by Hilde Vandermeeren (Translated by: Laura Watkinson)
SYNOPSIS
One kills for a living.
The other would kill to survive.
Soon, their paths will cross…
When Gaelle wakes up, the nightmare begins. She is lying injured in a psychiatric hospital in Berlin, with no memory of the tense holiday weekend she has just spent with her family. Her son is in a coma in a different hospital - and the police think she tried to kill him. Gaelle is sure she is innocent. But can she prove it?
Michael is a contract killer working for Scorpio, a shadowy organisation of hitmen led by the ruthless Dolores. Any agent who breaks the rules signs their own death warrant. When his latest assignment stirs up old memories, Michael refuses to do the job - and starts to run for his life.
Soon, both Gaelle and Michael will discover exactly what they are capable of doing to survive.
REVIEW
Gaelle is a married woman with a seven-year-old son. She wakes up in a psychiatric hospital but has no recollection of why she has ended up in this situation. When the Police are brought in to question her, they accuse her of attempting to kill her own son. Gaelle soon realises that if she has any hope of clearing her name, she must escape and find out what really happened.
Michael works as a contract killer for an organisation called Scorpio. He is tasked with killing both Gaelle and her son but at the last minute, he decides that he draws the line at killing a child. The ruthless owner of Scorpio isn't happy with this decision and decides to put a revenge plan into place!
I am a huge fan of Crime Fiction but I don't tend to read as many books which have more of an action or military theme featuring assassins or bounty hunters. This is just a personal preference, but when I read the synopsis for The Scorpion's Head, something about it stood out to me. The mystery aspect sounded intriguing and I was also really interested to read a Flemish crime novel. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I actually ended up racing through this faster than any other book I've read this year! It was sharp and punchy, full of surprises and really addictive to read.
The story is told in a dual timeline format, switching between the two main characters. It was really interesting to be able to read the story from the perspective of both Gaelle and Michael and see how they differed in their approaches. As the story is quite extreme, it needed two strong characters to match, and these two were a fascinating duo!
The parts of the story where Gaelle was trying to get people to believe her account of what happened had me on the edge of my seat. I think that the tension created in these scenes really kept the momentum going and made sure I was on her team, hoping for a successful outcome.
The Scorpion's Head is a fast-paced and thrilling read, perfect for fans of the Jack Reacher series by Lee Child or Ghostman by Roger Hobbs. Make sure you check out the other books in the Walter Presents series, a list of the bloggers taking part in the tour are shown below!
Thanks to @PushkinPress and @WalterPresents for the opportunity to read and review.
Fiction: Thriller / Psychological Thriller / Translated Fiction
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 978-1782277484
Pages: 288 pp
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