Having read the authors’ previous titles, I was excited to start this one and I certainly wasn’t disappointed. The pace of the storyline was perfect – starting with a snippet of the shooting, then moving to present day and Cassie adjusting to life as a new mum and moving back home to live with her mum. When Cassie is approached by a local journalist, she finds herself drawn into the past and a search to uncover the truth behind the awful events of that day, twenty-five years ago.

As the present day story moves on, it’s interspersed with details of the victims and their movements prior to the shooting – each one with just an ounce of mystery, leaving the reader wondering if they could have been the reason behind the shooting.

The character of Cassie was very well written and easy to relate to – I think most mums struggle at first and often feel that others are coping far better with motherhood and I’m glad that as the story progresses she learns that this isn’t always the case.

This was an excellent read full of intrigue with various twists and turns towards the end that I didn’t see coming. Highly recommend.

Many thanks to Little, Brown Book Group UK, Laura Marshall and NetGalley for the review copy.

@currentlyreading__
Book 41 of 2021

Thank you to Little, Brown Book Group UK, NetGalley and @lauramrshallauthor for the e-ARC of 'The Anniversary'.

From the synopsis we are told that on 15th June 1994, Travis Green - husband, father, upstanding citizen - walked through the streets of Hartstead and killed eleven of his neighbours. The final victim was four-year-old Cassie Colman's father.

As the twenty-five year anniversary approaches, Cassie would rather forget the past - even as her mother struggles to remember it at all. Then something hidden in her mother's possessions suggests those eleven murders were not what everyone believes.

Once Cassie suspects she's been lied to about the most important event of her life, she can't stop digging up the past.

Our main character Cassie was a believable character; still reeling from her affair with a married man who cried when she told him of her pregnancy. Returning home to Hartstead with her baby daughter Amy, she feels discombobulated - her mother has early onset dementia which is upsetting enough, she considers herself a terrible mother and wanting friends, she finds herself frequenting the local pub to sip Pinot Grigio, complete with baby Amy in a sling. Although Cassie is believable, she is certainly flawed but as she struggles to cope, one cannot help but sympathise with her plight.

The narrative is interspersed with accounts from each of the victims from twenty-five years ago which was an effective way of seeing the characters behind the tragedy. I particularly liked the account from nineteen year old Manisha Mehta, killed outside of her parents' hotel. The sense of futility of the murders is really evident in this chapter. 😢

If you enjoy a domestic thriller, then this is one to pre-order for your summer reading. To be published on 5th August.

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Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for providing an ARC of this book.

Great storytelling going from the past to the present day.

This book kept me gripped and guessing from page 1. I didn’t know who to trust and even at the end....
I felt immersed in Cassie’s life and her struggles to not only fit in, look after her baby and mum but also her trying to find out what happened when she was a child, on very little information.
Very addictive read.
#TheAnniversary #NetGalley

This book was soooo good I can’t recommend it enough!! As with the author’s previous books I was hooked from the start.

The book centres on the 25th anniversary of a shooting in a small town where 11 people were randomly killed by one of the town’s residents. The last person killed was Gary Coleman and his murder was witnessed by his wife and 4 year old daughter, Cassie.

25 years later and Cassie is back in town living with her mother who has early on-set dementia. She also has recently had a baby and is struggling to cope. Her mother rarely spoke about the shootings or about her father and over time Cassie has stopped asking. However, it being the 25th anniversary it has piqued the interest of the media and one woman in particular is hell bent on finding out more about the day of the shootings.

Initially Cassie says no as she would prefer to forget about the past. However, she becomes more intrigued as things come to light which suggest it may not have been a random act as people once thought. She agrees to help the journalist speak to relatives of the deceased and other relevant people in a bid to piece together what really happened that day. However, someone doesn’t like them digging for information and tries to scare them off.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book as I said at the start of my review. I really felt for Cassie trying to look after her ailing mother and newborn baby daughter with no support network.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced read copy of this book in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.

I’ve just finished this amazing book and I had to take a moment to digest those last few words - “I am enough”.

As a mum to a toddler myself, this book resonated in so many ways for me. I wanted to scream to Cassie so many times that I have been there, I get you, and you’re not alone! Although this novel is primarily a psychological thriller (and a great one at that!), it is also brilliantly domestic and has an angle that so many readers will identify with. I love the pace of Laura Marshall’s novels and have been a huge fan of her work for many years, #TheAnniversary did not disappoint in the slightest! It is full of twists and turns that I did not expect, and suffice to say I think this might be my favourite book of hers yet.

This book was written about quite a harrowing subject but was done really well. When Cassie was just four years old she was part of a horrific somewhat random shooting. Now she has returned to the town where it happened, a young baby in tow and to look after her ailing mother. With a big anniversary approaching the town is on tenderhooks, journalists snipping around, people you can and cant trust, and was the shooting as random as it was made out to be all those years ago?

