A Dark Tale For Enora....
Book three in the Enora Andressen series and a dark tale for Enora. Cleverly written, as is usual for this author, with deep, credible characterisation and a twisted plot. A solid read.

It's just as well that I don't work in publishing, because I have no nose whatsoever for what makes an author popular. Some of my very favourite writers clearly have their audiences, but never have their names "up in lights'. One such is Graham Hurley. He created one of the truly original fictional coppers - Joe Faraday - and then killed him off. Poor Joe didn't survive his Reichenbach Falls moment but subsequently, Hurley gave us a quartet of beautifully crafted novels featuring Faraday's young sergeant, Jimmy Suttle.
Hurley's latest creation is not a police officer. She is an actress, Enora Andresson, who doesn't even solve crimes as an amateur, but her circle of acquaintances and personal circumstances lead her into dangerous situations.

Now we have a new Enora Andresson novel, Off Script, and it is every bit as cleverly written and perceptive as Graham Hurley fans have come to expect. For newcomers, here is a quick precis of Enora's world.

She is a distinguished and much-admired actress, having appeared in many stage productions and is best known for her roles in what used to be known as art-house films. She lives with a brain tumour which she hopes is now in remission. Her former husband, whose name she retains is, as they say, a 'nasty-piece-of-work'. She has a rather feckless son, Malo. We learned in Curtain Call that his father is a gangster-gone-legit, Hayden Prentice. Another significant figure in Enora's life is a former scriptwriter called Pavel. Once Enora's lover, he is now blind, and paralysed after a freak accident.

In Off Script, the early focus is on Carrie, one of Pavel's carers. She has received a terrifying small-hours visit from an apparent psychopath, and when she confesses how much this has disturbed her, Enora sets out to find the strange young man who, after his chilling threats to Carrie, seems to have disappeared into the twilight world of the homeless and uprooted.

Enora's world is tipped on its head when she discovers a terrible murder:

"She's sprawled on her side, one knee up, a semi-foetal pose. Her eyes are wide open in the blankness of her face. Naked, she's lying in a drying pool of what must be her own blood. It's everywhere, over the sheets, the duvet, the pillows, the wallpaper, everywhere."

The search intensifies for Carrie's midnight visitor, and along the way Enora and an investigative journalist take a trip to the Somerset seaside, but it is far from idyllic.
"
Mitch has never been to Weston before but what he sees on the way in doesn't surprise him. Scruffy industrial estates. Boarded up units. Heavy security outside supermarkets. Kids on their bikes pulling wheelies in the middle of the road, eager for their day in court."

Enora is blindsided by a new man in her life, and makes a terrible mistake. She eventually realises what she has done, and it takes all her skills as an actress to prevent catastrophe. Not the least of Graham Hurley's wizardry is the bravura way he tells the tale through the eyes of a 39 year-old woman. Enora is utterly convincing, and has become another example of Hurley's brilliant storytelling.

Off Script is published by Severn House and is out now.

It's an excellent story, gripping and entertaining.
The cast of characters is well thought and interesting, Eudora is a complex and likeable character and I love how the author writes her.
The mystery is solid and the plot is complex and a bit dark.
I loved this story and I strongly recommend it.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

This is book three of the series and, although the main story is self-contained, the main characters are all a bit complex and so I feel you would definitely benefit from reading books one and two first.
This book revolves around Pavel who is blind and paralysed, needing round the clock care. One of his carers, Carrie, starts to act a bit strange and she eventually opens up to Enora about a strange visitor she had to her flat in the middle of the night which really scared her. She begs Enora not to go to the Police. Obviously she does, in confidence, but also she takes it upon herself to investigate, as you do!
This investigation takes Enora to some dark places and, when the worst eventually happens, also puts her life in danger as she appears to uncover something very unsettling about a new friend.
I've always been a bit of a fan about this author, mainly because he set one of his series - Faraday and Winter - in my own home town of Portsmouth, one of my favourite series. This series is very different from that but is in no way of lesser quality as his attention to detail, expert plotting and execution also shine through.
As already mentioned, Enora is a complex character with a colourful past and backstory and her relationship with Pavel is just as interesting. You'll get a better picture if you do read the previous books but you do get a bit of catch-up in this one, enough to get by anyway. In this book she does make a few strange decisions but nothing unexpected given her history. Some of the places her investigation takes her are quite dark and a bit hard to read, but are definitely a reflection of life as we know it today (well, before the lockdown anyway!) Other characters are just as well drawn and all play their parts well.
The action ramps up continually through the book and, as we race to the end gets very exciting and scary for Enora.
All in all, a great addition to a now well established series. Roll on book four. My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

Enora Andressen turns detective.

This is the first book I have read in this series and I was not impressed. I think it is one of those books where you really need to have some background on what has happened in Enora’s life before this book begins.

