Synopsis: When Rosie Rankin’s best friend has an affair with her husband, the consequences reverberate down through the lives of two families.
Relationships are torn apart. Friendships shattered. And childish innocence destroyed.
Her daughter Daisy’s fragile hold on reality begins to unravel when a letter arrives that opens up all the old wounds. Rosie’s teenage son Max blames himself for everything which happened that long hot summer. And her brittle ex-husband Nick has his own versionof events.
As long-repressed memories bubble to the surface, the past has never seemed more present and the truth more murky.
Sometimes there are four sides to every story.
Who do you believe?
Title: The Betrayals
Author: Fiona Neill
Publisher: Penguin
Pub Date: 10th August 2017
Pages: 400
ISBN: 9781405923453
Rating: 
I read an ARC received from Penguin via NetGalley.
“One thing I’ve learnt is that life isn’t about doing the right thing. It’s about not doing the wrong thing.”
Do you remember the events of your past with utter clarity?
If you do, then it’s very likely that you remembered wrong. Well, according to this novel, anyway. This is a brilliant, fast-paced read – not too deep to struggle with, not too light-hearted to skim past.
I read this in a day. Yes folks, a whole day. I just couldn’t stop; I read on the train, at lunch, on the way home, at night until it had all gone and I was left knackered but really quite satisfied.
“Occasionally, there was poetry in her illness, although she would never see it that way.”
Neill has an uncanny ability to bring characters to life; each person standing out in their own flawed way. I didn’t particularly like any of them, but I was hooked into their stories and, more importantly, their memories.
I loved how each perspective of the same event differed. As a reader, you can’t help but take what’s on the page as real, so when another protagonist comes along and offers a completely different take you’re left lost (in a good way) and wanting more.
This is a well-drawn out and knowledgeable account of the modern contemporary family as it experiences breakdown and betrayal, with the consequent devastating ripple effects on everyone concerned through the years. The Betrayals is a great read and an author I’ll keep my eye on in the future.
A Literary Mind 