Book Review: THE BOY AT THE DOOR by Alex Dahl

Title: The Boy at the Door

Author: Alex Dahl
Publisher: Head of Zeus
Read: July 2018

Expected publication: out now

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟

Book Description:

Cecilia Wilborg has it all--a loving husband, two beautiful daughters, and a gorgeous home in an affluent Norwegian suburb. And she works hard to keep it all together. Too hard...

There is no room for mistakes in her life. Even taking home a little boy whose parents forgot to pick him up at the pool can put a crimp in Cecilia's carefully planned schedule. Especially when she arrives at the address she was given
and finds an empty, abandoned house...

There's nothing for Cecilia to do but to take the boy home with her, never realizing that soon his quiet presence and knowing eyes will trigger unwelcome memories from her past--and unravel her meticulously crafted life...

My musings:

Are you a fan of mysteries with dark and disturbing undertones and sinister, unlikeable characters that really get under your skin? Then this may be the perfect book for you! Dahl’s opening chapter immediately drew me in and set the tone for this addictive and yet disturbing novel which made me want to fling it away in horror, but at the same time read deep into the night to find out what would happen.

Cecilia Wilborg is one of Sandefjord’s “yummy mummies”, a mother to two young girls and wife to successful banker Johan, living an affluent life in this picturesque Norwegian town where appearance matters. With pristine homes, expensive cars, stylish clothes and au-pair girls to look after the more unsavoury aspects of child-rearing, the women of the town gather regularly to gossip and (whilst they won’t admit it) judge each other. Appearance is everything, and Cecilia has long learned to fit in and play the game. It was absolutely not part of her plan to be tasked with driving an abandoned boy home, whose mother has failed to pick him up from the pool after her daughter’s swimming class, but how could she refuse without looking mean and uncharitable? Very reluctantly, Cecilia agrees, not realising that her carefully constructed life will soon unravel as a result.

I have typed and erased parts of this review several times already, loathe to reveal any spoilers that may take away some of the shock value of this dark and evil tale. May I just say that my heart broke several times over for little Tobias, the abandoned boy the story centres around? There were a lot of surprises in store in this story, and most characters managed to shock me as the layers of carefully constructed lies were slowly being stripped away. As a lover of the bleakness of Scandinavian noir, I got exactly what I had bargained for!  I am a bit lost for words to be honest. At times I wanted to throw this book across the room in anger and disgust, alternated by a deep sense of sadness for all involved. This was not a happy story, but a very compelling one, which saw me flicking the pages furiously until the early morning hours, because I could not tear myself away.

For lovers of Scandinavian noir, The Boy at the Door is a must-read, and I think you will not be disappointed with this gripping, dark and intense tale. There are many triggers for the faint-of-heart and readers who do not enjoy dark stories with lots of dysfunctional characters, but for me this was a definite winner! I am looking forward to reading more from this author!

Thank you to Netgalley and Head of Zeus for the free electronic copy of this novel and for giving me the opportunity to provide an honest review.

Book Review: WATCHING YOU by Lisa Jewell

Title: Watching You

Author: Lisa Jewell
Publisher: Random House UK
Read: June 2018

Expected publication: out now

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟

Book Description:

You’re back home after four years working abroad with a brand new husband in tow. You’re keen to find a place of your own. But for now, you’re living with your big brother, camped out in his spare bedroom. And then – quite unexpectedly – you meet the man next door.

He’s the head teacher of the local high school. He’s twice your age. And he’s devastatingly attractive. Soon you find you’re watching him. All the time. But what you don’t know is that someone is watching you. Or that what has started as an innocent crush is quickly turning into an obsession as dark as it is deadly.

Family secrets, illicit passion, and an unexplained murder lie at the heart of Lisa Jewell’s gripping new novel.

My musings:

Ever since reading The House We Grew Up In, I have been a huge fan of Lisa Jewell’s writing, and am very happy she has taken the plunge into writing psychological thrillers. Jewell is a master of characterisation, and her portrayal of flawed and disturbed characters usually drives the story for me! Watching You is a very apt title for her latest novel, as everyone in this book is spying on one another. Joey watches Tom, Jenna watches Bess, Freddie uses his telescope to spy on the whole street, and Jenna’s slightly crazy mother thinks she is being watched by just about everyone else (she has a point). With all this spying and lying going on, there is a constant sense of menace and tension in the air, belying the idyllic setting of the colourful painted houses in this expensive neighbourhood.

