Posted on 29/10/2024 in Dorothy Says
The Big Reveal Book Club Choice Is. . .
As I’m sure I’ve told you before, as well as being a bestselling author, I am a HUGE reader and I love nothing better than to share the book love. So here I am, sharing the love with The Big Reveal Book Club.
Last time the majority of you who answered the poll said you would love to have online book club meetings, yay! Our first one would be at 7pm on Tuesday 5th November. Hope you can make it.
Let’s get down to business, eh?
I really enjoyed this TBR Book Club selection, so do let me know on hello@dorothykoomson.co.uk if you’ve read the book and what you thought. And, as always, do send me other book suggestions that you think other people need to know about.
Talk to you soon.
Dorothy x
The Big Reveal Book Club Choice:
The Binding Room by Nadine Matheson
TBRBC Headline: A gripping, mesmerising version of a well-loved book genre that will keep you hooked until the end.
My thoughts: I love a good police procedural (a story that takes us on the journey of investigating a crime) where the characters are relatable because they’re flawed but not so messed up that they annoy me. And this is where The Binding Room enters the group chat.
We were introduced to The Binding Room’s main police characters in the first book in this series, The Jigsaw Man, and in this novel we get to see how everyone is recovering (or not) after the explosive events of the first story.
Detective Inspector Angelica Henley of the South London-based Serial Crimes Unit is called in when the wealthy pastor of a super church is murdered. There seems to be a lot of controversy around the pastor, his ministry and his family. As Henley is looking around the church premises, she comes across a hidden room where there is the emaciated body of a young man bound to a bed. The young man, despite his condition and evident signs of torture, is still alive.
So now the hunt is now on to find out not only who killed the pastor but who the young man is and who did that to him.
At first glance, The Binding Room seems like a simple detective whodunnit, but there are so many layers within the story beyond the main mystery. One of the elements that I found particularly interesting was the exploration of religion and how people use it to try to explain and ‘cure’ mental health problems. Nadine, the author, also writes about exploitation and trauma following the loss of someone close to you.
Henley is an interesting character because while I was rooting for her, I also found her hard to like at certain points – always the sign of great storytelling when my emotions are pulling in opposite directions. One of the scenes that stuck out for me is how Henley treats the pastor’s wife and her reaction when the pastor’s wife calls her out on it. There are some gruesome bits to the book and I did find myself almost reading through my fingers, but there’s not too much of that.
Nadine is a criminal barrister and still teaches ‘baby lawyers’ as she calls them, so it’s interesting to see her write about the world of crime from perspective of the police rather than the legal profession.
I’ve downloaded the next book in the Henley mystery series– The Kill List – on my Kindle but haven’t started it yet. Am very much looking forward to it, though. And don’t worry if you haven’t read The Jigsaw Man, you can get away with it if you want to jump right into the world of the Serial Crimes Unit with this banger of a book. However, if you want to get to know Henley that bit better and understand why she does some of the things she does, do start with book one.
TBRBC verdict: The Binding Room is a compelling and thought-provoking read that will make you think about the ways we deal with different types of mental illness when it shows up in our lives. Definitely worth a read.
Buy the book: Buy The Binding Room or eBook: Buy The Binding Room eBook
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