Strange Sally Diamond
Crime Novel of the Year, Irish Book Awards 2023
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4.4 • 199 Ratings
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- £5.99
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- £5.99
Publisher Description
**Selected for BBC 2 Between the Covers 2023**
**WINNER Crime Novel of the Year, Irish Book Awards 2023**
‘Shocking, disturbing and utterly original – will grip you from first page to last' - Paula Hawkins
Sally Diamond cannot understand why what she did was so strange. She was only doing what her father told her to do, to put him out with the rubbish when he died.
Now Sally is the centre of attention, not only from the hungry media and police detectives, but also a sinister voice from a past she cannot remember. As she begins to discover the horrors of her childhood, Sally steps into the world for the first time, making new friends and big decisions, and learning that people don't always mean what they say.
But who is the man observing Sally from the other side of the world? And why does her neighbour seem to be obsessed with her? Sally's trust issues are about to be severely challenged . . .
*****
'In Sally Diamond, Nugent has given us an astounding creation with a singular voice . . . an absorbing, twisty, compulsive psychological thriller with surprising humour and pathos' Sunday Independent
'Incredible' Sara Cox
'Irresistibly compelling, this dark story is shocking yet endearing. A brilliant read that will suck you in' Crime Monthly
'Liz Nugent has outdone herself. Twisted and twisty, dark and gripping, no one is going to forget Sally Diamond in a hurry!' Graham Norton
'It creeped me out (in a good way) . . . Terrific' Ian Rankin
'Dark, compelling and deeply moving' Ruth Ware
'So, so good! Sally gets under your skin and worms her way into your heart. I didn't want it to end' Jane Fallon
'I'm lost in admiration for Liz and her writing . . . vivid, pacy, taut but so very moving' Marian Keyes
'Jaw-droppingly clever . . . One of the best books I've read in a long, long time. I can't stop thinking about it' Lucy Foley
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Sally Diamond is the sheltered loner anchoring Liz Nugent’s latest thriller. The story starts apace with Sally disposing of her adoptive father’s dead body in a rubbish bag—a literal interpretation of a glib remark that brings the police to her doorstep. Then it kicks into high gear when she finally learns the horrifying circumstances of her true parentage. The tension peaks again when a familiar teddy bear from an anonymous sender arrives. Events unfold through Sally in the present timeline and through Peter (the half-brother she didn’t know she had) for the period leading up to and beyond her birth. Nugent tends to put her readers into the minds of unequivocal villains, and Peter’s perspective is typically complex. Sally, meanwhile, is refreshingly endearing, well-intended and often funny, even as she struggles with the appropriate (or at least, socially acceptable) emotional response to each devastating revelation. At once a coming-of-age story and a disturbing psychological mystery, the twists and turns of this novel will keep you hooked until the end.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Nugent (Lying in Wait) outdoes herself in this chilling exploration of her title character's pitch-black past. Ruthlessly bullied as a child in Ireland, Sally has lived a quiet life with her parents, rarely venturing outside. When her widower father dies just before her 44th birthday, Sally incinerates his body with the garbage, thinking she's honoring his wishes to "put him out with the trash." Instead, the act draws outrage from neighbors, authorities, and the media, suddenly thrusting the reclusive Sally into an unwelcome spotlight. She's always known that she was adopted, but slowly—with the aid of letters her "father" left behind, plus a series of messages from a mysterious stranger who may hail from Sally's blurry past—she comes to know the precise horrors of her backstory. Can she overcome them and learn to navigate a world she barely understands? Nugent fashions an unforgettable protagonist in Sally, and never loses sight of her characters' fundamental humanity, even as she piles on twists and steers the narrative into exceptional darkness. Inventive, addictive, and bold, this deserves a wide audience.
Customer Reviews
Dark
Be warned that this book gets VERY dark and is centered around some very uncomfortable themes which are not for the faint hearted!
Sally’s story has a disappointing ending I feel but I had to finish this book no matter how uncomfortable I felt.
Too Grim for me
Wasn’t what I was expecting (that’s on me), but not my genre. Better characterisation of Sally than the character in The Maid (which was really very basic).
No sleep until the final chapter
A great page turner that is hard to put down once you start