Honestly finding it difficult to review this. The story is good, I won't go into the plot, you can easily find this out, but I found the writing style confusing. Sometimes written in the present tense ( which I absolutely loathe) by the narrator, and sometimes in the past tense in the third person. On top of that, there is too much back story featuring lengthy television interviews. I frequently found myself yawning and just wanted the action to move on. Overall far too long for a simple plot. Unfortunately, not an author that I would want to read again.

Cara isn't pleased with her family's reaction to some news, so on a whim takes herself off to a very fancy, very expensive hotel/spa complex in Arizona, where she sees something she shouldn't have. This is a strange book where most of the characters behave oddly and are quite bizarre - would anyone go as far as Cara did just to think? Would the rest of them act like they did, no one being who they seemed to be? I did like the descriptions of the spa, but there were too many pages devoted to it and it did get a bit tedious when Bonnie Juno appeared - all those pages of transcript to get through. I enjoyed the last quarter, especially that twist. Could there be a follow up? Time will tell!

I really didn't enjoy this book. I wanted to and preserved with it but sadly it wasn't for me.

I received this ebook from Netgalley.

My opinion of this book is somewhat confusing I'm afraid. Sophie Hannah writes a really good story and I was surprised to find that she is in fact English as she describes the setting so skillfully so well I initially thought she must be American.

It was surprising therefore that I found the English hero, Cara Borrows, the least believable of all the characters, I was not impressed with her or her reasons for going to America .

So having said all that I enjoyed many of the other characters who I felt were more carefully represented and two of them were particularly well delienated, both being larger than life and to my mind at least, typical Americans- Bonnie Juno and the brilliant Tarin, without whom this story would have been pretty bland.

The actual mystery caught my imagination and kept me engaged throughout and the ending was very clever indeed.

I feel that I will have to read more of Sophie Hannah's work in order to get a proper handle on her style, confident in the knowledge that she is an excellent wordsmith.

I really enjoyed this book. It has an upbeat feel and excellent pace, which I expect from Sophie Hannah's novels, and it kept me absorbed from the first page. The setting in Arizona is different from her usual English ones, but works well as a place where strange meetings and larger than life characters might occur. It is also a foreign and unfamiliar milieu for the protagonist Cara Burrows to find herself, and when unusual events arise, she seems at first ill-equipped to handle them. However the joy of the book is discovering how resourceful and intelligent she can be, aided by her new American acquaintances, in exploring the mystery before her. It is fast, funny, clever and entertaining and would make an excellent summer holiday book for the beach. Brilliant!

Firstly I didn't dislike this book but I have to admit it wasn't my favourite either. I feel it tried too with too many unnecessary characters. The base plot and storyline is pretty good I just felt it kept getting lost amongst other threads that weren't needed.

Cara Burrows has left her family in England and booked into a 5 star spa in Arizona. At first we aren't aware why she has done this. When she arrives at the resort she is directed to her room only to find a man and young girl already in there. The following day Cara overhears another guest talking about seeing a young girl and man leaving the resort the previous night and that the girl was Melody Chapa who was believed to have been killed several years ago and whose parents were in prison for her murder. I found the first quarter of the book very slow - mostly a description of the spa that Cara was staying at. The remainder of the book was better but I found it difficult to like the main character Cara and the transcripts of tv interviews from the original police investigation were tedious.

Thanks to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for the opportunity to read and review this title.

I found this book incredibly disjointed it didn't flow at all. I was also very disappointed with the end.

I loved this book and it kept me gripped from start to finish. It starts with Cara Burrows arriving at a luxury five star spa resort in Arizona. She’s left her husband and two children in England for two weeks as she needs some space to consider a difficult family situation. They didn’t know she was going but she has left them a note with her promised return date.

