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The Other Half Lives [Hardcover]

Sophie Hannah
2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (87 customer reviews)
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Book Description

5 Feb 2009 0340933135 978-0340933138
Ruth Bussey knows what it means to be in the wrong - and to be wronged.  She once did something she regrets, and was punished excessively for it.  Now Ruth is trying to rebuild her life and has found a love she doesn't believe she deserves.  Aidan Seed is a passionate, intense man who has also been damaged by his past.  Desperate to connect with the woman he loves, he confides his secret: he killed a woman called Mary Trelease.

Through her shock, Ruth recognises the name.  And when she's realised why it's familiar, her fear and revulsion deepen.  The Mary Trelease that Ruth knows is very much alive...

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Product details

  • Hardcover: 560 pages
  • Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton (5 Feb 2009)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0340933135
  • ISBN-13: 978-0340933138
  • Product Dimensions: 14.7 x 22.3 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (87 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 463,162 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Product Description

Review

'This utterly gripping thriller should establish her as one of the great unmissables of this genre - intelligent, classy and with a wonderfully Gothic imagination'

(The Times on THE OTHER HALF LIVES)

'A masterclass in plotting that adds twist after twist in a hectic finale'

(Sunday Times on THE OTHER HALF LIVES)

'Beautifully written and precision-engineered to unsettle'

(Guardian on THE OTHER HALF LIVES)

'The interest of any crime or thriller fan will be piqued by Hannah's early chapters, but even the most Machiavellian-minded will be confounded by the serpentine twists of her audacious plotting.'

(Independent on THE OTHER HALF LIVES)

'This book is long but never tedious, and, as with the finest examples of the genre, Hannah refuses to allow the reader any hope of predicting how it will all end until she decides to put the final piece of the jigsaw in place'

(Daily Express on THE OTHER HALF LIVES)

'Beautifully written and absorbingly chilling, this is a tale that steadily builds in tension, throwing up twists and turns that keep you guessing right up until the very end'

(SHE on THE OTHER HALF LIVES)

'An intricate and sinister suspense novel'

(Woman & Home on THE OTHER HALF LIVES)

'Sophie Hannah is the new British queen of the psychological thriller'

(Heat)

'Sophie Hannah has become the master, or mistress, of suspense. This one's even better than her others. Each moment is so purely enjoyable. Her genius is that she creates these very real characters - absolutely incredible. She's at the very peak of crime fiction at the moment.'

(Boyd Hilton, Simon Mayo, BBC Radio 5 Live)

'Hannah combines the baroque pleasures of dizzyingly convoluted plotting with witty dialogue, a rare depth of characterisation and emotional force . . . addictive stuff . . . the book will have to be prised from your hands'

(Guardian on THE OTHER HALF LIVES)

'Sophie Hannah has done this before and is doing it again brilliantly. You have to keep turning the pages. As twisted as fairy lights in the loft after Christmas. Very clever, very cunning.'

(Joel Morris, Simon Mayo, BBC Radio 5 Live)

 'A truly gripping thriller'

(Psychologies on THE OTHER HALF LIVES)

'Wonderfully inventive'

(Sunday Express on THE OTHER HALF LIVES)

'This is a monster book in every sense. It is both a chunky psychological thriller and a testamony to the legacy of depravity . . . The trademark neuroses that afflict many of Sophie Hannah's characters lead to multiple twists in the plot, while her brilliantly acerbic dialogue lightens this clever but complicated tale'

(Charlotte Norman, Waterstone's Books Quarterly on THE OTHER HALF LIVES)

'The pages keep turning . . . The firm grip of suspense will hold you fast until the thrilling ending.'

(Sunday Telegraph, Australia)

'A terrific page-turner, one of those really creepy suspense novels with so many twists that it is impossible to guess the ending.' (Bookseller on THE OTHER HALF LIVES 20081114)

'A real chiller; the clever plot will keep you hooked and guessing to the end'

(Choice on THE OTHER HALF LIVES 20081114)

'Genuinely unsettling . . . Fabulous stuff '

(shotsmag.co.uk on THE OTHER HALF LIVES 20081114)

'Hannah, like Rendell and Fremlin before her, takes ordinary domestic setting and turns them into something extraordinary . . . THE OTHER HALF LIVES proves that she is an established force to be reckoned with . . . a marvellous piece of literary conjuring'

(Crime Squad magazine 20081114)

Praise for Sophie Hannah's previous novels

(: 20081114)

'Bewitching'

(The Sunday Times 20081114)

'Beautifully written, outstandingly chilling'

(Spectator 20081114)

'A superbly creepy, twisty thriller about obsessive love, psychological torture, and the darkest chambers of the human heart'

(The Times 20081114)

'Sophie Hannah's ingenious, almost surreal mysteries are so intricately constructed that it's impossible to guess how they will end.  It's a compelling and disquieting story, told with the author's usual panache.'

(Sunday Telegraph 20081114)

'Chilling, compulsive and with a genius twist'

(Elle 20081114)

'Sophie Hannah brings many gifts to crime fiction. She is a poet whose use of language is precise, and her images are evocative. As a novelist, her overriding interests lie in people on the edge and in the relationships that have driven them there.'

