Book Review #The Adopted Daughter #J.J. Burgess #Inkubator Books Publishers #Psychological Thriller #Suspense

My Thoughts and Book Review 

Professor Richard Barnes retires from the Biology department of Bristol University as a stalwart member of staff at the university for fifteen years. Richard and his partner Alice decide to leave Bristol to sail off to the vibrant blue sea of the Mediterranean as their retirement plan. Alice had been Richard's lab assistant and they had worked together for twenty years and that's when they had met and got married. Shortly when they have a few days to leave for their trip Sally a young woman appears at their door claiming to be Richard's biological daughter leaving Alice in shock and tears. 

Even though bitterness, jealousy, and anger spark Alice, the whole story takes a turn in the later chapters. The situation gets suspenseful when Alice learns some darker secrets about Richard's plans and motive. Richard found Alice old, miserable, and boring therefore his plan was to get rid of her and take her inheritance money gifted by her mum, and leave for the Mediterranean with a young hot woman like Sally beside him.  He had devised a plan that Sally would pretend to be his daughter and they can run away in a boat.  Alice discovers this plan and more about him that he was an addicted gambler, murderer and was setting up things behind her back. Richard even took money from the University without keeping an account and Alice catches him red-handed for trying to exploit her.

I enjoyed the plot and the story thoroughly. Most of the time I have been empathizing with the situation Alice was in. Some sequences were repetitive. Various characters with action-packed chapters and unexpected twists make this book outstanding. What would it become of Richard and Alice's relationship?

Thanks to Netgalley and Inkubator Books Publishers for an advance copy for my honest review.

Book Description

She says she’s his daughter. But what does she really want?

Alice and Richard are happily married and about to achieve their lifelong dream – giving up their jobs to sail around the Mediterranean on their own boat.

But shortly before they are due to leave, a young woman, Sally, appears on their doorstep and says she is Richard’s daughter, given up for adoption by his former lover.

After he gets over the shock, Richard is welcoming to Sally, but Alice is unsettled. Discovering that Richard is a father is a painful reminder of her own desire for a family and her inability to conceive.

But is this what makes her wary of Sally, or is her intuition trying to warn her that something much darker is happening here?

When one suspicious incident follows another, Alice starts to dig into who Sally really is and why she has suddenly come into their lives. What she finds is something she could never have imagined in her wildest nightmares…

Pages: 277
Publisher: Inkubator 
Publication Date: August 6, 2023