Wow, this one was a little darker than I expected. While it is easy to read and I connected with the characters, it turned a little heavy part way through. With some heavy issues. I highly recommend looking at trigger warnings if you avoid certain topics.

Living in today's world, I was drawn into the story from the beginning with the terrorist attack and Caroline's search for her daughter then what happened to her daughter. I was on the edge of my seat at times and heartbroken at others, but I still could not put it down.

If you are not easily disturbed and like a suspenseful novel, I recommend this one.

After a slow start I really enjoyed the woman on the pier. The two narrators kept my interest with many twists along the way. Caroline is grieving the loss of her daughter and perhaps also her marriage. She finds messages on her phone that explain why Jessica was even in Stratford that day and not where she said in Somerset. Someone has to pay and there starts her trip to Southend to find out the truth. Undercurrents of sexual abuse and trauma abound

Nothing special it started off OK and had some good twists but it got confusing and then I got a bit bored
I listen to my audio books while doing my daily walk and found myself drifting from the story so much so I missed what happened on the pier and had to go back and find that chapter

This is the first book I have read by this author but it will not be the last. A fast paced thriller that kept me gripped throughout, a must for suspense fans

I was a huge fan of The Dinner Guest so was eager to read this next offering from the same author.

The Woman On The Pier immediately showcases a different style of writing and approach. It's a slow burn rather than a fast-paced page turner, focuses on very difficult subject matters, and overall is more of a creepy tale.

We shift perspectives between characters, and this is something I think BP Walter does really really well.

It took a while for me to get to grips with the characters and at first I really found "The Mother" tricky to understand, questioning her reactions and behaviour. On reflection, and having finished the book, I think this is actually a masterful storytelling approach.

The sense of confusion, and (at first), disjointed nature of events provide the mystery and suspense you hope for, give greater insight into the mindsets of our central characters, and take you on the same emotional journey as would be expected in such horrific circumstances. It also sets a solid foundation for the plot developments occuring later on.

The threads all come together in such a satisfying way, and when they do, the end result is shocking, terrifying and overall a brilliant read!

Caroline is devastated by grief after her 16 year old daughter, Jessica, is murdered in a terrorist attack at Stratford Station, London. and her marriagJessica should have been in Somerset that day, not London, and when Caroline looks through her daughters phone she sees photos and messages from a boy and decides to track him down to find out more.

I was intrigued from the start and got sucked right in, but this is not the story I imagined when I started listening. It is quite sad and sometimes painful to listen to. It was a little confusing at times as the timeline went back and forth. There are several twists that I really did not see coming. Ok, it's a little far fetched, but this is fiction after all so I just went with the flow :-)

After finishing this I took a look at the other reviews and was surprised to see so many low ones because I really enjoyed the book.

I enjoyed the narration by Stephanie Racine and Luke Francis.

The Woman on the Pier, was a fast pace, grab your attention, instant thriller.

I was completely surprised by how fast I was thrown into the plot and my attention was grabbed. Now, audio books are a lot different than actually reading a book and the way that the narrator told this story, could not have been any better.

This audio is filled with twists and turns you will never see coming and you will enjoy every bit of it. Also, lets just look at this cover, it screams "summer beach read" .

Easy 5 stars.

The narrators were very good though I am not sure if Shephanie Racine gave too much life to the mother. The mother, Caroline is obnoxious so I felt no sympathy for the loss of her daughter, Jessica. The father is not much better. The 'F' and 'C' words are used quite liberally. The title does not really give a good indication of the story which is mainly about grief, guilt and sexual abuse. Caroline's behaviour is extreme and unbelievable as is the plot.. Had I been reading this book I would have given up very quickly but as an audio book I only listened when I was working out.
Narrators - 5* Book 1*

I have heard such good reviews for B.P. Walter's The Dinner Guest that I wanted to read this book the moment I saw it on the Netgalley request line.

Well...

So, this is the story of a woman, Caroline, who loses her child. Then she discovers the man who caused her daughter's death. She wants revenge and goes after the man.

First things first, I absolutely hated Caroline.

She was shallow and selfish and snobbish. Even if the character is that of a grieving mother, I found it very difficult to sympathize with her at all. At one point, she handles an Android phone then thinks "This is why I prefer iPhones! Android phones are so silly!" or something to that effect. Keep in mind that she is in deep mourning for her daughter when this happens. Then there is a whole chapter about a God-awful humongous TV set because she doesn't like the TV set in her hotel room. In another scene, there is a scuffle and she pushes a man down the stairs. While she descends the stairs to check if the man is alive, she looks at his chest and compares it with her husband's chest. And then there is the totally illogical "revenge" thing going on.

