Reviewed on Oct 27, 2023

Must read 🏆

The twists in Gails accounting of what happened in the house shocked me. I had to rethink the timeline.

Amanda Reynolds wrote “The Assistant” a crime fiction that kept me guessing. I hung onto every word like I was listening to juicy gossip from a friend. The twists in the end were a surprise.

This is a modern-day story. The setting is at the ritzy home of Ris and Miles Fox who live at 56 Lexington Gardens, Belgravia, London, England. A soap opera life of the rich and famous.

Amanda wrote the story in colloquial style as her character Ax, a true crime writer, was interviewing Gail. Gail knew Ax was a writer, so she set next to Ax on the train on purpose. Ax thought she and Gail met my coincidence. All of Gail’s ramblings ended up being a significant testimony as to what happened. Gail wanted to tell her side of the story, a sort of confession, to someone who would listen and not judge her. At first Ax didn’t take Gail seriously. She thought Gail was a bit eccentric but kept listening.

Gail explains how she landed a job as Ris’ assistant. A job she made up and Ris fell for. She manipulated her way into Ris’ life. Gail lived in the basement of the Fox’s home watching every move Ris made. Gail did her homework about Ris’ life before they met.

Gail was working for Ris under an assumed name. She suspected Ris was lying about her life and Gail wanted to protect Ris’ husband, Miles. Gail gained Ris’ trust. Gail almost lost her job after she pulled some antics when Ris went to Paris for the weekend that were quite hilarious, like sleeping in her bed and drinking her champagne, that Ris had no sense of humor about. Ris came home a day early and caught Gail. After making amends Gail worked hard to help Ris launch her book.

Ris took in a 19-year-old pregnant girl named Mia because Ris wanted Mia’s baby. Ris’ plan was to have Miles payoff Mia. Ris’ plans to take Mia’s baby backfired and Gail’s plans to protect Miles backfired. Ris wanted to have a baby and would go to any length to have one. Ris was her own worst enemy who was also leading a double life.

Gail and Ris had their own greedy reasons for wanting Miles. It was Gail’s plan to “topple” Ris. I thought Gail was after Ris, but it turns out she was after something else. Gail was obsessed with Miles. Ris was obsessed about having a baby.

The twists in Gails accounting of what happened in the house shocked me. I had to rethink the timeline. There was more than one twist in the conclusion.

I was rooting for Gail and Miles all the way up to the end.

The strong points are Ax’s ability to hang in there with Gail’s account of what happened, the writer’s ability to keep feeding the reader with enough information with each interview to compel the reader to keep reading.

There are a couple of violence scenes.

Reviewed by

I am an author, an advocate, and former foster parent. I adopted my granddaughter, and we wrote a book together called Carly Shares Her Story. We used the pen names Eve Collins and Morgan Carew. The book is about her experience as a foster child. I worked with inmates for 20+ yrs and now I'm retired