Book Review #23 The tutor by Daniel Hurst

The Tutor by Daniel Hurst

About the book

What if you invited danger into your home?

Amy is a loving wife and mother, to her husband Nick, and her two children, Michael and Bella. It's that dedication to her family that causes her to seek help for her teenage son when it becomes apparent that he is going to fail his end of school exams.

Enlisting the help of a professional tutor, Amy is certain that she is doing the best thing for her child. But when she discovers that there is more to this tutor than meets the eye, it is already too late.

With the rest of her family enamoured by the tutor, Amy is the only one who can see that there is something not quite right about her. But as the tutor becomes more involved in Amy's family, it's not just the present that is threatened. Secrets from the past are exposed too, and by the time everything is out in the open, Amy isn't just worried about her son and his exams anymore. She is worried for the survival of her entire family.

This will be one lesson they will never forget.

My take

Amy and Nick are married for eighteen years and have two children, Michael and Bella. Worried that Michael is going to flunk his GCSE exams, Amy and Nick decide to hire a tutor for him.

Soon the gorgeous Swedish beauty, Petra, begins tutoring Michael.

However, Petra is obviously not what she seems to be. There is more to her, and she has hidden agenda's of her own. 

Slowly it starts becoming clear that each one is hiding a secret. And gradually these secrets start spilling. Amy begins to realise that the life she has carefully crafted for her family is on the brink of unravelling.

The story flits between the present and the past, a past where the school Amy and Nick studied in burnt down to ashes, destroying lives of those who were involved in the incident.

The story is also narrated from alternating POV's of Amy, Nick, Michael and Petra, and that makes it an interesting read.

Halfway through the story though, I knew what was coming. And yet the ending seemed unrealistic. Why the perpetrators do what they do seems too flimsy and unbelievable, and doesn't explain most of the things that happen in the story.

The writing is good, the writing style is impressive, the theme was also good to begin with but the end seems a let down.

I have read 'The passenger' by this author, and I actually love his style of writing and his imagination.

The cover page though designed nicely doesn't really portray the theme of the book.

So overall, an okay read. I rate it three stars.