Then there's her husband Alec. He is the same as Caroline. I think they are well-suited for each other. Both selfish and totally self-obsessed.

Michael's story was heart-wrenching and about the only thing that saved the book.

The thing that irked me most was that there is NO PIER! It is in the bloody title yet the woman is on the pier for maybe half a page and that's it. This is the case of classic baiting. I went for the book expecting some exciting story near a water body and what do I get? A crazy woman who gets some crazy ideas and goes on a crazy revenge hunt.

1 star.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

This audiobook has several hard hitting issues throughout. Maybe a trigger warning on the cover would have helped.
I did 'enjoy' the book and felt that I needed to finish it to see where it went. I was quite shocking in places and I felt the ending was incredibly rushed.

Jessica seems to be a happen enough , if sometimes moody teenager but she has a secret internet friend. When she fails to return home from a trip to Devon, her parents are devastated to find she had not been in Devon, but in London at the site of a terrorist attack.
Caroline and her husband navigate their grief in different ways, until Caroline finds messages from the boy who Jessica was to meet on the day of the terrorist attack. She sets off to find him, and make him pay.
A twisty deep tale of loss and despair.

Caroline Byrne is a successful TV script writer and a grieving mother. Her sixteen year old daughter, Jessica, was killed in a shocking terrorist attack at Stratford Station in London. Why was she even there, she was supposed to be in Somerset with a friend. Caroline's marriage is also on the rocks. Things were tense before Jessica's death, but they are worse now. Three months later, and Caroline still doesn’t understand why Jessica had lied to them and why she was in London on that fateful day. She decides to go through her daughter’s phone, and see if there are any clues. What she finds surprises her. Jessica was supposed to meet a boy that day, one she had been talking to online, but he never showed up. Caroline has a mission, this Michael is the reason that Jessica is dead and she is going to make him pay.

There were highs and lows in this story. The first half of the book tells us the story of the Byrne family. We learn about their relationships and their problems. Jessica pits her parents against one another to get what she wants, but this causes a rift between them. Jessica is also the glue that holds the family together. Jessica's death shatters Caroline and she becomes a bit unhinged. She is having an extremely difficult time dealing with her grief and Alec is no help at all. She needs someone to blame and "the boy" aka Michael is her target. Once Caroline finds out who Michael is, the story takes an even darker turn. We hear his story and it was heartbreaking. The story is told from both Caroline's and the boy's POV, which fleshes out the story using realistic events that were occurring at the time the story is set. I'm not sure if I would describe this book as a thriller, in fact I don't know what genre this would fit. It is populated with unlikable characters and people who's persona and reactions are the result of things that happen to them, but I couldn't help but feel empathy towards them. There are lies and secrets that will change lives. It was a well written and well paced story. I will leave it with this description, a story of a family disintegrating, grief, senseless deaths, lies and secrets, revenge and abuse.

I did a read/listen with the audiobook narrated by Stephanie Racine and Luke Francis. I always enjoy when there are both male and female narrators to give voice to the characters. Both narrators did a good job bringing the story to life and it added to my enjoyment of the story. I did enjoy the audiobook more than reading this one, but both formats were enjoyable.

I typically love HarperCollins' books and particularly their thrillers, so was keen to give this audiobook a go.

The opening drew me in and I wondered how on earth we were going to get to events on a ship from there, given the picture on the cover suggested strongly that we were going to be on a cruise ship for a good part of the novel. The moments on the pier are a very small section of the novel, so even though it's a crucial section, I didn't feel the cover and title linked with the plot. I also wasn't sure why fans of Lucy Foley would necessarily be fans of this work, other than that it has more than one narrator. Lucy Foley to me creates a cracking, pacy thriller and this was more of a slow-burn tragic tale.

The audio narrators here were really great. I felt they captured exactly the characters that had been written. I was someone confused as to why Caroline was English in her internal monologue and Australian only when speaking. I think this could have been Australian throughout and as an Aussie, I felt the narrator's voice sounded authentic enough to carry that throughout the piece.

