Elizabeth, a kindly grandmother, is out walking her dog early one summer morning when she makes a shocking and gruesome discovery - the body of a young woman, savagely mutilated and on the verge of death, dumped on the side of the road. Whispering just two words ‘warn them’ before expiring, the message haunts Elizabeth, leaving her unable to rest until she can work out just who she needs to warn, and about what.
The narration alternates in first person between Elizabeth and Rachel, whose closest friend Clare was the woman murdered on the road. Though at first glance this seems to be the only link between the two, it’s slowly revealed that there is a much deeper and darker connection, one which may lead to more deaths before Clare’s killer is brought to justice.
Elizabeth is easy to sympathize with, especially as the tragedies she’s suffered through are revealed. Rachel is harder to like, even though we first meet her as she’s thinking about the tragedy of her mother’s death, because she’s in the middle of imploding her own marriage by embarking on an affair. With two daughters to think of, she has moments of pure selfishness and even though she’s scaldingly self-honest too, I occasionally found myself irritated with her behaviour.
The author does a fantastic job with building the suspense here, sowing the seeds right from the beginning for the conclusion, but revealing information in carefully rationed tidbits, with a few red herrings for good measure, to keep the reader guessing right up until the end. This is a genuinely engrossing read and I’d definitely read more by this author. Five stars.
Disclaimer: I received a review copy of this book via NetGalley.