Synopsis: A bereaved husband is faced with a devastating choice in Brutal, an engrossing, gritty thriller from the top ten bestselling author Mandasue Heller.
When Frank Peter’s wife Maureen dies, he feels that his once-idyllic life on the Yorkshire Moors is over. And with a daughter emigrating to Australia and a son who has his own marital problems, Frank feels resigned to a life of loneliness. Then one night he finds a frightened young woman hiding at the back of his farmhouse. She explains that her name is Irena and was brought to this country by a man who promised her the world and then forced her into prostitution.
Frank offers her a bed for the night but it’s the middle of winter, and when heavy snowfall prevents her from leaving the next day, he’s forced to extend the invitation. But the longer Irena stays, the easier it gets for the men she’s trying to escape from to find her.
People-trafficking could just be the tip of the iceberg, and Frank has no idea what these people are really capable of . . .
My Rating: 3/5
My Review: It’s been a very long time since I read a Mandasue Heller and chose this one from my very long to be read pile. We meet Frank Peters an ordinary man who lives on a farm in the Yorkshire moors. Following the death of his wife, he is managing okay but with his daughter now moving to Australia and his son who has his own problems he does feel the loneliness start to creep in. One night in the middle of winter he comes across a scared woman in the snow hiding behind his farm. With the snow making it hard to get about he offers her a bed for the night and hopefully some relative safety.
What transpires is a rather unusual plot where Frank become unwittingly caught in the middle of an elaborate scheme involving sex trafficking. To be honest the book was definitely readable but for me the plot was kind of ‘out there’ and it instantly put me off. I loathed Franks son and daughter from the off and the fact that Frank was so naïve just felt a little too contrived for me.
I certainly finished this and it wasn’t a bad book but for me I preferred MH older books with slightly different settings and storylines. For me this was just middle of the road
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