Rating: 4/5 StarsAuthor: Sharon Bolton
Available Formats: eBook, Paperback, Hardback
Publisher: St. Martin's Minotaur Books
Publication Date: 05-19-15 Pages: 368
Purchase ~ Amazon Add ~ Goodreads
In such a small community as the Falkland Islands, a missing child is unheard of. In such a dangerous landscape it can only be a terrible tragedy, surely...
When another child goes missing, and then a third, it’s no longer possible to believe that their deaths were accidental, and the villagers must admit that there is a murderer among them. Even Catrin Quinn, a damaged woman living a reclusive life after the accidental deaths of her own two sons a few years ago, gets involved in the searches and the speculation.
And suddenly, in this wild and beautiful place that generations have called home, no one feels safe and the hysteria begins to rise.
But three islanders—Catrin, her childhood best friend, Rachel, and her ex-lover Callum—are hiding terrible secrets. And they have two things in common: all three of them are grieving, and none of them trust anyone, not even themselves.
In Little Black Lies, her most shocking and engaging suspense novel to date, Sharon Bolton will keep the reader guessing until the very last page.
When another child goes missing, and then a third, it’s no longer possible to believe that their deaths were accidental, and the villagers must admit that there is a murderer among them. Even Catrin Quinn, a damaged woman living a reclusive life after the accidental deaths of her own two sons a few years ago, gets involved in the searches and the speculation.
And suddenly, in this wild and beautiful place that generations have called home, no one feels safe and the hysteria begins to rise.
But three islanders—Catrin, her childhood best friend, Rachel, and her ex-lover Callum—are hiding terrible secrets. And they have two things in common: all three of them are grieving, and none of them trust anyone, not even themselves.
In Little Black Lies, her most shocking and engaging suspense novel to date, Sharon Bolton will keep the reader guessing until the very last page.
My So-Called Review:
Little Black Lies is a prime example in why I’m glad I don’t give up on books. A lot of people find my habit of always finishing books to be bizarre, why would you want to read something you’re not enjoying? My main answer to that is that I actually like most everything I read and really read up on a book’s description & reviews before I dig into it. But we aren’t all going to love every book that we read and when I start to feel that way for some reason I have this compelling need to read on and see if maybe the story gets better but mostly it’s to find out how the story will end. This happened to me with Little Black Lies, I just wasn’t connecting to the opening chapters. It was really puzzling to me too because this was a book that I had wanted to read for a VERY long time and it fit the mold perfectly for the types of books I love to read. I think it all boiled down to bad timing, I recently read 3 very fast past crime thrillers & I think the switching of pace caught me off guard & left me feeling not connected to this story. This is a slow, dark, psychological thriller (which are my fav) but like I said, I don’t think I was prepared for that switch in pace. If I’d been like most other readers I would have put this book down after a certain page but I didn’t, because I can’t and OMG I am sooooo glad I’m stubborn like that because otherwise I would have missed out on one hell of a whopper!!! This book was fantastic! Just be prepared for a slower start and you’ll really appreciate it in the end :)
This book is really split up into three sections, each one being told in first person POV by one of its three main characters. I loved this style for this book, it worked perfectly and we’re never given duplicate information when the POV switches, instead gaps are filled in pertaining to certain events as the story moves along. The first section is told through Catrin’s POV; three years ago her two sons were killed in a tragic accident, an accident that was caused by her best friend Rachel. Catrin has never recovered from her grief and lives a sad and lonely life, obsessed with a plan to carry out revenge. The second section is told through Callum’s POV, he’s a soldier who fought in the Falklands war and suffers from PTSD as well as some pretty scary flashbacks. It’s evident by how much he tries to help Catrin that the two have some sort of history together but it’s not initially clear what the history entails. This is where the story really picked up for me, I really enjoyed Callum’s character and felt connected to him in a way that I didn’t with Catrin. He’s just such a good guy and really wants to help figure out what’s happening to all these missing boys. The third part of the story is told from Rachel’s POV & oh boy, some of her chapters were hard to read! When you initially see her through Catrin’s eyes you don’t like her, Rachel still has everything while Catrin lost everything because of her. But once you’re inside Rachel’s head you see how tortured she is knowing that it was her negligence that led to the death of her best friend’s children.
Since the death of Catrin’s sons several boys have gone missing from the islands. Most of the locals believe these disappearances were due to tragic, unrelated accidents but when a cruise ship docks on the island and another child goes missing questions start to arise as to whether or not something more sinister is going on. Cullum is the first person to suspect there may be a killer among them and so he leads Catrin on a search for answers that ends up leading them to more questions. When one of the missing boys is found just as Rachel’s young son goes missing, many locals start looking at and pointing fingers at Catrin, could this all have been some elaborate plot of revenge??
This book is really split up into three sections, each one being told in first person POV by one of its three main characters. I loved this style for this book, it worked perfectly and we’re never given duplicate information when the POV switches, instead gaps are filled in pertaining to certain events as the story moves along. The first section is told through Catrin’s POV; three years ago her two sons were killed in a tragic accident, an accident that was caused by her best friend Rachel. Catrin has never recovered from her grief and lives a sad and lonely life, obsessed with a plan to carry out revenge. The second section is told through Callum’s POV, he’s a soldier who fought in the Falklands war and suffers from PTSD as well as some pretty scary flashbacks. It’s evident by how much he tries to help Catrin that the two have some sort of history together but it’s not initially clear what the history entails. This is where the story really picked up for me, I really enjoyed Callum’s character and felt connected to him in a way that I didn’t with Catrin. He’s just such a good guy and really wants to help figure out what’s happening to all these missing boys. The third part of the story is told from Rachel’s POV & oh boy, some of her chapters were hard to read! When you initially see her through Catrin’s eyes you don’t like her, Rachel still has everything while Catrin lost everything because of her. But once you’re inside Rachel’s head you see how tortured she is knowing that it was her negligence that led to the death of her best friend’s children.
Since the death of Catrin’s sons several boys have gone missing from the islands. Most of the locals believe these disappearances were due to tragic, unrelated accidents but when a cruise ship docks on the island and another child goes missing questions start to arise as to whether or not something more sinister is going on. Cullum is the first person to suspect there may be a killer among them and so he leads Catrin on a search for answers that ends up leading them to more questions. When one of the missing boys is found just as Rachel’s young son goes missing, many locals start looking at and pointing fingers at Catrin, could this all have been some elaborate plot of revenge??
Little Black Lies has so many twists and turns that I NEVER saw coming! I was convinced that I’d figured it all out halfway through the book. All the evidence thereafter even lined up correctly with my theory so I raced through, rather smugly, thinking I knew exactly where the story was headed but OMG was I ever wrong! Sharon Bolton lands one power house of a punch when it comes to revealing a twist and just when you’re starting to catch your breath, she lands another one, and another one and then concludes her novel with one of the most shocking final paragraphs I’ve ever read! My head was spinning so fast while my fingers we’re gripped so tightly to my Kindle my knuckles turned white! Sometimes when a book has too many twists it all starts becoming a little over the top and unbelievable, this never happened in Little Black Lies, each reveal made perfect sense and seemed totally plausible, until she pulled the rug out from under me again of course :) This is a novel I would highly recommended for anyone who loves psychological thrillers, but more than a thriller this is also a study of what happens to the human character when it’s surrounded by loss, grief, guilt and revenge therefore making this an excellent choice for Book Clubs as well.
Thank you to the publishers, St. Martin’s Minotaur Books and to NetGalley for providing me with a complimentary, advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review!
0 comments:
Post a Comment