I enjoy Tony parsons books and I think you know what you’re getting with them. They’re almost a comfort at this point! You always get a good old crime thriller with good twist and intriguing characters. It didn’t blow my socks off but all in all a good twisty turny book with untrustworthy characters, mysterious plot twists and lovely descriptions of the Cornish coast!

Who She Was is a book I enjoyed from start to finish and would recommend.
A beach in Cornwall, a fire, an outsider coming to the village, but will she make it or will the tide take her away? To stop this from happening a couple of the locals offer her shelter for the night before the estate agent arrives to hand over keys to a cottage that she has rented for a year. Clementine is her name but who is she, where has she come from and why is she here?
This was a great read, I love Cornwall and the setting here helped greatly, the book is full of twists and turns and really keeps you reading. The ending I did not see coming at all!!
I would like to thank Netgalley and Random House UK, Cornerstone for this ARC I received in exchange for an honest review.

Initial I enjoyed this book but then it seemed to move from one thing to another and to be honest I couldn’t even finish it as it just lost the plot and tried to tie too many happy endings together. It has the basis to be a good book but never quite got there.

I did enjoy the fact most of the book was from a man’s point of view but a whole town infatuated with one women is a bit far fetched and they were far too forgiving to! Anyway not for me.

5.0 out of 5 stars
Fabulous. Atmospheric. Thrilling
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 29 September 2023

I've read many of the author's books and have enjoyed them all. Cornwall is a change of scene from the usual London / urban settings. And like a change of scene, has added a fresh viewpoint.

I like the plot development as much as how the characters become more vivid as the story progresses. The twists and turns happen in all the right places but you never feel that you've been had as a reader.

Because of the setting, this lends itself to a fabulous holiday read.

A psychological thriller is set in a Cornish fishing village. Mystery surrounds the beautiful new arrival. The locals make her welcome and are soon willing to protect her at any price. Dark truths are revealed in this gripping read.

I enjoyed this story. The setting was superb you really felt part of the Cornish Community. It is common knowledge that the tourists can be a help and hindrance to the Cornish people and this book tries to portray that in a way. However I found some inconsistencies. The closure of the restaurant for winter and the flowers at the ceremony not quite in the correct season.
The twists and turns of this story will keep you reading as there are many, but somehow it all seems a rather spectacularly impossible story

I loved the Cornish setting, it was a perfect atmospheric backdrop for the story.
I found the plot very confusing at times and instead of twists and turns it instead felt like the plot just changed completely. I also couldn't relate to the characters they just seemed unrealistic and all over the place.
It was a well written with good characterisations but just too all over the place for me.

This is a very different and very enjoyable novel from Tony Parsons. Standalone from his Max Wolfe novels (which are amongst some of my favourites), this is a novel with a twist that you definitely won't see coming!

When a young woman is found at night warming herself beside a bonfire on the beach, the locals of the idyllic Cornish town aren't surprised. Tourists are always doing it. Unaware of the dangers that the face from the incoming tide.

Will and Bet Farthing offer her a place for the night, whilst she waits to collect the keys for her rental property the following day. She gives nothing away despite her name, Clementine. Their gentle questioning curiosity getting them nowhere fast.

Clementine is a woman who is as mysterious as she is beautiful and quickly becomes a source of fascination for the locals, and a source of obsession for some of the local men.

Clementine however is a woman who is used to male attention and largely ignores them. But looking as she does, she is not going to stay single for long.

Which is why Tom Cooper, owner of the Lobster Pot restaurant is so quick to make his move. He knows that she is the only woman that could make him happy. Although he knows next to nothing about her, he already knows that he would do anything for her.

A fact that Clementine may well use to her advantage, because of course, she is used to men doing exactly what she wants. Even if what she wants is inconceivable, perhaps even deadly. And it wouldn't be the first time...

This book was good at gripping you and pulling you in. Who was this mysterious woman on the beach? What secrets was she covering up and really, how did everyone fall for her so fast?

I would like to say that my level of interest was maintained throughout but, this was one of my less favourite Tony Parsons book. And without giving anything away, the plot twist just threw me, and not in a good way. There’s one thing to throw a spanner in the works and another to just change the story entirely.

I did like the evaluation of morality, of what makes a good person, and what would we do for love. But this wasn’t the easiest read for me and I found parts of it a slog. The characterisation as always was fantastic.

