Sara-Jayne Townsend is a published crime and horror writer and likes books in which someone dies horribly. She is founder and Chair Person of the T Party Writers’ Group. http://sarajaynetownsend.weebly.com/
A reunion of an ante-natal group ends in tragedy when someone is killed in a fall from a balcony. But did they fall, or were they pushed? DS Alison Hegarty, sent to investigate the death, soon becomes convinced that this was not an accident. It becomes apparent to her that everyone present at the house has something to hide. But which of them is a murderer?
The description reads like a standard murder mystery, but this novel is anything but. The narrative presents more like a psychological thriller, with the timeline jumping back from the day of the murder to the first meeting of the ante-natal group, ten weeks earlier, and then jumping back and forth from different viewpoint characters, leading the reader through the story whilst dropping clues like a trail of bread crumbs.
The story is largely told from the point of view of Jax (short for Jacqueline), a successful thirty-something with a much younger boyfriend, still dealing with the concept of imminent motherhood, and Alison as she continues her investigation. However, most of the other characters also get a POV chapter or two. Most of them are not particularly likeable initially, but the worst is Monica, an appalling snob whose first question to DS Hegarty when she arrives at the crime scene is who is going to compensate her for her expensive rockery, which the victim inconsiderately splashed their brains all over in the fall from the balcony.
There is, of course, a big reveal at the end, and by then I’d learned enough about the characters to empathise with most of them. Well, except for Monica, who seemed to have absolutely no redeeming features.
Fans of psychological thrillers and police procedural novels alike will enjoy this well-written and suspenseful book which will have you turning pages right to the explosive conclusion.
