Title: NO ONE WOULD DO WHAT THE LAMBERTS HAVE DONE
Author: SOPHIE HANNAH
ISBN: 9781835011584
Publisher: Bedford Square Publishers
Pages: 408
Source: Review copy from Publishers and a Private Copy
Blog Tour Organised by Random Things Tours
You think it will never happen to you: the ring of the bell, the policeman on the doorstep. What he says traps you in a nightmare that starts with the words, ‘I’m afraid…’
Sally Lambert is also afraid and desperate enough to consider the unthinkable. Is it really, definitely, impossible to escape from this horror? Maybe not. There’s always something you can do, right?
Of course, no one would ever do this particular something – except the Lamberts, who might have to.
No one has ever gone this far. Until Sally decides that the Lamberts will…
Official Summary
13 March 2026
Thank you to Anne Cater from Random Things Tour for including me in this blog tour. This is a fun read that dog lovers will adore.
You know that chilling, stomach-dropping moment when someone knocks on the door, and your whole world shifts in a single sentence? “I’m afraid…” — and just like that, nothing will ever be the same again. That’s the terrifyingly simple premise that pulls you straight into this novel, and I was hooked from the very first page. But it was not what I expected.
This is classic Sophie Hannah — clever, morally knotty, and utterly committed to exploring what ordinary people might do when pushed beyond breaking point. The Lamberts are not villains. They’re not masterminds. They’re just a family faced with something so unbearable that Sally begins to wonder whether the unthinkable might actually be… thinkable. And that’s where this book shines.
The tension isn’t built on high-speed chases or dramatic twists (although there are certainly moments that made me gasp). Instead, it’s psychological. It’s about choices. About justifications. About the stories we tell ourselves when we’re desperate enough. I found myself constantly asking, What would I do? — and not always liking the answer.
Sally is a fascinating protagonist. She’s flawed, frightened, and operating in that hazy moral grey zone where love and panic blur together. I didn’t always agree with her, but I absolutely understood her. That emotional authenticity made everything feel disturbingly plausible.
The plotting is intricate — sometimes impressively so. There were a few moments where I had to pause and reorient myself, but honestly, that’s part of the experience. The author doesn’t spoon-feed her readers; she trusts you to keep up. And when everything clicks into place, it’s deeply satisfying.
If I’m honest, I wouldn’t call this her most explosive novel — it’s more of a slow-burn ethical spiral than a pulse-pounding thriller — but it’s intelligent, unsettling, and lingers long after you’ve turned the final page.
It’s the kind of story that makes you glance at your own family across the dinner table and think, How far would we go for each other?
Would I recommend it? Absolutely — especially if you enjoy thrillers that mess with your head more than your heart rate.
REMEMBER TO VISIT THE OTHER TOUR STOPS
Also by Sophie Hannah
THE COUPLE AT THE TABLE
Jane and William are enjoying their honeymoon at an exclusive couples-only resort…
…until Jane receives a chilling note warning her to “Beware of the couple at the table nearest to yours.” At dinner that night, five other couples are present, and none of their tables is any nearer or farther away than any of the others. It’s almost as if someone has set the scene in order to make the warning note meaningless–but why would anyone do that?
Jane has no idea.
But someone in this dining room will be dead before breakfast, and all the evidence will suggest that no one there that night could have possibly committed the crime.
About The Author
Author bio from the author’s site
Sophie Hannah is an internationally bestselling writer of psychological crime fiction, published in 27 countries. In 2013, her latest novel, The Carrier, won the Crime Thriller of the Year Award at the Specsavers National Book Awards. Two of Sophie’s crime novels, The Point of Rescue and The Other Half Lives, have been adapted for television and appeared on ITV1 under the series title Case Sensitive in 2011 and 2012. In 2004, Sophie won first prize in the Daphne Du Maurier Festival Short Story Competition for her suspense story, The Octopus Nest, which is now published in her first collection of short stories, The Fantastic Book of Everybody’s Secrets.
Sophie has also published five collections of poetry. Her fifth, Pessimism for Beginners, was shortlisted for the 2007 T S Eliot Award. Her poetry is studied at GCSE, A-level and degree level across the UK. From 1997 to 1999, she was Fellow Commoner in Creative Arts at Trinity College, Cambridge, and between 1999 and 2001, she was a fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford. She is forty-one and lives with her husband and children in Cambridge, where she is a Fellow Commoner at Lucy Cavendish College. She is currently working on a new challenge for the little grey cells of Hercule Poirot, Agatha Christie’s famous detective.
This book was not what I expected, but I loved it. And yes, Furbert and Champ are my favourite characters. As a wire-haired terrier mom, I loved how similar Welsh terriers are to my fur-baby. Most of you will know that I lost Tinla at the end of last year, and after reading this book, I am considering adopting a Welsh terrier – but since they are extremely rare in South Africa, that is not going to happen quickly.
Thank you for visiting. I hope you enjoy this one. Until next time…. Happy Reading!
