I could not wait to get my hands on this book after the hype around it.
It is unusually written as usually crime books are written from the detective's POV and explains how the crime gets solved. This time, the book is written in Sophie's POV and the culprit (potentially) is her mother's boyfriend.
This is a terrifying scenario which has happened so many times in reality so the book is all too realistic. The fact that it is written in a little girl's POV and now young woman only makes it more petrifying and real in my view.
I need to read something "light" and "happy" after this book but I am glad I made the journey with the author through this psychological exploration of the dark side of humanity...

Well where do I begin? Victoria Selman May look all cute, smiley and happy but gosh she has a talent for taking readers to the darkest corners with her storytelling.

This is an absolute gem. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about this one. Sophie is our storyteller in this one, she has been fantastic. We have really been able to get her viewpoints on Matty throughout this one.

I do love a good serial killer read and Selman has written a gem. This has tension laced throughout the pages, clues planted in the different chapters and just when I thought I knew where this was going- I find I’m completely wrong.

This is extremely well paced and Selman has the perfect balance of innocent vs guilty. This alongside Sophie’s inner thoughts and feelings have made this book completely unique and unputdownable.

I have read ALL of Selman’s books and this is quite possibly my favourite of them all. This is a book I have been invested in. I’m also left wanting more. The ending of this one made me a little speechless- which isn’t easy to do.

Selman is able to transport her readers to the pages. You can’t help but sense the fear of the community amidst the murders. Sophie and Matty’s relationship has been interesting and complex throughout this one.

I am devastated that I won’t experience this for the first time all over again. This is a masterpiece and I have loved every page. I absolutely a million percent recommend this book.

I heard alot about this book before reading it, however i cannot see whetr thru hype was fro.. For me it just seemed a bit flat. Bothing to makr me stand up and take notice.

I must admit to not knowing Victoria Selman's books, but being a regular listener to the Crime Time FM podcast, I was intrigued to read one, and I'm so glad I did.

Truly, Darkly, Deeply is a compelling and chilling read and one written from a very different perspective in the crime genre. We're used to seeing things from the Detective POV, and more frequently, the criminal POV and victims are also getting more space on the page in terms of backstory rather than being simply someone who dies on page 1. However, in this book, the story is told from the POV of Sophie, who is growing up in the company of a potential serial killer.

Sophie and her mother move to London, and her mother meets a new charismatic boyfriend, Matt. However, as the tale unravels, suspicion grows in relation to whether Matt has been involved in the murder of several local women and also a child in Ireland. Sophie's story is told over several years, and the reader is caught in the did he/didn't he scenario along with Sophie's own wavering views. On the one hand, he has been a kind and loving father figure to her (something that's missing from her life). And on the other hand, there are some questions that can't be answered.

This is a very fast read. I was drawn quickly into the story and wanted to find out the outcome. I didn't see what was coming at the end when the author throws in a final twist.

It's a dark and disturbing read and a book I'm still thinking about several days after finishing it.

I'd definitely read more by this author.

Truly, Darkly, Deeply is a well written compelling story told in two different timelines from the point of view of Sophie. Sophie as a child and Sophie now.
Inspired by real life serial killers it is a clever and addictive story with lots of twists and turns that will keep you guessing.
This is the first book I have read by this author and I enjoyed it so much that I immediately went onto the internet and downloaded a couple of her earlier books.
Highly recommended!

This was a really interesting take on the serial killer trope. Told from the perspective of Sophie, a woman trying to come to terms with the fact that she may have been like a daughter to a man arrested and convicted for multiple murders. Matty Melgren has always protested his innocence, and now that he's dying in prison, he has asked Sophie to visit. Will she finally learn the truth?

As we return to Sophie's childhood, we see the beginning of her Mom's relationship with Matty, and just how much Sophie came to love him. How can she reconcile the man she knew, with the brutal serial killer he was said to be?

When Sophie does visit Matty in the closing chapters of the book, there are plenty more twists revealed, and she is still left wondering what the truth is.

