The Victim [Paperback]

*If you plan on reading the first two parts of this trilogy please do not read this review as it will inevitably contain spoilers, as the story is so much further along now*

Every now and then as a reader you come along a new author that blows you away. You wonder how you had never picked up one of their books and if anybody else can match up to them. This is how I felt when I started reading Martina Cole in the early days. Don't get me wrong, she is still a great author but I found myself becoming more and more disappointed with her books. When I picked up my first Kimberley Chambers book I was transported back to what I fondly call the Martina Cole `early days'. Kimberley Chambers has written three excellent stand-alone books and has now finished and released the final part of the O'Hara/Mitchell trilogy.

Having read the first two parts I had a good idea of the characters and what they had been through to get to the stages they were at now. The Mitchell and O'Hara family are still battling, only this time Eddie Mitchell's daughter Frankie is in prison and there are new additions to the family such as Eddie's partner Gina. The characters themselves are first class and they are rough around the edges and frighteningly real. Because this was part 3, I was itching to know what would become of the two families and boy was I unprepared for the rollercoaster I was taken on. The book is a hefty 432 pages and we are thrown straight in at the deep end with both families from page 1.

The wonderful thing about reading her books is the sheer speed at which you are catapulted into the characters worlds. I worry about writing too much involving the characters and storyline as it is easy to give away spoilers but I will say this. You will be on the edge of your seat and will not want to put the book down. This book was read in just over a day and it didn't leave my side for too long.

The last quarter of the book is full of suspense and what if's and I found myself jigging up and down because I was so eager to get to the end. I wasn't disappointed at all and thought that Kimberley Chambers has written her best work yet. The book was wrapped up nicely, but not perfectly which again adds that touch of realism to it. The only disappointing thing for me is that as usual I have been impatient and will now have the job of counting the months until her next release.

People tend to read the same type if books and I have seen many comments saying that she is as good as Martina Cole. That statement is in my opinion incorrect, she is better than Martina Cole. For all you people that are on the lookout for a new author, if you haven't tried KC yet, maybe now is the time to start!

› Go to Amazon.com to see the review  5.0 out of 5 stars