The Other Twin

By L V Hay

When Poppy’s sister falls to her death from a railway bridge, she begins her own investigation, with devastating results … A startlingly twisty debut thriller.

'Uncovering the truth propels her into a world of deception. An unsettling whirlwind of a novel with a startlingly dark core. 5 Stars' The Sun

‘Sharp, confident writing, as dark and twisty as the Brighton Lanes’ Peter James

‘Superb up-to-the-minute thriller. Prepare to be seriously disturbed’ Paul Finch

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When India falls to her death from a bridge over a railway, her sister Poppy returns home to Brighton for the first time in years. Unconvinced by official explanations, Poppy begins her own investigation into India’s death. But the deeper she digs, the closer she comes to uncovering deeply buried secrets.

Could Matthew Temple, the boyfriend she abandoned, be involved? And what of his powerful and wealthy parents, and his twin sister, Ana? Enter the mysterious and ethereal Jenny: the girl Poppy discovers after hacking into India’s laptop. What is exactly is she hiding, and what did India discover…?

A twisty, dark and sexy debut thriller set in the winding lanes and underbelly of Brighton, centring around the social media world, where resentments and accusations are played out, identities made and remade, and there is no such thing as the truth.

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‘Well written, engrossing and brilliantly unique, this is a fab debut’ Heat

‘With twists and turns in every corner, prepare to be surprised by this psychological mystery’ Closer

‘Lucy V Hay’s fiction debut is a twisted and chilling tale that takes place on the streets of Brighton … Like Peter James before her, Hay utilises the Brighton setting to create a claustrophobic and complex read that will have you questioning and guessing from start to finish. The Other Twin is a killer crime-thriller that you won’t be able to put down’ CultureFly

‘Crackles with tension’ Karen Dionne

‘A fresh and raw thrill-ride through Brighton´s underbelly. What an enjoyable read!’ Lilja Sigurðardóttir

‘Slick and compulsive’ Random Things through My Letterbox

‘A propulsive, inventive and purely addictive psychological thriller for the social media age’ Crime by the Book

‘Intense, pacy, psychological debut. The author’s background in scriptwriting shines through’ Mari Hannah

'The book merges form and content so seamlessly ... a remarkable debut from an author with a fresh, intriguing voice and a rare mastery of the art of storytelling' Joel Hames

‘This chilling, claustrophobic tale set in Brighton introduces an original, fresh new voice in crime fiction’ Cal Moriarty

‘The writing shines from every page of this twisted tale … debuts don’t come sharper than this’ Ruth Dugdall

‘Wrong-foots you in ALL the best ways’ Caz Frear

‘Original, daring and emotionally truthful’ Paul Burston

‘A cracker of a debut! I couldn’t put it down’ Paula Daly

• Language: English
• Publisher: ORENDA BOOKS
• Release date: May 3, 2017
• ISBN: 9781910633793

Reviews for The Other Twin

[nicx27 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Other Twin is one of those books that I kept seeing everywhere and everybody was raving about it. I couldn't wait to get my hands on a copy and I'm pleased to say that for the most part it totally lived up to expectations.Poppy is the main character. She returns to Brighton when her younger sister, India, throws herself in front of a train. From that moment we are slowly fed information about why Poppy left Brighton and why she stayed away so long. I liked how the story unfolded gradually as it really kept the tension alive.There are sections that are not about Poppy and they're very vague, for the obvious reason that it keeps the reader guessing. My one criticism about the book is that these sections felt quite disjointed and I felt they could have done with being more fully integrated into the story a bit earlier so that I could work out where they fitted in. But it's only a minor issue and one which in no way affected my reading of this intense and polished book.At only 250 pages this is a short read and yet it was a thriller that was crammed with twists and turns. Poppy wants to find out what really happened to India as she doesn't believe she would jump to her death. Poppy's old boyfriend, Matthew, is a big part of the story but how well does Poppy really know him? I veered between liking him and being suspicious of him - the author did a good job of keeping me guessing where he was concerned.The Other Twin is very current and very relevant to the social media age with blogs and Facebook playing their parts. Short chapters kept me racing through, thinking that I would read just another one and then another one and so on.I very much enjoyed this dark and unsettling psychological thriller. For a debut it's so accomplished and I just know that Hay is going to write some more brilliant thrillers in the future.

