What’s being said by readers…”Brilliantly Subversive!””Captivating!””Quickly draws readers into the lives of its characters!””Thrilling!”Amber wanted to live abroad and find love. Vilzen left behind his conflicted past. Mrs Rosenfield came as a young woman in search of herself. But sometimes leaving behind who you are and what you came from can be a mistake.It was supposed to be the time of … sometimes leaving behind who you are and what you came from can be a mistake.
It was supposed to be the time of their lives; and they all came in search of something special. But instead they were suddenly connected by horror and unusual circumstances.
With the deranged psychopath, known simply as “the west end stalker” claining victims on London’s West End, Amber finds her way into a tale of murder, mystery and love.
more
I was given an advance e-copy of this book in order to give early feedback to the publisher and author. Murder mysteries are not usually my go-to genre, but this book had me captivated from the very beginning. I felt like I was right there with the characters. I was able to envision and connect to each one of them. The plot is well developed and moves at what felt like the perfect pace. It is full of details, but it never drags. ‘The Time of Our Lives in London’ is such a great combination of thrilling, fun and relatable. I will be recommending it to all of my friends! My hope is that perhaps the author will write a ‘Time of our Lives’ for other cities as well.
Paul and his publisher were kind enough to send me an advanced copy for review! So, Sunday night as the snow began to fall outside, I lit a fire, poured myself a glass of Dad’s Hat Rye Whiskey and dug in.
So, let’s start with the publisher’s synopsis: “Amber wanted to live abroad and find love. Vilzen left behind his conflicted past. Mrs. Rosenfield came as a young woman in search of herself. But sometimes leaving behind who you are and what you came from can be a mistake.
It was supposed to be the time of their lives; and they all came in search of something special. But instead they were suddenly connected by horror and unusual circumstances.
With the deranged psychopath, known simply as “the west end stalker” claiming victims on London’s West End, Amber finds her way into a tale of murder, mystery and love.”
It’s a quick read. The version I was given clocks in at 199 pages. As such, the story moves at a pretty frenetic pace. In fact, if I had to level one major criticism at it, it would be that the small number of pages causes the narrative to jump around at such a pace that I don’t think the story has quite as much room as it really wants to breathe. But, as Paul is an incredibly inventive writer, this doesn’t hamper the read experience as much as you think it would. Yes, there were one or two points where I had to go back and remind myself who was who and what so-and-so was doing, but it was never enough to pull me out of the story.
As this is a mystery/thriller, I don’t want to go too much into the story and its elements in order to avoid spoilers. But I will say that when I got to the end my first thought was surprise as to how the resolution came about and who was responsible for it. I confess a moment’s disappointment, however, upon reading it again and thinking about it for a few minutes, it’s actually a pretty brilliant subversion of expectations. In these kinds of stories, there are very specific and recognizable story beats. Crime occurs, victims/witnesses react, cop is on the case, clues are discovered, some misdirection ensues, case is cracked, final fight/chase/argument, roll credits. What Paul does is start to head down that narrative path and then make a sudden hard turn and you don’t even realize it until you notice that you’re not where you expected to be. And what could have potentially been a very basic and trite murder mystery becomes something altogether different in a great way.
Another hallmark of Paul’s writing is his flair for characterization. You really feel like his characters are people that you’ve known for years, not just a character in a story that’s not even 200 pages long. So that, combined with an interesting central premise and teasing us with story clichés that end up turned on their heads, gives you an enjoyable reading experiences. It draws you in and holds you there, like a captive. Or dare I say, an experiment? I just wish it were a little longer!