Carole Tyrrell worked in the theatre for nearly 10 years and was always fascinating by the way death and the supernatural formed many of the greatest and most enduring works. She has read crime fiction for many years and enjoys the broad range of the genre.
Addie (aka Addison) Knight’s tenth birthday falls on the 7th of July 2005. It will be a memorable day for all the wrong reasons. The London bombings provide a dramatic backdrop, as does the gift of a charm bracelet. Addie will be perplexed each year on her special day.
Addie’s bookish and uses her beloved Harry Potter novels to escape from her home life. Dad works long hours as an unlicensed black cab driver and her older sister Jessie becomes a surrogate mother of sorts. Mum has long gone.
Addie’s smart and notices that her dad’s Magic Tree air freshener is in the place where his black cab licence used to be. On her birthday he comes home late with his jeans soaked in blood and she fears for him (and ‘of him’). The discovery of an unknown woman’s purse hidden away in his room makes her even more fearful, despite Jessie’s reassurances.
Over in Pimlico, a woman called Liv leaves her smart home and never returns to her partner Lex or baby daughter Cara. They will have another reason to remember the 7th of July 2005.
It’s also the beginning of the murderous spree of the serial killer soon to be dubbed the Magpie. Every year, on 7th July, a young woman in London goes missing and is never seen again. Women at the start of their lives (in the big city) are cut short when they encounter the Magpie. Marking the passing of each of Addie’s birthdays comes a trinket from a dead woman, posted anonymously.
Addie is the narrator of The July Girls and there is a coming of age flavour to this dark story. There are vivid descriptions of Addie’s urban environment of Atlantic Road, under the railway arches, Jessie’s Air Maxes and her enjoying a McFlurry. It’s convincingly set during the years 2005 to 2017. The Knights live in a small Brixton flat and we see through Addie’s eyes the dynamics of her family situation, but also the larger events on their doorstep such as the 2011 riots. Addie’s viewpoint is interspersed with small sections narrated by the Magpie as well as extracts from a best-selling book about this serial killer.
Addie becomes horrified when her sister Jessie weaves herself into Lex and Cara’s lives until they begin to intertwine. Addie realises that her sister Jessie has her own secrets, not unlike like their father.
There are several unexpected twists in the plot including the final reveal of the Magpie, which appears sudden, almost abrupt, when contrasted against the well delineated and measured build up to the climax.
However, The July Girls remains an exciting and well plotted thriller, and makes for a menacing summer read.
Summertime London will never be the same again once you’ve read The July Girls.