⭐️ 4 ⭐️

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

I’m a big fan of Tony Parson’s work, so I was thrilled to get my hands on a copy of Who She Was.
 
The writing, as always, is excellent, and the characters are well-developed. I absolutely loved the Cornish setting, which provides a spectacular, atmospheric backdrop to the story.
 
The book is well-plotted, and the twisty, suspenseful plot and underlying sense of foreboding kept me immersed from start to finish.
 
An engaging, entertaining psychological thriller. I really enjoyed it.

Wow, just wow!
I loved the Cornish fishing village, I felt as though I was there.
I really could not have predicted the ending, when I thought I’d guessed it, another thing would get revealed.
Excellent work by Tony Parsons.

At times a bit over dramatic but then confusingly underwhelming as the twists and turns come thick and fast. A strange beautiful woman sitting on a Cornish beach starts it all off taken in by a local family and a restaurant owner she is waiting for the keys to a local cottage. The main character Tom is the restaurant owner who rapidly falls for the enigmatic stranger but soon violence and murder turn the tale very dark. Lots of unlikely events follow until the final twist that I doubt anyone would predict.

With its Cornish setting, a mysterious and beautiful heroine who enchants every man who comes across her accompanied by an unexplained death involving several of the locals, this is a modern day gothic mystery which is very much in the Daphne du Maurier mould. Written from the first person viewpoint of Tom, former journalist turned chef, who is himself beguiled by Clementine, a modern day Helen of Troy, who appears to be able to manipulate circumstances for her own benefit, the reader follows the events leading up to the disappearance and death of Clementine’s husband and the investigation that follows. The plot has more than a few twists to offer but the story is mainly about the characters and the secrets they carry, whilst also reflecting on Cornwall’s disdainful dependency on tourism and decline of its fishing heritage.

With thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review an advance copy.

Thank you for allowing me to review this book. I have mixed feelings about it. The Cornish setting was well written and the locals just as I have experienced. However, I found d the story confusing at times. It began well with the interest shown in the new arrival, Clementine but the following events I found hard to keep track of. Often a character gave his thoughts at the beginning of a chapter, then the story follows another character.
The final chapters were a surprise and I'm not sure that I like the ending.
Does the title fit the story? I'm not sure that it does. Perhaps this book will be enjoyed by others who like thrillers.

This book had a beautiful setting in Cornwall and straight away the book took you there. This was a great book, a real page turner.

One morning a young woman is sitting beside a bonfire on a beach in the fishing village on St Jude in Cornwall. She is waiting for the estate agent to bring the keys for the cottage she has on lease. It's a cold night & Bet, a local fisherman's wife sends her husband & their friend Tom from the local restaurant down to bring her in to the warm. So Clementine, the woman from nowhere, starts to cast her spell over the people of St Jude. The story is told mainly by Tom as well as other people of the village. I found the description of the place totally magical - Clementine may not have ensnared me but St Jude certainly did! I didn't much like Clementine & I thought Tom was an idiot but for the time I was reading this book I felt as though I was there (& living in Shetland, I couldn't have travelled further!!) This is the first book I've read by Tony Parsons but it won't be the last. Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for letting me read & review thins book.

A mysterious stranger comes to a quiet, Cornish seaside town. She beguiles everyone she meets until two men from her past come looking for her. The locals will do anything to protect her, perhaps even murder. In the vein of Du Maurier this story is a tale of obsession and secrets. How far will they go?

It sounds too much like a cliche to say this author draws a perfect picture with his words but I’m not clever enough to explain it any better than that. I experienced the story rather than observing it. It’s my first Tony Parsons’ book that I’ve really enjoyed so I’m delighted to have kept trying his work.
The characters were interesting and the setting simply perfect for what was a very unusual murder mystery.
I’ve only one criticism & that is my disbelief that one person could attract so much love but it brings my rating from five to four mainly because I can’t give a four and a half

I mostly enjoyed Who She Was but I disliked the characters and didn’t entirely care what happened to them. I loved the Cornish setting and I did want to read it to the end to see what happened.

What an utterly weird book this was to read. The title is very misleading for one and think that plays with you for most of the book. I also thought it was a bit like fishing, strange analogy I know, but it would reel you in with a juicy good bit then drift away when it became rather boring. The ending was very weird too and something I really wasn’t expecting and in a way it helped my rating go from 2 stars to 3.