Category: Mystery

I was able to read In the Clearing thanks to Secret Readers, and this is a book I will definitely recommend.

We have two clear voices telling the majority of the story. There’s a young girl called Amy who we can see is part of a cult and she recounts some of the abuses and brainwashing she endures at the hands of those she calls family. And then there’s Freya, a woman who hints at a traumatic past, who lives with her young son Billy. A familiar face from Freya’s past pops up, and somehow we know these events are connected but aren’t sure how.

As the story progresses I was quite horrified by the details we’re given about life in The Clearing and the way this group is organised. This is not comfortable reading.

Freya herself is not a particularly easy character to empathise with. Abrasive and, at times, her own worst enemy. However, when her son disappears we start to sense there is more to come.

What I was struck by was the way in which the various strands come together. I genuinely did not see some of these links, and the ending gave me serious goosebumps as I can only imagine where this might go.

 

Perhaps there’s a small part of me that wants to intensely dislike one of our main characters, but once we learn what she’s actually done there was a part of me that shook my head in admiration and felt rather pleased for her, even though she’s not someone I found particularly likeable.

The construction of this book was so interesting.

We begin with a prologue that tells us how everything is going to end. A security man in an office building hears what he thinks is a series of gunshots. Nobody else is meant to be in the office, so he immediately calls the police. They don’t take him seriously…until they arrive to find an elevator with four people inside – three of whom are dead – and a lot of blood. Of course we have questions!

The focus then shifts to thirty odd hours previously where the four people found in the lift arrive at this building for what they think is a training exercise…an escape room task to help them bond. It sounds a ridiculous premise for a Friday evening, but as we delve into their moments in the lift and learn about them/their work on Wall Street for a highly successful company, it doesn’t sound quite so unfeasible.

Alongside the account of the time in the lift, which slowly uncovers the animosity between these characters, we have the narrative of another worker in the company – Sarah Hall – who joined them not long before this event. We are shown some of the daily life of such high-profile workers. It is brutal. None of the characters we meet – including Sarah – are particularly likeable. They may not have always been so selfish, but this environment brings out the worst in them. Without batting an eyelid they will spend thousands, because to them it is nothing. Vacuous, greedy and ready to stab someone in the back without hesitation these people are not people we are encouraged to feel sympathy for.

Yet for some on the periphery of this experience, this environment is not about money and selfish desires being fulfilled. Rather, it is an intellectual challenge…but such naivety cannot last in this environment.

As we slowly piece together the reality of the elevator setting and the background to each of these characters I found myself desperately hoping that someone would come out of this looking remotely good. While there is a definite murkiness to this resolution, I found myself feeling it could be justified. And for me that juxtaposition between what we know to be right and what we convince ourselves is acceptable lies at the heart of this fast-paced thriller.

 

Being a little squeamish I was unsure how I’d cope with the graphic violence talked about here. The subject matter was never going to be fun…and I wondered why I’d picked this up. However, I’m pleased I did.

There’s a fine line between graphic violence for illustrating an aspect of character/plot and titillation. Maybe some of the details being absent would have made very little difference, but I certainly didn’t feel we were meant to find anything appealing about what was put in front of us.

The story is one spanning a number of years. It focuses on the disappearance of Julia Correll and the effects on her family. We see, years later, another young girl disappear and there seem to be similarities in the cases. Julia’s sister, Claire, is a key character -and we see her life unravel in front of us as she realises the extent to which she has been manipulated by someone close to her.

Few could imagine being in the kind of scenario described here. The developing relationship between Claire and her surviving sister was a positive aspect of a rather grim story. Not one to enjoy, but I certainly admired the construction of this.

 

If there’s one thing Sophie Hannah can do well, it’s create a scenario where you know something is going to be revealed to shock you…and be totally amazed when we see what happens.

Beth is a fairly typical mother of teenagers-busy, a little stressed and trying to squeeze things into the time she has available. When we first meet Beth she’s taking her son to a football game, via a detour to the last known address of her ex-friend Flora. She watches the house and sees her ex-friend in the driveway, calling to her children. Nothing unusual there…except when the children come out of the car they look exactly the same as they did twelve years ago.

Now, the moment we see this my brain went into overdrive trying to work out what on earth was happening. Was Beth mad? Was there some weird supernatural element to the story? Could there be any rational explanation for this sight?