(Times Literary Supplement 20081114)

About the Author

Sophie Hannah is a best-selling, award-winning poet. Her latest collection, First of the Last Chances, was chosen for the Poetry Book Society`s Next Generation promotion in June 2004. She regularly performs her poetry to live audiences nationwide and abroad, and recently won first prize in the Daphne Du Maurier Festival Short Story Competition for her psychological suspense story The Octopus Nest. Little Face is her first psychological crime novel. Sophie lives in West Yorkshire with her husband and two children.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
19 of 19 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars Deeply Frustrating 1 Oct 2009
Format:Paperback
I picked this book up, excited to read a book by an author I'd not read before. Normally I love thrillers and crime fiction. However, I've found 'The Other Half Lives' deeply frustrating. The plot hangs around a man, Aidan Seed, confessing to the murder 'years ago' of a woman who is very much alive. His girlfriend, Ruth Bussey, is one of the main characters and frankly irritating. The author tries to create a sense that Something Terrible has happened to several of the characters in the past. However, by halfway through you're no nearer knowing what this is (despite numerous heavy-handed and portentous hints) and the premise of a murder that apparently never happened wears thin. In summary, an over-laden plot involving characters I just can't bring myself to care about. I've given it a good shot, but might have to admit defeat...
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars Terrible... 27 Sep 2009
By LittleReader VINE™ VOICE
Format:Paperback
What can I say? After enjoying SH's other novels, I couldn't wait to get started on 'the other half lives' but by page 110 I was floundering and by 335, possibly suicidal...
As if the plot wasn't yawningly slow enough, the characters were utterly boring, one dimensional and irritating and there was so much superflous padding out, it was virtually impossible to actually find the story and was a chore to read.
Please please please get the next one right or I won't be bothering after that...
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27 of 28 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing 15 July 2009
By Susie
Format:Hardcover
I loved Sophie Hannah's previous three psychological thrillers, however 'The Other Half Lives' was a huge disappointment. Having looked forward to reading it I was greatly relieved to finally finish it. The plot was so convoluted and twisted that this seemed to be the entire point of the book, rather than the story itself. The book was as tedious as the relationship between the priniciple characters Simon and Charlie is becoming. There was barely another sympathetic character in the book. There were pages and pages and more pages of explanation of the dreary plot and the 'reveal' itself went on for chapters. The final scene with one of the principle characters gasping out her version of events made me cringe on behalf of the author, it was embarrassingly bad. Despite a completely ludicrous premise I feel this could have been a good book if it had been edited by about a hundred pages ? Where was the editor ? I hope Sophie Hannah goes on to write more thrillers, but that they are much more akin to her previous three than this one and that this isn't the start of a Patricia Cornwell type descent into pap.
I'm at a loss to understand the favourable reviews given to the book by some of the national press. I can only think that it's a case of Emperor's New Clothes, nobody wanted to admit that actually the plot was insanely beyond them and beyond almost anybody's boredom threshold.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars Bought for my partner.
I have put the Sophie Hannah books in publishing order and my partner is working her way through them. This one is later in the list so will have to wait to be read.
Published 2 months ago by jim4cad
4.0 out of 5 stars Another great read
As a fan of psychological murder mysteries I am officially addicted to this authors work! Ever since I read Little Face last year I have purchased and read all of the series in... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Jess
1.0 out of 5 stars Very far-fetched plot
Personally I disliked this book. The plot was too far-fetched and convoluted and I found it irritating. The writing was OK. Read more
Published 2 months ago by D. Kilner
2.0 out of 5 stars Very Hard-Going
Kept putting it down and finding it really hard to get into again. Rather remarkably, I finally gave up on it about 40 pages from the end. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Lunar Sway
2.0 out of 5 stars Insults the reader's intelligence! (Contains spoilers!)
A relatively young woman in flight from having done "something terrible" in the past. An equally young female police officer trying to recover from a devastating career screw-up... Read more
Published 3 months ago by English Rose
3.0 out of 5 stars Worth reading
I do enjoy Sophie Hannnah's books, and to a great extent I enjoyed this one but I agree with the previous reviewer who said it needs 100 pages taking out of it. Read more
Published 4 months ago by J. Shaw
1.0 out of 5 stars absolute drivel
I picked this up as it had a 4-star rating. I am at a loss to understand why the characters would be appealing to a reader. Read more
Published 5 months ago by MRS
2.0 out of 5 stars Losing patience....
This is the third Sophie Hannah novel I've read & I'm definitely out of patience with her plots which are now so overly convoluted as to be ludicrous, her publishers who should... Read more
Published 9 months ago by Sue B.
5.0 out of 5 stars keep reading.....
Just read the other half lives by Sophie Hannah - you go round in circles for a while wondering how it will all come together - but it does and it grips throughout... Read more
Published 10 months ago by Fiona
1.0 out of 5 stars Boring, dull and frustrating
I don't normally read thrillers these days having given up on Patricia Cornwell many years ago but I thought I would give this one a go. I wish I hadn't bothered. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Southern Softie
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