Book Review: THE NEXT WOMAN

Title: The Next Woman

Author: Caroline Corcoran

Publisher: Thomas & Mercer

Pages: 322

My GoodReads Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

Lily’s best friend, Alice, disappeared on her birthday. Living on Aurora Island, there are so many places you can disappear to. The police are unable to find Alice. Then a woman called Becca disappears and then Corinne. They are termed the Alphabet Women, as it increasingly becomes obvious that someone is kidnapping the women in alphabetical order, one women for each letter of the alphabet. An office manager at the Aurora Island Eco Wellness Retreat, Lily lives in fear of being taken when L comes around.

Ross, a journalist from Manchester, comes over to the island to start a podcast that would help find the missing women and stop the nightmare. He convinces Lily to help produce his podcast and to offer her local knowledge. And all along, the danger is inching closer. The police are at their wits’ end.

Then L comes around, and Lily is safe, as another woman is taken. Has Lily escaped or are her secrets about to catch up with her?

 

The story is written in the 1^st person present tense PoV of Lily first, and then, once she disappears, we get the 1^st person present tense PoV of Zadie. The chapters are named after letters.

 

WHAT I LIKED:

The chapters move fast. The chapter named M was dripping with tension.  The point where Lily disappears is the high point of the book.

 

WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE:

After that, it’s downhill, and we stop caring about the missing women.

I found the resolution very disappointing, bland and downright silly. The execution was flat. The reason why 26 women were kidnapped was unbelievable in a very underwhelming way.

Lily’s backstory doesn’t hit us with the force that the author intends it to. The mystery turns out to be related to her past, but in most incidental way.

It is very annoying when a character, supposedly key, is introduced at the 87% mark. Even Lily’s dad, Duncan, was introduced at the close of the story, without Lily ever mentioning a word about him.

We never get answers to how the kidnappings actually take place, which is something we need considering the suspense that has been built.

The last chapter, the actual tying up of the loose ends, should have been summarised by a 3^rd person omniscient narrator. In podcast format, the information was annoying with Ross appearing to be some kind of a know-it-all.

 

WHAT DIDN’T WORK FOR ME:

For the bulk of the story, we have no idea what the police are doing.

There are some diversity token characters put in just because. These are Radhika, Anushka and Jameela. They have no role to play.

 

ALL SAID AND DONE:

A good premise, with a very tepid mystery attached.

(I read this book on NetGalley. Thank you to the author, the publisher and NetGalley.)

Book Review: A NOVEL CRIME

Title: A Novel Crime

Author: Deborah Levison

Publisher: Thomas & Mercer

Pages: 332

My GoodReads Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Marcy Jo Codburn has done everything to become a famous romance novelist, including manifesting success and writing five chapters of a novel that isn’t heading anywhere. She dreams of a successful career under the pseudonym, Summer Branigan. Her day job as a realtor isn’t going well either. Even her college-going daughter Bea considers her father, Marcy’s ex-husband Kevin, her favourite parent.

When Francesca Barber, the most successful novelist in America, embarks on a multi-city tour, Marcy and her three writing group mates decide to go see her. When Marcy catches Francesca making out with Tabi Benlolo, the Portuguese star of the movie version of Francesca’s books and the husband of her daughter Aspen, Francesca thinks Marcy has clicked a picture of them, and offers to help with Marcy’s manuscript.

Suddenly, Marcy’s life is looking up. Francesca is reading her manuscript and she has a potentially lucrative listing. It’s possible that Marcy might make a success as both a novelist and as a realtor, as long as she puts in the hard work required.

But then Marcy gets greedy. Leveraging Francesca’s secret, she wonders why she should work hard at her goal, when she could get the famous novelist to do the writing for her. As the collaboration gets underway, more secrets surface, amid a tangle of looming deadlines and an attempted kidnap that creates its own set of problems. Will Marcy ever see the success she craves? If yes, at what cost?

 

The story is written in the first-person present tense PoV of Marcy.

 

WHAT I LIKED:

I love books about books, authors and writing, so that part was interesting.

Neither of the female main characters here, Marcy/Summer and Francesca, are likeable or even morally sound. We don’t understand whether they deserve our sympathy or derision, but it doesn’t matter. The plot is the real hero here, and events happen at such a crazy pace that all you can do is sit back and enjoy the ride. This story is certainly madness and chaos unleashed. In a very good way. Everything that can go wrong does.

