A Version of the Truth by B P Walter

February 7, 2019
Fiction, psychological

I received this digital ARC from NetGalley and Avon Books UK in exchange for an unbiased review.

It isn’t often that I encounter a story so utterly disturbing that I’m captivated to the end. This is such a book that people will either abhor or vicariously partake of the disconcerting journey. With that said, this is not a book for those easily offended by controversial, morally corrupt characters. The themes addressed in this novel are unsettling: homophobia, sexual abuse, debauchery, and perversion.

The story is told through the alternating time lines of Julianne Knight in London 2018 and Sophie at Oxford 1990. Initially, the connection between the two women is vague until their stories begin to unravel. Both women seemingly different, ultimately discover how they share a traumatic experience with mutual classmates at Oxford. This drives their desire to seek redemption once they acknowledge their denial of involvement.

In London 2018, Julianne’s world is turned upside down when her 17-year old son, Stephen exposes incriminating information found on the family Dropbox account. She learns that her husband James is involved with unthinkable crimes dating back to their years at Oxford.

Ignoring past regressions and deplorable mistakes doesn’t erase the sins. Some unethical decisions have everlasting consequences which eventually seek resolution.

This is a well written book with developed characters deplorable in nature. ( )

A Version of the Truth by B P Walter

Pub date: February 2019
Fiction, psychological
Avon Books UK

The Couple’s Secret
Harper Collins Nook Book in USA
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2886350307

I received this digital ARC from NetGalley and Avon Books UK in exchange for an unbiased review.

It isn’t often that I encounter a story so utterly disturbing that I’m captivated to the end. This is such a book that people will either abhor or vicariously partake of the disconcerting journey. With that said, this is not a book for those easily offended by controversial, morally corrupt characters. The themes addressed in this novel are unsettling: homophobia, sexual abuse, debauchery, and perversion.

The story is told through the alternating time lines of Julianne Knight in London 2018 and Sophie at Oxford 1990. Initially, the connection between the two women is vague until their stories begin to unravel. Both women seemingly different, ultimately discover how they share a traumatic experience with mutual classmates at Oxford. This drives their desire to seek redemption once they acknowledge their denial of involvement.

In London 2018, Julianne’s world is turned upside down when her 17-year old son, Stephen exposes incriminating information found on the family Dropbox account. She learns that her husband James is involved with unthinkable crimes dating back to their years at Oxford.

Ignoring past regressions and deplorable mistakes doesn’t erase the sins. Some unethical decisions have everlasting consequences which eventually seek resolution.

This is a well written book with developed characters deplorable in nature.

The Couple’s Secret
Published in USA by HarperCollins for NookBook

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-couples-secret-b-p-walter/1129788309?ean=97... ( )

One reviewer said 'think of all the cliches' and they said that the book was 'twisty', 'unputdownable' etc. I thought of several other cliches - this feels like a book written to appeal to the masses. It's got the shock horror element, the perverted element, the 'twist' but it reads like a exercise in creating the perfect read in a certain type of thriller / domestic genre. It was this knowingness that really put me off. ( )

This deeply disturbing story is told by two narrators, and through two timelines. The brief prologue, dated 2018, introduces the reader to the first narrator, Julianne, as she is shopping in Harrods. She is approached by a TV investigative journalist who wants to talk to her about her husband’s past, a request she rejects but which leaves her with a feeling of deep unease.
The story then switches to 2019 and a house in Knightsbridge, where it is told from Julianne’s perspective. She is an American, married to James, whom she met when they were both at Oxford, and they now have a seventeen-year-old son, Stephen. Her privileged, middle-class lifestyle is something she has come to take for granted, even if it is, at times, rather boring, predictable and unsatisfying. As she is preparing for a pre-Christmas family dinner party, her son shows her something he has found on his iPad, something so shocking that her world takes on a nightmarish quality as she starts to question everything about her marriage and whether she really knows her husband.
The 1990/91 Oxford timeline introduces the reader to Holly, a working-class girl who has gained a place at university there but who doubts she will ever be able to fit in with people who are so much more sophisticated than she is. The day she moves into her student accommodation she meets posh, exuberant Ally and is soon introduced to Ally’s brother Ernest, and his best friend James. Their background of privilege, their supreme self-confidence, their hedonism and their air of entitlement are all totally foreign to Holly and she feels somewhat in awe of them. However, when they invite her to join in their activities and seem to want to include her in everything they do, she comes to believe that they really are her friends. When she finally realises that she is just a pawn in their sinister game-playing, it is too late for her to change what happens, the ramifications of which will have an ongoing influence on her life.
The switches in timelines and narrators allows for the gradual revelations of all the events which lead to the shocking discovery on Stephen’s iPad, James’s frantic attempts to explain away the apparently incriminating documents and Julianne’s struggles with facing up to the truth about what she is discovering, as well as what she has ignored in the past. There is a relentless build-up of tension as the shocking truths, of both the past and the present, are gradually revealed, and the extent to which a long-held secret has had such devastating, corrosive effects on each one of the characters. Although I welcomed the epilogue, I thought that its brevity meant that some of this psychological tension was lost, making the ending feel too rushed.
In many ways I’m finding it quite difficult to review this novel in any detailed way because to do so would mean giving away too much of how the story develops. Briefly, it is a story which explores misogyny, sexual assault, rape, physical and emotional abuse, homoeroticism, homophobia, racism and people’s capacity to hide the truth from themselves as well as from others. Through some of its disagreeable, if all too credible, characters it exposes how their attitudes towards these topics, which most people would find depraved, are regarded as perfectly normal and acceptable by a certain sector of our society – a clique of privileged, powerful people, confident that “The Establishment” will close ranks and protect them if their activities are exposed. This is achieved by using a network of powerful connections to cover up sexual misconduct, lies and manipulation in order to avoid being made to account for their behaviour and be brought to justice.
When I first started reading this story I thought I could predict where it was going and assumed that it would be a reasonably entertaining, easy to read psychological thriller, but it quickly revealed itself as much, much darker and disturbing than I had anticipated. I wouldn’t describe it as a thriller in the conventional sense, but the plot development certainly conveys a powerful psychological tension. With its chilling ring of authenticity, the power of B.P. Walter’s writing is such that as I was reading I found myself alternating between feeling increasingly tainted by the sexual depravity and abuse which was central to the story, and a sense of impotent rage that powerful, privileged people are able to exert such control by relying on their privilege, network of contacts and well-established sense of entitlement to enable self-preservation to be an unquestionable given. Throughout I was acutely aware of the problems which have been faced by investigators involved in Operation Yew Tree, and the difficulties of finding justice for victims whose lives have been destroyed by well-connected sexual predators and abusers. The fact that none of this story struck me as being over-dramatised is a rather depressing reflection on the scandals which have already been exposed, as well as those which appear to have been quietly brushed under the carpet.
This deeply shocking story was definitely not a comfortable one to spend time with and I felt a sense of relief when I could finally put it down. However, I believe it is an important and topical one and recommend it as a group read – but it should come with a warning about the, at times, graphic and disturbing sexual content.
With thanks to the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. ( )