As usually is the case with Jewell’s novels, no one is quite who they initially seem. Dark secrets simmer just below the surface and will ultimately lead to murder – and I dare you to predict the ending of this one! Most of Jewell’s novels take part in a small, closed setting, and this one is no exception, featuring neighbours in the small housing community of Melville Heights, much like one of her previous books The Girls (which I loved). The author uses multiple POVs to bring her story to life, which in this context worked very well for me. I love slow burning, character driven novels where people present only the parts of themselves they want others to see. Jewell does a great job in gradually stripping them of their masks, layer by layer, until the ugly core is revealed. Most of the characters here surprised me with their revelations, which made for some very interesting dynamics.

It is impossible to go into this story any further without revealing something that may spoil the surprise for other readers, so I will just say that it starts with a bang (or more accurately, a corpse) and then takes you back in time to unravel the mystery. The path to enlightenment may contain some clues but is also paved with red herrings, so the armchair detective has his / her work cut out for them. Tense, creepy and utterly addictive, the story soon drew me in and I was utterly absorbed with these dysfunctional characters until the very end.

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House UK for the free electronic copy of this novel and for giving me the opportunity to provide an honest review.

Book Review: CROSS HER HEART by Sarah Pinborough

Title: Cross Her Heart

Author: Sarah Pinborough
Publisher: William Morrow
Read: June 2018

Expected publication: 4 September 2018

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟1/2

Book Description:

Lisa lives a very quiet life. A single mother nearing forty, she devotes herself to raising her sixteen-year-old daughter, Ava. Wary of men, Lisa doesn’t speak of her past or Ava’s absent father. Her best friend Marilyn wishes she would open up more and maybe finally go on a date—with the sexy new client who’s obviously keen—but Marilyn has problems of her own.

Ava is getting tired of her overprotective mother. She wants to live like a normal teenager—chill with friends, go to swim practice, study for exams, have a boyfriend. Her mom would freak if she knew that Ava’s already got someone special, someone who makes her feel sophisticated—and wanted.

Lisa has spent a long time looking over her shoulder, but lately she’s been especially uneasy. Small things from the past have begun to appear in the present, feeding her anxiety. As her life begins to unravel, Lisa knows that the only way she can protect herself and her daughter is to face her fears. Yet courage won’t be enough. She’ll need help from the only person she can trust—Marilyn. Between them they have to save Ava, and to do that, they have to be honest with each other. Truly honest. Marilyn did promise she’d do anything to help.

But a long time ago, Lisa made a promise too. Then she broke her word. And that betrayal hasn’t been forgotten—or forgiven.

Now, someone is going to make her pay for her sin.

My musings:

Sarah Pinborough has been on my tbr list for ages and I had heard so many good things about her that I was really excited to receive a review copy of her latest thriller Cross Her Heart. The story starts innocently enough in a been-there-done-that manner: a single mother (Lisa) of a teenager (Ava)is living under the radar on the run from a deep dark secret in her past. A common theme, and one that would be difficult to make stand-out-original, or so I thought. I had of course not reckoned with his author’s skill! After having been lulled into a false sense of security – BANG! There it was, the twist that made the story stand out from the rest. And no, I will not be giving anything away here, because this one is a book that should be dived into blindly – allow yourself to get swept up in the story, knowing that there will be plenty of surprises to come.

Not being able to reveal anything about the story leaves me slightly at a loss for words when it comes to reviewing this book, except to say that I thoroughly enjoyed it and could not have predicted its many surprises. The story is being told from multiple POVs and different timelines, which all do a great job to put doubt in the reader’s mind as to who is telling the truth and who isn’t. Aren’t those mysteries of the best kind? Even though the book deals with some very dark themes, the story never crossed the line for me to make it too difficult to stomach and I appreciated the author’s honesty in exploring some very disturbing issues. Pinborough has an engaging writing style that drew me in immediately and will make me seek out more books from this author, especially Behind Her Eyes, which I keep hearing about! Whilst there was one character who missed the mark a little bit for me, and whose actions didn’t always fully make sense, this was an enjoyable, gripping read I devoured over the course of a weekend and have no trouble recommending to lovers of the genre. 