Tired and jetlagged, Cara checks into her room in the early hours of the morning only to find it’s already occupied by a man and teenage girl. The receptionist, Riyonna, is mortified by her mistake and upgrades Cara to a top of the range villa with private pool in recompense for the mix-up.
The next day Cara overhears a few conversations of other guests and suddenly finds herself questioning who the occupants really were in the occupied room. Could the teenage girl be Melody Chapa who was murdered by her parents seven years earlier?

There are many twists and turns in this story. It was well told and kept my attention throughout. I've not read any Sophie Hannah books before but will definitely be looking out for more by her.

came across Sophie Hannah’s ‘Charlie Zailer and Simon Waterhouse’ detective novels earlier this year when searching for a crime series to work through and devoured all ten of them within a couple of months. The series is not without its critics — some say the crime plots are overly convoluted, the recurring police characters are unlikeable and the relationship between Zailer and Waterhouse is often frustrating and glacially slow. But Hannah has a keen eye for an enticing premise and although her Zailer and Waterhouse novels sometimes disappoint in the denouement, there hasn’t been a single book in the series that I didn’t stay up late to finish.

Hannah’s latest novel, Did You See Melody?, is a standalone thriller in a genre that some have dubbed ‘spa noir’. Had it been sent in the (fictional) English town of Spilling rather than a luxurious resort in Arizona, Did You See Melody? could have fit in quite nicely with the Zailer and Waterhouse series and I think I would have preferred it if the central character had been Sergeant Charlie Zailer (or perhaps her sister Olivia). Nonetheless, Hannah sets up an intriguing puzzle and once again, I found myself racing to reach its conclusion.

Cara Burrows arrives at the Swallowtail Resort late at night after a long journey from England. She is tired and upset, having left her husband and teenage children back at home with only the scantest of explanatory notes for reasons that soon become clear. On entering her assigned hotel room, however, Cara is shocked to find that it is already occupied by a teenage girl and an apprehensive man. After fleeing back to reception, Cara is upgraded to a luxurious ‘casita’ to make up for the receptionist’s error and after a long night’s sleep, she feels better in the morning as she begins to explore the resort and its facilities. Among the other guests are a ‘bad-ass’ mother and her teenage daughter, and an elderly woman who keeps insisting to the staff that she has seen a child called Melody.

Intrigued, Cara starts doing some research online and discovers that Melody was murdered seven years ago and thus could not have been spotted by the guest at the Swallowtail. Except Cara thinks she recognises Melody too: she was the girl into whose room Cara had inadvertently entered on her first night. And when she finds a note bearing the words, ‘is Cara Burrows safe?’ in a room in the spa dedicated to guests’ anonymous confessionals, she begins to worry if she has stumbled into dangerous territory, especially as she has cut herself off so thoroughly from her family.

Did You See Melody? is a fast-paced, dark and satisfying thriller. Hannah is a great writer but I couldn’t help thinking that some of the American characters at the spa were a little clichéd — some of the conversations Cara has feel a little too Bill Bryson, which distracted me from the story. Perhaps the story wouldn’t have worked if it were set in England but I think I would have enjoyed it more. Cara also felt like something of a cipher — ironically, given that one of the reasons she left home was because her family stopped seeing her as a whole person with thoughts and feelings worthy of respect. She is a sympathetic character but we never really get to know her that well and ultimately, her story feels somewhat auxiliary to the other events of the novel. Cara’s first-person narrative is interspersed with short sections seemingly from Melody herself; these interludes worked well and drew me in far more readily than Cara’s narration. Despite these quibbles, I enjoyed Did You See Melody? and it would make a great holiday read.

Thank you to net galley and the publisher Hodder & Stoughton for the arc in return for an honest review.

I have to congratulate Sophie Hannah for breathing new life into the genre, as this book did not follow my expectations. What starts as a family drama circumstance lead Cara into the middle of a mystery of a missing (presumed dead) girl whom she is convinced she has seen.

The story is interspersed with the use of internet articles and interviews between key witnesses and experts involved in the investigation and subsequent trial, and Cara and her new friend Tarin find themselves more involved in the mystery than they would perhaps have hoped.

