I really wasn’t sure about this book, although I did finish it because I wanted to find out what happened. It was packaged as a psychological thriller but the twists were predictable. The narrator was obsessed with her own motivations and emotions; as she wasn’t a very interesting person, this didn’t make for an interesting read! I liked the premise, though. The story is set in a village, where Gabrielle, a one-hit wonder who has never replicated her debut novel’s success, is a housekeeper for the vicar. She is still not over the death of her best friend Madeleine twenty years ago. When Gabrielle meets a young man, Simon, she lets him stay in her house and ends up revealing secrets which could bring notoriety to her quiet life.

There is a strong literary theme which will appeal to readers who enjoy discussing classic books and who are curious about writers’ lives. I’m not sure it contributed much to the story, however, but if you took it out there wouldn’t be a lot of dialogue left. The writing style was oddly contradictory. Sometimes it was marvellously crafted, but there were annoying repetitions of words and phrases. Every few pages someone grinned, shrugged, or winced. Moreover, the language was quite old-fashioned, which seemed strange in a book set in our contemporary era. Even the character in his early 20s, Simon, spoke as if he were much older.

In summary, there was something compelling about this book but I didn’t especially enjoy it.

Published by Louise Walters Books, 2019.