A fascinating and engrossing read that kept me gripped throughout.

Victoria Selman does it again! If you're already a fan of Victoria's novels, you'll absolutely love this latest installment and if you haven't read any, this is an excellent place to start!

I was absolutely drawn in from the 1st page and was gripped until the very end.

Sophie and Her Mother are drawn in by the charming Matty but when a spate of murders occur and the victims all look remarkably like Sophie's Mother, She begins to worry the killer may be a little close to home.

I love how we are kept guessing right until the end. The book explores the theme of seeing what we expect to see and really makes you think about what we focus on as a reader and in life in general.

A must read!

Content/Trigger Warnings
This is a book about a serial killer, and family secrets. Gory murder reports. Child death/murder. Inappropriate behaviour towards a child. Depression. Self harm. Addiction to drugs/alcohol. Extreme trauma. It’s bleak guys.


Today I’m reviewing Truly Darkly Deeply by Victoria Selman, and oof is it bleak. I can’t say I enjoyed it, but I don’t think that’s the point of the book. I was intrigued and definitely wanted to keep reading in order to find out the answers to the mystery at the book’s heart.

The book is about Sophie, a woman who lives her life alone apart from a rescue dog named Buster. At the start of the book she receives a letter from a prison stating that an infamous serial killer is dying and is requesting to see her. The rest of the book follows along with how she knows him, and why he could possibly want to see her.

It turns out that she met the man when she was a lonely 8 year old child who had just moved to London with her single mother, Amelia Rose, from Boston in the US. Matty Melgrew (I mean, if you choose to live your life being called Matty, by choice, then I don’t think anyone should be surprised if you turn out to be a serial killer) comes into her life as her mother’s new boyfriend. Starved of a father figure, and friendless at her new school, Sophie falls head over heels for Matty. He is the perfect playmate, never an authority figure, always having seemingly endless time and patience with her. This relationship contrasts against that between Sophie and her mother, which becomes more and more antagonistic as Sophie grows up, fuelled in part by Sophie’s terror that her mother will push Matty away, as the relationship between Amelia Rose and Matty appears to become more strained. All these relationships are set against the backdrop of a string of murders in North London, women who seem to bear more than a passing resemblance to Amelia Rose, heightening Sophie’s feeling of unease as she begs her mother to take precautions when she’s out.

When Sophie is 12, Matty is arrested for the serial murders, including a murder committed in his home town in Ireland, of an 8 year old little girl, the same age as Sophie when he met her. He is arrested after an anonymous tip is received, and suspicion runs high about who made the tip. Was it Amelia Rose? She seemed to be struggling immensely with both the murders and her suspicions of Matty. Or was it someone entirely different? Along with Matty’s true guilt or innocence, this is one of the mysteries of the book.

So Sophie goes to visit Matty in prison, as he requested, to find out the truth, once and for all…

As I said earlier, I didn’t enjoy this book, but I was completely engrossed and picked it up whenever I got the chance. I loved how Selman wove her web until you could understand why both child and adult Sophie were completely confused about Matty’s guilt/innocence. As an outsider looking in it seems so obvious, but for a traumatised child, and later woman, nothing is as clear cut. I LOVED the extra twist of the knife at the end, I did wonder at points through the book if it could be true but the characters were drawn so well that it was still a delightful shock at the end!

