What We Didn’t Say by Rory Dunlop

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What We Didn’t Say
What We Didn’t Say
Author: Rory Dunlop
ISBN-13: 978-1785770425
Publisher: Twenty7
Guideline Price: £7.99

Fifteen years into a happy marriage, therapist Jack Randall believes his wife Laura is suddenly cheating on him.

Although Laura claims her relationship with the artist, Zak Ford, is professional, jealousy and suspicion mount when Zak asks Laura to pose for a portrait on his bed.

Through the device of Jack's diary, with Laura's editorial amendments, Dunlop tells a darkly funny and sometimes outlandish tale of a marriage in crisis. By offering both parties' perspectives and a light touch on the subject of marital break-up, What We Didn't Say recalls the shifting points of view of novels like One Day by David Nicholls and Laura Barnett's recent debut The Versions of Us.

Dunlop also pays homage to the domestic noir genre. A psychotic model, a tabloid media out for blood and two unreliable narrators in Laura and Jack add a sense of menace that should appeal to fans of SJ Watson's Before I Go To Sleep.

Sarah Gilmartin

Sarah Gilmartin

Sarah Gilmartin is a contributor to The Irish Times focusing on books and the wider arts