A sunny, Sunday afternoon, a family barbecue, and Naomi Baxter and her boyfriend Alex celebrate good news. Driving home, Naomi's recklessness causes a fatal accident, leaving nine-year-old Lily Vasey dead, Naomi fighting for her life, Alex bruised and bloody and the lives of three families torn apart.
Traumatised, Naomi has no clear memory of the crash and her mother Carmel is forced to break the shocking truth of the child's death to her. Naomi may well be prosecuted for causing death by dangerous driving.If convicted she will face a jail term of up to 14 years, especially if her sister's claim that Naomi was drink-driving is proven. In the months before the trial, Carmel strives to help a haunted and remorseful Naomi cope with the consequences of her actions.
One minute Naomi had been at a family barbeque celebrating the birth of her nephew and her boyfriend Alex's new job, the next she wakes up in hospital with no recollection of what happened inbetween which is probably just as well as she was involved in a terrible accident which killed a nine-year-old girl Lily.
Despite her sister Suzanne's insistence that Naomi had been drinking, her mother Carmel refuses to believe that her daughter would have driven if she was drunk. So who is correct and what exactly caused the accident?
Blink of an Eye is narrated from the viewpoints of both mother and daughter; Naomi's story begins as she wakes up in hospital with no memory of the crash so the only information she has to go on is what everyone is telling her. She struggles to cope with the emotions and guilt being responsible for the death of Lily and pushes everyone around her, including Alex, away.
Whereas through Carmel's part of the story we're provided with a background of the family relationships, particularly the sibling rivalry between Suzanne and Naomi, and we see a mother who strongly believes in her daughter's innocence and is determined to prove so despite what all the evidence is showing. Wouldn't we all want a Carmel on our side if we found ourselves in this position?
Personally for me this book didn't really start going until about half way in but I soon sped through the second half of the book as I wanted to see how it would end, and even though the conclusion was predictable this didn't spoil it for me.
I'd like to thank Lucy at Constable & Robinson for sending me a copy of this book to review.
Amazon links: Paperback or Kindle
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