There is a sub-plot about Marcy trying to improve her relationship with her daughter and to present herself as a better role model for her.

WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE:

I wasn’t sure how I felt about Marcy. Sometimes, I liked her; mostly I didn’t.

I dislike characters throwing food into the trash, and that happens here. Granted that Marcy wants to start eating healthy, but she should have considered donating the food, instead of trashing it.

WHAT DIDN’T WORK FOR ME:

The set-up took very long. Or felt very long.

Strangely, Francesca doesn’t ever ask to see the incriminating photo. Which is a major loophole in the reasoning behind the plot.

The scene in which Bea explains her project to her mother, repeating it for our benefit, was boring.

At one point, Bea yells out that she and Kevin are vegetarian. That is an error. It should have been Bea and Patrick, her boyfriend, who are vegetarian.

ALL SAID AND DONE:

I enjoyed the madness in this book. 

(I read this book on NetGalley. Thank you to the author, the publisher and NetGalley.)

Book Review: THE HOTEL MAID

Title: The Hotel Maid

Author: Michelle Dunne

Publisher: Storm Publishing

Pages: 264

My GoodReads Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

 

In the Prologue, we meet June Calloway, a maid who has been working in the Cedarwood Manor Hotel for the last six years, who finds a dead body, Mrs Erica Kelly, in Room 208. When she calls Lauren at Reception to inform her about the dead body, she learns that Mrs Kelly’s 10-year-old daughter, Mia, is missing and that the police are on their way.

Chapter 1 then takes us back in time to a period Six weeks earlier, when June finds a note in her locker, saying, “I know what you did. Keep your mouth shut.” June, who believes in working hard and keeping her mouth shut, has her secrets, but she can’t imagine who might be warning her. Who could have left her the note? Could it be Malcolm Levy, the security head, whose grandparents own the hotel? Or Liz, the hotel manager, who is in a relationship with Malcolm? Soon there is another note with the single word, Killer.

The only support that June receives comes to her from Tess, who lives in the apartment she has rented.

Meanwhile, Mia, the adoptive daughter of Erica Kelly, is subjected to horrible child abuse and mean gaslighting at home.

 

The book is written in the 3^rd person past tense PoV of June and Mia. On the face of it, there is nothing to tie the stories of June, Mia and Tess together. There’s nothing really graphic but the book hints at child abuse, sexual abuse, verbal abuse, self-harm and even paedophilia.

 

WHAT I LIKED:

The author kept us on tenterhooks. There were several mysteries going on at once. What was June’s past? What did Erica Kelly want?

My heart went out to Mia. Her account made for painful reading. She was such a sweet child, yet so vulnerable, going through challenges no child should have to go through. It was sad to see a child being told untruths and lies, and her then building her self-image based on those lies. The humiliation and the belittling that she is subjected to, despite the hard work that she puts in to cook three meals a day for the family and clean the house. I enjoyed the embodied writing in Mia’s PoV. The end of Chapter 20 especially made me want to wreak violence on Erica. I certainly connected more with Mia’s POV than with June’s.

The narration by Jacqueline Milne was very well done, with every voice sounding different and tuned to the situations of the plot.

One quote I really liked in this book: Turns out nobody in this bloody story is who they say they are.

 

WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE:

The book takes on disturbing overtones towards the end.

WHAT DIDN’T WORK FOR ME:

There is no mention of any cell phones in the novel so it is hard to figure out a timeline. At one point, Mia mentions that she has read the news about Paris Jackson’s suicide, and since that happened around 2013, it gives us some idea, but the complete absence of cell phones throws us off.

The book raises certain questions that aren’t answered. At around 10 years of age, Mia cooks and cleans for the whole family. She was brought into the house when she was a very small child. Who looked after her then? Who cooked and cleaned for the family then? Also, who taught little Mia to cook, clean and keep house?

The identity of the person leaving the notes was never clarified. Towards the end, June has a suspicion about who might have done it, but she has no evidence. Nor does her theory seem plausible.

 

ALL SAID AND DONE:

It took rather long to make its point, but it was an enjoyable read.

 

 

(I read this book on NetGalley. Thank you to the author, the publisher and NetGalley.)