One of our Great Reads you may have missed in 2011.
Everybody should read everything that Helen Fitzgerald has written. She is dark, clever, highly inventive and I believe needs more recognition than she is getting. This human drama is about twin girls, both needing a kidney transplant; their father has two … but … How this dreadful dilemma is faced and solved is beautifully done in a tale told in many voices with a terrific twist. I literally could not put down.
Just after her sixteenth birthday, Will's daughter, Georgie, suffers kidney failure. She needs a transplant, but her type is rare. Will, a single dad who's given up everything to raise his twin girls, offers to be a donor. Then his other daughter, Kay, gets sick. She's just as precious, her kidney type just as rare. Time is critical, and Will has to make a decision. Should he try to buy a kidney? Should he save just one child? If so, which one? Should he sacrifice himself? Or is there a fourth solution - one so terrible it has never even crossed his mind?
‘Dead Lovely is not like being on a roller coaster ride. It’s like being strapped into a tiger moth flown by an aerobatic flying ace with a grudge. Outrageous, clever, funny, poignant. Helen Fitzgerald really is one to watch.’ Mo Hayder
‘I loved it! The settings, geographic and emotional, are deeply familiar and yet terrifyingly strange. It’s a thrilling debut from a writer of such talent and assurance it’s hard to believe this is her first book.’ Denise Mina
‘For quality chick-lit with a murderous twist, look no further than FitzGerald’s inimical brand of thinking woman’s noir.’ Sunday Telegraph, 50 best holiday reads
‘Fast paced and quirky ... FitzGerald has a nice way with self-depreciating wit and the ability to write a fast-paced novel that maintains tension throughout.’ Scotland on Sunday
‘Wayward Krissie is an unwilling single mum; unhappily married Sarah aches for a baby. When they go hiking in the Highlands their festering resentments erupt into adultery, weird sex and madness (sounds like the best holiday ever to us). Great fun and oddly moving.’ Tatler
Author
About Helen FitzGerald
Helen FitzGerald is the bestselling author of ten adult and young adult thrillers, including The Donor (2011) and The Cry (2013), which was longlisted for the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year, and adapted for a major BBC drama. Her 2019 dark-comedy thriller Worst Case Scenario was a Book of the Year in the Literary Review, Herald Scotland, Guardian and Daily Telegraph, shortlisted for the Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year, and won the CrimeFest Last Laugh Award. Helen worked as a criminal justice social worker for over fifteen years. She grew up in Victoria, Australia, and now lives in Glasgow with her husband. Follow Helen on Twitter @FitzHelen.
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