How Far We Fall by Jane Shemilt #Book #Review #NetGalley @MichaelJBooks @Janeshemilt

How Far We Fall by Jane Shemilt

Published 28th June 2018

Published by Penguin UK/Michael Joseph

384 pages

Book Description:

From the author of bestselling phenomenon Daughter comes a thrilling exploration of a marriage consumed by ambition and revenge . . .The perfect couple

Meeting Albie gave Beth a fresh start - a chance to leave her past behind. Now she has her new husband; an ambitious, talented young neurosurgeon.

The perfect marriage

Their marriage gives Beth the safe haven she's always wanted - with just one catch. Albie has no idea of the secrets she's keeping. He doesn't know that years ago, Beth had an affair with Ted, the boss helping Albie's star ascend. Nor that the affair's devastating ending will have consequences for their own future.

The perfect storm

So when Ted's generous patronage begins to sour, Beth senses everything she's built could crumble. And she sees an opportunity. To satisfy Albie's ambitions, and her own obsessive desire for revenge . . .

She'll keep her marriage and her secret safe.

But how far will the fall take them?

My Review:

Beth is a nurse in the operating theatre at the hospital where Ted Malcolm is the all powerful consultant neurosurgeon.  They have history, a painful, raw history which leads Beth to move departments to Trauma and Orthopaedic where she won't have to work in the same circles with him every day. Nobody at work knew about Beth and Ted's involvement only that "happily married family man Ted" had a girlfriend whose identity he managed to keep under lock and key.

Time moves on and Beth is at an awards evening for the hospital.  She sees Ted and manages to keep away from him for the majority of the evening.  She does however meet Baird 'Albie' McAlister, Ted's protégé and registrar.  It transpires that Albie made a rookie error in theatre and in order to keep him professionally safe, Ted took the rap with the hospital authorities meaning that Albie is forever in his debt. Ted has all but promised Albie that his consultancy will pass to him when he retires yet once he realises who Albie's new partner is things start to change in Albie's promising career path.  The reader realises what is going on, however neither Beth nor Ted disclose the relationship to Albie so he is left in the dark as to why his star is not shining so brightly and why things feel like they are going in the wrong direction.

Ted's son Ed is in the loop, and his friend and journalist Jake senses something is awry between Beth and Ted and is desperate to find out the facts.  All the characters are extremely flawed whether it be through ambition or for their own personal gain.  None are particularly likeable, with only the occasional glimmer of hope that perhaps the medical profession are doing good for their patients.  But at what cost?


The first half of this book is quite a slow burner, but once pennies start to drop regarding the relationships between the different characters and their possible intentions the pace starts to ramp up.  The main vibe running through the whole of this book is revenge.  The triangle between Beth, Ted and Albie gets more and more nasty and gets to the point where things can only go one way.  Who is pulling the strings though? Is Albie's mental state so messed up that he makes the decision to sort things himself, or is Beth's influence and her need for revenge so strong that he just acts on her advice? Is Ted deliberately trying to rock the boat?  I'm still not sure even now which of the three is more desperate. 

This is one of those books that I can't say that I enjoyed purely because the characters are so horrible.  The writing is very good, perhaps the pace of the book could have been a little quicker to get to the explosive part but on reflection this is really rather clever as it proves that time only makes some things fester and get really rotten if left to their own devices. About The Author: Jane is a general practitioner who completed a post graduate diploma in Creative Writing at Bristol university and went on to study for a M.A in Creative writing at Bath Spa. She was shortlisted for the Janklow and Nesbitt award and the Lucy Cavendish fiction prize for Daughter, her first novel.

She and her husband, a Professor of Neurosurgery, have 5 children and live in Bristol, England. _{^{Social Media Link: Twitter: @Janeshemilt}}