However, this book failed to really grab me. I found the characters and their reactions not just difficult to relate to, but found myself at some points incredulous. I also found it difficult to keep up with who everybody was as there were a lot of similar names related to the Melody Chapa case. This confusion meant I had to re-read some sections, which disrupted the flow of the book.

The close of the book, was chilling and I wish that we had heard more from Melody throughout the book, or seen things from her perspective.

This was one of the best books I have read in a long time, the author had me on the edge of my seat from the first page until the very end.

An excellent standalone psychological thriller from the Queen of literary crime Sophie Hannah. I always find reading her novels uncomfortable but her prose keeps up the momentum and there is a twist that is unexpected. I enjoyed it very much.

This is the first Sophie Hannha book I have read - and despite only giving it 3 stars it wont be my last!

This is a funny light weight, crime mystery... super easy read.

Cara leaves here family and heads to an exclusive spa in America - Cara is there to give herself space from her family and to come to terms with a big personal life change. However, on the first night Cara thinks she sees Melody... a girl famous for going missing and with her parents in prison for her murder years ago.

The main reason this book only received 3 stars from me is that it is almost like there are two books - the first 1/3 is a slow paced, plodding nothing much happens apart from a long description of a spa resort.

The rest of the book is a funny, fast paced story as Cara, other guests, a media star and the police investigate whether Cara really did see Melody.

The other 'star loser' for me were two of the main characters - Caras actions and the reasons why she just ups and leaves her family just dont make sense. Its like the author couldnt think of a reason why Cara would be there and so fabricates this totally unrealistic storyline... even more unlikely as we get to know Caras character more.

Bonnie, prosecutor turned TV star, although ultimately integral to the end result of the plot is just annoying the whole way through.... Hannad has her repeating herself over and over until the point I just want to skim over anything I see of Bonnie!

Its a shame as mother and daughter team Tarin and Zellie are brilliant characters! Well developed and very funny.... they could have a book series of their own!

would like to thank Netgalley and Hodder & Stoughton for an advance copy of Did You See Melody, a stand alone novel set in a luxury resort in Arizona. I really liked this author and this book did not disappoint one bit

I was completely drawn in at the start of this novel and thought this is a winner but then it went flat. It khad the opportunity to be a great psychological novel but got bogged down in such detail that I lost interest.

This book started off in cracking form, I was really enjoying it. However it began to lose pace after the middle of the story and towards the end it got downright confusing.
A bit of a different story and I did enjoy it, but not quite as much as I thought I was going to.

An intriging, interesting and gripping read. The story centres around Cara Burrows who on realising she is pregnant with her third child takes herself off to a spa resort as her family are not happy at the thought of a new baby. Cara books in at the resort and takes the lift to her room where she sees that the room is already occupied by a man and his "daughter".
Another resident is at the reception stating that she has seen a child who has been missing, presumed dead walking around at the resort.
The book builds on Cara being drawn into "is it, or isn't it" Melody Chappa.
As you read it you wonder who is telling the truth. There are twists and turns on every page. It is a great read and I would definetly recommend.

**I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley in return for my own personal and honest review**

This book by Sophie Hannah tells the story of English Cara Burrows who founds herself embroilled in the case of missing Melody Chopra. Having never read Sophie Hannah before I can definitely say that I enjoyed her style of writing and the development of both characters and stories within the book. Whilst reading about the luxurious pools and indulgent spas I found my imagination vividly creating these places (not to mention wishing I was there instead of travelling on a grungy tube). The use of imagery in this novel was superb.

There wasn't much I disliked about the book. I found it engaging and entertaining, and I definitely found myself wanting to know more. Had Cara really seen Melody? If she had where had Melody been all this time? There were a few questions that were left unanswered for me at the end of the book and I'm not even talking about the cliffhanger that the book ended on.

Overall I definitely enjoyed this book and would happily pick up another Sophie Hannah book if the opportunity presented itself!