Skip to main content

Did you see Melody? - Sophie Hannah



Description

Pushed to breaking point, Cara Burrows abandons her home and family and escapes to a five-star spa resort she can't afford. Late at night, exhausted and desperate, she lets herself into her hotel room and is shocked to find it already occupied - by a man and a teenage girl.
A simple mistake on the part of the hotel receptionist - but Cara's fear intensifies when she works out that the girl she saw alive and well in the hotel room is someone she can't possibly have seen: the most famous murder victim in the country, Melody Chapa, whose parents are serving life sentences for her murder.
Cara doesn't know what to trust: everything she's read and heard about the case, or the evidence of her own eyes. Did she really see Melody?
And is she prepared to ask herself that question and answer it honestly if it means risking her own life?

Review

As I began to read this book I found I had no sympathy at all for Cara Burrows. Which was unfortunate as she is the main character in the book. All I could think of was her selfish attitude and how really stupid she seemed to be. So when she claims to have seen a girl whom she later finds to be a girl presumed murdered I really had little faith in her claims.

I have never read any of Sophie Hannah's books before and it struck me that her style had much in common with Agatha Christie. I now know that she did in fact write the first new Hercule Poirot mysteries since Agatha Christie's death. The book certainly has the feel of something that although set in the present day could well have been set in a Country House in the 1920s.

Large portions of the book are given over to Cara watching and reading material around the disappearance of Melody which I found a little heavy going. However, once the mystery was afoot so to speak, I did get caught up with the "whodunnit" aspect of the story.

Overall I think it was a clever  and unusual plot - just took a while to get going and for that reason I am giving the book 4 out of 5 stars. My thanks to Netgalley for an ARC to review.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Girl on the Train - Paula Hawkins

Description THE NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER. YOU DON'T KNOW HER. BUT SHE KNOWS YOU. Rear Window  meets  Gone Girl , in this exceptional and startling psychological thriller Review I must be one of the last people to read this book. I did apply for a review copy but unfortunately wasn't successful. I then waited for the book to come down in price which it didn't - so I decided I would buy it and read it straight away! I'm sure it will be a film and before anyone gives away what happens I felt I really needed to get it read, so it jumped the TBR queue. There is not much plot outline from the publisher as you can see in the description above, so there wasn't a lot to go on when I began to read the book. First of all the book jumps around date wise - past and present and also between the main characters. I did have a little trouble remembering who was who and which time frame we were in - but that soon settled down. I also had to re-read the beginning because I th...

The Second Chance Book Club - Stephanie Butland

I'm on the Blog Tour for this wonderful book today. Description Dear Ms Blythe We are dealing with an estate of which you may be a beneficiary. Please send any documents in your possession that relate to your birth and adoption. September is at her wits' end. There's never enough money to support her boyfriend and herself. September has nothing to look forward to. Then the letter comes. September has inherited a house from a great-aunt she never knew she had. It would make sense to sell it. But when sees the place - the orange gate, the garden, the tree, the bumblebee door knocker - she doesn't want to let it go. Not yet. Then the members of the book club arrive, and she begins to discover the story of the family she didn't know. And to make new friends. September feels safe here. But money alone can't bring contentment. September is just at the start of a journey full of surprises, shocks – and opportunities, if she's brave enough . . . Review As soon as I...

This Immaculate Body - Emma Van Straaten

Description ' From the very first page, Emma Van Straaten had me by the Hail Marys.  Obsessive, delusional, disastrous - but so intricately woven with heart, warmth and empathy. An impeccable debut from a rising talent ' ALICE SLATER 'An addictive deep-dive into the dark, throbbing heart of obsessive desire.  Baby Reindeer  meets  Convenience Store Woman '  KIRSTY LOGAN, author of  Now She Is Witch Alice has been cleaning Tom's flat every Wednesday for a year. With every smudge wiped from his coffee cup, every crease smoothed out in his bed, every multivitamin counted from the jar, Alice spirals deeper into infatuation. But as Alice prepares for the moment when they will finally meet face-to-face, she discovers that love might not be the cure she thought it was. . . This Immaculate Body  is a story of obsession, of the way women view the world and the ways that the world views them. As Alice frantically tries to cling to an imagined future with Tom, th...