The One You Love (Emma Holden suspense mystery trilogy) Paperback – July 22, 2014

I'm giving an extra star because this was one of the only free kindle books I've tried so far that was grammatically correct and had been proofread and properly formatted. Spoiler alert for what's below.I thought the basic story was good but I'd have liked to see it written by someone more skilled, like Martha Grimes, Elizabeth George or Peter Robinson. A lot of the dialog was rather stilted and as other reviewers noted, it was quite slow moving.Part of what made it seem slow to me was that three main characters were so weirdly drawn. Stuart and Emma apparently had a normal relationship in which she had no fault to find with him for several years and one gathers that her family liked him well enough. Suddenly he becomes a murderer - - over something not worth murdering for and with no insight as to what caused this sudden reversal of personality. He then wandered down a criminal road with varied m.o.'s from blackmail to stalking; none of which had apparently been any aspect of his character previously. And I found it unusual that one person would suddenly not only become a criminal but try out so many different crimes. [I also couldn't swallow the bizarre info that the original victim's death had been declared a suicide even though he was stabbed in one place by falling on a blade and then dumped in the river. You don't have to have seen many cop shows featuring forensics or a practiced homicide team to know that the medical examiner and some of the police on sight would have known that wasn't a suicide and if they didn't figure it out then, unless the ME was completely incompetent and possibly drunk at the time of the autopsy he'd have known it was a murder.]Then there's her brother Will who inexplicably assisted Stuart in the original crime. We're given no reason that explains why he would capitulate to Stuart's request for assistance in the body dump rather than calling the police. Unless Stuart kept a gun on him it doesn't make sense; and if there was coercion it still doesn't make sense that he wouldn't have gone to the police to report that he was kidnapped and forced to participate in concealing a murder as soon as he got away from Stuart.Finally, Will and Emma's father the life-long accountant who's suddenly wielding guns and cold-bloodedly plotting to kill people. I found that thoroughly unbelievable. Nor did I buy that he wouldn't have advised Will to go straight to the police to turn Stuart in. There were also lots of allusions to a troubled past between him and his children but not really enough info or insight for it to be interesting.There were also too many sections centering on the thoughts of an unnamed person but not always the same one -- the device only works for me if there's only one person and I can be clear that that's always who it is in those sections. I wound up a little baffled by its use here although in the case of the original victim's mother it soon became clear that she was one of the unnamed povs.These books are listed as Emma Holden mysteries but I didn't find her participation as a sleuth very convincing.This was just good enough to finish -- considered at more than one point just giving up. Again, the basic story was good. I can imagine that someone like Elizabeth George, who likes to go deeply into the psyche of the characters, could have written these characters more believably and compellingly. I kind of liked Emma and Lizzie but mostly I found the characters not that engaging. In George's novels I'm taken so deeply into the lives of all those involved in the mystery that I'm sometimes even sorry for the murderer because of how well she's taken me into his/her life and mind. That just wasn't true for me here.

A woman gets some harrowing news while at her bachelorette part: her fiancé has disappeared from their apartment. No one has him, and when the bride runs home she finds the victim of a crime there. Unfortunately her fiancé isn't the victim. What starts as a missing person case slowly turns spirals into a complicated web of details. Paul Pilkington offers dozens of cliffhangers in the well-written mystery The One You Love.The book opens in London at Emma Holden's "hen" party. Emma, an aspiring actress, follows her friends to a pub just weeks before her wedding and days before a crucial audition. But just as the party starts to get underway, Emma's brother, Will calls and asks where her fiancé, Dan has gone. Will and Dan had plans with several other friends for a boys' night out, but no one has seen Dan or heard from him. Emma alerts her best friend and former roommate, Lizzy, to the situation, and Lizzy and Emma go back to Emma and Dan's apartment building to try to figure out what happened.The girls meet Will outside the building, and when the three friends make their way upstairs they make a grisly discovery: Dan's brother, Richard, is lying in the bathroom, close to death, in a pool of his own blood. Emma and Will contact the police about Richard and Dan. Soon the police start focusing their search on Dan: as a suspect in Richard's attempted murder. Emma's deep faith in Dan refuses to allow the possibility of his culpability, but as time goes on Dan doesn't show up. When Emma begins to get messages from Dan talking about breaking off their nuptials, Emma feels shocked--but something somehow doesn't add up. As she and Lizzy slowly work through the mystery, people and situations from Emma's past begin making appearances and Emma starts to wonder if something from that time period has caused Dan's mysterious circumstances.Author Paul Pilkington has woven a tale full of suspense and a tight plot. Almost every chapter ends with a cliffhanger, but Pilkington doesn't waste time in answering the obvious questions in the subsequent chapter will building another layer on the mystery and then ending with another cliffhanger. Many writers have tried and failed at this technique; Pilkington accomplishes it with panache and will keep readers guessing until the end about what has happened to Dan and whether he's responsible for the attack on Richard.In December 2012 Pilkington published a sequel to The One You Love called The One You Fear, which picks up four weeks after the end of the first book. The One You Love offers readers a complete novel with a satisfying ending, however, and fans of the first book may not feel compelled to pick up the sequel, a novella. For a good old-fashioned mystery I highly recommend The One You Love and look forward to new books by Pilkington in the future.

