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  • Published: 16 July 2024
  • ISBN: 9780241993576
  • Imprint: Penguin General UK
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 384
  • RRP: $26.00

Strange Sally Diamond

Crime Novel of the Year, Irish Book Awards 2023




‘I’m lost in admiration. Strange Sally Diamond is vivid, pacy, taut but so very moving . . . defies categorisation’ Marian Keyes

Sally Diamond cannot understand why what she did was so strange. She was only doing what her father told her to do, to put him out with the rubbish when he died.

Now Sally is the centre of attention, not only from the hungry media and worried police, but also a sinister voice from a past she has no memory of. As she begins to discover the horrors of her childhood, recluse Sally steps into the world for the first time, making new friends, finding independence, and learning that people don't always mean what they say.

But when messages start arriving from a stranger who knows far more about her past than she knows herself, Sally's life will be thrown into chaos once again . . .

  • Published: 16 July 2024
  • ISBN: 9780241993576
  • Imprint: Penguin General UK
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 384
  • RRP: $26.00

Also by Liz Nugent

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Praise for Strange Sally Diamond

Such a terrific read . . . [Sally is] an amazing character

Anthony Horowitz

Be prepared for a roller coaster ride - Sally Diamond is going to get under your skin

Vanda Symon

Genius . . . held me from beginning to end in one weekend

Joe Duffy

I absolutely devoured this book. Sally Diamond is the most fantastic character. Liz Nugent has created a dark, twisted, gripping, intriguing, heart-stopping tale full of characters who, despite the horrors they inflict, are victims in their own right

Sinéad Moriarty

Dark and mesmerising . . . one of the most compelling character-led novels I've ever read. [It] blew me away

Fiona Cummins

Magnificent . . .. Liz Nugent is a treasure

Shari Lapena

Achingly beautiful with a cast of characters that'll remain with you long after the final page is turned. Already one of the must-read books of 2023

John Marrs

Totally and utterly gripped by Liz Nugent's latest. If this isn't made into a major Netflix series, I'll eat my own knicker elastic. An absolute wow of a read

Claudia Carroll

It creeped me out (in a good way). Think Room and The Collector but add a dazzling/unique main character and encroaching dread. Terrific

Ian Rankin

I loved every damn second of it

Lisa Jewell

Liz Nugent has outdone herself. Twisted and twisty, dark and gripping, no one is going to forget Sally Diamond in a hurry!

Graham Norton

Liz Nugent dares to go where many won't. What a compelling storyteller she is. Always challenging. I laughed out loud only to recoil from my laughter as the story unfolded. For this is wickedly dark territory. And yet amidst the darkness, she allows a light to glimmer - that of a diamond'

Sarah Winman

It's compassionate and challenging, letting us imagine the lives that are forgotten when the news cycle moves on . . . a very special book

Val McDermid

I did not want this book to end! What a brilliant character and a wonderfully woven story. So very dark and clever and it completely broke my heart

Susi Holliday

I'm struggling to find words to describe how wonderful this book is. All at once it's dark, funny, compelling, shocking and heart-breaking with perfect characters and unrelenting tension. The best book I've read in years. Just incredible

Neil Lancaster

Twisted, shocking, and very, very, dark, Liz Nugent has created a character for the ages in Strange Sally Diamond

Louise O'Neill

Strange Sally Diamond peels your heart with a paring knife in one continuous paper-thin coil. Dark, disturbing, utterly compelling

Tammy Cohen

A brilliant, brilliant book. I don't have the skill to give this novel the kind of praise it deserves. It's devastating. It's beautiful. It's mesmerising. Clever. Surprising. Completely immersive. In total awe

Imran Mahmood

I LOVED IT! Strange Sally strides onto the page, fully formed and funny as hell (this is Liz, we're talking dark funny). I was hooked from the first paragraph and then Liz toyed with me, I held my breath, gasped, laughed and cried. This is twisty, original and pitch-black. I'll go anywhere with Liz but only in daylight

Nikki May

A masterpiece

Fiona Cummins

One of the most original, and spine-tingling books I've read in ages, Draws you in to the close, claustrophobic world of rural Ireland and the life of an emotionally withdrawn woman whose dark, hidden past is coming back to haunt her. Crackling with tension, this book with have you turning the pages late into the night. An absolute triumph.

Abir Mukherjee

So, so good! Sally gets under your skin and worms her way into your heart. I didn't want it to end

Jane Fallon

Another bloody scorcher from Liz Nugent that kept me up to the wee hours to finish. Liz is one of the most intelligent, original, twisty crime writers working in the genre today

Adrian McKinty

An extraordinary book. Compulsive reading, with one of the most complex, intriguing and moving characters I've ever encountered in fiction

Clare Mackintosh

Vivid, pacy, taut but so very moving . . . This novel feels *different* . . . it defies categorisation

Marian Keyes

Just like Sally herself, this book is absolutely unique. Dark, gripping, unsettling - it pulls off that rarest of feats, combining characters you truly care for with gasp-inducing twists and turns. Loved it!

