Author: Helen Cooper
Publication: Putnam, trade paper, 2023
Genre: Psychological suspense
Setting: Present-day Britain
My Impression: This is a fast-paced, read-in-one-sitting novel of psychological suspense in which the main character, Lucy, is a sympathetic mother of two whose friendly gesture in the teachers’ lounge at work and subsequent curiosity precipitates a series of disastrous events. One is tempted to agree with her husband that the picture is not really of Scott and certainly Lucy’s determination to find out the truth is over the top but when Scott returns from his business trip and acts suspiciously, she realizes the situation cannot be ignored.
“Secondly,” Adam continued, “you don’t know the woman in the news is the same one as in that photo. The Maldives thing might’ve just made a link in your brain. If they look alike, and there’s the coincidental thing with the location . . . .”Lucy is an outgoing drama teacher but she doesn’t have a lot of close friends and her parents emigrated to New Zealand years ago so Cora and Scott are very important to her. The tag line of the book is "How far would you go to keep a friend's secret?" but that is not the issue for Lucy although it may be for others. She is desperate for Cora not to be hurt so she needs to know if what she saw was true. Her anguish as she delves into Scott’s secrets is real and she can’t stop asking questions. This is kind of my problem with psychological suspense – when I see the protagonist start taking risks (looking for Scott’s boarding passes to see whether he really went to Tokyo or pressing the work colleague to share the photo in question), it starts stressing me out or makes me mad anyone would be so foolhardy or both.
Lucy nodded, fiddling with the edge of the duvet. It might not be her. Might not be him. She kept chanting it in her head, hoping it would stick while knowing, deep down, that only something concrete, definitive could make her truly believe it.
There are many secrets and twists in this novel which would make it a good beach read if it weren’t 18 degrees outside! It’s not as dramatic than Shari LaPena’s books, of which I have read three recently, but she focuses on fewer characters so it is easier to see their development or deterioration. I would describe the book as enjoyable if you come across it but not memorable.
Source: Library. This is my first book of the year for Carol’s Cloak and Dagger Challenge.
5 comments:
This does sound like a page turner. And now I'm wondering if one of the twists in the book is that Adam is somehow in on the conspiracy too? I guess I've gotten to the point that I always suspect the one least likely to be a suspect because my husband always thinks that is true.
Well it sounds like Scott was up to no good. When a suspense plot gets risky for the protagonist then it can stress me out too.
I envy you your reading speed. I have never been able to finish a book in one sitting. This one sounds very suspenseful; sometimes that works for me, sometimes not.
I agree with Tracy...can't imagine what it must be like to finish a book in one sitting. I can't even do that with a novella anymore - if I ever could. Sounds like a real page-turner for sure.
I have no willpower when I am reading. I get in bed and say I'll read one chapter, and then I look up and it's 3 am. I bitterly regret it when the alarm goes off at 7 am! This was not sufficiently good to warrant staying up so late but it certainly distracted me enough not to turn off the light!
One of my New Year's resolutions is to go to bed earlier and not press the snooze alarm quite so many times.
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