Your Deepest Fear by David Jackson Review

Terrifying and Blood Chilling

I regret to admit that I have never read David Jackson before now. His latest thriller, Your Deepest Fear, is the next in the DS Nathan Cody series. I am however relieved to say that although this is part of a series, this book more than held it’s own weight as a stand-alone.  Rest assured this will not be the last of his books that I pick up, even though he made me confront one of my biggest fears (and gave me nightmares for days!)

Jackson has created some amazing characters in this book, I feel I must start by saying that before I go into the depths of the review. It’s the one thing that stands out the most for me.

Sara is kick ass. She is the very embodiment of female power and determination.  She is feisty and driven and I loved that about her. When she returns home from a trip, she is deeply disturbed by a voice message left by her husband. As much as she loves her man, it is no secret that things have been difficult in the last few months. Her husband has been pulling away from her, emotionally and physically, even moving out of their home. Despite recent events, her husband’s disappearance is more than a shock, but Sara is not prepared to let her man go without a fight. It isn’t until she enters his house that she realises she is far too late. The body of her dead husband has been left in the most brutal of states. She can not understand who on earth would want to kill the man she loved in such a violent and disturbing way.

This is where DS Cody comes in. Now, as I mentioned before, this book was a cherry pop to me. So when it is explained that due to a prior case, DS Cody cannot be permitted to view the crime scene, this only sparked my interest more. Cue me then ferociously searching for the other books on Amazon to download onto my kindle. What on earth could he have gone through?

I did all of this before reading any further.. which maybe I should have done, as I was about to get a shock myself. You see, I am deeply terrified of Clowns. Yes, you read that right. I blame Stephen King and a birthday girl when I was younger who thought that particular movie would be perfect for a sleepover. More than 20 years later, I still can not look at a clown and found myself peeking through my own fingers at my kindle screen as my deepest fears grew legs and jumped off the page.

But.. the characters… the storyline… I couldn’t stop reading. With my heart in my mouth and knowing I would likely never sleep again, I persevered.

As the story progresses, we see Sara take matters into her own hands, knowing that the police simply will not do the job she is willing to do to see justice done. Despite many of the police force steadfast in their beliefs that Sara has something to do with her husband Matthews murder, Cody keeps Sara’s personal investigation a secret from the rest of the team.

The intricately woven characteristics of both Sara and DS Cody kept me turning the pages, their individual battles and personal demons kept me hooked.

I know I have discussed more of Sara’s personality in this review than DS Cody’s. However, I feel a little guilty going into my feelings about his character. With clearly a lot to catch up on, I think I will reserve my judgement until I have read more of his story in previous novels.

This is a tense and pacey thriller with twist and turns, disturbing torture and painful realisations. The writing is superb, the fear is palpable and the desire to go back and read the DS Cody back catalogue is now stronger than ever.

Despite the clowns.. and the nightmares, I was really impressed with this book.

Published by: Zaffre
ISBN: 978-178576-553-7

Many thanks to Tracy Fenton at Compulsive Readers and Zaffre for inviting us onto this blog tour.