In this psychological thriller ‘The One You Love’ the main protagonist Emma Holden has been jilted twice just before any wedding. On the second occasion the brother of her fiancée has been battered and left in a coma, and the police suspect the fiancée, but Emma, a small-time actress cannot believe this. She is stalked by fans and the basis of the plot is how she is helped and hindered by family, friends and colleagues.The strength of the story is how with short chapters and a series of cliff-hanger situations author Paul Pilkington keeps the attention of readers through all sorts of twists and turns and yet makes it plausible. Such an approach deserves a 5-star rating, but this is undermined by characters lacking credibility. Unfortunately it loses a star as there are just too many secrets and too much illogical behaviour by Emma – hey – it’s fiction.Even so this behaviour of characters aspect leads to a frustrating and jumbled conclusion – probably due to ‘The One You Love’ being the first book of a trilogy. The true test is whether I would continue to read on – and the answer is yes. This book is gripping and compelling with a variety of plausible plots to follow – and I am about to order ‘The One You Fear’.

This was the first book I have read by Paul Pilkington and the book was full of suspense and cliff hangars which are picked up later in the book. However, there felt as if there were to many strands, which made it feel unreal. I felt that there was so much drama going on I didn’t get to know the real characters. That being said I did finish the book quickly, which could be said is a measure of an enjoyable read. It just didn’t leave me wanting to read more. But if you like a book full of drama where you are wondering whodunnit then this could be one for you.

Your fiancé vanishes on the stag night. No, his mates haven't got him drunk and sent him to Inverness naked. He vanished before they even had the first pint.Then it starts to look as if fiancé has murdered brother and done a runner. Of course the woman at the centre of the story doesn't believe this.There are constant irritating references to a mysterious "him" who keeps appearing and behaving in a suspicious way- but despite this, no one thinks to mention "him" to the cops. And it turns out that... but no, that might spoil it for you.Lots of dialogue, little or no narrative and exposition. All well and good I suppose. But I would prefer something that tells me what is going on. Dialogue is fine in its place but it isn't a radio play, it's a book.I got about 20% of the way through and went off to read something more interesting

I was intrigued to see the number of 5 star reviews the book got. Actually, I was quite pleased to see the number of 5 star reviews the book got, because maybe if there are 895 reviewers out there who give 5 star reviews, there's hope for all ebook writers to get good reviews.In the unlikely event anyone ever gets to this review, with nearly 2000 to choose from (from GREAT to RUBBISH), the book gets a solid 3 stars from me. However, when I started reading through the preview of the next, I rebelled. NO. The thing that annoyed me most about this one, i.e. that lost it 2 stars, was the endless hints about what the brother knew, the father knew, Emma herself knew .. and the preview starts it all again! He decided he would never tell her. DON'T BLOODY TELL HER THEN, SEE IF I CARE. And I won't read another. I won't.The other thing, apart from the smug I-know-something-you-don't star loser, was being wound up and pointed at each character in turn. Suspect this one. No, suspect this one. No, suspect this one.That said - I stuck with it and I thought it was okay. Solid 3 stars. Hell, I even started to read the preview of the next, so obviously once the bloody secrets were cleared out the way it was okay. I was just gobsmacked to see how many reviewers thought it was wonderful.

Like many of you I bought this from the free kindle section and I have to say- what a gem!With the free kindle books there are not a lot based and written by a writer from Great Britain so there was that novelty which was quite nice. That novelty however wrote off quickly due to the plot and the well written text.I could not put this book down.The characters from the main leads to the secondary characters are all well written all appealing and all relate to and guide the ever twisting plot along. I didn't know what to expect, the ending shocked me but was believable, I never once full on hated a character. It's also great to see proper female characters that feel like human beings rather than a horrendous stereotype.The one thing that is damaging is the price of the author books- they're too cheap! There are authors on kindle whose writing and stories are- for lack of a better term- quite poor whose books cost from anywhere from £2.99-£7.99, while Paul Pilkington's works seems to be cheapened.It's not a bad thing that his books cost less than £2 but I want to support this author and I think the price doesn't do his books justice. I am still buying them all!Just read this! It's just one of the best and I hope he continues!