Only the Innocent - Rachel Abbott

Only the Innocent tells the story of Lady Laura Fletcher and her husband Sir Hugo Fletcher, a philanthropist who, amongst his many interests, aids a charity helping Eastern European young women who have been brought to Britain under false pretences with hollow promises of modeling and a better life, only to find themselves exploited for prostitution. The charity effectively buys the women from those holding them and places them with families, in order to give them the opportunity to establish themselves legitimately in the UK. Laura is Hugo's second wife. She falls for him and finds herself swept up by his charms. Yet Laura finds to her sadness that married life with Hugo is not what it had promised to be, and she becomes resigned to feeling trapped by him, unable to break free; 'Laura blamed herself for lacking the strength and courage to recognise the web into which he was slowly ensnaring her.' The real man behind the scenes is not at all as he is perceived to be by the public. 

As the story opens, Sir Hugo has been found dead in his London home, in a compromising position, and the police know it's very likely that the killer was a woman. DCI Tom Douglas is in charge of trying to understand all the complex relationships that existed between Hugo and the women in his life, and he must uncover the closely guarded secrets if he is to solve the mystery.

This thriller keeps you gripped and reading right until the end, and as other reviewers have mentioned, it is about not only whodunit, but also has you frequently asking how and why they carried out the murder too. I found it a page-turner, I thought the book was strongest and most compelling in the sections where Laura's best friend since childhood, Imogen, is reading over Laura's letters to her, and the past is slowly revealed to us through them; I really liked how these letters were used in the narration, and for me the book was perhaps weakest on some aspects of police characterisation and procedure. When the whole truth is eventually uncovered, what is revealed to have been going on is incredibly sad and hard to stomach. 

It is a fascinating tale of the secrets that people keep, the pain and cruelty that can be hidden in private, the controlling man behind the benevolent public face, and the wife who suffers in order to preserve the innocent. The writer certainly has the knack of telling a tale and hooking in the reader; with just a little fine-tuning, it will be exciting to see what she produces next. 

At the time of writing this review, Only the Innocent is riding very high in the Amazon Kindle books paid store. Rachel Abbott has self-published this, her debut novel, as an e-book and is enjoying huge success with it.

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Thank you very much to the author for sending me an e-book copy of this novel to read and give an honest review.


Only the Innocent is available to buy now as an e-book. 


You can find out more about the novel and the author on her website. She also writes a blog and you can  follow her on twitter @Rachel_Abbott


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