Ellery Lloyd

I marvel at the imagination . . . labyrinthine . . . fiendish . . . a great piece of work

Bill Whelan

Dark, compelling and deeply moving

Ruth Ware

One of the best crime novels I've read in years. Sally is a character who will initially shock you, perplex you and then win your heart. Dark, intriguing, heartbreaking and surprising, if I wasn't biting my nails, I was smiling to myself. It's absolutely brilliant

C L Taylor

It has been six weeks since I read Strange Sally Diamond and still about twice a day a scene will flash before me and make my insides curdle

Eithne Shortall

Heartbreaking and utterly gripping on every page, clear your schedule for what might be Liz Nugent's best - and darkest - book yet

Catherine Ryan Howard

The queen of Irish suspense strikes again! A book that had me compelled, wanting to read on ferociously whilst at the same time being deeply unsettled as the prospect of what might befall some of the characters next. Her best yet!

Damien O’Meara

Utterly compelling. Brilliant writing and memorable characters. Genuinely unputdownable

Dervla McTiernan

A wonderfully twisted blend of light and dark; a book I couldn't put down, a character I won't forget. Clever, creepy, compelling, but poignant too, Strange Sally Diamond is going to be huge, and deservedly so

Andrea Mara

Dark, disturbing and compelling yet so touching, too. An amazing read

Gilly Macmillan

No one gets into damaged people's heads like Liz Nugent - I'd have known this was her writing even if her name had been deleted from the cover. Moving, thrilling, enraging and impossible to put down

Erin Kelly

I've loved all of Liz Nugent's novels and this was no exception. Strange Sally Diamond is clever, compelling, chilling, disturbing and soooooo dark!

Diane Jeffrey

Strange indeed . . . and smart, too! Shocking, disturbing and utterly original, Strange Sally Diamond will grip you from first page to last

Paula Hawkins

There's something very special about all of Liz Nugent's novels. Character-driven stories that are real and wild at the same time. This one blew me away. Unflinching, unpredictable and unputdownable. A dark masterpiece

Will Dean

Utterly addictive with a truly unforgettable heroine

Sinéad Crowley

I absolutely loved this book. Liz Nugent does not put a foot wrong. It's tense, it's creepy, it's foreboding and unflinching . . . Deeply unsettling and deeply brilliant!

Edel Coffey

Dark, heartbreaking, funny, brilliant - Strange Sally Diamond will stay with you for well beyond the final page

Paul Cleave

Blown away by Strange Sally Diamond . . . Utterly chilling and impossible to put down. Her best yet!

Andrea Carter

What a brave, funny, disquieting, riveting book. By the end, I felt I knew Sally Diamond's mind better than I did my own

Louise Candlish

I devoured [it] . . . It's incredible!

Sara Cox

If Liz Nugent was a clockmaker she'd be Galileo . . . She is as excellent a writer as anyone living I can think of

Sebastian Barry

In Sally Diamond, Nugent has given us an astounding creation with a singular voice . . . an absorbing, twisty, compulsive psychological thriller with surprising humour and pathos

Sophie White, Sunday Independent

Irresistibly compelling, this dark story is shocking yet endearing. A brilliant read that will suck you in

Crime Monthly

As twisted as this tale is, it's unputdownable

Irish Country Magazine

A compelling if harrowing read, this tragic twisted tale veers from humour to horror to heartbreak, but never fails to hold your attention until the bitter end

The Afterword

Dark and disturbing, you will root for Sally as she bravely steps out of her comfort zone to discover a post she can't remember

Heat

It's a cracker, you will absolutely love this and you'll want to get it today. This book is dark as hell with lovely touches of comedy . . . so engaging

Ryan Tubridy

Really really fantastically new . . . a brilliant book, it's just so good

Muireann O'Connell, Ireland AM

Occasionally a book comes along that defies classification. Strange Sally Diamond is a page-turning cross between two recent mega-hits: Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine and Girl A. With a wonderfully drawn central protagonist and a plot that moves between the darkest shades of human malevolence and a life affirming sense of how friendship and community can bring light into the shadows, this book has all the ingredients of a long-to-be-remembered dark classic

Vaseem Khan

Strikingly well-observed and consistently surprising

The Times

Her best yet

Guardian

Captivating . . . Hypnotic and terrifying, her story seeps into the imagination and leaves behind a haunting memory

Daily Mail

An outstanding achievement which transforms the dark psychological thriller map with both bravura and delicacy. One for the ages

Maxim Jakubowski

Strange Sally Diamond is a story both touching and terrifying ...

RTÉ Guide

Surprising, moving and shockingly original

Harlan Coben

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