It’s 1995 in Grace, Alabama and Summer Ryan has already disappeared by the time this book opens but we’re in her head at various times as the months before her disappearance take shape.
And we’re left to wonder if Summer’s joined the ranks of the Briar Girls… five seemingly good church-going girls from Briar county who’ve disappeared; or if this is something completely different.
It’s kinda fitting that it was on this exact day five years ago I finished full time work. I’d accepted a redundancy package from my government job and had decided to make my seachange. Within a couple of weeks I’d sold my place, bought a new one and by the end of October 2012 I’d moved.
I’ve loved my post-seachange life. I decided – at one point – that I never wanted to work full-time again. After all…. I’d been working full time non-stop since finishing University in my early 20s, over two decades before. I wanted a break. My world revolved around my job/s and left little space for anything else. I wanted the proverbial work / life balance. Or I wanted A LIFE full stop.
Almost everyone I know has loved this book. They’ve raved about it. So I expected to like (or at least, to relate to) this book more than I did.
It’s not the sort of book I’d usually read and I hadn’t requested it for review, but a friend of mine bought it and asked if I wanted to borrow it. Despite my hefty TBR pile I said yes and spent a bit of time with it on a lazy Sunday afternoon.
I requested a print copy of this book (as it’s the only series I’m attempting to collect*) and had been waiting somewhat impatiently as the release date came and went (I know… poor me! 😉 ). So when the electronic copy popped up in an online galley last week I jumped at the chance to get hold of it. Particularly given that Eve Dallas, Roarke and the In Death series are a a bit of a comfort read for me.
This is number 45 in the series and there are a few novellas and short stories as well. I know of someone for whom no. 44 was the first and they were able to enjoy it without having read the first 43, but I’d suggest if you’ve got holidays or free time, or are looking for a new series – head to the bookshop or your library and start at no. 1 and get to know the likeable and consistent characters JD Robb (Nora Roberts) has created.
I read and reviewed Holly Seddon’s debut novel, Try Not To Breathe last year and rated it 4-stars (a very good rating from me). On discovering this book I chuckled to myself over her fetish for titles featuring warnings though and wondered what the next book might be called…
Seddon offered up a flawed lead (or two, kinda) in her first book and does the same this time around, with (non-identical) twins Sarah and Robin whose lives we follow in the present and the past.
The premise of this book is very intriguing. And kinda creepy… the notion of seeing condolence notices on your Facebook page 18mths into the future. While we all remember Tom Sawyer getting to go to his own funeral, we don’t necessarily want to have to die to know that we are cherished and will be missed.
And though this book started a little slowly for me and I struggled a little (initially) with our lead character, I was sufficiently intrigued to read this in a night – keen to know if Facebook really did have it right. For a change! 😉
Jessica Fellowes, I discovered, after picking up this book, wrote ‘companion books’ for the popular Downton Abbey TV series. It seems to be an indication that the author and journalist is a fan of history and enjoys researching times-gone-by – which is very evident in her latest novel The Mitford Murders.
And something I hadn’t appreciated until I actually reached the end of this book, was that it’s a form of ‘faction’…. facts mixed with fiction. Or fictionalised facts. Or something.
This was not the book I was expecting it to be. The backcover blurb talks about a girl (who we know will soon die) attempting to get a message to her father.
I’d just finished a book about a missing girl and was envisaging a serial killer or psychopath kidnapping kids. Instead the daughter in question is 20yrs old and this book is more of a thriller featuring government agencies, cryptologists and political dealings. So… not what I was expecting, but not necessarily an unwelcome read.
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