Description
People disappear when they most want to be seen.
Jess Walker, middle child of a middle class family, has perfected the art of vanishing in plain sight. But when she arrives at a concrete university campus under flat, grey, East Anglian skies, her world flares with colour.
Drawn into a tightly-knit group of rule breakers – led by their maverick teacher, Lorna Clay – Jess begins to experiment with a new version of herself. But the dynamic between the friends begins to darken as they share secrets, lovers and finally a tragedy. Soon Jess is thrown up against the question she fears most: what is the true cost of an extraordinary life?
'In the vein of Agatha Christie herself. Startling'
Irish Times
Review
I think I was drawn to this book because of the Agatha Christie links. A little like a Christie novel the book darted here and there and then revealed something you could never have guessed.
I wasn't too keen on the book. It started slow with a college life I wasn't too interested in reading about, at times it felt like it was set in 1920 rather than 2020. With privileged young things at Uni and a woman who only checked her mobile phone once a day. Once the lecturer Lorna began her Agatha Christie lectures my interest piqued and I couldn't wait to get back to the book, only to find it was a short lived interest and I began to get a little bored.
Lorna is an enigmatic character and throws out red herrings and veiled clues to her students. She's very knowledgeable about Agatha Christie and that really was the parts that kept me reading. Soon things moved on from the Uni life and Lorna becomes more than a tutor to a few of her students. But can they trust her?
At about 75% through the book there is suddenly a glimpse of a Christie type plot emerging and again I was gripped. Finally I thought - I'm glad I stayed with the book. Only for this to fizzle out and a long slow ending ensued.
I think this book could have been a lot better edited, as there were some great ideas in it. The long drawn out cat and mouse antics just got boring after a while, as did reading about the bright young things and their problems.
I'm giving this book 3 out of 5 stars. My thanks to netgalley for the ARC to review.
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