What Goes Around by Julie Corbin

About this book…

Two women, two secrets, one murder…

What Goes Around is the story of two women – Ellen and Leila. Ellen is the ex-wife and Leila is the new woman, living in Ellen’s house, sleeping with Ellen’s husband. Each woman has her own secrets to keep. Leila’s brother is back in her life and is determined to rake up their past while Ellen is out for revenge. She wants her home back and she wants Leila to pay for breaking up her marriage. Her plan will make her do things she never thought herself capable of – but it will also put her in danger. Because Ellen has no idea what sort of a woman Leila is and when she finally finds out, it could already be too late…

One of the women will end up dead. But which one?

My review…

I’ve been a fan of Julie Corbin since her first novel. Her Scottish settings and her way of using her characters to live out your worst nightmares have always appealed to me and I look forward to when she has a new book out.

What Goes Around is a fabulous title for a psychological revenge thriller (it’s an annoyingly frequent saying of mine apparently!) and right from the start I realised that this book was very different from Julie Corbin’s previous books. Although the same general seed is sown (ordinary people thrown into difficult and ultimately dangerous situations) the way this one evolves is much darker than I had been expecting! It’s also much more concentrated as its told in alternating points of view by Ellen and Leila forming a tale of two women and a questionable quest for revenge. Ellen is suffering from OCD since splitting from her husband. Leila is the therapist that Ellen books an appointment with to help her. So far so good but unfortunately Ellen is there under an assumed name as Leila is the woman her husband left her for! Now at that information, you’re probably wondering how that would work? Surely the new woman would know what the ex wife looks like? But Leila isn’t like other women, certainly none I have met anyway! And because of that I disliked her from the start. How can a woman be so self absorbed that she hasn’t got a clue about the woman she has replaced? But Leila has a past that is hinted at throughout so that when I found out more, it was actually quite horrifying and I started to question my initial judgment of her. Whereas Ellen had my sympathy from the off, dumped for a younger, more adventurous woman and losing her home as well as her husband. So I was rather shocked at the actions she took to extract her revenge.

And that’s what worked so well here for me as a reader. My sympathies and opinions switched around so many times I was dizzy by the end! There were no real shocks here but the plot definitely didn’t play out as I was expecting so to manage to conjure up a few surprises is certainly something to be applauded. I feel I should warn that there are some difficult and sometimes rather upsetting scenes here which some people may find unpleasant reading but I found it to be relevant to discovering what makes characters act the way they do. The storyline also explores the “nature versus nurture” theory which has always been a particular fascination of mine.

A gripping but rather unsettling read which probably isn’t my favourite Julie Corbin novel but it’s one that will haunt me more than usual.

What Goes Around: A chilling psychological thriller is available to buy here from Amazon UK

About the author..

Julie Corbin is Scottish and grew up just outside Edinburgh. She has lived in East Sussex for the last twenty-five years and raised her three sons in a village close to the Ashdown Forest. She is trained as a nurse and combines running the medical department in a boarding school with writing novels, short stories and currently a radio play.

 

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