Revenge
Nigel May
Bookouture
February 2017
eBook
Rating 5/5
If you keep dangerous secrets you’ll pay the ultimate price…
In the South of France, playground of the rich and famous, world renowned chef Dexter Franklin is organising a night to remember. As he opens the doors to his exclusive restaurant for the first time, he’s handpicked a list of guests, as hot and dazzling as the St Tropez sun itself:
Mew Stanton: Fashionable, beautiful and a notorious TV chef, Dexter’s ex-girlfriend has all the ingredients for success. As her books fly off the shelves, a secret from her past is about to surface with explosive consequences.
Holly Lydon: Ex girlband star who has fallen on hard times. Forced to make ends meet she’s having to sleep her way to the top. Now she’s making headlines for all the wrong reasons.
Rosita Velázquez: Brazilian actress extraordinaire and girlfriend of Dexter’s brother, Leland. When she’s in town everybody needs to know about it, but this is one show-stopping entrance she’ll live to regret.
Three women have a past with Dexter and a grudge to bear against him. As fireworks ignite in the jet set capital of Europe, there’s murder on the menu. Who will be served their just desserts?
The sun is setting in the South of France. Pour yourself a glass of champagne and sit back for a read of revenge, regrets and shocking revelations that will have you hooked to the very last page.
In the South of France, playground of the rich and famous, world renowned chef Dexter Franklin is organising a night to remember. As he opens the doors to his exclusive restaurant for the first time, he’s handpicked a list of guests, as hot and dazzling as the St Tropez sun itself:
Mew Stanton: Fashionable, beautiful and a notorious TV chef, Dexter’s ex-girlfriend has all the ingredients for success. As her books fly off the shelves, a secret from her past is about to surface with explosive consequences.
Holly Lydon: Ex girlband star who has fallen on hard times. Forced to make ends meet she’s having to sleep her way to the top. Now she’s making headlines for all the wrong reasons.
Rosita Velázquez: Brazilian actress extraordinaire and girlfriend of Dexter’s brother, Leland. When she’s in town everybody needs to know about it, but this is one show-stopping entrance she’ll live to regret.
Three women have a past with Dexter and a grudge to bear against him. As fireworks ignite in the jet set capital of Europe, there’s murder on the menu. Who will be served their just desserts?
The sun is setting in the South of France. Pour yourself a glass of champagne and sit back for a read of revenge, regrets and shocking revelations that will have you hooked to the very last page.
Over the last year or so, I've become a huge fan of Nigel May's work so I was eager to get stuck in to his sixth novel Revenge, and I was certainly not disappointed.
There is so much written within the pages of Revenge that I fear that if I start going into characters and scenarios too much I will give away far more than I intend, so for that reason I apologise if this review is a little vague - please just trust me when I say it is a must read!
As the title may suggest, the book is primarily about Revenge, but I also found that there was a line of friendship, belonging and love within its depths too.
The book started with a prologue giving details of a murder being committed, giving details of the location, surroundings and method. The one thing we don't know is who carried out the crime,
The novel then moves forth and is based in the idyllic setting of St Tropez, where celebrity chef Dexter Franklin is about to launch his latest swanky restaurant.
The first few chapters were brilliant, each one focused on a character, giving us a taste of their personality and careers. Each of the chapters also started with an invite from Dexter to the opening.
Other than Dexter the main characters are Mew and Holly - ex member of a successful girl band whom haven't spoken a word to each other since the day the band split, and Leland and Rosita, Dexter's brother and ex-lover respectively.
There's also some smaller characters, Dexter and Mew's publicist Olivia and food critic DC Riding to name a few.
All have a significant connection to Dexter and are wondering why they have been invited, because let's face it, their relationships haven't all gone smoothly with him.
As the group are treated to a glorious stay in a top notch St Tropez hotel their stories unfold deeper and darker. Nigel May has a great way with words making you feel like your right there in the thick of the action and the exotic locations that he throws back to when the characters are remembering times they've been together in the past are described as gloriously as the next.
For me, there was a couple of chapters in the middle that I felt the book got a little lost with, I was eager to get to Dexter's opening night as I wanted to know why he had hand selected these few people and of course to know who the murderer was - although I did have my suspicions and guess correctly at about 80% of the way through - and so I felt that the details in those odd chapters could have been added together, or maybe that's my impatience showing, haha!
Once the opening night had arrived, it all became clear as to why the chosen characters where there and this had a few surprises thrown into the mix to keep it entertaining.
Overall the book is brilliantly written with the glitz, glam, scandal and sex that we come to love from Nigel May, but as I mentioned at the beginning, Revenge wasn't all about its namesake for me.
Once everything had been revealed there were moments of mutual understanding between certain characters, whilst new relationships formed and existing ones now amicable between others.
Sadly Revenge is the last book from Nigel with his publishers in the glam - fiction category, but I can't wait to see what he comes up with in the future and wish him every success.
Thanks to Bookouture for a review copy via Netgalley.
