The Judas Tree
Mary Webster’s reaction to her lover’s betrayal is off the chart…
Mary seems like an ordinary 46-year-old divorcee, beginning a new life in rural England, but she has depths of pent-up pain, the result of 20 years of marital infidelities and abuse. All she needs is a trigger to unleash savage emotions.
When she becomes entangled with Jonas, a married man, Mary suddenly finds herself in the opposite role of the ‘other woman’. Jonas has a nasty streak, however, and taunts with the nursery rhyme ‘Mary, Mary quite contrary…’ .
But when Mary uncovers Jonas’s web of seductive lies, betraying not only herself but his wife and several young village women, she plots her revenge and acts out the real meaning of the nursery rhyme…
As things go from bad to worse, Mary is driven over the edge of normality. Because Mary is not normal ... she is damaged. Her only redeeming quality is her belief that she is acting for the greater good …
Susan Bacoyanis’s intriguing psychological thriller The Judas Tree is a chilling tale of multiple acts of betrayal and the consequences of greed. It has deep echoes of Penelope Mortimer’s angry woman classic of the Sixties, The Pumpkin Eater.
(I love to note the first lines of the books I'm reading. First lines can really grab a reader's attention and I love seeing where the author takes the reader after their first line.)
First line—"Why do people lie? To gain attention? To elevate their status, or reinvent themselves? Is it perhaps the need to control? To instill fear, exercise power or cultivate friendship and love?"
This is a story full of lies and deceit. Mary seems like a nice person, a friendly neighbor, someone you might want to get to know. But be careful of Mary! She is a liar and will twist things around to her liking so she gets what she wants.
I got sucked into her world and watched unbelievingly as she manipulated everyone she came in contact with. This was definitely a page-turner as I couldn't wait to see what Mary was going to do next. What a twisted, scary person, and story—and I loved every minute of it!
I received a copy of The Judas Tree in exchange for my honest review.
About the author
She has also raised three daughters as a single mother. Her first novel, There Are No Accidents, was published in 2014, and further books in the Linked Series are planned.
Endeavour Media
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