Source: Review copy
Publication: 6th September 2018 in e-book from Headline
Pp: 368
ISBN-13: 978-1472253736
On her own wedding night, beautiful and complicated Evie White leaps off a cliff to her death.
What drove her to commit this terrible act? It’s left to her best friend and her husband to unravel the sinister mystery.
Following a twisted trail of clues leading to Evie’s darkest secrets, they begin to realize they never knew the real Evie at all…
This is the story of Rebecca and Evie and how well you know your best friend. Told in short chapters, the story moves between past and present tense and between Rebecca and Evie. Rebecca’s story is a first person narrative, Evie is 3rd person.
Because the chapters are so short, it is always easy to know where you are in the story line and whose chapter it is.
Rebecca is the plainer one, more homely, and as loyal as any golden retriever. Evie is quixotic, beautiful and a bit wild, but she has chosen Rebecca as her friend and the two are as close as can be.
As the book opens a young woman is standing on a cliff top wearing her wedding dress and then she throws herself off the cliff down to the sea and the rocks below. What has led Evie to this tragic point? Her bridegroom Richard is distraught, as is her best friend Rebecca.
What led Evie to this point is dealt with in a series of flashbacks, showing us Evie’s childhood, her meeting with Rebecca at university and how they became friends. We learn quite a lot about Evie’s home life and why she is quite so insecure.
This helps us to understand who she is and what she has gone through. But just when you think you have a grasp of what is going on, Blackhurst changes things up and leads your mind in a different direction. This is a book that twists and turns until you are no longer sure what the answers are.
The characters are well drawn if not always likeable, and the drama is kept pacy and with loads of tension. This is a devious plot line with a dark edge that will keep you guessing.
I enjoyed this book and read it pretty much in one sitting, though I did eventually work out what was going on.
Verdict: Perfect holiday reading for lovers of psychological thrillers full of secrets.
About Jenny Blackhurst
Jenny Blackhurst grew up in Shropshire where she still lives with her husband and children. Growing up she spent hours reading and talking about crime novels – writing her own seemed like natural progression. Inspired by the emotions she felt around her own son’s birth, How I Lost You was Jenny’s thrilling debut crime novel and The Night She Died is her 4th crime thriller.
Follow Jenny on Twitter @JennyBlackhurst
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