Description
Seventeen-year-old Tessa, dubbed a 'Black-Eyed Susan' by the media, became famous for being the only victim to survive the vicious attack of a serial killer. Her testimony helped to put a dangerous criminal behind bars - or so she thought.
Now, decades later the black-eyed susans planted outside Tessa's bedroom window seem to be a message from a killer who should be safely in prison.
Haunted by fragmented memories of the night she was attacked and terrified for her own teenage daughter's safety, can Tessa uncover the truth about the killer before it's too late?
Now, decades later the black-eyed susans planted outside Tessa's bedroom window seem to be a message from a killer who should be safely in prison.
Haunted by fragmented memories of the night she was attacked and terrified for her own teenage daughter's safety, can Tessa uncover the truth about the killer before it's too late?
Review
It seems as if every other book I read now uses the flashback technique to tell the story. In the case of this book the device was used to pretty good effect, however, I did find I forgot some of what was happening as it constantly flipped back and forth.
The other thing that happened is that I could not imagine Tessa as a grownup for the first part of the book as even in the present day she was reliving what had happened to her. When her own child was referred to, I got confused, until I fixed in my mind grown up Tessa now and child Tessie in the past.
It was interesting how the book used the new advances in DNA to investigate the original murders. At the moment this is in the news and so I found this aspect of the book to be interesting and topical.
There was a lot of tension in the book especially when Tessa begins to dig. I certainly felt the tension grow from around half way through the book, so much so that I just had to know what had happened back in 1995. Did the real killer get put on death row? What part did Lydia the childhood friend play in all of this. This led me to devour the rest of the book in one sitting.
For me it wasn't quite as good as Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train in it's delivery. Some of this I think is the "shorthand" used by the characters, as the book is set in the USA and some references/products didn't translate too well.
I'm giving this book 4 out of 5 stars.
My thanks go to Netgalley for a copy of this book to review.
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