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Kind of Cruel

a totally gripping and unputdownable crime thriller packed with twists

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Kind of Cruel

By: Sophie Hannah
Narrated by: Anna Bentinck, Emma Kay, Jonathan Aris
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About this listen

 When Amber Hewerdine consults a hypnotherapist as a desperate last resort, she doesn't expect that anything much will change.

She doesn't expect it to help with her chronic insomnia . . .

She doesn't expect to hear herself, under hypnosis, saying words that mean nothing to her: 'Kind, cruel, kind of cruel' - words she has seen somewhere before, if only she could remember where . . .

She doesn't expect to be arrested two hours later, as a result of having spoken those words out loud, in connection with the brutal murder of Katharine Allen, a woman she's never heard of . . .

(P)2012 Hodder & Stoughton©2012 Sophie Hannah Crime Fiction Suspense Thriller & Suspense Crime Fiction

Critic reviews

A rich mix of the dark and the diverting. Brilliantly believable
Another triumph for one of the very best crime writers out there. Stunningly clever and compelling.
Hannah excels at dissecting human behaviour, and the way she describes little acts of cruelty can send real chills down the spine.
Cool, calculating and utterly chilling, KIND OF CRUEL is another compulsive book from Hannah, to be gulped down with all the lights on and someone to grab when the sense of menace grows too great.
Hannah has outdone herself with KIND OF CRUEL . . . Her trademark precision-layered structure creates a multi-dimensional maze that holds at its centre a revelation which is truly hair-raising, even by Hannah's standards.
An audacious puzzle of a novel that is impossible to second guess . . . Crime novels are often dismissed in literary circles for not being literary enough. Yet KIND OF CRUEL is exactly the intelligent, reflective and stunningly written novel that has "literary" critics swooning and judging panels lining up to reward.
Hannah concocts a mystery of satisfying complexity in which frequent clichés of the genre (the locked room, for example) are turned inside out. If that were all her novels did, they would be admirably cerebral but uninvolving. Unfortunately for her rivals, Hannah does texture, depth and character with similar panache.
Intricately plotted and pleasingly sinister . . . guaranteed to get under the skin.
A terrific reading experience. Everybody loves Sophie Hannah.
'A writer of prodigious talent . . . This is a jaw-droppingly assured book which sometimes feels as if there's a plot twist on every page . . . This reader was left speechless with admiration . . . a truly sensational book.'
One of the great unmissables of this genre - intelligent, classy and with a wonderfully Gothic imagination.
'A remarkable novel, and an adventure to read . . . A first-class whodunit that will keep you reading long into the night.'
For those who demand emotional intelligence and literary verve from their thrillers, Sophie Hannah is the writer of choice.
'Hannah excels at dissecting human behaviour, and the way she describes little acts of cruelty can send real chills down the spine.'
'Intricately plotted and pleasingly sinister, it's guaranteed to get under the skin'
'Fast-paced prose makes this a suspense-filled page-turner with a vividly unsettling atmosphere.'
'This taut, intelligent psychological thriller . . . opens up a lot for reading groups to get their teeth into . . . intensely satisfying personal read.'
'[Sophie Hannah] has perfected the psychological thriller, always with strong female characters, and always with a high degree of edge-of-the-seat peril.'
An exploration of memory and the way trauma lives on in the present. Cool, calculating and utterly chilling, KIND OF CRUEL is another compulsive book from Hannah, to be gulped down with all the lights on and someone to grab when the sense of menace grows too great.
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I really enjoy the psychological domestic dramas that Sophia Hannah creates. She's a writer who creates characters I can identify with, and there's a sense of creepy reality in her books. Kind of Cruel is a clever book with a good whodunit element to it. It also rejoins the police characters we've met in her previous books, and it's nice to catch up with Charlie Zailer and her emotionally useless policeman husband.

Psychological thriller with a good twist!

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Would you listen to Kind of Cruel again? Why?

I already have! I found the story intriguing the first time I listened quite a while ago, and I think I enjoyed it more the second time round because the story though complex is very satisfying.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Can I have two characters? If so, then they would be Dinah and Noni. I think Sophie Hannah really delves deep into the way (intelligent) children think, react and express themselves, for example the conversation in the car between Amber and Noni, where she (Noni) is struggling to understand maths is spot on. Although these two characters don't play a big part themselves, in a way they are at the centre of the story.

Have you listened to any of the narrators’s other performances? How does this one compare?

I have heard Anna Bentinck before, she is very good to listen to. The other two readers were excellent as well.

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

It brought back several memories I had as a child, things you can't analyse at the time, but that stay with you subconsciously. I didn't laugh or cry, but I could relate to many of the descriptions for example the story right at the beginning of Jinny's first day at school, the hypnotherapy sequences ( why do you always have to go down a staircase and not come back up? ), and the depiction of the experience of insomnia, again, spot on.

Any additional comments?

A cleverly plotted novel, it kept my attention from beginning to end. I would recommend it. Now what can I listen to next?...

Really good psychological thriller

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Amazing book, incredibly well written and narrated. More of a psychological thriller than a crime thriller, with never a dull moment. Keeps you questioning 'why' and 'how', with the answers slowly unraveling bit by bit. I'm a big fan of Sophie Hannah, and this is probably her best book so far.

Mystery behind the mystery

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The usual twists and turns that you would expect from a Sophie Hannah story. Not sure how successful it was to have 3 readers - I must admit to getting a little confused at times. The plot twist at the end is a step too far - so very typical of Sophie Hannah's books. Well worth a listen.

A classic Sophie Hannah story

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I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS NOVEL, ALTHOUGH I HAVE LOVE OF PSYCHOLOGICAL NOVELS, THOSE OF YOU WHO DO NOT SHARE THAT MAY FIND IT OVERLONG. 5*

LOVED THIS NOVEL

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