When a routine flight across the UK results in a plane crash leading to the death of two people, journalist Carly Atherton's hopes of reconciliation with her one-time love, Luke Emery, are dashed.

Her attempts at closure lead her to the family of Luke's co-pilot Daniel Taylor, opening up a Pandora's Box of discoveries that Carly had not bargained for.

But getting the worms back into the can is just not an option. So, Carly will have to deal mgtg some very unappetizing truths, because things are very different from how they had initially seemed...

This story provides an uncomfortably close look at what it means to deal with a psychopath, and how such individuals approach life and other people around them. There is a dark undercurrent of humour, which is very appealing.

There are also cultural references which feel very familiar to anyone who grew up within the time frame described here. All in all, worth a read, and it gets 3.5 stars.

I was drawn to this book by its premise, finding out why a plane with no passengers crashed on a routine flight across the Uk. Any book that features a plane disaster will always grab my attention! This book was so much more, yes the plane crash is an element of the book but this is a a detailed character study of a psychopath at its core.

I struggled to put this book down. It’s well paced and I really enjoyed the format the author used. Informative, well researched, darkly humorous at times and kept me engaged, guessing and interested from the first chapter to the last.

I really enjoyed the author’s style of writing and I’m looking forward to reading more from her. I suspect this book will be widely read and recommended.

An alternative (though much clunkier title) would be 'Scenes from an Ordinary British Family one of whom happens to be a Psychopath.' I felt the book excelled at capturing the texture of everyday British life from the 1980s to the 2020s. There was an underlying humour to this which was very likeable. For example, this description of primary school girls c.1990 obsessed with 'The Little Mermaid' felt spot on: "back then some of the girls in my class considered the film a sort of manual for life and Abigail Pritchard was one of a gang of Ariels who spent every break time marauding around the playground, competing to exhibit the greatest knowledge of Prince Eric. Most of these girls had toy Ariels, but very few had a Prince Eric - presumably their parents drew the line at spending money on a plastic lantern-jawed wastrel."

The book is cleverly constructed from a patchwork of documents and testimonies, so different voices/perspectives are represented (incidentally, because of this, I think it would be better to read it as a paperback/hardback, not on kindle, as would be easier to follow). The most compelling voice is probably the psychopath's. In real life, I once had the misfortune of making friends with a woman who had a similar personality, and it was morbidly fascinating to be reminded of this, and have an insight into that kind of perception of the world - self-centred and callously ruthless, with endlessly-held grudges, and revenge served very cold.

In terms of the tragedy itself, I felt a bit uncomfortable about echoes with a real-life air disaster from a decade ago - although the incident in the book is clearly fictional, it stirred up memories of disturbing news stories from the time.

Overall, 'Scenes from a Tragedy' is a compelling read with an unforgettable central character.

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the advance copy.