Andrea Mara is without a doubt the queen of Irish psychological thrillers so it will be of no surprise that as soon as she announces a new book I immediately need to get my hands on a copy. Thankfully Kate from Penguin sent me an advanced copy of No One Saw A Thing a few weeks back so I got to devour it within a day. While I’m always eager to read one of Andrea’s books, there’s always a little bit of me that’s nervous in case it’s not as good as the last one. Yet, somehow each & every time she manages to keep me gripped & sacrificing hours of sleep to get to that inevitable aha moment at the end of the book.

No One Saw A Thing is no exception to that rule. With a startling opening hook, nerve wracking cliff-hanger chapter endings, multiple POVs & timelines, possible unreliable narrators & immaculate pacing, NOSAT is the definition of the perfect psychological thriller. Andrea has an incredible talent of writing characters that as a reader you immediately connect with, they may often be flawed but there’s a human realness to them that makes you stay rooting from them in the corner & NOSAT has plenty of those characters. Often with a book with so many characters sometimes you don’t get enough of a feel for everyone but in NOSAT Andrea weaves such an enmeshed tangle of shared history that you’re itching to know what happens to every single person.
Andrea always manages to convey the emotions of her characters & sense of the surroundings perfectly throughout the pages. While I was reading I could genuinely feel that hot clawing atmosphere of a busy underground tunnel, my chest tightening with tension & that overwhelming panic of the worst scenarios overtake my thought processes.

It might be a bit of a cliché but NOSAT is the epitome of a whiplash-inducing rollercoaster read. There are so many questionable moments, as many red herrings as in the English Market & in true Mara style, those infuriating parts where you think you’ve it all figured out & then she rips the rug right out from under your smug feet!

Another enthralling psychological thriller from Andrea which will have you nervously yet compulsively turning the pages simultaneously wondering…if only.