Review: A Trick Of The Mind by Penny Hancock

A Trick of the Mind by Penny Hancock

Publisher: Simon and Schuster UK

Release date: 11 September 2014

Rating: ****

Back cover blurb: Have you committed a crime ... or are you the victim of one? Driving down to the cottage in Southwold she's newly inherited from her Aunty May, Ellie senses she is on the edge of something new. The life she's always dreamed of living as a successful artist seems as though it is about to begin. So excited is she that she barely notices when the car bumps against something on the road. That evening Ellie hears a news flash on the radio. A man was seriously injured in a hit and run on the very road she was driving down that evening. Then Ellie remembers the thump she heard. Could she have been responsible for putting a man in hospital? Unable to hold the doubts at bay, she decides to visit the victim to lay her mind to rest, little knowing that the consequences of this decision will change her life forever.

So there I was just casually browsing netgalley as you do before my holiday to Lanzarote, when I came across this gem on the Simon and Schuster page. My request was quickly granted and the book delivered to my generic e-reader ;)

I was going to save it for the plane, but thought I'd have a quick sneaky look at the first few pages. I was quickly drawn in, and let's just say I have had to find alternative plane reading!

Penny Hancock (shamefully) is an author I'd not heard of before, but I have made myself a note to look up her previous work when I get back from holiday as she ticks all my boxes for crime/psychological thriller authors.

Ellie is an artist, a natural worrier, some might say a bit of a dreamer with her head stuck in the clouds. Ellie is certainly in a world of her own, though mindful of the road in front of her, when her car bumps into something on the way to her Aunt's cottage in Southwold.

The old Ellie would have insisted on turning the car around to check, but the new Ellie (confident, positive Ellie that doesn't worry) doesn't think this is necessary and is eager to get to the house that she has been left by her deceased Aunt before her friends do.

When she later hears on the local radio that the Police are appealing for witnesses after a hit and run, Ellie tells herself that its just a coincidence and she couldn't possibly have had anything to do with it.

But there is still a part of old Ellie lurking that begins to quietly panic inside of her.

What if she did hit somebody? What should she do?
Go back and check out the scene? See if it would jog her memory?

Ellie does all this, and more. She decides that she is going to go and visit the victim in the local hospital, just to put her own mind at rest. Surely she would remember then?

What follows next is a chain of events that even the old Ellie wouldn't have been able to predict.

Shocking in places and truly gripping, A Trick Of The Mind is a must read.

A Trick Of The Mind is out Today from Amazon online and all good book shops.

    A massive thank you to the publishers who approved my request via netgalley in exchange for an honest review.