Book Review: Landsliding

By Jami Deise

Once or twice a month, a chilling story hits the media: A man has killed his wife, children and himself. His friends are flabbergasted. He was such a devoted family man. He never let his wife and kids out of his sight. How could he do such a thing? What was really going on behind closed doors?

Landsliding, author Mandy Jameson’s debut release, takes what readers know about controlling men and the women who love them and uses that knowledge as the basis of her novel. Blond, beautiful Julia was shattered when her husband Harry left her and their son, Matty. A scandal in her past that only Harry knew about made Julia vulnerable and secretive. But when she meets Brendan, a quiet and reliable IT consultant, it seems she has met the man to heal her wounds. He’s devoted to her and anxious to be a father-figure to Matty. The only problem? His paranoid jealousy when it comes to her friends, their husbands, and even Julia’s new boss.

Will Julia take her friends’ advice and end things with Brendan? Or will his irrational behavior lead to tragedy?

Landsliding is told from multiple third-person points-of-view, revealing not only Brendan’s private thoughts but also the impressions Julia’s friends have of him… and of her. While readers make quick assumptions about Brendan, eventually Jameson takes the story on a completely different path than the set-up implies. Her twists are subtle, rather than the shock jumps that many writers in this genre employ. Jameson does an excellent job differentiating the voices of all her point-of-view characters and moves smoothly between action and narration.

Although there was one huge coincidence I found hard to swallow, and some of the writing was repetitive at times, Landsliding was a quick, fun read.

Thanks to Rachel's Random Resources for the book in exchange for an honest review. Find all the blog tour stops here.

Originally from Manchester, Mandy Jameson spent ten years living in southwest France where Landsliding, her first novel, was written with the encouragement of a prolific writing group.

Now settled in Sussex with her daughter, her passions include football, chocolate and walking on the Downs.

She is working on her second novel.

Visit Mandy online:
Website * Facebook * Instagram

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