‘Brilliantly-written characters, original and engaging. It’s so good!’BA Paris
JOANNE HAYNES HAS A SECRET.THAT IS NOT HER REAL NAME.
And there’s more. Her flat isn’t hers. Her cats aren’t hers. Even her hair isn’t really hers. Nor is she any of the other women she pretends to be. Not the bestselling romance novelist who gets her morning snack from the doughnut van on the seafront. Nor the … who gets her morning snack from the doughnut van on the seafront. Nor the pregnant woman in the dental surgery. Nor the chemo patient in the supermarket for whom the cashier feels ever so sorry. They’re all just alibis.
In fact, the only thing that’s real about Joanne is that nobody can know who she really is.
But someone has got too close. It looks like her alibis have begun to run out….
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‘Heart-wrenching, impossible to predict and completely absorbing’ John Marrs
‘The master of dark, sexy psychological suspense’ Suzy K Quinn
‘A dark, addictive read’ Phoebe Morgan
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Ellis Kemp makes Amy Dunne look like the most truthful person in fiction. But Amy’s childhood can’t compare to Ellis’s years of growing up with a father involved in a drug-dealing ring. He burns down their house to get the insurance money but doesn’t have the house insured. Ellis’s saving grace is her father’s family–a wonderful, loving and accepting bunch she’s gets ripped away from at age 10. The lies and assumed identities she concocts make sense once the reader learns what happened to her at 18. The best parts of the book, IMO, deal with Ellis’s time with her father’s wonderful family. Keeping up with her deceits and confabulations becomes tedious at several points, but finding out how her life plays out is compelling. Less compelling–and credible–is how she saves herself. The conclusion is pure fairytale … So read this one realizing that Ellis is unreliable, but unlike Amy she is likeable and someone we root for and want to find a fairytale ending.
According to the Amazon description this was a “funny twisty crime thriller” but there is nothing funny about this book. It is a tragically sad story of a very disturbed young woman.
Took some work to get into the book, but after a bit, I could keep track. The ending wasn’t what I thought it would be,
A lead character who is a compulsive liar with no friends or history. I came to this book having read the ‘Sweet Pea’ novels by the same author. Whereas I found that story to be openly dark comedy, this one is much more nuanced, the drama and comedy tinged with a strong suggestion of sadness. I found the lead character immoral but, contrary to Sweet Pea this one acts in an almost harmless way. The story makes it obvious that something had happened in her past which has made her the way she is and manages to keep the reader sympathetic and intrigued despite her actions.
The Alibi Girl by C.J. Skuse is a marvellous contemporary psychological thriller suspense that I positively devoured. I was hooked and asking questions from the start.
C.J. Skuse draws the reader in and drip feeds information as we try to put the pieces together to solve the puzzle. I fell for some red herrings along the way and my jaw literally dropped at at least one point.
The Alibi Girl was a cleverly constructed tale and one that I fully participated in as it was told in the first person. I ‘became’ the voice in the story. The novel has two main voices and two distinct time periods – now and eighteen years earlier. Bonds formed in childhood remain intact as characters long to return to a time they last experienced happiness. The past influences current behaviour.
There is a mystery to solve. I found myself swirling in the mists of time, not knowing quite what to expect.
The novel revolves around truth and lies. Can you spot which is which? So many tales are spun that even a character longs for a time when lives were simpler and the truth was told and fairy tales were in the imagination.
I thought The Alibi Girl was an utterly brilliant and unique read with a thrilling conclusion I didn’t spot coming. I look forward to much more by C.J. Skuse.
I received this book for free. A favourable review was not required and all views expressed are my own.