Set within the world of neurosurgery How Far We Fall by Jane Shemilt is a creepy revenge thriller where supporting characters from Daughter (Jane Shemilt’s first novel) take centre stage for this modern twist on Shakespeare’s Macbeth. The novel is full of unreliable characters, which is particularly chilling considering the characters are people who we put our utmost faith in. Beth is a theatre nurse who is recovering from an affair with Ted, a married neurosurgeon. The affair ended badly and whilst Ted seems to have his life back on track, Beth is still heartbroken after the still-birth of their daughter. She’s also had to change her job (neuro to orthopaedics). When Beth meets Albie, the fact that he’s Ted’s surgical registrar/research fellow is a reason for Beth to run a mile; but there’s a spark between Albie and Beth that can’t be ignored and before we know it they’re married and planning a family of their own. Like Macbeth, at first Albie is characterised as a man of integrity who is out to help others. He is a bright up and coming neurosurgeon who has researched and developed an innovative neurosurgical procedure for brain cancer. Ted has helped Albie along in his career, and Albie has great respect and admiration for him both professionally and personally. However, when Ted takes credit for Albie’s research project, Albie starts to doubt Ted’s integrity. This isn’t helped by Beth, who is still reeling from the way he took what he wanted from her, before leaving her to deal with the death of their daughter all on her own. But Albie is still in the dark on that one; he has no idea that his wife and his boss knew each other before. At the beginning it was easy to empathise with both Beth and Albie. Although Beth had an affair with a married man, she’d had a raw deal; and at this point there was no reason to believe Albie was none other than a kind and talented neurosurgeon who wanted to help cure others. But with Beth subtly poisoning his mind against Ted, and his research assistant (who just so happens to have a couple of sisters, making them reminiscent of the three witches) providing him with snippets of overheard conversation regarding Albie’s promotion, Albie doesn’t know who to believe. The deceit starts off seemingly inconsequential but before we know it, it has built into a web of lies with layer upon layer of dramatic tension ready to explode just like Albie’s research trial! The narrative moves up a gear as we move towards the climax but unlike a lot of novels, where the last couple of chapters drag after the conclusion, the author has added a further plot twist that had me racing towards the very end. Jane Shemilt has a wonderful talent for bringing the narrative to life: the setting really drew me in and the characters leaped off the page. I really enjoyed reading this book and it was great to catch up with some of the characters from Daughter. I would love to see another book that reveals what happened to Naomi (the daughter from Daughter) and can’t wait to read more from this author.

Having enjoyed Jane's two previous books this was a must for me... A good and quite unique chilling plot with a nod to Shakespeare's Macbeth too! How far will people go to get revenge? To get ahead in their career? What will they risk along the way? Their own lives? The lives of others? A Child's life? If you are a crime thriller fan, then you really must check out her books!

. How Far We Fall is a novel that I am glad I persevered with. Part one, lays down the foundations with a lot of detail about the clinical trials that Albie is involved with and his career as a neurosurgeon. You can see how ambitious he is, and how he thrives on pieces of gossip that he hears regarding his career prospects. Much of the clinical and medical detail went way over my head but it is important to the novel to see this aspect of the novel. You also get to see his relationship with Ted and his blossoming romance with Beth. You do see glimpses of what happened in the past with Beth and Ted but Albie is oblivious to any of this. When the novel changed direction slightly from part two onwards I was hooked. I have seen references to Macbeth mentioned with regards to the storyline. There are parts that are theatrical but the only part of Macbeth I know concern witches. This is a part does feature slightly. As the novel progressed I could see how the need to get revenge had fatal consequences for all concerned. It was difficult to like either Albie or Beth, even though I did have more sympathy for Albie initially but his more sinister attitude became more evident the further I read. It was the minor characters I liked more. Gita, Jake and Ed especially and I understood their way of thinking. And I was very impressed with the sisters! It is very different to a lot of crime I read. This was more of a character study and explained the reasoning why the events happened. How revenge, obsession, loss and envy overtook the desire to change lives for the better. I found it a chilling and unique read.

I found this book to be quite difficult to get in to. It was slow and in my opinion never really picked up pace. It is a story of secrets, lies, manipulation,betrayal, jealousy and quest for power. I found the characters to be flat and I did not really engage with any of them. Some of the issues within this novel were topical such as medical research, use of lab rats and animal welfare which did evoke food for thought. Not for me but this book has had many good reviews.