Book Review #AllOfUsAreBroken by @FionaAnnCummins @panmacmillan

I first published this in March but I’m resharing it now as it’s publication day for Fiona Cummins. A huge thank you to Pan Macmillan and NetGalley for an early review of All Of Us Are Broken by Fiona Cummins. Before I give you my thoughts, here’s the blurb.

The Blurb

It’s been a long time since the Hardwicke family has been on holiday. But thirteen-year-old Galen has wanted to see the wild dolphins at Scotland’s Chanonry Point for as long as she can remember, and her mother Christine – a lone parent since her beloved husband left – is determined she gets her wish. But their serene trip is about to be interrupted.

When DC Saul Anguish is called to investigate the shooting of an ex-police officer in Midtown-on-Sea, Essex, he quickly discovers that this is the first in a string of killings by Missy and Fox, a damaged young couple hell-bent on infamy, their love story etched in blood. In pursuit, Saul follows their trail north.

The paths of the Hardwickes’ and the deadly couple are about to collide. When Saul and his forensic linguist partner, Blue, arrive on the scene, they witness the unthinkable: a mother forced to make an impossible choice.

Saul must uncover the truth about the couple. But can he find the strength to lay the ghosts of his past to rest before they break him?

My Review

I’m not sure where to begin. This isn’t going to be a long review as I don’t want to say any more about the plot. This really is a book you need to discover for yourself.

I’ve read all of Fiona Cummins’ books and they’re all brilliant. With All Of Us Are Broken though, it’s as if all the fine tuning that Fiona has done over the last several years with her books, has come into play in this story. There are still the trademark unusual names (Galen), the time stamps, and brave children who face and endure trauma. But the emotional thread is stronger than I’ve seen it before in her novels. Grief and melancholy wrap themselves around you as you read, the pain ragged and raw. There were some things in there which meant so much to me, that Fiona wouldn’t even know about. It’s a story that’s going to sit in my head for a long time, mulling it over and dealing with the emotions that surface. If you aren’t already broken before reading All Of Us Are Broken, you will be by the end. Stunning.

All Of Us Are Broken is out on the 20th July and you can order here.

The Author

Fiona Cummins is an award-winning former journalist and a graduate of the Faber Academy, where she now teaches her own Writing Crime course. She is the bestselling author of five crime thriller novels, all of which have received widespread critical acclaim from household names including Val McDermid, Lee Child, David Baldacci, Martina Cole and Ian Rankin. Three of her novels have been optioned for television.

Rattle, her debut, has been translated into several languages and Marcel Berlins wrote in The Times: ‘Amid the outpouring of crime novels, Rattle is up there with the best of them.’ Fiona was selected for McDermid’s prestigious New Blood panel at the 2017 Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival, where her novel was nominated for a Dead Good Reader Award for Most Exceptional Debut. A sequel, The Collector, was published in February 2018 and David Baldacci described it as ‘A crime novel of the very first order’.

Her third novel – standalone thriller The Neighbour – was published in April 2019. Ian Rankin called it ‘creepy as hell’. Her fourth novel When I Was Ten, an Irish Times bestseller, was published in April 2021. Into The Dark, Fiona’s fifth novel, was published in April 2022 and was described by Sarah Vaughan, author of Netflix smash-hit Anatomy of A Scandal, as ‘Complex. Inventive. Twisty. Unsettling.’ The Daily Mail said it was ‘breathtakingly good’. Her sixth novel, All Of Us Are Broken, will be published in July 2023.

When Fiona is not writing, she can be found on Twitter, eating biscuits or walking her dogs. She lives in Essex with her family.