The book does tell you briefly what has happened before but it was well into the book before I found out Enora’s Christian name and I found it difficult to work out her relationship with both Pavel who is now not only blind but also paralysed. Also, we discover that she has a 19 year old son who was not her husband’s child but the result of a one night stand with a character that she calls H.

The story revolves around the murder of Carrie who is Pavel’s main carer. She had been visited by a young homeless boy who told her he would return to kill her. Carrie confides in Enora but tells her not to inform the police. However, Enora does report this; the youth is apprehended but released due to no concrete evidence and then Carrie is found murdered.

In the meantime, Enora has met an enigmatic man known as Deco and starts an affair with him. She is drawn into his world of drug smuggling but seems to accept this as part of her relationship. He uses his boat to sail over to France and bring back the drugs to Exmouth in Devon. I found the fact of this small seaside town being the centre of drug smuggling on a major scale rather strange and the whole plot just did not appeal to me at all.

I also found Enora a very selfish character and had no empathy with her. I feel this is really a book where you definitely need to have read the others in the series first in order to have an idea of the main characters and I might then have had a better idea why they act like they do.

Dexter

Elite Reviewing Group received a copy of the book to review

Enora is taking care of an old lover of hers. He got drunk, dived in the pool,and found out he was in the shallow end. He's now mostly paralyzed. Carrie helps her. Then Carrie tells her about the young man who has threatened to kill her...

Severn House and Net Galley allowed me to read this book for review (thank you). It will be published June 2nd.

When Carrie doesn't show up for work, Enora goes to check on her and finds her dead. She tells the cops what she knows.

Then she meets a new man. She's quite taken with him and they have good times together. Then he invites her on a trip to France. She's having fun until she finds out he's there to pick up cocaine. She stays. Then she finds a phone that has x-rated pictures of Carrie. He said he only talked to her a couple times and it was work related. Can she trust him or not?

When he shows up in her bedroom all dressed in black, she's scared. She makes him leave and cuts him out of her life. But he's not done yet...

This is an atmospheric, character-driven novel set in a vividly-portrayed seaside town focused on characters who surround a script writer who is blind and parolized. When one of his carers is woken by a man who has invaded her flat and threatened her with death, she swears the narrator to secrecy. But it's so disturbing she goes to the police. They can't do much without the victim's cooperation - until she is brutally murdered. While the investigation proceeds, the script writer is felled by a stroke and the narrator, who has been swept off her feet by a Dutch entrepreneur goes with him on a short but eventful voyage to France. Overall, I was absorbed by the story, a testament to Hurley's writing skill. However, I disliked all of the characters, found the motivation of the protagonist to be unconvincing, and was annoyed by the readiness for police and citizens to assume mental illness leads to violence. It was also quite obvious who the bad guy was. So points for writing style and setting, points off for plot and overall reading experience.

Thank you NetGalley and Severn House for the eARC.
This is the 3rd Enora Andressen in the series.
She is heavily involved in taking care of her beloved Pavel, the former scriptwriter who is now paralyzed and has 2 caretakers around the clock. One of them is Carrie, who has a horrifying experience that has Enora going to the police, despite Carrie begging her not to.
Enora meets a Dutchman, Deko, a charming, charismatic man who has her beguiled from their very first meeting. She is deeply smitten.
Enora is an interesting character, I haven't decided yet whether I like her. On the one hand she's a loving mother, a faithful friend and quite courageous. She has battled a brain tumor, so far successfully, and is a faded middle-aged actress who takes life as it comes. I don't understand her morals, though, she doesn't seem to mind breaking the law. One of her decisions towards the end of the story stumped me.
The book is a murder mystery, but also delves into subjects such as today's England and its many failings, especially in the care of people suffering from mental illness. The ending is quite tense, the buildup quite nerve wracking.
Well written, I am eagerly awaiting the 4th installment to see what Enora will be up to next.
Definitely recommended.

How does he do it? Graham Hurley is becoming quite prolific. This is his third Enora Andressen thriller within a year or so and he s also up to his fifth Wars Within story.

He must also be the most underrated author I have read. He can do it all, police procedurals, second world war thrillers and now he manages to get inside the head of a middle aged actress, slightly over the hill in her career and paints a sensitive and well-drawn picture of how she deals with the deadly aftermaths of cancer as well as the exploits of her wayward son.

This took takes her into the murky world of mental illness, homelessness, drug dealing and murder all did together by excellent characterisation and plotting. Hurley knows his places too. He is, as we know, an expert on Portsmouth, now Exmouth comes to life too.

This is a book that is hard to categorise, it is a murder mystery, a social commentary and also introduces a marvellously portrayed anti-hero is Deko.

I read it in a couple of days and loved it.

Mr. Hurley - how do you do it, and can you keep this pace up?