Reputation by Sarah Vaughan @svaughanauthor @simonschusteruk @randomttours #blogtour #bookreview #reputation

For my second post on this chilly Wednesday, I’m thrilled to be welcoming the blog tour for Sarah Vaughan’s Reputation to A Knight’s Reads.

Massive thanks to the fabulous Anne Cater of Random Things Tours for inviting me on the blog tour and to Simon & Schuster UK for my e-copy of Reputation which I received through Netgalley.

The Blurb

Reputation: it takes a lifetime to build and just one moment to destroy.

Emma Webster is a respectable MP.

Emma Webster is a devoted mother.

Emma Webster is innocent of the murder of a tabloid journalist.

Emma Webster is a liar.

#Reputation: The story you tell about yourself. And the lies others choose to believe…

What Did I Think?

I read Anatomy of A Scandal when it came out back in 2018 and thought it brilliant. Reputation is something else! It’s still got that underlying court case theme, that questionable situation where something isn’t quite right, that high profile individual at the centre of the controversy. But Reputation has that extra something, that extra bit of brilliance.

Emma Webster has got herself in a pickle, a political journalist is dead in her shared kitchen. He fell down the stairs… or so she says. What ensues is a extremely tense exploration of Emma’s relationships with those around her including the deceased and the events leading up to the fateful night not to mention the court case itself.

The story isn’t just from Emma’s perspective. No siree! I heard from Emma’s daughter, #poorpoorFlora she’s having a rough time of it and she’s craving her mum’s time which is difficult when Emma is 70+ miles away in Westminster. And then there is Caroline, former good friend but the woman who basically broke Emma’s marriage. And then there are the trolls and the WhatsApp chats inter dispersed between the narrative. These totally unPC and in some cases threatening messages are a sad but realistic example of people’s reactions to what they read in the press. Always a word of warning, don’t believe everything you read…

These different voices along with the intertwined times lines were building up a picture in my mind of what I think happened. But that final piece of my mental jigsaw was greyed out right until the end and oh my!!!

Reputation was one seriously addictive read. I devoured it in 24 hours, awake at all hours following the jumping back and forth from character to character trying to work out, did Emma do it? I had my own theory but was I right? I’m not telling !! I really need to go back and catch on Vaughan’s writing. I’ve Little Disasters sat on my kindle totally forgotten about in #MountTBR (apologies). If you like a tense thriller, I highly recommend giving Reputation a read – so so good!!!

Who Is Sarah Vaughan?

Brought up in Devon, Sarah Vaughan read English at Oxford and went on to become a journalist. After training at the Press Association, she spent eleven years at the Guardian as a news reporter, political correspondent and health correspondent, before leaving to freelance and write fiction. Anatomy of a Scandal, her third novel was an instant international bestseller and translated into 22 languages, long-listed for the Theakston Old Peculiar Crime Novel of the Year 2018 and short-listed for the Audible Sounds of Crime Award, GoodReads Jury’s Out award, French Elle’s Prix des Lectrices and Richard & Judy’s ‘Best of the Decade.’ Anatomy of a Scandal has been adapted for screen and will air on Netflix as a six-part series in Spring 2022. Little Disasters, her fourth novel, was selected as a Waterstones Thriller of the Month in 2021, has been sold to the US, France, Portugal, Sweden and Spain, and optioned for TV. Reputation is her fifth novel.