The only things that stuck out to me were the formatting (very probably because it was an ARC copy), where all of a sudden you were reading a news story or a blogpost about the murders, but I got used to it very quickly. I’m hoping in the full release it’s more obviously marked, although I have to say that it helped keep me on the back foot so that I wasn’t sure what was happening. As did adult Sophie talking to her mother. It was obvious that she was holding a conversation in her head, but it really wrong footed me at the beginning as I didn’t know the story at first. Pretty clever author trick there Ms Selman! *tips hat*

The characterisation was superb. I felt the loneliness of both child and adult Sophie, and the trauma was palpable. I did feel that Amelia Rose needed fleshing out more, but I know why she wasn’t and it makes sense to me. Matty was at times a fun character to read, until the author switched it up and he became menacing or disturbing, before switching him back. It really helped me to identify with child Sophie, who despite her unquestioning adoration for Matty, still felt that unease, and that feeling of being unsafe, no matter how much she loved him. Some of the things Matty did to Sophie were textbook abuse and gaslighting, making her question her sense of right and wrong, her safety, everything. If you’ve suffered abuse where any of these things have been a factor then I’d give this book a wide berth.

In summary, this is one twisty, and twisted book, that I didn’t want to put down. Did I sometimes feel like I needed to scrub myself raw in the shower? Yes. Was it still worth reading? Very much! As I said, if you have suffered abuse, child abuse (there is a scene that has elements of child sex abuse, as part of a larger pattern of abusive behaviour that may be triggering), or Intimate Partner Violence, you may want to skip this one.

I’d recommend this to people who love a good mystery, especially a psychologically, twisty turny one (is that even a genre??), or anyone who loves books about serial killers or murders in general. You won’t see much, if any, in the way of crime solving from the police side - and what you do see is represented in media articles during and after the investigation - but it’s still interesting to watch it unfold from a different angle. It’s not a book I would usually pick up, I usually prefer to read about my serial killers through the eyes of law enforcement, but I’m very glad I chose this one. It was definitely interesting and well worth a read.

It’s a solid ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ for me.

Thanks to NetGalley and Quercus Books for the free copy in exchange for my honest review.

Unfortunately life has got in the way which has had a serious impact on my reading schedule. I will get to this book soon as I have seen so many positive reviews and will leave a review on all the relevant sites

There’s been a lot of buzz around Truly, Darkly, Deeply over the last few weeks. It isn’t often I see a book get so much love from so many readers but having devoured this gripping story I can see why it has been praised by the great and good of crime fiction. It was a brilliant read.

Sophie is the focus of the story, she is brought from Massachusetts to England by her mother (Amelia-Rose) and they are starting a new life together in a new country. Ameila-Rose meets Matty, he is a larger than life figure and the couple slowly start to grow their relationship. Sophie and Matty get on well and as the story unfolds we see a family unit forming.

As we get to know Sophie, Ameila-Rose and Matty we see them spending time together and Victoria Selman has seeded their lives into the early 80’s when these formative months of their relationships were founded. It was fun to see how this new “family” viewed the Royal Wedding of Charles and Diana some 40 years after the event took place. Obviously the reader knows how many of these real world events turn out over time but seeing the trio discussing them as they unfold was enchanting and entracing too.

But the homely domesticity also has a shadow hanging over it. A serial killer is operating in the city near where Ameila-Rose and Sophie live. As the number of victims grow, Sophie cannot help but notice that each of the dead women share similar characteristics in their appearance and those characteristics are also shared by her mother.

When we are not reading about life in the 1980s we are in present day. In present day Matty is in prison as he was convicted for the murder of the women. He is dying and he wants to see Sophie. Why does he want to see Sophie? Does she want to see Matty? Well she doesn’t, not really, but there is an inevitability of them having a conversation and as that draws closer the reader is wholly invested in Sophie’s life and also wants to know what Matty plans to say. Is he going to finally confess to the murders? Has he information to share or will he try to undo Sophie’s life? His conviction pretty much changed Sophie once already, could he somehow do more damage?

What made this book shine for me was how deftly Victoria Selman nails the pace, the subtle and dramatic reveals and the utter heights of tension. Despite knowing Matty has been convicted for the murders you don’t know if he actually committed the crimes. After some time Sophie has suspicions but Matty is charming and personable and she really can’t bring herself to believe he could be a killer, at times I had my doubts too.

An immediate favourite. It’s a book you need to read – I loved it.

