Book Review | The Love Detective by Angela Dyson

I am really enjoying having the opportunity to review books on my blog, some like The Love Detective, are sent to me as part of a blog tour, others I feature on my #beingfiftyandfab monthly post, books I have picked up or have been recommended to me.  I am still making more of an effort to read in the evening rather than scroll mindlessly on my phone, it definitely helps the quality of my sleep!

The Love Detective by Angela Dyson is the author's debut novel and the first in a series featuring Clarry Pennhaligan.  It is a combination of chick-lit and thriller but it delves into much deeper issues than you first expect.

Clarry is funny, energetic and real, she doesn't have huge ambitions, she works in a restaurant, and lives in the house she inherited from her grandmother.  She has no grown up plan and hasn't been very lucky in love.  

Then her best friend Laura asks her to do a bit of snooping into the background of her latest beau.  Clarry takes up the challenge and with a bit of help from her elderly friends she sets out to find out what is going on.

There is intrigue, mystery, romance, laughter and a dark gritty theme that will leave you in suspense to the very end.  Lots of twists and turns and quite a bit of drama.  However, there is a much deeper subject tackled in the book that I found to be thought provoking and enlightening, another world that we hope we will never come into contact with.

"Pacy, funny, gritty, terrifying and exciting.  Cynical yet romantic at heart, Clarry is a girl that you can't help but like - and root for ..." Independent Reviewer.

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​Angela Dyson ditched London life and downsized her home to move to the sticks in Surrey, to follow her dream to become a professional author.  

Meet the protaganist in The Love Detective ... in Angela's own words find out more about the heroine Clarry Pennhaligan.

Clarry Pennhaligan is not in the least bit brave.  Her natural inclination when encountering danger is to run away.  Run far, far away.  Because Clarry is certainly not perfect.  She's flawed, as we all are.  I don't know any woman that's perfect and honestly, I am not sure I'd want to.

And so when writing a chick-lit thriller, I saw no reason why the heroine couldn't be imperfect, complicated and therefore, real.  I hope that my readers will like her and relate to her because of this.

Allow me to introduce you to Clarry.  She is bright, funny, attractive and a generously proportioned size 14.  And thus far in life she hasn't had to take anything too seriously.  Well all that's about to change.

At first she sets shakily off on the path to becoming an amateur detective, it's all fun, exciting and new.  She has no idea of the adventures about to befall her and of the sinister turn her investigations will take.  And up until now she'd always secretly known herself to be a bit of a quitter.  Something she wasn't proud of.  But this time, drawing strength from within and supported by the people around her, she finds the courage to persevere, follow her curiosity, trust her instincts and get the job done.

Whilst The Love Detective settles happily into the chick-lit genre it is also a thriller with a dark side.  Clarry comes face to face with some very real issues that most of us never have to.  But there are plenty of laughs along the way.  And as for romance?  Well let's just say, men are very much Clarry's thing ...

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The Love Detective will be released on 28th September 2018, it will be available in paperback and on kindle and is available from Amazon here.
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I really enjoyed this book, I loved that Clarry is real and imperfect like the rest of us and that therefore we can relate to her.  At the end of the book there is a preview of the next installment in the series - The Love Detective: Next Level - due for release in 2019.

Love from
Michelle xx

Angela also writes an excellent blog - take a look here.


​Disclaimer: I was sent a copy of this book to read and review, all the opinions are entirely my own.  This post contains affiliate links.

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