Many people might have walked away from such a scenario, figuring that there was a reason for the two families not keeping in contact. Thankfully Beth is a little more dogged than most. No matter how crazy she feels, she has an intuition that there’s more to this story.

Thus starts one of the strangest books I’ve read in a while.

There’s a lot about this story that makes no rational sense. Few people would pursue this trying to work out what has happened. Once we start to get answers drip-fed to us I couldn’t fathom why someone would even contemplate such action, and when the true extent of the subterfuge is revealed I felt somewhat sickened.

While we might feel somewhat ambivalent towards Beth, by the end of the story we can see why she does pursue the truth and perhaps even applaud her actions.

 

Thank you C.J. Tudor for yet another compulsive read. It has left me rather chilled, but once I started this I was desperate to know how everything fitted together.

Our story begins with Gabe travelling home, worried he’ll be late. He sees a rusty car being driven erratically in front of him. In the rear window he sees a young girl…his daughter Izzy…but then he loses sight of the car. Calling home he’s met with the awful news that his wife and daughter have been murdered. So, who was in the car?

The next time we see Gabe is years later. He’s taken to driving up and down the motorway looking for clues as to the whereabouts of his daughter. He is no longer a person of interest, but nobody has any clues as to what might have happened.

Without giving too much away, we are then shown a number of incidents that seemingly have no connection. We see Fran and her daughter, Alice, on the run. We have service station worker Katie struggling to make ends meet after the death of her father. We have the discovery of a car in a pond, with a body inside. And we have a number of references to a young girl asleep, a beach and pebbles…and references to The Other People.

What then follows is a twisting turning read, with just enough hints to have us start making links. There’s mystery aplenty and a borderline menace that had the hairs on the back of my neck tingling.

Once I finally reached the end I felt wrung out. So many secrets; so much sadness. Throughout, there was a sense of good people making bad choices…but I guess how we act in those trying times is what defines us. I just pray that I’ll never be in that kind of situation!

 

Yet another explosive read in the series…

Having settled into their home, it’s no surprise that some still resist the presence of Gwen, Sam and the kids. There’s plenty of comments and little incidents that are designed to make them leave. Gwen resists this, determined to give her kids some form of normal but we know this is always going to be tricky.

When Gwen is asked to investigate the disappearance of a young man called Remy, nothing could have prepared her for what she gets caught up in. Her investigations lead her to a young woman who has tried to escape a cult…but they’re tracking her and things quickly become awkward.

When Sam and Connor are abducted by the cult we know they’re getting reckless. Something big is planned but Gwen is determined to do whatever she has to in order to protect her family.

What follows is big. There’s lots of switching views so we see the outside picture alongside the experience of those inside the compound. Part of me feared where this would go, but it had me on the edge. I feared the outcome at the same time as being desperate to see things resolved, however that was done.

The question for Gwen and her family is…what next?

 

‘The dropper is lowered. The child turns his head toward it, toward the medicine, seeking it. He remembers it.
He opens his mouth. He drinks.’

The closing image of Long Bright River is just one of the images that will haunt me some time in the future. The ‘medicine’ being administered to this newborn is an opiate substitute. From the outset this child, like so many others, will show signs of addiction and need care to withdraw successfully. He may or may not make it. So many do not.

From the synopsis I knew this was not going to be a comfortable read. What I wasn’t prepared for was just how powerful I found the story.

The story focuses predominantly on two sisters, Mickey and Kacey. Brought up by their grandmother after their mother overdoses, they live in a fairly deprived area of Philadelphia. The sisters have the same opportunities but take very different paths. Mickey becomes a police officer, patrolling her home streets, looking out for those who live to feed their addiction. Kacey is one of the many in the grips of addiction, working the streets to earn what she needs for her next fix. This part of the story, and the slow reveal of the nature of their relationship over time, would have kept me engaged on its own.

However, in the course of her work Mickey starts to realise that many of the girls working the streets are being killed. The initial response is that they’ve overdosed, but the signs point to a killer on the loose. When Mickey learns that Kacey has been missing for a month, she fears what may happen next. And so begins the other compelling part of the story: the police procedural showing the investigation and the thriller as we start to realise that the person responsible may be a lot closer to Mickey and her role than you’d dare imagine.

Long Bright River focuses on so many unpalatable truths. There’s no happy-ever-after ending, but the story and its characters certainly grip you from the outset and will not relinquish that grip easily. A powerful read.