When Rose’s flighty stepsister Willow disappears to Cornwall, she can’t help but roll her eyes. Willow is always taking off and there is always some kind of emergency.
But after Willow discovers that she was adopted and her birth mother died in tragic circumstances, her trip to the coast sparks a search into her past.
Two days later, when a package arrives at Rose’s house containing a series of four polaroids of four different men, Rose knows that Willow is in trouble. Each photograph a possible murder suspect, their family life begins to unravel, leaving one crucial question unanswered…
Who killed Willow’s mother?
I'd like to thank HQ Digital for inviting me to be part of this blog tour and for my copy of Traces of Her via NetGalley to review.
Traces of Her is the third psychological thriller by Amanda Brittany and for me it definitely is her best to date as I was almost instantly drawn into the drama and the tension didn't let up until we reached the dramatic conclusion.
The story revolves around Rose, a divorced head teacher with a teenage daughter Becky, and her step-sister Willow, an impulsive young woman with a reputation for taking off to spend time on her own. Willow has always been fiercely independent so it's a surprise to Rose to receive a call for help from her, especially when it's about tracing who killed Willow's mother Ava. But when Rose and Becky arrive in Cornwall to meet Willow she is nowhere to be seen, she has seemingly disappeared again without a trace.
The story is told through dual timelines, the past and the present, as we follow events and discover just what situation Willow has gotten herself into as her quest to discover the truth about what had happened to her mother has ruffled a few feathers. Not everyone is happy about the past being revisted and sinister things start happening to Rose and Becky putting them into dangerous situations which make them question whether something sinister has happened to Willow which would explain her absence.
The past timeline featuring Ava really set the scene for everything that plays out later as we get to know who she was as a person and the relationships she had with her family, friends and boyfriends. The more you uncovered about her life, the more the suspect pool grew as to who could have killed her as they all seemed to have a motive but yet they all seemed to have alibis.
In the present day it's up to Rose and Becky in Willow's absence to try and piece together the clues that Willow has already uncovered and get to the truth as to what exactly happened on that fateful day in 2001. I had one small niggle with the present day thread and that was to do with Becky, there were mentions of an issue she was dealing with that wasn't really full explored, and Rose as her parent just seemed to be skirting the issue rather than confronting it, and if anything this addition just seemed to be a distraction.
Added into the mix we have narration from an unknown third party who appears to be at the heart of everything that happened in the past, but it's not until the latter stages of the book that we discover who it is telling their story and how they are connected. As per usual with any crime or thriller novel that I read, I had my theory as to who it could be but let's just say I was wrong!
Coastal Cornwall as a setting was picture perfect, almost like a character in its own right, as cottages in the middle of nowhere and the clifftop locations and deserted beach at night filled you with a sense of foreboding. Anything could happen to you and there would be no-one around to help you.
Filled with unsavoury characters, red herrings and drama aplenty, Traces of Her didn't disappoint even if I wasn't totally surprised by the ending.
No comments:
Post a Comment