Thank you to Edelweiss and William Morrow for the free electronic copy of this novel and for giving me the opportunity to provide an honest review.

Book Review: IT ALL FALLS DOWN by Sheena Kamal

Title: It All Falls Down

Author: Sheena Kamal
Publisher: William Morrow
Read: February 2018

Expected publication: out now

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟1/2

Book Description:

Growing up, Nora Watts only knew one parent—her father. When he killed himself, she denied her grief and carried on with her life. Then a chance encounter with a veteran who knew him raises disturbing questions Nora can’t ignore—and dark emotions she can’t control. To make her peace with the past, she has to confront it.

Finding the truth about her father’s life and his violent death takes her from Vancouver to Detroit where Sam Watts grew up, far away from his people and the place of his birth. Thanks to a disastrous government policy starting in the 1950s, thousands of Canadian native children like Sam were adopted by American families. In the Motor City, Nora discovers that the circumstances surrounding Sam’s suicide are more unsettling than she’d imagined.

Yet no matter how far away Nora gets from Vancouver, she can’t shake trouble. Back in the Pacific Northwest, former police detective turned private investigator Jon Brazuca is looking into the overdose death of a billionaire’s mistress. His search uncovers a ruthless opiate ring and a startling connection to Nora, the infuriatingly distant woman he’d once tried to befriend. He has no way to warn or protect her, because she’s become a ghost, vanishing completely off the grid.

Focused on the mysterious events of her father’s past and the clues they provide to her own fractured identity and that of her estranged daughter, Nora may not be able to see the danger heading her way until it’s too late. But it’s not her father’s old ties that could get her killed—it’s her own.

My musings:

Nora Watts, the character Sheena Kamal created in her novel Eyes Like Mine (also Published under The Lost Ones), was one of my favourite protagonists of 2017 and I was really looking forward to meeting up with her again.

It is a very different Nora we see in Shamal’s latest novel It All Falls Down. After killing someone in order to rescue her daughter, Nora struggles not only with her conscience but has also lost the gift that had set her apart as an investigator – her ability to detect lies. She is now living with her friend and former boss Sebastian Crow, who is dying from cancer and trying to compile his memoirs with Nora’s help. She seems even more rootless and lost without her job as investigator, her dark past still haunting her. Already a very solitary and reserved character, she is becoming even more anti-social, if this is at all possible. So when the past catches up with her in the form of an old military buddy of her father’s, she grabs the opportunity to travel to Detroit, her father’s childhood home, to try and find out more about her parents’ past. As the daughter of an indigenous Canadian man who had been taken from his birth family and raised by adoptive parents, and a Palestinian refugee mother, who vanished without a trace when Nora was a child, she has many questions about her lineage that she thought would never be answered. She is especially haunted by the suicide of her father, which saw her sister and her being put into foster care and raised as a ward of the state.

The dark underbelly of Detroit offers a sinister backdrop to Nora’s search for truth, and a stark contrast to her Vancouver home. For a reader from a small remote country town, this setting was a huge eye-opener to me. With an industrial crisis hanging over the city, bringing high unemployment, drugs, violence, hopelessness and crime, Detroit seemed like a scary and joyless place to me. As soon as Nora starts digging into her father’s past, threatening to unearth some skeletons, she is attracting the attention of some very dangerous people, which sees her having to go on the run and fight for her life.

I was happy to see that Nora, despite her lost superpower, was still the brash, abrasive, badass character I had been so enamoured with in Kama’s first book. She also hasn’t lost her self-deprecating humour I had enjoyed so much. Whilst Nora does her best to keep everyone at arms’ length, including her readers, she is an irresistible protagonist. However, I felt that there was a link missing between Kamal’s first novel and this one, as the story makes a huge jump forward in time to a point where I felt that I had perhaps missed another book. Nora’s and Brazuca’s stories don’t tie together well in this one, and it all felt slightly disjointed to me. I also felt it more difficult to connect to the element of organised crime and gangland activity, which was so alien to me and did not have the same emotional pull as Nora’s first quest, of rescuing a child she had given up for adoption at birth. However, as Nora discovers some pieces of her parents’ past that put everything she has ever thought into doubt, I felt myself getting more intrigued.

