Book review: Greenwich Park by Katherine Faulkner

Wednesday, April 28, 2021 Permalink

Greenwich Park by Katherine Faulkner comes recommended by many of my favourite thriller writers. In fact quotes take up the entire back cover so I didn’t read the blurb before diving in. I’m assuming I did so before requesting it, but that was probably a few months ago.

I was worried then when the book opened with a fertility-challenged woman (Helen) who’s seven months pregnant. At her first antenatal class she meets a snarky young woman (Rachel) who quickly insinuates herself into Helen’s world. I imagined several tropes that have been done-to-death: the single-white-female thing with Rachel coveting Helen’s life; Rachel faking a pregnancy for nefarious reasons; or Rachel seeking revenge for a long past deed.

However, though this novel touches on a couple of those scenarios, Faulkner takes us in an unexpected direction. So, although it seems obvious where our suspicion and mistrust should lie, there are some twists which kept me turning page after page, keen to see where we’d be taken.

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four-half-stars

Book review: The Flower Girls by Alice Clark-Platts

Wednesday, January 15, 2020 Permalink

Not only has Alice Clark-Platts authored police procedurals, but in her former day job she was a human rights lawyer who worked at the UN International Crime Tribunal.

I only discovered that fact after reading this book though I can better understand the reflection in this book on the concept of retribution as well as some debate over punishment fitting the crime – and if it’s even possible.

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three-half-stars

Book review: Never Have I Ever by Joshilyn Jackson

Friday, August 16, 2019 Permalink

I’ve actually never played Never Have I Ever, but this book by Joshilyn Jackson leverages off an adult version of the game… unexpectedly played by a group of inebriated women – who (I felt) interestingly see themselves as wives and mothers, rather than independent beings. And yes, that’s a bit judge-y but all definitions of the ‘book club’ early on suggest it’s the club of mothers with young children. There’s a SEPARATE group for the mothers of teens. (Of course that is completely irrelevant, but just kinda weird for this middle-aged singleton.)

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three-half-stars