I must getting soft in my dotage - a second 5 star rating in less than a week.
What a thumping good read from Louise Candlish - more twisty than a twisI must getting soft in my dotage - a second 5 star rating in less than a week.
What a thumping good read from Louise Candlish - more twisty than a twisty-turny thing!
I think this book can be summed up in a timeless quote - radix malorum est cupuditas.
Of course, I guessed the culprit but when you’re suspicious of everyone in a book (as I always am), the actual perp is always in your list of suspects.
I do so love the last 3 books by this author - the evisceration of the middle- class self satisfied veneer. At first all her characters seem highly respectable just as they should be but scratch the surface and there’s a seething mass of entitlement, self-loathing and envy lurking beneath. The total destruction of a perceived respectability. It’s done with subtlety but is no less vicious and brutal for that.
I found myself unable to put this book down and shirked my responsibilities in order to follow the twisty plot right through to the bitter end. The deeply flawed characters were so engrossing and I followed their machinations with fascinated disgust as the inky waters of the River Thames formed an appropriately murky background.
I’ll not delve any further into the plot to avoid spoilers but I devoured this in a little over 24 hours and can highly recommend it.
Wow! This really was a page turner full of unexpected twists and turns. Just when I thought I had worked it all out, the story took a completely, out Wow! This really was a page turner full of unexpected twists and turns. Just when I thought I had worked it all out, the story took a completely, out of the blue new direction to leave me galloping through the pages to find out what happened next.
So many psychological thrillers out there have become fairly predictable lately and it was a very pleasant surprise to be shocked and taken unawares by this clever, twisty plot.
I’m always wary of jumping into missing children novels as I can’t think of anything worse than losing a child but I’m glad I took the plunge!
Well, I think I have an uneasy relationship with BA Paris books. On one hand I enjoy the intrigue and on the other her characters just get on my last Well, I think I have an uneasy relationship with BA Paris books. On one hand I enjoy the intrigue and on the other her characters just get on my last nerve.
I have never read Behind Closed Doors which, by all accounts, is her magnum opus but I did read The Breakdown last year and was spectacularly unimpressed with that. I thought the big twist in that was heavily telegraphed from the get go so I’m happy to report that this one actually did keep me guessing right up until the big reveal.
Ten out of ten on that respect and it was enough to keep me reading but it’s the character development I find deeply lacking. There’s not enough of it to bring them alive for me and they feel dispassionately one dimensional to the point where I can’t really fathom their motivation.
Also, in this book I also developed an intense and fairly irrational hatred of the words RUSSIAN DOLL. They took on a starring role to the point that I wanted to howl at the moon every time they cropped up in the text. 172 times no less!!!
So I give this three stars because, actually, it was a pretty good mystery that had me guessing to the end and constantly changing my mind but the shallow characters became unbelievable to me and they failed to truly come alive to me and I had no empathy with anyone apart from the dog who I actually quite liked!
I really must read Behind Closed Doors and despite my review, I probably will read BA Paris again.
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster and treat those two impostors just the same . . . you’ll be a Man, my son!
We learned that at schoo
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster and treat those two impostors just the same . . . you’ll be a Man, my son!
We learned that at school.
They didn’t tell us that the worst disasters would be those of our own making.
Oh boy, this was one heck of a squirmy, uncomfortable twisty ride of a novel. I don’t think enjoy is the right word – I was compelled to read on but at all times I was internally yelling NOOOOO at the male protagonist and he is just a protagonist – hero really is a bit of a stretch.
As the blurb states, Fi comes home one day to find another family is moving into her house and all her possessions are gone and she is completely clueless as to how this can have happened. Then we leap back and the story leading up to this day is told in retrospect by both Fi and her husband Bram. Her retelling takes the form of a podcast where Bram’s is a tell all document.
And we’re hurtled back to the fateful day when all this horror is unwittingly set in motion and we see how lies lead to more lies, mistakes lead to more mistakes and the whole thing builds up an intense, devastating momentum that made me instinctively want to apply the brakes. It’s as exasperating as it is infuriating – a little bit of honesty would have prevented the dominos getting into line before they are all in place and catastrophically start to tumble.
It’s cleverly done and, of course, there’s a twist in the tale – there always seems to be one these days but it definitely wasn’t what I expected. I think Louise Candlish did well playing with our incredibly strong sense of ‘home’ and how little we actually realise just how important this is to us. Fi’s sudden predicament in the novel truly did make me think about how I would feel if I suddenly lost my house and the thought was just too awful to contemplate.
And Bram – I had very little sympathy for this man from the beginning. I found him selfish, egotistical, inconsiderate and full of macho posturing and I seriously questioned his decision making all of the time but as events spiral rapidly and disastrously out of his control, I felt a glimmer of compassion for him. It was brief and passing and you’ll have to decide how you ultimately feel about him at the very end, if you choose to read this novel.
Also, I think there’s an incredibly strong sense of girl power running through this novel, to the point that it is an exclusive, members only club – no men allowed. The wealthy women of Alder Rise pretty much control the lives of their men who get very little say in what happens – perhaps this control freakery contributed to Bram’s seriously bad life choices!
So, even though I enjoyed this novel, I spent most of it feeling frustrated and impatient. I think it was probably overly long and the pace pretty sedate and I often wanted to scream ‘GET ON WITH IT’ but it was a fascinating read and pretty different from most of the stuff out there today. It’s an original idea and I can’t fault the story for that. I shall probably seek out this author again.
While I agree it was a page turner and an easy read, I had worked out what was going on and who was doing what after the first few chapters and was raWhile I agree it was a page turner and an easy read, I had worked out what was going on and who was doing what after the first few chapters and was rather disappointed to be proved right.
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