Skin Deep by Liz Nugent @lizzienugent @PenguinRandomIE #mustread #20BooksofSummer

Author : Liz Nugent
Title : Skin Deep
Pages : 372
Publisher : Penguin Ireland
Publication date : April 5, 2018

Cordelia Russell has been living on the Côte d’Azur for ten years, posing as a posh English woman fallen on hard times. But her luck is running out. Desperate to escape her grotty flat and grim reality, Cordelia spends a night at a glittering party. Surrounded by the young, beautiful and privileged she feels her age and her poverty. As dawn breaks she stumbles home through the back streets. Even before she opens her door she can hear the flies buzzing. It hasn’t taken long for the corpse in her bedroom to commence decomposing …

Goodness gracious me! Wow! Double wow!

After having read and enjoyed Liz Nugent’s previous two novels, ‘Unraveling Oliver‘ and ‘Lying in Wait‘, I was immensely looking forward to getting my hands on ‘Skin Deep‘ and boy, was it worth the anticipation and the wait.

From a tiny island off the coast of Ireland to the glamorous Côte d’Azur, this novel oozes atmosphere. Cordelia Russel has been living in the Mediterranean area for the past decade, pretending to be someone she’s not.

I could probably have been an actress. It is not difficult to pretend to be somebody else. Isn’t that what I’ve been doing for most of my life?

Upon returning to her hotel room one morning, she can hear the flies buzzing as soon as she opens the door. There’s a corpse in her room but who is it? Who killed them and why? To find out, we go way back to Cordelia’s childhood in Ireland. A childhood of poverty and hardship and one that will shape her life.

Cordelia may just quite possibly be one of the most unlikeable characters ever and while that sometimes puts me off, in this case it most certainly did not. From time to time, I felt some pangs of sympathy for her which made me feel almost uncomfortable as I thought this self-centred narcissist didn’t deserve that emotion from me at all. She’s insanely manipulative, always wants more and doesn’t think twice about whatever means it takes to get what she thinks she deserves.

Liz Nugent is an absolutely phenomenal storyteller. With exquisite writing, ‘Skin Deep’ is utterly captivating, absorbing and riveting. It’s dark, disturbing, massively chilling with a cruel and jaw-dropping, yet quite satisfying conclusion. A truly memorable character-driven novel.

What can I say? I was completely enthralled. This is the third book I’ve read by Liz Nugent and I’m most definitely a fan and I dare say this is her best novel yet. I can’t wait for her next one!

Skin Deep is available to buy!