The Greenway

It was a good mystery. Left you wondering the whole way through.

Multiple twists, keeps you switching wondering who did it

I really like the story! The British characters seem so different from us citizens and made book more interesting. I couldn’t put it down.

“The Greenway” by Jane Adams is a book that readers cannot put down until the very end. It tells the story of Cassie, whose husband Fergus Maltham insists they vacation in the same place where her cousin Suzie Ashmore had disappeared twenty years before. He wants Cassie to see the place and finally face the fears she has had which cause her to have terrible nightmares, nightmares which sometimes make her lose contact with reality. Their friends Anna and Simon are with them to help Cassie and Fergus. In each of her dreams, Cassie and Suzie leave the beach by way of Tan’s Hill and take the path called the Greenway so they won’t be late. Suzie runs ahead and Cassie tries to catch up with her. She calls for Suzie because Suzie’s mother, Cassie’s Aunt Pat, had told them to be home early. Cassie’s friends ask her what happened at this place. She tells them that she loved staying at her Aunt’s and Uncle’s at vacation time because her own mother was very strict with her. She loved her Cousin Suzie who was two years older than her and full of adventure, always wanting to explore new things. She remembers that Suzie ran ahead of her and that she called for Suzie and was not able to find her, Somehow, she became unconscious. She says that when she woke up, she was alone. Suzie was gone and she somehow knew that Suzie was gone forever, taken, and she was left behind, rejected. Cassie says that Aunt Mary came looking for them and she remembers Aunt Mary shaking her, asking her where Suzie was. She says she just wanted someone to hold her close and tell her Suzie was already at home and that everything would be all right. She says that that night her parents came to take her home. She remembers her mother arguing with her Aunt Mary, telling her it was her fault because she let the girls run wild. Aunt Pat wanted to know why it was her daughter that had disappeared. Cassie says that people from the village started to search for Suzie, but she was never found. Then the police searched for weeks and no trace of Suzie ever was found. Her parents took her home and the police came to her house for several weeks, always asking her questions, but nothing ever came of their questions. Cassie said she was in shock, withdrawn, for a long time after that. Cassie has one newspaper clipping of Suzie and shows it to their friends. Fergus, upset that Cassie has the picture, tells their friends that Cassie’s mother kept a collection of clippings about the incident to remind Cassie of what happened when children strayed and had kept Cassie on a very tight leash. He asks Cassie if she kept the picture to make her feel more guilty about what happened. Fergus explains that he had burned the clippings one day and took Cassie with him, never taking her back to her mother. Simon gave Fergus a match to give to Cassie so she could burn the clipping and she did. A few evenings later, Cassie goes for a walk alone on the Greenway and comes back feeling much better, telling Fergus that her demons are now dead. She has faced her fears. Then Sara Jane Cassidy, a little girl who looks like Suzie Ashmore, is missing from the village and the search for her begins, a repeat of what happened twenty years ago. The current Detective Inspector Mike Croft is in charge of the search and consults with retired Detective Inspector Tynan who looked for Suzie Ashmore. Readers wonder what happened to Suzie and now to Sara, Will Sara be found alive, dead or never? How can two little girls, twenty years apart, just disappear from the same village? Was Cassie involved in Sara Jane’s disappearance? Will this disappearance put Cassie into a mental state from which she will never return? The book contains a wonderful mystery, filled with so many questions readers will ask themselves over and over again.

Good mystery

an interesting and original take on a murder mystery.

Fast reading and a good plot showing a complex psychotic life of an individual also caught in turmoil good for a cold Winter’s Night high rated 4 stars

I love this book. Absolute page-turner and keeps you thinking you’ve got it figured out … but you don’t!
Great characters you feel you get to know and the plot woven together beautifully to a satisfying end.
Also several times I laughed out loud; Tynan racing his tea pot put me in a fit of giggles!
Excellent read.

This book lived up to its hype. A suspense filled book with a satisfying ending.

Too many reviewers use words like best “psychological thriller: and moody and creepy and “couldn’t put it down”.
It starts with a very interesting premise and the writer makes you care about Cassie and Fergus. A young couple that has dealt with Cassie and her mental health issues as best they could….all due to an incident that happened when Cassie was just ten. The greenway is an area with tales of fairies and ghosties and the dead and where Cassie and her cousin Suzie were playing when the earth opened up and took Suzie. Now Cassie is back with hubby and friends trying to remember what really happened…only a young girl looking like Suzie disappears and the nightmare returns.
It started so well and I could feel the chills and fears of the community that the greenway was evil or haunted. Mike Croft is assigned the case and he seems an ill fit for the job, especially dealing with Cassie. His sargent Bill has the people skills. Tynan is a retired detective that worked on Suzie’s disappearance and never got over it. All three men try and find a connection between the past and now.
It turns into a police procedural with all the detectives refecting on their own lives while the town falls apart thinking one of their own is a killer.
Families are looked into but the isolated place, the haunting or ghostly atmosphere add a feel.of the supernatural. As far as Cassie, she is strong, a good example of treating mental issues and a likeable person. The ending was not to my liking at all, thrown together at the end, disappointing, and left me with questions. It was not a palatable end.
It felt like the author changed the direction of the book midstream. The writing was great. characters developed but the plot took off in two different directions and fell apart.