Author: Flynn Berry
Series: -
Genres: Mystery, Thriller, Crime
Publisher: Orion Publishing Group
Release: 26th January, 2017
Source: ARC
Pages: 240
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BLURB:
When Nora takes the train from London to visit her sister in the countryside, she expects to find her waiting at the station, or at home cooking dinner. But when she walks into Rachel’s familiar house, what she finds is entirely different: her sister has been the victim of a brutal murder.
Stunned and adrift, Nora finds she can’t return to her former life. An unsolved assault in the past has shaken her faith in the police, and she can’t trust them to find her sister’s killer. Haunted by the murder and the secrets that surround it, Nora is under the harrow: distressed and in danger. As Nora’s fear turns to obsession, she becomes as unrecognizable as the sister her investigation uncovers.
A riveting psychological thriller and a haunting exploration of the fierce love between two sisters, the distortions of grief, and the terrifying power of the past, Under the Harrow marks the debut of an extraordinary new writer.
THE COPY OF THIS BOOK WAS PROVIDED BY PUBLISHERS FOR AN HONEST REVIEW.
EXPECTATIONS: I am so buried under the books I have purchased myself that I rarely now take ARCs but Orion publisher contacter about this book saying it is similar to Gillian Flynn writing and previously I have reviewed The Grownup from them so I naturally ended up saying yes.
THE WORLD: As it is the same with most crime books this book stays with the boundaries of our own world too. We are invited to United Kingdom in this story, to a small town most of the time. You know I have lived in UK previously and so reading about it was rather nostalgic for me. However, sometimes it made me think if somebody who never visited UK would be able to follow some of the details. Personally, I just lacked some description to be honest. Yes, we do have a world we are all familiar with and that in a way does not need much describing but not all of the readers have been in the small talking where action takes place or London for that matter and are familiar with everything author is mentioning. Other than that I think it was pretty basic world that we often see in crime books.
CHARACTERS: I was thinking for a bit before writing this review as to how many characters should I describe without risking spoilers. So I ended up with a conclusion that I will only talk about Nora. She is a sister of Rachel, woman that was killed, and is kinda unstable. Really, this is the first thing that comes to my mind. Maybe not even kinda but very unstable. Basically Nora finds Rachel dead in her house and police is trying to figure out what happened and who did it. In the meantime Nora is going off the grid and pretty much thinking anybody did it. But not even in a paranoid way, it was more of just really no common sense very illogical thinking. If you asked me I think Nora should have been locked up. And no I am not saying people with mental illness should be locked away. What Nora was thinking and planning...that was dangerous to people around her and anybody she gets obsessed with. I mean seriously. I cannot give you examples without spoiling so you just going to have to take my word for that but yeah...I greatly just purely disliked Nora. I have no idea if this was the intention of the author and if was then nice job but if not then in this case Nora was just well very unlikable and in no way I could relate to her.
ROMANCE: This point is very weird in the book. There are some one night stands that are actually hard to follow and you end up with whaaaat did she just slept with him? Also romance of Rachel...did I miss something and it was just crazy Nora or was romance antagonized in this book? Hmm.
GOOD: There were some really good ideas, I think this book is a debit novel of the author so it will always amazes me how people can have these sort of ideas straight away.
BAD: Unfortunately, these same ideas I just mentioned above were not developed further. If only the ending was done differently, I mean there was so so much potential but ending was just wrong. It was out of the blue and too fast and you end up again with whaaaaaat?
OVERALL: It was a crime books I agree but as a Gillian Flynn fan I would say comparison is wrong here. Gillian Flynn is a genius, the way she writes makes you hate and love characters at the same time. Flynn Berry however good is not yet there and so I would recommend this book to crime lovers but would ask you to not expect Gillian Flynn in it.
What do you think about UNDER THE HARROW?