[pgchuis · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I received a copy of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley.Poppy's sister India is killed in a fall from a railway bridge and Poppy returns home for the first time in four years. She has not seen her sister in that time, but is convinced that India would not have committed suicide. Looking to a blog India wrote for clues, she seeks to find out the truth of what went on.Interspersed with the chapters from Poppy's perspective, there are chapters from a male perspective, which initially are completely incomprehensible; full of "she" and a different "her" and avoiding proper names in a confusing way. By the end, these made perfect sense, but I think you would have to go back and read them again to really appreciate them - for a long time I just found them bewildering.I would say this novel was notable for not having a single likeable character, with the possible exception of Jenny. India never came together as a character for me and Poppy was plain odd. SPOILERSHer decision to abandon Matthew when he got cancer seemed cold and insufficiently explained and who abandons all their possessions because they can't be bothered to go and clear out their flat?The ending was one which perfectly explained what had gone before, but was also extremely melodramatic. Maggie's unnerving power over her family members was almost supernatural. I don't understand why Ana was so powerless as an adult, and I was troubled that it seemed to Poppy a perfectly good plan of India's to try to wreck Ana's marriage (don't forget baby Ivy) simply to force Ana to go back home.It left a bad taste in my mouth.

[jayne_charles_1 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I cannot overstate how much I disliked this book. The set-up seemed interesting enough - narrator sets out to discover the real reason behind her sister’s apparent suicide. The trouble was, no attempt was made to humanise the narrator Poppy or her sister India. They remained as one-dimensional and uninteresting on the last page as they were on the first. The novel features a further array of interchangeable cardboard cutout characters who assume different personas depending on which red herring the author is waving in front of the reader at any given time. Dialogue is insufferable. Rather than trust the reader to infer anything from the characters’ words, every piece of speech is accompanied by a description of a grimace, a smile, a snarl, the flashing of eyes. It’s as though they are participating in a gurning contest. And for good measure there will often be an italicised interjection from Poppy explaining it all over again. As a reader I like having to join the dots myself, it’s part of a good reading experience. Being spoon-fed like this is tiresome.I guessed what would be behind the whole charade (not hard - think of the latest “ishoo” and you’ll be spot on), but the final who did what to who and why I skimmed, full of relief to be near the end. It was like being trapped in a room full of bitchy adolescents. References to social media don’t automatically make a great book,but then again, to quote Poppy, maybe I am just too old for this shit.

[atticusfinch1048 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The Other Twin – Simply Mind Blowing.I am not often short of words to sum up a book, but I think I cannot do this debut by LV Hay enough justice, The Other Twin is simply mind blowing! From the setting in Brighton Lucy Hay delivers a contemporary thriller, that is inventive, current, a book that can at the same time delight and disorientate the reader. If you are a fan of inventive, gripping psychological thriller then The Other Twin is the book you need to read.In two hundred and sixty pages, Hay delivers a story that packs a punch, that is disturbing while being packed full of tension. What the reader gets is a multi-layered story, fantastic characters, some wonderful twists, an English Channel full of emotions. This is a beautifully written story dealing with very current issues and shows the diversity and prejudices of many people and you do ask yourself, what would I do? This is a book that will keep you gripped from beginning to end.Poppy wakes up in her flat in London, D has left her a message, problem is she cannot remember who D is or was, when she looks at her phone she sees she has lot of missed phone calls from her mother. Ringing her mother back expecting to be told off for something, she hears news she never thought she would hear, her sister India is dead, committed suicide.Poppy in a daze heads home to Brighton to her mother’s house and Tim her step father is trying to hold everything together. Poppy cannot believe that her sister has committed suicide and tries to dig deeper and find the truth, whatever the truth maybe. At the same time as going home she must face up to her past, and Matthew whom she had left behind when she left Brighton, when he had cancer.As she digs deeper she seems to keep hitting a brick wall and she knows people are avoiding her or outright telling lies to her face. She keeps ending up with Matthew, either in his bar or in his apartment, she just cannot help herself. He mother has been committed to hospital as she has not taken the death of her daughter well. Tim, the family’s tower of strength seems to be holding it all together, somehow, but for how much longer she does not know.As the story dips and weaves its web, the reader is caught in the middle, not sure of who is the person orchestrating the stream of lies that is blocking the way for Poppy. Lucy Hay is like a magician and their use of illusion and sleight of hand, she has you looking in one direction when something comes from another direction and slaps you in the face.A Mind Blowing Debut Thriller that I cannot recommend highly enough.