Joined in 2023 
82 
63 About this deal
When Frankie gets the call from Sophie’s brother, Daniel, that his sister's remains have been found, he asks Frankie to come home and help him find out what happened to her all those years ago. If I see one more book with the review/tagline of "for fans of Gone Girl or The Girl on the Train" I am purposely going to not read it. So there. I had high hopes for this book. The synopsis sounded great and it being a British psychological thriller I couldn't wait till this book came up on my list. Sadly, this book did not live up to the hype. (It was chosen as a winner for Marie Claire fiction contest and Good Housekeeping also recommended it). Emilia Ward lives quietly in suburban London with her husband and two children. Just an ordinary wife and mother. But also a bestselling crime writer. When she starts writing her tenth Detective Miranda Moody novel, however, life takes a frightening turn: an incident straight out of one of her novels occurs in real life. Just an unsettling coincidence, she thinks. Until it happens again. Then someone she knows dies exactly like a victim in the book she’s still writing . . . The major problem I have with The Sisters is that it reads like a creative writing task, and one that was rushed to meet a deadline. To make matters worse, for the first few chapters I was convinced I’d been reading a teenage novel and only a sporadic use of the F word reassured me that it had not been the case (although these days you can’t tell). The juvenile voices of the protagonists and the nature of the intertwined relations of all the housemates of Beatrice’s house turned, what should have been ‘tension’ into a twisted sixth form drama: girl inadvertently causes the death of her twin- girl meets another twin and attempts to rebuild the bond she had lost- girl moves in with the twins- girl obsesses first with the female twin then also the male twin- another flatmate is in love with the female twin- the female twin obsesses with her male twin… you get the drift. As the walls close in around her, Una fears she’ll end up just like the other girls . . . The Couple at No. 9 (2021)
I've read a lot of books with similar themes recently but this one definitely stood out for me. I think that it benefits from the "Broadchurch" effect as that's what it reminded me of. Not the story but because the setting of a small seaside holiday town, out of season and full of interesting characters with secrets to keep, really turns this into a first rate dark and atmospheric psychological suspense. Highly recommended. This will appeal to any fans of psychological dramas and thrillers, especially those with damaged characters and a plot that has you trying to work out the twists you know are coming. A great read and 4 huge stars from me!Sophie spent a lot of time at Frankie's parents pink hotel and came to be fond of Frankie's Dad. Fatherless, she craved a male role model in her life and Frankie's Dad was always kind to her, letting her borrow books from him etc. When they are sixteen, both girls develop a crush on the same handsome local boy, Jason.
I also felt there were lots of plot points which didn't add up. Why would Frankie remember someone posting her the dog tags if she sent them to herself? Why did Mia know a crying baby would be an effective scare tactic if she didn't know about the miscarriages? Did remains actually wash up on the beach? Why would the police just accept the absolutely mental and improbable story offered by Daniel et al and there be no consequences for faking a death? Really enjoyed this book and finished it in a day. I haven’t felt that way about a book for a long time. Thank you.” Forensics indicate the bodies have been buried at least thirty years, which leads the police to question the cottage’s former owner – Saffy’s grandmother, Rose. Add to that some extraordinarily fascinating characters, a really clever and intelligent plot, some perfect scene setting and a distinct tendency to sneak things up on you, this was a really terrific read. There are quite a few novels around this year that focus on siblings and family dynamic, this is one of the best I’ve read for sheer depth of perception and I really do highly recommend it. Local Girl Missing has all these elements. Perhaps not so many surprising twists, but the book definitely has the paranoid feeling that makes you think something is wrong thanks to all the things that happen to Francesca. If it's something I like it's when you start to question the main character, is she really so innocent, is she mad or is someone really out to get her? And, what really happened to Sophie Coller eighteen years earlier?She notices me assessing her earlobes. ‘I made them myself,’ she says, fingering the left one, the yellow one, delicate and daisy-shaped, self-consciously. ‘I’m Beatrice, by the way.’ Sorry it’s so soggy. Not a good idea to be dishing out flyers in the rain, is it?’ She doesn’t wait for me to answer. ‘You don’t have to buy anything, you can come along and browse, bring some friends.’ Her voice is silky, as sunny as her smile. She has a hint of an accent that I can’t quite place. Somewhere up north, maybe Scottish. I’ve never been very good at placing accents. I enjoyed this book immensely. It's told in the present by Frankie and in the past through Sophie's diary. The two are well distinguished in style, Frankie being dramatic, filled with simile, tending towards paranoia while Sophie's diary is more youthfully breathless though often dark in content. What I particularly loved was the clever way the author gradually altered my perception of the world they'd both inhabited twenty years ago. An excellent and unusual story. But before they can begin to heal their fragile marriage, Libby makes some disturbing discoveries about the house. And soon the peace and isolation begin to feel threatening. How alone are they? Why does she feel watched?
Great Deal 
New Comment