind it.
An engaging read, I needed to know the outcome!

This is probably one of the most complex psychological thrillers I’ve ever read.

“Sharp Glass” reads like an exploration of trauma and how it can affect people. Gwen and Dan are looking for the identity of a killer, but they are both showing signs of not entirely being in their right minds. Not crazy, more like their minds are broken. In their search for answers, might they somehow be able to fix one another?

Sarah Hilary has come up with one intricately laid puzzle that quite frankly made my head hurt. I often felt as confused as the characters, my mind going off in various directions, never quite able to zero in on what was important. I did have an inkling as to the killer’s identity but, here too, Hilary created uncertainty and I was never entirely convinced of my deductions.

”Sharp Glass” is unlike any thriller I’ve ever read. The psychological insight is from another level entirely. This one digs incredibly deep into the lives of these characters, how they ended up here, in the mental state that they find themselves in. It makes for extremely compelling reading, as you’re never really sure how either one will react next.

As important as finding out who the killer was for these characters, that wasn’t always the case for me. I was more interested in finding out who would survive this complicated and volatile situation. Both characters kept me on my toes, never really sure if they were reliable narrators, or where the danger would be coming from. Considering their actions who could blame me.

An intriguing and massively fascinating read, it has its uncomfortable and disturbing moments for sure. But fans of the psychological slow-burner and a captivating character-driven tale will undoubtedly admire Sarah Hilary’s remarkable storytelling and find themselves completely absorbed by the suspense.

I’m a huge fan of the author and have read all of her books. I particularly like her Marnie Rome books. So I was looking forward to reading Sharp Glass, a stand-alone thriller. I really loved this. The story move between the POV of both characters, urging you to keep reading until all the twisty story threads start to untangle and make some kind of sense, or not. I liked the way the book is structured. I never quite knew what was going on, who to trust and where the book would take me next. It’s a tense, gripping read. I was pulled into the complex story after the first few lines and the book refused to let me go until the end. I loved Sharp Glass and would recommend it.

This book sounded exciting to me as a thriller and mystery lover. However, I found this book was much too slow-paced for me and I found it difficult to focus and keep persevering with the story. The majority of the scenes are between the two main characters (the prisoner and the captor) and I struggled to connect with either of these characters. The story was also mostly told from the one location which created a tense atmosphere at times due to the ‘locked in’ vibe but I felt this just wasn’t built up enough at times. There is a fair bit of jumping around in the timeline and perspective which I struggled to follow.

There are some exciting reveals throughout the book and I wanted to keep reading to find out the truth. Overall, sadly this book just wasn’t for me but I’m sure that people who enjoy the slower pace will enjoy it greatly.

Thank you to Netgalley and Pan Macmillan for the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.