The latest novel by best selling author Paula Hawkins is a psychological mystery set on a remote Scottish island. The world of high end art is intricate, I found the descriptions difficult. The slow pace and the interspersed diary and letter entries detracted rather than progressed the story. A very different read to the authors previous novels which I enjoyed.

I loved it! I found it refreshingly different. It's engaging and witty with a great mystery running throughout. This all revolves around the life of Vanessa Chapman [who was a reclusive artist] and her husband's disappearance. Written in present day and diary form, the narration is told from different viewpoints. I liked the dramatic ending.

What would you expect from the author of The Girl on the Train than another immersive, intense read? Set between the island of Eris and the Scottish mainland, Paula’s latest novel focuses on the issues of legacy, art and mystery. Eris – a one house island – was once home to an artist, Vanessa, whose unfaithful husband disappeared decades ago. Grace now lives there, happily alone, living with the ghosts of what came before. All is well – if you can call it that – until a discovery is made in a leading art gallery which requires a visit to Eris. All is very definitely not well from then on, and you’re brought into a tangled world of hearsay, lies and half truths. It’s an exciting read as you’re never quite sure what’s real and what’s not. I inhaled it.

Hawkins’ new work is very different from her runaway success The Girl on the Train and even her most recent story A Slow Fire Burning which is great but, from my perspective as a reader of all Hawkins’ previous works, there’s a profound misalignment between what this book claims to be and what it is.

The core theme to the book is art. If you’re not interested in art, art culture, and the art world, you might, like me, find this keeps you at arm’s length for the bulk of the book.

It purports to be set in the present day (so many references to the pandemic!) but everything about the storytelling, writing style, language, and vibe is pure historical fiction: the way the characters speak to each other, the whole ‘lord of the manor’ thing at Fairburn, even Vanessa and Grace’s story felt more 1930s than 1990s. Apart from a few mentions of social media platforms, this whole book felt historical. The book is very slow to get going and doesn’t have the pace that readers will expect of a thriller. I didn’t feel particularly ‘hooked’ at any time throughout the story. There are a few plot twists but nothing a seasoned mystery reader won’t spot coming.

I didn’t find the characters particularly interesting, including our lead, Becker. The characters at Fairburn were pure historical fiction stereotypes. Vanessa didn’t feel real to me as a character since most of her characterization is relayed through Becker and Grace, both of whom are obsessed with her. Grace was the most interesting, complex character in the book for me but even she lost me at the end. I also didn’t care for the tired trope of Grace, an overweight woman, being constantly described as repulsive, disgusting, hideous, etc.

The sense of place also lacked authenticity. I couldn’t get a good sense of the island or Scotland in this book. It had all the usual tropes: windswept, isolated, the sea… but it didn’t feel real, more like a caricature.

On the Waterstones website, this described as “An unputdownable thriller […] that pitches three people on a Scottish tidal island into a nightmare when a bone at the centre of a sculpture turns out to be human” and I think it borders on misrepresentative given the context and expectations readers will have based on Hawkins’ previous works. This makes it sound like a cut-off-from-contact thriller where characters are stranded on the island and it’s a race to find out who the murder is… it’s not that. There aren’t even three people on the island!

Who would I recommend this to?
- Art enthusiasts
- Folks who enjoy the slower pace and more formal writing style of historical fiction
- Readers interested in a character study of two deeply flawed individuals and an autopsy of their toxic friendship

The book these three things exceptionally well, but my problem is that’s not what it’s been pitched as in the pre-release hype. The story is a departure from the author’s previous works and the promo copy for might see a lot of readers let down by expectations. I love that Hawkins is trying something new and expanding her breadth of writing; with the right audience, it might see success. I’m just not sure it’ll appeal to the thriller readers it’s pitched at.

I was privileged to have my request to read this book accepted through NetGalley. Thank you so much Random House UK, Transworld Publishers!