- Paperback: 400 pages
- Publisher: Harper (1 Aug 2009)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0007325452
- ISBN-13: 978-0007325450
- Product Dimensions: 20.2 x 12.8 x 2.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,105,851 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Strangers
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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
Reviews for ‘Strangers’:
‘Riyadh is a splendid location… Carla Banks manages to evoke the air of menace about the place, as well as its exoticism.’ Daily Mail
‘A complex and satisfying thriller set against a backdrop of exotic nightmare’ Guardian
‘Shocking… not only lifts the veil on a world in which hostility lurks behind luxury… but on a relationship in which love has been replaced by fear.’ Northern Echo
Reviews for ‘The Forest of Souls’:
‘A haunting legacy of war.’ Frances Fyfield
‘A powerful psychological thriller.’ Daily Mail
‘An intelligent, beautifully written thriller…compelling.’ Andrew Taylor (author of ‘The American Boy’)
Product Description
Another haunting psychological thriller from Carla Banks, as the trade in people trafficking impacts on three disparate lives with shocking consequences.
Roisin Massey is a stranger in a strange land. An impulsive marriage has brought this young British lecturer to the forbidding city of Riyadh. Thankfully, she has the best guide possible: her new husband, Joe.
Joe knows Saudi well – he’s worked there as a doctor for years. But Roisin discovers her husband is keeping secrets from her about his time in the Desert Kingdom. Such as the drug thefts from his hospital. The friend he saw beheaded. The woman who fell to her death…
Soon the ghosts from Joe's past come back to haunt them both – and murder follows in their wake…
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Roisin meets Joe Massey when she is out jogging one morning in April. Joe is pathologist just recently returned from Saudi Arabia. They spend an idyllic summer together, then in September Joe receives an offer of a job from Riyadh and asks Roisin to go with him as his wife.
For Roisin life in Riyadh is new and fascinating, and there is much to learn. She meets Damien O'Neill who has been in the Kingdom for many years. Having two weeks holiday before she starts her job at the University she explores the city and is confident that she and Joe will be happy here. But as they settle into their working routine she is soon aware that Joe has secrets, and that they maybe connected to a student Haroun Patel who was executed in the Kingdom in April of that year, just weeks before she met Joe.
The story is told from two points of view that of Roisin and of Damien O'Neill., although it is Joe that held my interest. Throughout the story he remains an enigmatic and interesting character and I wanted to hold him back from the path on which he was so clearly set.
The book paints a claustrophobic picture of life for women in Riyadh, controlling and stifling the expression of ideas not approved by the Kingdom. As ever in this style of government there are the informers, the people whom one believes are colleagues and in some cases friends but have a different alliance. Not a comfortable atmosphere in which to work as Roisin discovers, even though she is enjoying the actual teaching. She makes friends with two of the her students. But as time passes Roisin realises that there are many underlying fractions, and soon she is unwittingly caught up in an intrigue.
A truly fascinating book, I couldn't put it down and highly recommend it.
--------
Lizzie Hayes
For Roisin life in Riyadh is new and fascinating, and there is much to learn. She meets Damien O'Neill who has been in the Kingdom for many years. Having two weeks holiday before she starts her job at the University she explores the city and is confident that she and Joe will be happy here. But as they settle into their working routine she is soon aware that Joe has secrets, and that they maybe connected to a student Haroun Patel who was executed in the Kingdom in April of that year, just weeks before she met Joe.
The story is told from two points of view that of Roisin and of Damien O'Neill., although it is Joe that held my interest. Throughout the story he remains an enigmatic and interesting character and I wanted to hold him back from the path on which he was so clearly set.
The book paints a claustrophobic picture of life for women in Riyadh, controlling and stifling the expression of ideas not approved by the Kingdom. As ever in this style of government there are the informers, the people whom one believes are colleagues and in some cases friends but have a different alliance. Not a comfortable atmosphere in which to work as Roisin discovers, even though she is enjoying the actual teaching. She makes friends with two of the her students. But as time passes Roisin realises that there are many underlying fractions, and soon she is unwittingly caught up in an intrigue.
A truly fascinating book, I couldn't put it down and highly recommend it.
--------
Lizzie Hayes
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
[...].