Whilst I felt it a bit harder to connect to all the different characters in It All Falls Down than in Eyes Like Mine, and desperately missed Nora’s faithful companion Whisper, I still enjoyed this  plucky character and look forward to finding out more about her in the next book in the series. As a fair warning to readers, I feel that this book would not work well as a stand-alone novel and highly recommend reading the first book in the series before delving into this storyline. 

Thank you to Edelweiss and William Morrow for the free electronic copy of this novel and for giving me the opportunity to provide an honest review.

Book Review: WHITE LIES by Lucy Dawson

Title: White Lies

Author: Lucy Dawson
Read: June 2018

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟

Book Description:

Alexandra Inglis is a respected family doctor, trusted by her patients to keep their most intimate secrets. And if sometimes the boundaries between duty and desire blur… well, she's only human.

But when Alex oversteps a line with Jonathan, one of her patients, she knows she's gone too far. Jonathan is obsessive, and to get what he wants he will tear Alex's world apart - threatening not only her career but her marriage and family too.

Soon Alex finds she's capable of doing almost anything to keep hold of her perfect life, as it begins to spin dangerously out of her control… 

My musings:

White Lies is the perfect example of ordinary people making stupid decisions and having to deal with the consequences – all wrapped up in a deliciously evil and utterly addictive mystery! Alexandra Inglis, a respected GP, wife and mother of two, wakes in a hotel room in Ibiza to find a stranger next to her in bed. To her horror, she discovers that the young man is not only over twenty years her junior, but he is also a patient of hers, and the son of clients of her GP surgery. She has made a terrible mistake, and one that may cost her her marriage, her career and the respect and trust of the whole community ...

I admit that I struggled with the beginning of this book, mainly because I felt a strong antipathy towards Alex. Whilst I would normally be able to make allowances for her grave slip in judgment, I felt disturbed by the fact that her one-night stand involved a teenage boy and envisaged how angry I would be if this had been my own child. As a health professional, I was horrified about her betrayal of trust that her position as GP bestowed upon her, whether she was drunk at the time or not. So it took me a little while to calm my inner tiger and let myself get swept up in the story, but I am so glad I did!

White Lies gradually unfolds through the POVs of several characters, including the “he said – she said” account Alex and Jonathan give about their sexual encounter. Alex claims that she was too drunk at the time to be aware of Jonathan’s identity, whilst Jonathan alleges that they had been having an affair ever since Alex treated him for a sporting injury in her doctor’s surgery a few months ago. Who is telling the truth, and who is lying? As each and every character tells their own version of the story, my head was spinning with the possibilities – I love well-written stories with unreliable characters, and this one really messed with my mind! After coming up with and discarding several possibilities, I was still stunned when it came to the final reveal (although I had had my suspicions). This was such a dark, wicked tale! Although I usually struggle with stories featuring a bunch of unlikeable characters – and be assured that this dysfunctional bunch is far from being warm and fuzzy – White Lies was so well written and its plot such a cleverly spun web of lies and deceit that I found it utterly unputdownable. The involvement of social media added a very contemporary feel to a story that could have played out at any time in history, with an age old theme of fatal attraction – but who was the perpetrator, and who was the victim? 

Summary:

I loved Dawson’s writing style and will be putting her other books on my tbr list ASAP. I highly recommend White Lies to lovers of dark and twisty psychological thrillers that mess with your mind. Strongly character driven, this book will propel you into the minds of some very disturbed characters – it utterly consumed me from the moment I thought: “Hang on, he is telling a completely different story than she is!” and I could not get enough of it until the final reveal. Well done, Mrs Dawson!

If you liked this book and are looking for another twisty psychological thriller with an unreliable narrator, you may also like:

 He Said / She Said by Erin Kelly

 The Memory Watcher by Minka Kent

 Sometimes I Lie by Alice Feeney

 Lie With Me by Sabine Durrant

 The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware

 I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh

 Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn