Tuesday, May 7, 2019

She Lies In Wait by Gytha Lodge

Fourteen-year-old Aurora Jackson has been waiting for 30 years for her body to be found. Once it is, old wounds are re-opened and all five of the other teenagers who were with her that night are now prime suspects in her murder. Was it her older sister Topaz? Or Coralie, Topaz's jealous best friend? More likely it was one of the boys, Benner, Conner or Brett, and no one seems to suspect the tomboy, Jojo. DCI Jonah Sheens is on the case, but there's just one problem - he was slightly older than the kids at the time but still knew them, perhaps a little too well. The five characters are still a tight-knit group, protecting each other's secrets even as they've gone on to live successful lives. The book alternates back and forth between that fateful night and the present day investigation, and we also get a good look at the rest of DCI Sheens investigative team, as this is presumably the first book in a series. I like what I see, and look forward to reading the next one.

Friday, May 3, 2019

Watching You by Lisa Jewell

Where Watching You starts off and where it ends are in two completely different places, but you can be sure to feel the hair on your neck raised the whole time as you wonder "who is watching me?" A quaint street in Bristol where neighbors know each other (and watch each other obsessively, apparently) becomes the scene of a grizzly murder. We don't know who is dead, but the young Joey Mullen is a prime suspect due to her infatuation with the owner of the house, a married Tom Fitzwilliam, and the fact that the police found one of her boot tassels on scene. As we alternate between present day police interviews and scenes from the past few weeks as Joey and Tom get to know each other, the image of what might have happened starts to crystallize, until new details emerge and it gets all blurry again. This is truly one of those books that will leave you uncertain until the very end.