Watching You by Lisa Jewell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
You’re back home after four years working abroad, new husband in tow.
You’re keen to find a place of your own. But for now you’re crashing in your big brother’s spare room.
That’s when you meet the man next door.
He’s the head teacher at the local school. Twice your age. Extraordinarily attractive. You find yourself watching him.
All the time.
But you never dreamed that your innocent crush might become a deadly obsession.
Or that someone is watching you.
Well constructed and intricately plotted novel with a creepy voyeristic flavour that keeps you going until the end. Nosey neighbours, bored housewives, slightly biopila resident all come together in this clever story of tragedy, lust, paranoia and revenge.
It opens up (as so many of this genre do) with the body of a woman murdered in her kitchen with a very convenient clue to the possible murderer at the scene. It’s all too clean to be the real murderer and so the story begins to unfold and lead the reader on many red herrings to throw the reader off the scent.
I did guess who the murderer was but not the reasons behind until almost the end so Lisa Jewell did well to keep the secret almost to the end.
Enjoyable read, lively short chapters that kept the pace moving forward well. Just enough information on the characters to keep the story alive and believable. A recommended read - 4 stars
Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell
She was fifteen, her mother's golden girl.
She had her whole life ahead of her.
And then, in the blink of an eye, Ellie was gone.
Ten years on, Laurel has never given up hope of finding Ellie. And then she meets a charming and charismatic stranger who sweeps her off her feet.
But what really takes her breath away is when she meets his nine-year-old daughter.
Because his daughter is the image of Ellie.
Now all those unanswered questions that have haunted Laurel come flooding back.
What really happened to Ellie? And who still has secrets to hide?
I haven't read a Lisa Jewell book for some time, but the books I have read by her have been completely different. I was excited to read a book of a different genre by her and to see if she was able to adapt to a different genre.
This story if about Laurel Mack, her daughter went missing ten years ago. She never did find out what happened to her and has never given up hope of finding some clues. One day she meets a man in a cafe, after they hit things off she discovers he has a daughter, who is about 9 and looks the spitting image of the daughter she lost.
After time goes on Laurel begins to think there is more to her relationship and the coincidence of Poppy, the daughter of Floyd (the man she is seeing). She begins to do a bit of research of her own.
I found the story had good pace and I wanted to pick it up to finish it. I thought I had guessed the ending early on in the story, and although I hadn't I wasn't far from the ending of the book and that is why I have given this 4* and not 5*.
Overall I really enjoyed this book and will be reading other new Lisa Jewell books in the future.