Many thanks to NetGalley, HarperCollins Publishers and BP Walker for a copy of this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Initially I didn't like the main character Caroline. A grieving mother but not very likeable. However, as the story develops you begin to peel away away the layer and quite warm to her.
Caroline's life is torn apart when her teenage daughter is killed in a terror attack. The sad thing is she shouldn't have been there. She had lied to her parents over where she was going. Caroline in her grief discovers her daughter Jessica had arranged to meet someone called Michael and that he never turned up. Caroline, is determined to find out why and make him pay. After all it's his fault Jessica was where she was! Or is it?
As you delve deeper into the book discoveries are made and you get a real feel for the characters.
Absolutely loved the book. The narrator of the audiobook just added to the story.
Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to listern to an ARC

I’m sure that I won’t be the only person confused by the choice of cover and synopsis which seem to belong to quite a different novel to the one I’ve just listened to.

If you’re expecting a thriller, then you’re likely to be disappointed. Instead, what you’ll get is a slow unraveling of a bleak storyline from 2 POV: the Mother and the Boy. By the time you get to it, the very brief incident on the pier is not a surprise but is awful.

This has left me feeling pretty depressed to be honest and it’s hard to have a lot of sympathy for Caroline or Alex. Instead, all my pity is for the younger characters and how society has failed them. I have no issue with the narration as both actors did a good job of conveying their characters, I just found it a sad and distressing story overall.

With thanks to NetGalley and the publisher, Harper Collins Uk Audio for an audiobook arc in exchange for an honest review.

Caroline is a script writer, working all hours and trying to keep out of the way of her belittling, insecure husband. That is until one day when her daughter is killed in a terrorist attack in London. But why was Jessica in London in the first place when she told her parents she was going to Somerset? Caroline finds that her daughter is keeping secrets and is determined to make someone pay for her daughter being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

There is a strange one to review in away because it deserves two reviews - one of the narration and one for the plot.

The narration was amazing - easily one of the best audiobook productions I have listened to - a definite five stars. Not only are the two narrators able to produce a range of authentic sounding accents, but their performance was spot on, infusing their narratives with a ton of emotion in what are very disturbing events. It was the narration that let me to finish the book.

But the plot - that is what I struggled with. I loved B. P Waters’ last book. It was brilliant. I did start out being as gripped by this book but I soon found the plot to be on too far fetched- there is an irritating trend within some thriller fictions that the character who is obsessed about getting answers is always affluent enough to quit their job and travel,, staying in expensive hotels in order to investigate. It’s just not credible for the average reader is it?
I like how surprised I was by the twists but after a point, they just became far fetched both in the frequency of them and the events that followed. I didn’t think the ending was satisfying or well plotted.

Spoiler alert that won’t be posted on social media- if you are going to go all out with outlandish events, why not have the Mum and Daughter team up to travel back and get revenge on Rob? I feel like that would have made an apt, perhaps more satisfying ending.

In summary, I really enjoyed the narrative and will be seeking out those narrators again for future audiobooks. I was disappointed by the book but having loved the author’s previous book, I will be back for the next one in the hope it’s more similar to “The Dinner Guest”.

Thank you to the author, publisher and Netgalley for the opportunity to review a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

**please note due to low rating I will not be leaving a public review for this book as I have not paid for it.**

Narrator 5 stars
Both narrators were really good. Great voices

Story 2 stars

This story didn't grab me. It was very slow going and started to feel repetitive.
Overall I was very keen for it to end, and all the characters were heavy and depressing.

Someone in my reading group said this author is really good even though they themselves didn't like this book so as this is my first time trying this author I would definitely try another book.

A roller coaster of a story!
Caroline is a script writer who loses her daughter in a terrorist attack , and is looking for someone to blame.
The writing is both clever and emotive and this book gave me a lot more than what I expected, in parts it’s tough going and some of the subjects covered are grim .
The narrative is told in the perspective of two people the mother and the boy , it works perfectly in the audio version and the narration is excellent.
In summary this story is emotive and unique and one that I will be thinking about for time to come . Highly recommended but certainly not a feel good read!
Thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins UK Audio.

Very slow build up to enable the reader to understand the lead up and aftermath of ‘the attack’ . What started out as a untimely death the story lead us to a complex chain of events and people who were all affected by the ‘attack’. Extremely sad in places and a very emotional journey. Thank you #NetGalley for the audiobook to review.

A heartbreaking and raw but brilliant thriller, crossing a number of difficult subjects while exploring various types of grief and how we all cope differently. Moving between timelines, additional details are added, shedding further light on events and altering our perception. A great book and very well narrated.