A Secret Life (Hardcover)

There is no mystery as to what happened to Suzannah Piper, the heroine doesn't even bother to investigate what went on and only blindly discovers what happened in the last 100 pages, - no detective work - nothing.

As a thriller there is no suspense, no twists - nothing.

The characters are all fairly two dimensional, often a requisite of whodunnits so they can be used as suspects except the author doesn't have any suspects here. All you are left with are cardboard cutouts.

The main character Lucy Strong is self-obsessed and has no empathy with any of the other characters, only considers her own feelings. She also moans about being a 'celebrity' but then happily uses her 'celebrity' to further her own career. There is real hypocrisy here which only makes the heroine extremely un-sympathetic.

The title is also rubbish, what exactly was Susannah Piper's Secret Life. All Lucy discovers is that some people didn't like her as she slept around and could be a tough boss. This is NOTHING that the heroine didn't already know at the beginning of the book.

To top it all this isn't even well written. Scenes run into one another. it's not even clear over what kind of timeframe the book takes place, or even at times what day it's supposed to be. Sloppy. Where was the editor in all this?

As for being an expose of the TV industry, well it didn't tell me anything I couldn't have gleaned from a tabloid newspaper.

Honestly this is bad. A really blatant case of publisher signing a famous name in the hope of selling some books.

This is a magnificant debut novel. From the first page I was gripped.

Esther has the ability to make you care about the people she writes about and want to know more. In Lucy Strong she has created a real women, someone you can identify with. I have never been in a TV studio and yet after reading the novel feel that I have had a fair insight into that world with the contact always being relevant to the storyline. The manner in which she draws out the differnt aspects of Susannah's past is like peeling an onion. Each layer brings out more twists. The sub-plot of abuse is, as would be expected of Child Lines founder, handled extremely well with the horror obvious without being mauled over.

I am so glad that Ms Rantzen wasn't tempted to add "glitz and glamour dirt and insinuation" as some other Authors from a celebrty background have done in the past.

Well done Ms Rantzen. I for one cannot wait to read your next book....

I, who know nothing, predict a massive new author on our shelves..................Excellent an extremely talented lady