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Unravelling Oliver

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Unravelling Oliver

By: Liz Nugent
Narrated by: Sam O'Mahony, Roy McMillan, Tracy Keating, Kevin Hely, Stephen Hogan, Steven Laverty, Michele Moran, Kathy Rose O'Brien
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

WINNER - IBA Crime Fiction Book of the Year

By the author of the No. 1 Bestselling Strange Sally Diamond

'I expected more of a reaction the first time I hit her.'

Oliver Ryan is a handsome and charismatic success story.

He lives in the suburbs with his wife, Alice, who illustrates his award-winning children's books and gives him her unstinting devotion. Their life together is one of enviable privilege and ease – enviable until, one evening after supper, Oliver attacks Alice, leaving her fighting for her life.

Everyone around Oliver quickly realises that they didn't know him at all. Only he knows the lengths to which he has gone to get the life he so desired. But even he is in for a shock when the past catches up with him.

A gripping page-turner, Unravelling Oliver is perfect for fans of Shari Lapena's The Couple Next Door.

'Truly excellent . . . strongly recommended' Sophie Hannah

'Incredibly brilliant' Marian Keyes

'Compelling, clever and dark . . . you'll gobble it up in one go' Heat Magazine

'An ambitiously structured and compelling "whydunnit"' Daily Mail

'The compulsion to continue reading never wanes . . . a persistently satisfying read' Sunday Times

© Liz Nugent 2014 (P) Penguin Audio 2017

 Crime Thrillers Domestic Thrillers Family Life Genre Fiction Psychological Suspense Thriller & Suspense Scary Exciting

Critic reviews

Formidable
Truly excellent ... strongly recommended (Sophie Hannah)
Incredibly brilliant (Marian Keyes)
The compulsion to continue reading never wanes and most impressively the ending doesn't buckle under the weight of expectation ... a persistently satisfying read
A great cracking read ... I couldn't put it down (Ryan Tubridy)
Compelling, clever and dark ... you'll gobble it up in one go
A page-turning, one-sitting read from a brand new master of psychological suspense
We read this in one sitting ... satisfyingly unnerving
All I know is I stayed awake until 3am to finish it, which I haven't done with a new novel for longer than I can remember
Her writing is stylish, the characters are vivid ... Can't recommend it highly enough (Rick O'Shea)
All stars
Most relevant
Not for the first time recently I find myself debating what constitutes a thriller.  This one certainly opens with a real punch of an opening line which I won't quote because it is one of the most powerful moments in the book and one of the biggest "signals" towards the gradual unravelling of Oliver.  It's a single sentence that with a jolt takes you from your comfortable listening place into the mind of Oliver.  In those few words I realised that I was in the hands of a talented author. What follows is a classy set of narrators who take us through decades of history before and after that event to gradually disentangle the web of Oliver's life.

It is simply a story and does not moralise or instruct, it merely guides us through a classic question of nature versus nurture.  It's largely very gentle but I found that the structure of the book was very well suited to the larger cast of narrators.  Mostly, and I am no great judge of accents, I felt they gave an authentic glimpse into an Ireland when prejudices against homosexuality and single mothers was considerably more prevalent.  It revealed how Oliver was forged between neglect, constraint and opportunity and where it took him and those he knew.

I don't actually want to write more as this is a fairly brief and mostly gentle "human" tale that I really enjoyed.  The central character is one you will likely develop very strong views about though they will fluctuate because in the final analysis the purpose of the story is to form a judgement on him.  I'd call it engaging, original and very well crafted.  I wouldn't personally call it a "thriller", more of a "drama" as Nugent's approach to weaving the threads of her story is actually quite subtle in a mesmerising fashion.

Engaging, Original and Very Well Crafted

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what a great book. thoroughly entertaining. it travels along at a great pace. it develops characters in a sympathetic but not saccharin way. the language used is perfect for the time and place and it evokes great mental pictures. I thoroughly enjoyed the performance as well and would listen to the readers again in a heartbeat.
Great book. (when's the follow up?)

the sins of the father....

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Not what I expected at all , and can’t decide how I feel about this book . Certainly kept me listening and couldn’t wait to listen , but same time I’m not sure if I feel slightly disappointed.

Different

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From the start we know that Oliver has, to the great surprise of those who know him, savagely attacked his wife. However, this is not a crime novel, but more an in-depth analysis of why a man, with no history of violence, should explode in this way. Gradually his story is revealed in snippets gleaned from the testimony of those who know him and from his own thoughts. Although Oliver is a cold, unsympathetic character my attention never flagged and I was gripped by the slowly unfolding narrative and eager to learn more what made this man the person he turned out to be.

The book has been compared to the kind of psychological approach favoured by Ruth Rendell and it is certainly more akin to that style than a simple crime novel.

There are several narrators who voice the different characters and this adds veracity to the impression that this is a real story.

Absorbing stories revealing a complex personality

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Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Only if I knew that the friend was a big fan of guessing games!

Who was your favorite character and why?

Oliver - he was the only character who wasn't mostly a purpose-designed stereotype.

What does the narrators bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

For me, the narrators added nothing. The book is written in a flat, even style and the narration followed suit.

If you made a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

It would be better as a TV series because of its episodic construction.

Any additional comments?

I've given four stars because the book is undoubtedly quite a good example of its genre. I bought it on the daily deal in the knowledge that it would probably not be my cup of tea. I can't help thinking that the story would have been better told in a sequential style beginning with Oliver's birth and with Oliver himself as the story-teller. The time-lapse fragmentation with regular hints about revelations yet to come became, for me, highly irritating. The story only came to life in the final few chapters and I can't help wondering if the book turned out differently from the author's original intention. For me, it is the story of one man's blighted life and the damage which he accidentally causes to others and I'm not sure that the book should be described as a crime story.

It's good if you like this kind of thing

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