I have just finished reading Truly, Darkly, Deeply by Victoria Salman.
Wow, what a fabulous story, I could not put the book down. Each page gives you a little bit more but the twist at the end, I was not expecting that.
A serial killer is on he loose in North London, where Sophie and her American mother now live. Who is the killer? A man gets convicted, but was it him? You’ll have to read the book to find out.
I can thoroughly recommend this book.

I'm going to try my best to keep this review simple and brief, since this is a thriller and I'm not here to ruin anybody's day, but at the same time, I strongly believe that I cannot talk about this book without spoiling it so maybe it's best not to read my review lol.
Just read this part if you don't want to possibly getting spoiled: Do I recommend Truly, Darkly, Deeply? I honestly cannot say that I do, mainly because of the infuriatingly repetitive writing style and because it really felt too long, like it had overstayed its welcome.

Thank you to Quercus Publishing for sending me the e-ARC!

(SPOILER FREE)
Here are the aspects I really enjoyed about Truly, Darkly, Deeply:
. The premise itself was incredibly intriguing and it was the main reason I asked for this book from NetGalley. It was super well done and it kept me hooked and intrigued throughout the process of reading this book.
. It felt rather original, if you ask me.
. The influences I noticed from infamous, real world serial killers were a very nice touch.
. Matty's character was absolutely terrifying, in the way you wouldn't expect a handsome, intelligent, surprisingly normal young man to turn out to be a fucking serial killer.
. I really liked how the author kept pulling me back in with these cliffhangers every couple of chapters, as if she knew I was itching to put the book down and was like nah nah sister, I'mma get you hooked.
. Is it wrong to say that I liked how the killings were done? How the killer hunted down these specific women that looked exactly like his girlfriend, etc.
. I loved the twist towards the end about Sophie and her mother, it just shocked me in a way that I found entertaining.

That's about it, to be honest, so moving on to the things I didn't enjoy about this book:
. The obnoxiously repetitive style of writing. I genuinely felt like I was reading about the same thing over and over and over again.
. More on that, this book felt way too long for what it was, and if it hadn't been that repetitive, I strongly believe that it would've been shorter.
. I really didn't care much for any of the characters, beside Matty. Didn't care for Amelia Rose, didn't care for Sophie, but I also didn't like that Sophie was literally 11-12 throughout the book? Like she felt older than that, but I digress.
(SPOILERS)
. I didn't love that we spent all this time building up Matty as this terrifying villain, yet also having all these characters come to his defense and proclaim his innocence.
Like if I spent an entire book knowing who the killer is, then what was the point? Where was the plot twist? Because literally at the 95% mark, he confirmed that he was the killer? Okay, but I was underwhelmed and I just wanted to get it over with.
. I didn't care for the reveal that Sophie's mom was in on it? Like the bitch was dead by then so why should I have cared about it? At that point of the book, I just wanted it to be over already so said reveal just didn't do shit for me, if I'm being completely honest.

Overall, this was a pretty fine "thriller", although I'd call it more of a mystery novel, than a thriller.
Excellent premise, lackluster execution.

Fantastically dark and intreaging tale. Totally draws you in to the mystery and deepest human thoughts and behaviour. The story and characters raise a lot of questions about how the people behave and treat one another. Indeed what we are all capable of.
I loved this compelling and addictive, s phychological journey from start to finish. Raing many questions and leaving me wanting more! Highly reccommeded!

A fantastic read. I enjoyed the references to the 1980s and real life events and thought it was a brilliantly written story - so much so that I sometimes had to remind myself it wasn’t true crime fiction- and I loved the twist at the end. Recommended.

I received this book from NetGalley and the publisher in return for an honest review. This review is based entirely on my own thoughts and feelings.

Overall rating : 4*
Writing skill : 5*
Plot: 4*
Pace: 2*
Characters: 4*
Twist: 2*

Once I finally got going with this one, I couldn't put it down, but it took me a long time to get into it. The pace of the story was a bit slow which didn't help, but the characters and Selman's writting style kept me going and I am so glad I read this. Another serial killer thriller which I am here for, and my overall 4* rating shows just how much I liked it.

