Suspicious Minds by David Mark

This is a novel about mental illness, coercive control and trust. A woman battles her mind and her dominating husband until she finds a lovely fantasy man who seems to good to be true.

The book looks at depression and particularly Borderline Personality Disorder and the effects on those around them in great detail. At times the minutiae of email conversations is tedious, even if it is accurate. Often slow in moving forward, the tale contains beautiful, hallucinogenic  descriptions of nature that serve to contrast with the scenes of horror, creating a tense confusion towards the end.

​The entire plot relies heavily on its desolate northern landscape. The story starts when the protagonist gets lost in a maze of rugged country lanes and crashes her car, only to be rescued by a brooding local farmer. There is a distressing sequence where the woman and child are in a woodland and are injured. They are being forced to go somewhere against their will. The next chapter begins the disturbing mental slog up to this point, demonstrating that mental illness is not confined to those with a diagnosis. 

The book is explicitly set in the rugged north of England specifically within the isolated villages and rural roads around Ireshopeburn and Allenheads in the North Pennines with parts of the narrative connecting to the town of Corbridge in Northumberland. It features vivid, moody descriptions of isolated woods, bleak rural terrain, and harsh nature. Love it. 

A well written and spellbinding tale for those who like vivid  psychological suspense.

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Published by Severn House on 1 December 2020.
​Advance review copy supplied by the publisher.

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Wild and Windswept: Moors and Peaks ​