This is the second psychological thriller from Danuta Reah, wrote debuted with her non-de-plume Carla Banks in `The Forest of Souls'. This is a dark and dangerous tale set against the backdrop of Saudi Arabia and a terrifying and claustrophobic look at characters displaced against an alien landscape.
I lived and worked as an ex-pat in this desert kingdom in the 1980's and this work is certainly well researched as it reminded me of the heat, the oppressive regime and the link this land has to the oil that powers its economy, and the religion that lies at the heart of its soul. The story has Roisin and Dr Joe Massey meeting by chance and falling for each other in a head-spinning romance, and then instead of heading to Canada, they end up going to Riyadh where Joe can practise medicine and Roisin teach. Things however are not as they seem as the prologue gives us a taste of what will follow as Joe is concealing a secret, one that can cost lives. Roisin takes up her position in tutoring English to Saudi women, but finds the politics of relationships in this authoritarian culture a surprise. Written is an easy-going style, it is a very fast read though we do get anxious for Roisin as she sees less and less of Joe, due to his work patterns and the secrets he is harbouring. The second part of `Strangers', is a sweaty ride, as the couple hope to leave for Australia, only to find that Joe's secret may trap them in this land, where consequences for past doings can provide terrifying results. A great addition to the Carla Banks stable -
This is the second psychological thriller from Danuta Reah, wrote debuted with her non-de-plume Carla Banks in `The Forest of Souls'. This is a dark and dangerous tale set against the backdrop of Saudi Arabia and a terrifying and claustrophobic look at characters displaced against an alien landscape.
I lived and worked as an ex-pat in this desert kingdom in the 1980's and this work is certainly well researched as it reminded me of the heat, the oppressive regime and the link this land has to the oil that powers its economy, and the religion that lies at the heart of its soul. The story has Roisin and Dr Joe Massey meeting by chance and falling for each other in a head-spinning romance, and then instead of heading to Canada, they end up going to Riyadh where Joe can practise medicine and Roisin teach. Things however are not as they seem as the prologue gives us a taste of what will follow as Joe is concealing a secret, one that can cost lives. Roisin takes up her position in tutoring English to Saudi women, but finds the politics of relationships in this authoritarian culture a surprise. Written is an easy-going style, it is a very fast read though we do get anxious for Roisin as she sees less and less of Joe, due to his work patterns and the secrets he is harbouring. The second part of `Strangers', is a sweaty ride, as the couple hope to leave for Australia, only to find that Joe's secret may trap them in this land, where consequences for past doings can provide terrifying results. A great addition to the Carla Banks stable -
Format:Paperback
This is the first thriller I've read, and the main reason I chose to read it instead of putting it back on the shelf was because it is set in Saudi Arabia, and I love anything with a Middle Eastern connection.
It was a very enjoyable, easy to read novel. I found I wanted to know more and more about the characters and unfolding storyline as I read, because Carla Banks is very good at throwing you a little taster of what's to come to keep you in suspense. There were lots of cultural details which I particularly enjoyed, and I felt that Carla Banks had really done her research and had evidently seen & felt it all for herself. I would have liked to get to know Joe Massey a little bit more; he was very remote and something of an enigma until the end. I did have the slight notion that Carla Banks just had to tie up the loose ends toward the end, which didn't really live up to my expectations. I thought there'd be alot more 'punch' to the finale as the momentum throughout the book had been steadily building. I would recommend this as a good holiday read; something you could pick up & put down and doesn't require too much concentration, but is thoroughly enjoyable all the same.
It was a very enjoyable, easy to read novel. I found I wanted to know more and more about the characters and unfolding storyline as I read, because Carla Banks is very good at throwing you a little taster of what's to come to keep you in suspense. There were lots of cultural details which I particularly enjoyed, and I felt that Carla Banks had really done her research and had evidently seen & felt it all for herself. I would have liked to get to know Joe Massey a little bit more; he was very remote and something of an enigma until the end. I did have the slight notion that Carla Banks just had to tie up the loose ends toward the end, which didn't really live up to my expectations. I thought there'd be alot more 'punch' to the finale as the momentum throughout the book had been steadily building. I would recommend this as a good holiday read; something you could pick up & put down and doesn't require too much concentration, but is thoroughly enjoyable all the same.
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