This book was incredibly good. A chilling story about a girl called Sophie and her mother Amelia-Rose who move to London from Massachusetts. Amelia-Rose meets Matty Melgren who is later found guilty of being a serial killer. Twenty years onwards, Sophie visits him in prison but will he open up to her with the answers she so needs?

Truly, Darkly, Deeply was completely gripping and full of twists and turns. It lured me into its pages and I was quickly besotted by its originality and cleverness. It was atmospheric, tense, dark and gothic, with such a level of unpredictability that I had no idea who to trust or what to believe. Definitely, one to pick up; this is one very happy reader!

I received a complimentary copy of this novel from Quercus Books via NetGalley at my request and this review is my own unbiased opinion.

Truly Darkly Deeply is such an addictive read!

I found it so gripping that I was sneaking chapters in my work breaks to find out if Matty was truly guilty or if he was framed.

The mystery has shades of Bundy, Zodiac and the Yorkshire Ripper and the author carefully balances the storytelling from Sophie’s perspective with newspaper clippings and forum posts to add an additional layer of interest.

I’d figured out the ending by about half way through but there was so much tension building that you’re constantly second guessing your gut instinct and suspecting everyone.

Highly recommended!

I really enjoyed this book. When 12 year old Sophie comes to live in London from the USA with her mother Amelia, they soon meet the charismatic Matty Melgren. Sophie quickly looks up to him as a father figure and Amelia is in love with him, though he refuses to get married. Theirs is a complicated relationship. At the same time, a serial killer is murdering women who look like Amelia. Years later, after Matty's conviction for the murders, Sophie receives a letter from the prison to say he wants to see her as he is terminally ill. He has always protested his innocence, so is he about to offer a death bed confession? There is a massive twist that you won't see coming! Thanks to NetGalley for a preview copy.
Copied to Goodreads.

I really enjoyed this book and was hooked from the start. I would definitely recommend to any dark suspense fans.

It is told from Sophie’s perspective and moves between timelines. I like when she is looking back she is questioning things with the benefit of hindsight which also gives the reader more details.

There were a couple of bits that were a little repetitive but I thought that overall it was such a compelling read that it didn’t bother me.

Thank you to #NetGalley and #Quercus for a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review. #TrulyDarklyDeeply

As a child Sophie wished for a father as there was only her and her mother. They live with grandparents in America. For reasons which she did not understand at the time her grandparents decided they ought to make a new life for themselves in the UK and this happened leaving behind the only family she had. Her life did not change and somehow was worse, no father, American accent etc so she was still bullied at school. For an 8 year old child this is sad as she only ever wanted to fit it. Eventually things settled and along comes Matthew Melgren into her mother’s life and, of course hers. Mattie was the complete package as far as Sophie was concerned and she lived in a happy world. He was good to her and made her feel safe. Life had it’s ups and downs for Sophie’s mom and Mattie and could be quite volatile. He would disappear and then return especially after arguments. As Sophie was growing up there are murders taking place in and around London. The story jumps backwards and forwards from child Sophie and grown up Sophie and I enjoyed the two stories becoming one. The murders continue and eventually Mattie is arrested for them – did he commit them, Sophie is convinced that he had been set up. Sophie struggles in adult life due to Matty’s imprisonment which she still feels is unjust. Eventually she receives a letter from the prison where Mattie is asking her to visit. She is not sure whether this is a good plan and agonises over this but eventually she feels she needs to put her past to bed one way or the other. She is full of guilt which is something which is stopping her living her life to the full. She has a secret herself which is eating away at her. The meeting is set and she visits. Matty talks she listens not expecting the story to unfold as it does. I thought the book was great and full of twists. I did not expect the ending at all and made for a great story. I enjoyed the drama of Sophie and her mom and am still surprised I did not get some of the narrative – proves a great story