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/
This is a tale of two Hollys – Holly Jones and Holly Wild. Holly Jones has built an enviable life for herself in Miami, far away from her old life and friends in London. So she is surprised when Holly Wild, an old school friend, comes waltzing back into her life, single and sexy and far removed from the frumpy side-kick she used to be in school.
Following the customary ‘unreliable narrator’ trope of psychological thrillers, this story unfolds in two parts – the first from the point of view of Holly Jones, and the second from Holly Wild. Interspersed with the first person viewpoint is a newspaper story about fifteen-year-old Holly Babb, who has gone missing from her home, and the efforts to find her and bring her back home. As both Hollys now go by married names, it’s not clear which of them this story refers to. There’s also frequent reference to the fact that in school the two Hollys were known as ‘Good Holly’ and ‘Bad Holly’. Who is ‘good’ and who is ‘bad’ is deliberately vague, leading to the general uneasy feeling that when reading this book you don’t know who you can trust to tell the truth.
Most of the characters are intensely unlikeable, and there’s a cattiness amongst all the women who are meant to be friends that is rather annoying – but likely very true to life.
However, it is most definitely a page turner, and anyone who loves psychological thrillers and novels exploring the dirty underbelly of female relationships will find this one right up their alley.
