Why a Booktrail?
2018 with flashbacks to 2001: From the Balkans to England, Iraq to Manhattan, and finally to an ordinary family home in Kansas…
Beautiful Bad
What you need to know before your trail
Maddie and Ian’s romance began when he was serving in the British Army and she was a travel writer visiting her best friend Jo in Europe. Now sixteen years later, married with a beautiful son, Charlie, they are living the perfect suburban life in Middle America.
But when an accident leaves Maddie badly scarred, she begins attending therapy, where she gradually reveals her fears about Ian’s PTSD; her concerns for the safety of their young son Charlie; and the couple’s tangled and tumultuous past with Jo.
From the Balkans to England, Iraq to Manhattan, and finally to an ordinary family home in Kansas, the years of love and fear, adventure and suspicion culminate in The Day of the Killing, when a frantic 911 call summons the police to the scene of shocking crime.
But what in this beautiful home has gone so terribly bad?
Locations
Reset- America/ USA - KA/MI
- A: Kansas City
- B: Overland Park
- America/USA - NY
- H: West 4th Street
- I: 8th Ave
Travel Guide
BookTrail Travel to Kansas
The story starts in Kansas, in normally and unassuming Meadowlark. That’s important – the fact that this place is small and not known by many people outside of the immediate area. It’s normal and safe and only happy, normally families live here right?
That’s where you’re wrong as the opening of the novel describes a killing, a murder, such a horrific event, that the entire novel will then build to revealing how this scene came to be.
“Meadowlark was a small town an hour and a half south of Kansas City. The emergency call center was located in a claustrophobic back room of the single-storey, all brick police station which ressembled a rest stop.”
BookTrail Travel to Macedonia and Bulgaria
Skopje – Where Jo lives and where Ian and Maddie meet. The story takes place here and in the country of Bulgaria (Sofia)
As Maddie herself says:
“Back then I lived in a part of the world that most tour guides didn’t bother to mention. If they did, they used words like, ‘war-ravaged. Impoverished. Lawless.’ All three of those adjectives would have held quite a bit of appeal to me. I found it thrilling to live in, as it was sometimes called, “The darkest, most forgotten corner of Europe.’
These places where the characters spend most of their time are a clear example of the expat lives people live. They meet up and mix largely with other expats at Irish bars and places where they can remember a little bit of home. It’s a safety net when you’re abroad in a country and culture so strange. The characters often talk of not fitting in and of feeling like outsiders.
The novel also looks into the transient and difficult life someone would have who works and travels to Iraq but this latter place is only briefly mentioned. (The Kirkuk military base)
Booktrailer Review
Susan: @thebooktrailer
This thriller is not out until March 2019 but get this on your lists now people as it’s brilliant. I started this with one idea of how things were going to turn out and ended up with quite another. It’s a cliche to speak of a book taking you on a roller coaster ride, but this one did. I needed a seatbelt! Had to finish reading it in the car so I could feel safe as the killer ending came zooming towards me…
Gripping, fast-paced and twisty.
Full review here: https://www.thebooktrail.com/book-set-in-the-balkans-beautiful-bad-annie-ward/
BookTrail Boarding Pass: Beautiful Bad
Destination: BAlkans, Skopje, Belgrade, Kansas, New York Author/guide: Annie Ward Departure Time; 2018, 2001
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