A Double Life by Charlotte Philby

What an unbelievable book, I’m absolutely flabbergasted by the ending… it’s a cliffhanger, so I hope Philby is already working on a sequel because I  NEED to know what happens next.

As the title implies, one of the main characters is leading a double life, but what I thought were the reasons behind this title, turned out to be wrong… Gabriela was an even more interesting character than I first assumed.

Alongside Gabriela, there is another key female main character – Isobel, who works as a journalist for a local newspaper in Camden. You can sense from early on that Isobel has huge potential and that natural instinct to find the latest scoop but something is holding her back…

How are these two characters connected?

They both live in London so surely their paths will cross, perhaps it’s to do with Gabriela’s work at the FCO on the counter-terrorism unit…

Gabriela’s work is her passion, it radiates off the pages how much she loves it but with a partner and two young children how will she be able to keep up this juggling act of her family and her multiple long trips abroad? She’s very lucky to have an incredibly supportive partner – Tom, who is willing to sacrifice his career and is unbelievably supportive of her’s as she climbs up the ladder… he comes across so lovely and yet she takes him for granted.

Once Philby has built up the background, the plot evolves rapidly and in ways I hadn’t envisioned. It really is a sensational story packed full of twists and written in such a masterful way that Philby deserves a round of applause for it.

I flew through these pages in just a day due to the pacy writing style and the ‘passing of the baton’ between Gabriella and Isobel for who had the narrative on a chapter. But as well as all this, there was also an energy that flowed throughout the story, urging you to continue to read and filling you with adrenaline and curiosity.

Philby is a very talented writer, and I’m eager to read her next!

A Double Life is out now in hardback and eBook from The Borough Press.

Until next time, Chloé x

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