Book Review: THE ASSISTANT by S.K. Tremayne

ABOUT THE BOOK

THE ASSISTANT
by 
S.K. Tremayne

She’s in your house. She controls your life. Now she’s going to destroy it.

A terrifying and timely new psychological thriller, from the No. 1 Sunday Times bestselling author of The Ice Twins.

She watches you constantly.
Newly divorced Jo is delighted to move into her best friend’s spare room almost rent-free. The high-tech luxury Camden flat is managed by a meticulous Home Assistant, called Electra, that takes care of the heating, the lights – and sometimes Jo even turns to her for company.

She knows all your secrets.
Until, late one night, Electra says one sentence that rips Jo’s fragile world in two: ‘I know what you did.’ And Jo is horrified. Because in her past she did do something terrible. Something unforgivable.

Now she wants to destroy you.
Only two other people in the whole world know Jo’s secret. And they would never tell anyone. Would they? As a fierce winter brings London to a standstill, Jo begins to understand that the Assistant on the shelf doesn’t just want to control Jo; it wants to destroy her.

MY THOUGHTS

I have a healthy scepticism when it comes to ‘smart’ technology . While those around me are espousing how great it is, I’m the one standing off to the side looking on in horror as society seems to be giving up any concept of privacy in their life.

Then I do things like read THE ASSISTANT by SK Tremayne, and think that here are plenty of reasons why technology should be barred from the home. It’s one of my worst nightmares come true!

Tremayne does an excellent job in portraying how invidious a tool technology becomes when placed in the hands of someone wanting to do you harm. In this case, it’s Jo Ferguson.  She’s a 30-something Londoner who is struggling to find a solid foundation in her life. Employment is sporadic and not always well-paid, she’s divorced and alone while those around her all seem to be coupling up and becoming upwardly mobile. And if not for the generosity of her friend Tabitha, who rents Jo a room in her ultra-expensive and very high-tech apartment at a rock-bottom price, she’d likely be homeless.

And yet, what good is this luxury and technology when out of nowhere, the personal assistant devices in your home start to spill your secrets? Who is behind it? How is it being done? How do the devices know Jo’s secrets? During the bitter cold of a dark and gloomy London winter, Jo finds herself more and more isolated and desperate as she tries to decipher who is playing this awful trick on her. Is it a trick? Or has technology made that leap and created the type of artificial intelligence that can bring a person to the very brink?

I did enjoy this book but admittedly, there were a couple of times I was ready to put it down. It is slow to get started, and even at the halfway mark, the plot has not moved with much momentum. What doesn’t help is the author’s literary aspirations for this book as he weaves Sylvia Plath and some relatively obscure historical facts into the story. I felt this was redundant and it took focus away from the book.  The second half of the book moves at a much faster rate that I enjoyed a lot more.

This author is new to me and I certainly liked this book enough to want to explore more of this author’s works. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Hello. I am S K Tremayne, but my true name is Sean Thomas.

I write books where real places becoming menacing, and where ordinary people experience something extraordinary.

Born in Devon, I now live in London, but I travel a lot in my second job as a journalist, sometimes visiting places which inspire the books. My first S K Tremayne thriller, THE ICE TWINS, was a number one Sunday Times bestseller. The S K Tremayne novels have been translated into thirty languages, and have been bestsellers around the globe. Thankyou, globe.

https://sktremayne.com/