Someone is dying. Everyone is lying.

Glamorous Cara De Rosa has it all: a highly successful chain of family-run Italian restaurants throughout London, friends aplenty and an imminent marriage to a much younger man.

But someone wants Cara dead.

Cara, fearing for her life, confides in her beloved Sienna De Rosa. Sienna, a troubled single parent, is exasperated with the police for failing to find the culprit of her husband’s death five years earlier. Her distrust in the justice system leads her to delve into Cara’s chilling allegation.

It’s a race against time to save Cara’s life. But Sienna gets far more than she bargained for, as the more she delves into Cara’s affairs, searching for the truth, the more she discovers the De Rosa family is riddled with dark secrets, lies and deceit.

But who would want to see the end of the popular family matriarch Cara De Rosa?

Reading Search No Further over the Christmas period seemed like the perfect plan. I had long lazy days to sit and enjoy a great novel… except this grabbed me on page one and I just didn’t want to put it down.

I do like a plot that envelops you in family life, so much so, that you feel you are a part of the clan. Chapter one opens with an intricate description of a birthday party in a family-run Italian restaurant. Apart from salivating at the fabulous food description, you’re immediately caught up in the intricacies of the De Rosa family life. Nonna dominates but it’s Sienna who takes on the narration and whose story we follow. It’s clear from the opening that something isn’t quite right with Nonna and when she collapses at the party it seems she really is not heeding the advice of her family to slow down but then we get to the first plot twist and off we go into the tangled web.

It’s hard to review the novel without spoiling the plot and this is definitely a plot that keeps you turning the pages. On one hand, you have perceptive insight into the challenges of family life, especially when your family all live and work together. On the other hand, there’s a sinister undercurrent that threatens to take Sienna’s beloved Nonna away from her forever and practically everyone is a suspect.

As a psychological suspense, it has all the elements that make it great. It is tense, dark, and yet frighteningly realistic. But there’s also Sienna’s backstory which is portrayed with real sensitivity and emotion that makes you respond to her character. This is effective storytelling. I genuinely wanted to know what was going to happen next and I cared about the characters. The dialogue is punchy and realistic and I found the relationship between Sienna and Nonna a positive example of female friendship as well as family relationships. And I binged it – along with the Christmas chocolates – it was wonderfully addictive!

After graduating as an alumna of the Faber Academy, I published my debut novel Leave Well Alone in August 2020, which became an Amazon bestseller. Readers who received a pre-release copy described it as ‘a gripping story with a killer twist’.

I draw my inspiration from many facets of everyday life and especially how challenging events impact us all in different ways. The human mind and how different people react to each other and interact in society fascinates me. Asking, ‘How can that have possibly happened?’ I immerse myself in developing threads, plotting and letting my creative energy help my characters evolve.

Reading or writing, I love nothing more than settling down with a good story. I enjoy most genres, and especially novels that are thought-provoking and beg the question – what would I have done in that situation?

I live on the Essex / Hertfordshire border with my husband, two of my three sons and my cocker spaniel, Max.

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