Book Review: "The Guilty Couple" by C.L Taylor

If I've said it once, I've said it a million times: you will never get me out of a crime and thriller reading binge and if I go back to the British Library Crime Classics series then that was entirely my own doing. C.L Taylor's book It's Always the Husband was incredible and I read the whole thing in only a few hours, basically unable to put it down. I had to go straight back to the Kindle store to get this one titled: The Guilty Couple. Honestly I am so excited to get sucked into yet another drama and I would again highly recommend this author to all of you.

This book starts with a woman being sentenced to jail time because she tried to kill her husband. Just when she's about to be taken to prison, she looks to her husband and in her mind, tells him to state the truth. This throws a lot into the mix. Whilst in prison, she doesn't know her daughter anymore as she refuses to see her. Grace, who was 7 is now probably 12 and doesn't want anything to do with her mum. The author has really turned up the tension by degrees as now there's many more reasons why this 'truth' she was thinking about needs to be proven. C.L Taylor is a fantastic writer and I am still thoroughly enjoying this book.

As the book goes on, we start to get more of a flavour for who each person is. I have to say that my only criticism is that too many characters are introduced too quickly and I would've liked there to be more known about them before they are dropped into the story. But, I think that is simply the writer's own style vs my own preferences more than anything else. As we move forward, we notice that characters are becoming very shifty. Our protagonist, Olivia, has a shady ex-husband named Dom who was the one smirking when she went to prison. We have a police officer who isn't exactly doing the right thing - she is a bit on the shifty side too and ultimately feels pangs of regret because of it.

The narrative goes back and forth between different characters, we get to see each piece of the story through the eyes of Olivia, Dom and even police officer, Dani. One thing C.L Taylor does better than most is creating these very individual characters. This is why I can't comment on the fact that the author uses many characters - they do a great job of separating each identity and making them all entirely different. As the book progresses, these identities expand, especially the dubious nature of Dom and his allies within the twists of the novel.

I don't want to say too much about the storyline because the more I say, the more it will ruin the plot for you. What I will say is that every character in this book dies on some sort of hill - even Grace. There's an insane amount of gaslighting going on and at the centre of it is a marriage turned really sour. When it comes to turning 'sour' I can honestly say I don't usually see marriages turn this sour and it was pretty fun learning about how devastatingly bad some of these characters are.

As with many of these books, a lot of the reveals are pretty far into the book but cannot be fully acknowledged without knowing who the characters are deep down. However, that doesn't stop the early sections of the book packing a real punch. I've read some reviews that claim that one of the many twists could have been omitted entirely and I don't really agree with that. C.L Taylor does a brilliant job at bringing the whole story together.

All in all, I found this book perhaps not as good as It's Always the Husband but it was definitely enjoyable. The Guilty Couple happens to have that nail-biting drama which I find the author does so well. Apart from this, it also takes on a volatile set of topics such as betrayal and murder. Honestly, I will definitely be reading more by C.L Taylor and hopefully in the near future.