Helpful Score: 2
Overall, I thought it was a good book. The writer builds the characters very well. But it took awhile to get into the story because it jumps back and forth between the present and the past. I did not think that the present time period sections were all that interesting until the very end when the storylines come together. I gave it three and a half stars.
Setting is 1990 London. A novel about the secrets that remain after a final bohemian summer of excess turns deadly. Begins when Karen and her nine-year-old daughter, Alice, pick up Rex from a ten-year stint in prison for murder. The book switches between the past and the present. The characters are well-drawn. The story is slow-building but gets more interesting towards the ending which is a complete shock. The book will appeal to those who love psychological suspense, Donna Tartt and Tana French books.
This wasn't worth the read & the 2 part TV series on Acorn TV was just as bad. Flashbacks aren't my thing unless they are written better. Spoiled rich kids (Rex & Biba) living off their estranged father & straight laced poor Karen spend too much time acting like teenagers with partying & drugs. A murder happens & a prison sentence ensues & go forward 12 yrs as Rex is getting out of prison, someone is missing & threats happen. Twist at the end that was ok. Struggled finishing.
Wow! This book was so much better than I expected it to be! It starts out with Karen and her young daughter, Alice, bringing home her husband from prison after serving 10 years of a murder sentence. Karen tells the story of the summer of '97 leading up to the event that sent him to prison, so the book goes back and forth between present events and the past as it played out. I kept turning pages because you only know 2 people are dead and I wanted the answers to who, how and why. It is gripping and there are some twists at the end I didn't see coming that left me reeling! Well done! I highly recommend!
This book caught me from the first page and kept me to the end.
