Unravelling Oliver by Liz Nugent @lizzienugent @PenguinUKBooks #Review #UnravellingOliver

WINNER - IBA Crime Fiction Book of the Year 2014

'Truly excellent, beautifully written ... strongly recommended' Sophie Hannah

'I expected more of a reaction the first time I hit her.'

Liz Nugent's gripping novel of psychological suspense, Unravelling Oliver, is a complex and elegant study of the making of a sociopath in the tradition of Barbara Vine and Patricia Highsmith.

Oliver Ryan is a handsome and charismatic success story. He lives in the suburbs with his wife, Alice, who illustrates his award-winning children's books and gives him her unstinting devotion. Their life together is one of enviable privilege and ease - enviable until, one evening after supper, Oliver attacks Alice and beats her into a coma.

In the aftermath, as everyone tries to make sense of his astonishing act of savagery, Oliver tells his story. So do those whose paths he has crossed over five decades. What unfolds is a story of shame, envy, breath-taking deception and masterful manipulation.

Only Oliver knows the lengths to which he has had to go to get the life to which he felt entitled. But even he is in for a shock when the past catches up with him.

My Thoughts: 

I feel that I might have been the only person left that hadn't read Unravelling Oliver. I am not sure why it has been sitting on my shelf as Lying in Wait is one of the best psychological suspense novel that I have ever read. If you would like you can read my review of that here.

So, it was a dreary afternoon recently that I sat down to read Unravelling Oliver and I didn't stop reading until I had finished it all. Written in the authors unimitable writing style I was hooked from the first word until the last.

It is difficult to tell you too much about the story as I really wouldn't want to give anything away but our main character is Oliver Ryan and most of the story features him. On the surface he is successful and charming, an author of children's books. At the outset of the book Oliver has put his wife in a coma after a savage attack. What unravels is Oliver's story told over the timeline of his life until present. Is Oliver the charming and charismatic individual that is portrayed or is there more to him and what drove him to carry out such an inexcusable act on his wife?


I love the way that the characters are explored in some depth and this in turns allows them to get underneath your skin and make it crawl in many cases. In reality it would be easy to out and out loathe Oliver but Liz Nugent manages to create such multi-faceted and nuanced characters it is hard to lack empathy.

If you are expecting fast paced then you would be mistaken but this is a slow unveiling and an exploration of the frailties of human nature and behaviour, with one of the best written characters I have ever read about.

About the Author: 

Before becoming a full-time writer, Liz Nugent worked in Irish film, theatre and television. Her three novels - Unravelling Oliver, Lying in Wait and Skin Deep have each been Number One bestsellers in Ireland and she has won four Irish Book Awards (two for Skin Deep). She lives in Dublin with her husband.

Her latest novel Our Little Cruelties was published at the end of March, to find out more please visit: 


Website: http://www.liznugent.ie/
Twitter: @lizzienugent
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/liz.nugent.399