Birthright
By Charles Lambert

Today I have a review of Birthright, an excellent psychological thriller book for fans of Ian McEwan, Rupert Thomson and Edward St Aubyn. Please find the blurb and my review below.

A sublime psychological thriller from Polari Prize-shortlisted Charles Lambert.

Sixteen-year-old Fiona inhabits a privileged world of English affluence, though her relationship with her widowed mother is strained. When she discovers an old newspaper clipping of a woman and her daughter – the little girl a mirror image of her own younger self – she becomes convinced she has a true family elsewhere. Four years later, with the help of charming fraudster Patrick, Fiona drops everything to seek out her doppelgänger in Italy.

Fiona arrives in Rome to find Maddy living hand to mouth with her alcoholic mother. Spooked by the appearance of this strange girl wearing her face and stalking her every move, Maddy wants nothing to do with her. Caught in a surreal push-and-pull, the two are both fascinated and repulsed by the oddly familiar other, each coveting a different life. But they aren’t the only ones trying to control their fate, and the two women will soon learn that people aren’t always what they seem – though blood may still prove thicker than water.Birthright is a dark, gripping literary thriller for fans of Ian McEwan, Rupert Thomson and Edward St Aubyn

Birthright is a curious and compelling psychological thriller that takes readers into the lives of Fiona, in England and Maddy, in Rome. It begins with Fiona coming across a photograph of someone who looks like her, but is not her. She finds herself wanting to know more. She drops everything in her life in England, learns Italian and goes off to Rome to find Maddy.

Maddy may resemble Fiona in appearance, but their lives couldn’t be more polarised. Fiona has a better life background than what Maddy does, for starters. There’s a tension that grows in the push-pull scenarios, which in turn also increases intrigue as to how they’ll play this surreal time in their lives. Both would like to think they’ll secure their fates one way or another themselves, but there are other forces at play. There is also the suddenly, strong desire from Fiona, to find Maddy’s mother. It all borders onto obsession. As things deepen, the darker and more intriguing the book becomes as it shows what obsession and birthright can do and what hold it can have.

It is a gripping literary/psychological thriller that I highly recommend.

Thanks to Jaime at Ink Editorial for inviting me to review and for a copy of Birthright, in exchange of an honest review.