The Prisoner by B.A. Paris

 

The Prisoner by B.A. Paris.

Published 3rd November 2022 by Hodder and Stoughton.

From the cover of the book:

THEN

Amelie has always been a survivor, from losing her parents as a child in Paris to making it on her own in London. As she builds a career for herself in the magazine industry, she meets, and agrees to marry, Ned Hawthorne.

NOW

Amelie wakes up in a pitch-black room, not knowing where she is. Why has she been taken? Who are her mysterious captors? And why does she soon feel safer here, imprisoned, than she had begun to feel with her husband Ned?

In true B.A. Paris style, The Prisoner is a gripping survival story, a twisted tale of love and at its dark heart a thriller to keep you up all night.

***********

When Amelie's father died leaving her homeless and alone at sixteen years old, she took herself from Paris to London, aware that she had to rely on opportunitues she could create for herself. With a little help from a kind-hearted person who gave her a chance when her life was at its lowest point, things took an upward turn, but Amelie has never forgotten the dark time that shaped her. Amelie's new career in the magazine industry has been looking promising, but meeting the magazine's wealthy owner Ned Hawthorne, and being persuaded to enter into a marriage of convenience with him, has proved to be a dangerous mistake. 

Now, Amelie has been taken captive alongside Ned, the man she has come to despise for very good reasons. Imprisoned in a pitch-black room, she has no way of knowing where she is being held, who has taken her, or what they want. But strangely, she feels safer here away from Ned than in the luxurious trappings of his privileged life. Can she survive this ordeal, and get away from the husband that wants nothing more than to see her dead for knowing too much about the man he really is?

You always know you are in for a gripping ride when opening the cover of a B.A. Paris thriller, and The Prisoner proves that once again she knows how to suck you into a story that keeps you turning the pages all the way to the bitter-sweet end.

As is Paris' forte, this is a story based deliciously around themes of control, and the dark secrets people keep hidden beneath the surface. Amelie's narrative drives the action with compelling intensity as the chapters flip back and forth between the past that has brought her to this terrifying situation, and the present events that play out from the moment she and Ned are taken. Amelie appears vulnerable and naive, which seemingly makes her an ideal candidate for manipulation by the rotten-at-heart Ned Hawthorne, but she has a steely determination to survive gained through relying on her own wits and this makes her a great character to get behind. 

The tension rises notch by notch, as every moment of Amelie's heart-stopping experience of being held prisoner by the kidnappers is given in aching detail, beginning with her initial exploration of the space in which she is being kept, and taking you through her unflinching determination to keep her sanity and escape. In parallel, you put together all the little pieces of Amelie's backstory, which builds the picture of why she and Ned have been taken - and why she was a prisoner in her marriage too. This works beautifully, as you have absolutely no idea how the story will unfurl from one minute to the next. While you scrabble to make sense of it all, Paris pulls the wool over your eyes with accomplished skill, twisting the story on its unsettling axis at crucial moments to flip your perception about everything you think you know. She then hits you with a brilliantly contrived surprise or two that take things in a really intriguing direction - but no spoilers from me!

This is a highly entertaining, read in one sitting book. Pacy, claustrophobic, menacing, and totally addictive, this cements her place at the top of the psychological thriller genre. Long may she reign!

The Prisoner is available to buy now in hardcover, ebook and audio formats.

Thank you to Hodder and Stoughton for sending me a copy of this book in return for an honest review, and for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.

About the author:

B.A. Paris is the internationally bestselling author of Behind Closed Doors, The Breakdown, Bring Me Back, The Dilemma and The Therapist. Having sold over 3.5 million copies worldwide, she is a New York Times and Sunday Times bestseller as well as a number one bestseller on Amazon and iBooks. Her novels have been translated into 40 languages, and Film and TV rights to Behind Closed Doors have been optioned. She is currently based in the UK.