"She started to feel like a conspiracy theorist. Everywhere she looked she uncovered something suspicious...What with moving to a new place, starting a new job, and the overwhleming weirdness of OAK, she felt like she'd walked into a hall of mirrors. Everything around her was so confusing that she wouldn't distinguish between reality and paranoia".
Acts of Kindness by Heather Barnett is a riveting mystery thriller, with a growing sense of unease and a big dollop of menace.
Bella Black is offered a job at Acorn Consulting, one of the biggest advisory firms. The interview takes place at a vast stately home, family seat of the company, established over two hundred years earlier.
Recovering after the recent divorce, Bella wants a new start - and is happy to move away from London to a small Wlitshire village where nobody knows her. The house she rents is quaint and cosy, the job sounds exciting, her neighbours appear friendly, and her colleagues are smart. There might even be a potential romantic interest.
After three months of probation, Bella is offered a chance to join the Organised Acts of Kindness Institute, an ambitious project funded by Acorn. During the induction, Bella meets the mysterious head, the person behind the OAK. .
As Bella finds her way around the company and discovers more of its pet project, she realises that something odd is going on. When she learns that someone who used to work in the company, disapeared without a trace, she is freaked out.
When the events get even more menacing, Bella has to unravel the mystery of the disappearing people and discover who is really pulling the strings at the secretive OAK Institute.
Can she trust anyone among her colleagues?
Acts of Kindness is an intricately plotted read, with twist upon twist.
Though hailed as an uplifting, light-hearted mystery, I couldn't shake off the feeling of a sinisterness. We all have different ideas of light-hearted, but to me this novel didn't quite fit in that category. Though there are elements of humour present, the main plot was far from chucklesome. The genre could be described as a dystopian mystery.
You will never look at grand manor houses set in the sleepy countryside in the same way again. Who knows what secrets are hidden behind a respectable facade?!
Purchase Links:
Amazon UK https://amzn.to/3fhl9Cd
bookshops.org: https://bit.ly/333Ovz2
Amazon US https://amzn.to/35NWnGu
Author Bio:
Heather Barnett gained a degree in English and French from the University of Leeds and has written ever since: from copywriting to stand-up comedy and sketches. She is now focusing on wraiting novels. Heather's influences span Jane Austen and Douglas Adams ar one end of the alphabet to PG Wodehouse at the other.
Heather's debut novel, Acts of Kindness, is an uplifting, light-hearted mystery. It was inspired by witnessing commuters helping a woman who'd falled down the stairs at Paddington station; intermingled with wondering what was behind some grand stone gateposts that she used to drice past in Wiltshire.
Her second novel. Lord Seeks Wife, is a romantic comedy and will be published in summer 2021.
Aside fro writing, Hetaher's interests are classic literature, cats and comedy.
Heather is head of marketing at an agency near Oxford and lives by the river Kennet in Berkshire.
Social Media Links:
Twitter @WritesHeather
Instagram @writesheather
Serpentine Books: www.serpentinebooks.com
Twitter @SerpentineBooks
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Many thanks to Heather Barnett and Rachel's Random Resources for my copy of the book!
It doesn't sound as a light-hearted mystery, so not one for me, as I just finished a crime novel with lots of turns and a bit creepy too. :)
ReplyDeleteOh, I wonder what book you've read. Will you be writing a review on your blog?
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