Book Review: Unraveling Oliver

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In my book review of Unraveling Oliver, a man’s act of savagery stuns a local community. The revelations that follow will keep you reading until the very last page.

Book Summary:

Oliver Ryan has the perfect life. Elegant and seductive, he wants for nothing. He shares a lovely home with his wife, Alice. He’s handsome and charming. The ladies love him.

Alice illustrates the award-winning children’s books that have brought her wealth and fame.

One evening, after eating the dinner Alice had prepared, Oliver savagely assaulted her and left her for dead.

No one understands, and everyone is asking why this successful author has seemingly snapped.

There is Alice’s friend, Barney, who was her boyfriend before Oliver stole her away. There is Oliver’s college friend Michael, who has finally come to terms with being gay and is struggling with longings that have shamed him for years.

Those who know Oliver can only speculate on the reasons behind his brutal act. What none of them understands is the dark secret that lies behind his immaculate façade.

The Revelations That are Revealed:

The revelations that come to light as the layers of Oliver’s past are peeled away are as brutal as his singular act of violence. His decades of careful deception have masked a life irrevocably marked by abandonment, envy, and shame. As the details of that life are laid bare, Oliver discovers that outrunning his demons is harder than it looks.

This story is told from the viewpoint of Oliver and the people who know him. There is his mistress, Moya. And the French chatelaine Veronique, who lost everything the summer she employed Oliver at her vineyard.

As you read this book, the many onion-like layers that make up Oliver Ryan unravel. His tragic abandonment and upbringing, in which he never felt loved. His years of careful deception. All seem to combine to make up who Oliver became.

This book has amazing insight into the mind of a toxic and dangerous individual. Unraveling Oliver is a chilling page-turner.

About the Author:

Liz Nugent is an award-winning, bestselling Irish crime writer. Her second novel, Lying in Wait, was released in July 2016. It went straight to number 1 in the Irish Bestseller lists, remaining there for nine weeks, and spent eight months in the top ten.

She is the author of five crime novels. Her latest novel is Strange Sally Diamond, published in Ireland and the UK in March 2023.

Liz was born in Dublin, where she now lives with her husband, musician and sound engineer Richard McCullough.

She has worked in Irish film, theater, and television for most of her adult life. She is an award-winning writer of radio and television drama and has written critically acclaimed short stories for both children and adults.

I hope you enjoyed this book review.