You’re Always With Me By Andy Maslen

‘You’re Always With Me’ is the latest book by Andy Maslen.

Treating a woman for post-natal depression, therapist Mel Porter discovers a shocking truth about herself. As she battles to separate truth from lies, she must confront the most dreadful choice a wife can ever make. Believe that her husband is a killer. Or that she is. The woman claims to have murdered her own child. The confession turns out to be false but it starts a chain of events that leads to horrifying consequences for Mel. As each brick in the wall she has built around herself crumbles and falls away, a stark truth is revealed. Is she even the woman she thinks she is? When an ambitious detective with secrets of her own arrests Mel on a charge of murder, her world descends into chaos. Memories she thought she could trust turn out to be unreliable. Her very sanity is questioned. And Jonathan asks for a divorce. In court, facing a hostile lawyer’s harrowing questioning, Mel’s faith in herself reaches breaking point. Then the jury returns with its verdict and delivers a shocking conclusion to the trial.

This is first book that I’ve read by Andy and it was a brilliantly intense thriller that gripped me one afternoon.

The story is primarily seen through the narrative of Mel who’s been accused of killing her baby boy, her memories of his death are quite hazy but the unorthodox treatment that she received at a psychiatric hospital helps her recover her memory.

Mel is a lovely character, she loved her son dearly and is heartbroken that she caused his life to end but deep down, she’s unsure and tries to piece her memory again. Even though she’s a kind character, it’s heartbreaking to read how people treat when they think she’s a child killer. Her husband is a charismatic character, Jonathan has a high powered job and a love for high end designer brands. Whilst DC Ffion Parry was convinced that Mel had murdered her little boy, but as she delves further into the case, she begins to doubt her initial thoughts.

The introduction to this story is one of the best twists that I’ve read in a book for a while and it really sets the pace of the story. It’s fast paced and sharply written with flawed characters and unreliable narratives that pulled me in. The chapters are short and snappy so it was easy to get absorbed in the story.

A story about the discovery of the truth and the unravelling of lies, ‘You’re Always With Me’ is a fantastic thriller and a great introduction to a new author.

You can buy ‘You’re Always With Me ‘ from Amazon and is available to buy from good bookshops.