Back of the book :
When Jules Bright hears a knock on the door, the last person she expects to find is a detective bringing her the news she’s feared for the past three years.
Amelia Quentin is being released from prison.
Jules’s life is very different now to the one she’d know before Amelia shattered it completely. Knowing the girl is coming back, she needs to decide what to do. Friends and family gather round, fearing for Jules’s safety. They know that justice was never served ; every one of them wants to make the Quentin girl pay.
The Question is, what will Jules do; and which of them – she or Amelia – has most to fear ?
What I think :
The book begins with a family on holiday, (at this point we don’t know that it’s Amelia as a child on holiday with her parents) on a boat Cruiser, when the child, for no apparent reason, pushes the Mother overboard. We don’t find out until much later on in the book that the Mother doesn’t survive and exactly who it is. Fast forward sixteen years to Jules Bright opening the front door to former officer D.S Lawrence informing her that ‘Amelia Quentin’ is being released from prison. We don’t know how she is connected to Jules and her family, we just know that Jules is very upset by it.
The story then weaves back and forth from past to present to tell the story of what exactly happened and who ‘Amelia’ is.
I must admit I did have some trouble getting into this book at first, as the book is made up of ‘flashbacks’ it does get very confusing as to whether you are in past or present. Having said that though, once I did get used to the ‘time travel’ aspect of the book, I really did enjoy it. It was also really nice to be reintroduced to D.S Andrea Lawrence – Andee for short, from Susan’s earlier book – Behind Closed Doors, again.
As you would expect from a Susan Lewis novel there are many twists, turns and lots of intrigue. I found myself putting the book down, trying to figure out what was exactly going on. However that is no bad thing as I love a few cryptic clues to keep you on your toes !
You don’t find out how and why Jules is like she is now for quite a while into the book, but when you do you wonder quite just how she did survive everything that life threw at her. There was just one thing that I thought probably wouldn’t happen was the fact that Jules didn’t remember who Andee was when she first knocked on the door, they had spent so much time together previously, that i felt she would know her straight away.
This is very much as book about family and how you all stick together when the unthinkable happens.
I give this book 9/10
Published by Century on 25/02/16.
I purchased my copy from WHSmith £12.99.
Candys BookCase 