I really enjoyed this book - it went between chapters of Then and Now and I felt that this really added to the story. The characters were brilliant - you couldn't work out who was on what side of the story. it was a difficult subject matter with a shooting but it was very well written. I would definitely recommend this book and want to read more by this author

Totally and completely addictive, I inhaled this in a weekend! It was like piecing together a jigsaw puzzle to get to the truth of what happened on that eventful day in 1994. A really well-written and captivating page-turner which I can see myself recommending to people again and again.

On 15th June 1994 the small town of Hartstead was shocked when caretaker Travis Green went on a rampage, shooting eleven people. The victims appeared to be indiscriminate, and nobody has ever been able to understand fully why this awful thing happened. Cassie Colman was only four when her father - the last victim - was murdered in front of his wife and daughter.
It is now coming up to the twenty-fifth anniversary of the shooting. As expected, people are keen to revisit the town and to learn how these events have impacted on the lives of those left behind. For Cassie, now a young mum herself and struggling to cope with her mother's early dementia, this is an unwelcome intrusion. Though she is, herself curious about exactly what happened she has reconciled herself to not getting answers.
When a local journalist starts talking to Cassie, she can't help but be curious. It seems there are some anomalies in the accounts given of that day, and Cassie finds herself drawn into examining the actions of those she has always known in a different light.
This was an interesting idea. We are given some insight into the way in which such events are portrayed in the media and the way people are expected to behave. We get the stories from the past which help us to draw together a fuller picture of the events of that day. And, shockingly, we learn that sometimes things are not what they seem...
The main story was good, and I really found myself enjoying the way the narrative was structured. As we followed Cassie come to her shocking discovery, it felt so much more nuanced than I was expecting and turned things in a direction that took me rather by surprise.
Thanks to NetGalley for allowing me the opportunity to read this before publication in exchange for my honest thoughts.

This was a fast read for me, keen to know what really happened on the day that Travis Green toured the village and shot 11 people. What was his motive? Why were these people selected? Was it random or carefully planned.? What really happened to Cassie and her dad Gary that day?
Themes of lone parenting, a mother with early onset Alzheimers who may hold the answers to some of these questions, fuzzy memories of the day in question, uncovering the truth, trust issues and forging new friendships are all entwined throughout this memorable story.

Thanks to #NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ahead of publication in exchange for an honest review.

A story exploring the lives of those left behind after a tragic mass murder 25 years ago.
It follows the devastation left behind by Travis Green when he went on a killing rampage in which he took the lives of 11 people leaving their families wanting answers.
The story is mainly told by Cassie who was just four at the time and remembers very little but has been affected throughout her life.

A great read by a great author. I enjoyed the mystery of the shootings, and wondering whether there was a connection or if it was random. A tense read full of atmosphere and mystery. Really enjoyed it.

This book, is such a page turner, one of those where you sneak a read wherever you are. Beautifully written fast and furious thriller, with a plot that twists and keeps you wanting more

The Anniversary tells the story of a tragic small town massacre.
25 years earlier, crazed gunman Travis Green stormed the streets killing eleven of his neighbours before turning the gun on himself.
The characters are likeable, unlikeable and intriguing. The story is so well written it really pulls you and takes you on their journey of finding the truth.
I will honestly say this is the best book I have read all year, I found I didn’t want to put it done, the twists and turns made me wanting so desperately to find out what happened next and to find the truth.
Fantastically written and highly recommended for a fantastic read.

This book had my attention from the first few pages and kept it until the last word! Fast paced and like a jigsaw with lots of pieces of a puzzle that are being tried to be put together and then once they do the full picture is not quite what you thought it would be. The swapping from past to future was done very well and was imperative to understanding the background and what happened and why and it unfolded at a good pace so you could keep up. An excellent read and one not to miss

An enjoyable thriller with enough twists and turns to keep you guessing. I quickly felt involved with the relatable characters and liked that they were shown with their own flaws and insecurities.
I will certainly look for other novels by this author.

This was a fast and furious read. Beautifully crafted characters. A plot that's like peeling an onion back layer by layer only to reveal an unexpected sting in the tail. Will read more by this author.

This book is brilliant. It is a seriously highly addictive, page turner! It is perfectly written, and cleverly plotted. The characters are so well written and very relatable especially the parts about being a mother of a young baby.. It is one of those books where you think you know what’s happening, and then you don’t and then you do and then it turns out you that maybe you were right about some of it but you clearly didn’t see it all coming. These types of books are the best, and this one is just brilliant.

Fabulous and creepy - kept me guessing to the very last page.- I'm never disappointed by Laura's writing

This book is about a town where 25 years earlier a crazed gunman shot 11 people dead. One of them was the father of character Cassie. The story follows her investigations into why this tragedy happened and what unfolds as she starts to dig deeper into the events of that day.

It’s definitely a good book that kept me interested. The more that unfolds the more intrigued I became as to how it would all tie together. It was original and whilst it wasn’t the ending I was hoping for, it was in the main believable. I look forward to Laura’s next book because whilst I have enjoyed all her books, you can see how she is developing and her books are getting even better.