Many thanks to NetGalley and publisher Penguin Books (UK) for giving me the opportunity to read this book prior to publication.
Expected: January 2020
A distressed teenage girl is found on the outskirts of Oxford. The story she tells is terrifying: grabbed off the street, a plastic bag forced over her head, then driven somewhere remote and subjected to an assault. DI Adam Fawley is doing the best he can to investigate, but the teenager refuses to press charges. All he can do is try to ignore the sickening feeling he's seen something like this before...
But when another girl goes missing, Fawley knows his time is running out. Because if he ignores the past any longer, this girl may not be coming back.
In my opinion
For me the distinction between a thriller and a crime novel is very ambiguous and perhaps subjective. This was cleverly constructed with lots of twists and turns, mystery and drama meaning it hits the definition of a thriller. So as a fan of thrillers I really enjoyed the complexity of the story and characters, the fast pace from the off, and the totally unexpected ending.
However, I felt it was more of a crime novel, following the police investigation into a potential sexual predator and serial killer abducting young women. That said I loved the detective aspect especially as the author intersperses the narrative with 'evidence' in the form of maps, court extracts, interviews with the suspects, text messages and social media exerts. There were lots of false leads, reluctant witnesses and partial forensics all of which highlighted the difficulties of actual police investigations. All-in-all I felt like a real-life detective myself trying to piece it all together.
What I didn't like - and generally don't like about crime novels - is the factual and procedural style of writing, meaning that whilst I enjoyed being involved as an amateur detective I didn't really emotionally engage with the book or characters. This wasn't helped by the fact that there were so many characters from a large police team plus their families to the victims and their family/friends as well as a wide variety of suspects, witnesses and alibis. There were literally too many people and back stories to connect with any one character to any great extent. It was also quite confusing in the beginning trying to keep track of so many people.
From the cover blurb I also hadn't realised the plot (or crime) involved implied sexual assault. I'm fine with murder, abduction, torture and even tongues being cut off (as in Deborah Masson's 'Hold Your Tongue') but I really don't like reading about crimes of a sexual nature and wouldn't have picked this up had I known.
The author writes in a very contemporary and unique style, sometimes in the first person and sometimes in the third person. The absence of any chapters is very unusual however. But that said the text is broken up into very short snippets meaning it's still very manageable and easy read - as well as really adding to the punchy fast paced feel throughout.
I enjoyed this book, especially the completely unexpected ending which provided a sad but believable reflection of a certain demographic of society. But, unfortunately for me it just wasn't what I thought it was going to be. Author Cara Hunter is widely regarded as one of the most exciting crime writers, so if crime's your thing then I have no doubt that you will love this. This is actually the latest in a series all featuring DI Fawley but it really won't matter if you haven't read any of the others.
The author
Follow @CaraHunterBooks on Twitter.
No comments:
Post a Comment