I just did not get on with this book. There was too much faffing around taking about arty things that I found that I switched off from the story. None of the characters were likeable and I found that I’d dint care what happened to anyone. The story picked up in the last 10% but the ending was very disappointing. This is my least favourite book by this author by a mile, so don’t let it out you off any of her other novels.

Deceased famous painter Vanessa, who mostly lived and worked on remote Eris island,  suddenly becomes the center of an investigation when one of her installations is identified to include a human bone. Becker or Beck, the curator of the gallery that inherited her entire work, is tasked  to interview and visit Vanessa's closest friend Grace, who lives on Eris island now. 

These are the raw basics of a masterfully constructed psychological drama that becomes more twisted with every page,  kept me in full suspence and wondering what was next. A real true to form new Paula Hawkins pageturner, the ending I am not so sure about..... but a very intriguing story,  well drawn out  characters with Vanessa and Grace's relationship at the center. I literally could not put it down,  great read! Coming in October,I read a galley...

I loved The Girl on the train by Paula Hawkins so was excited to read this one.
It was somewhat different to her first book but I enjoyed it just the same. Lots of characters to keep up with and overall four stars

I'm still not sure what this is about.
There is not a single sympathetic person in the book. I found it difficult to care about anyone.
The artist is self-obsessed and removed from reality (as some artists are, in my experience), the curator even more so.
The mysteries are a bit "so what" when you come to them.
The island is atmospheric, the main relationship possible.
I just expected so much more, sorry.

Paula Hawkins’ The Blue Hour - 3.75/5.

I really rather enjoyed this new claustrophobic thriller by Paula Hawkins, which is a true page turner and sure to be a hit. It’s centred on the tiny Scottish island of ’Eris’, where a reclusive, bohemian artist, Vanessa Chapman, lives and creates her masterpieces. There is a lot of artistic detail in the novel, which for someone such as myself whom has a degree in art history, was an attraction, but I do imagine this may be somewhat distracting if you have no interest in art. A little like with Grace, Vanessa’s companion/carer/friend/uncertain lover, and self confessed philistine, this will undoubtedly create issues for some.

The island setting and the plot is governed by its tides and the sense of solitude and isolation is very much aids the successful tension of the novel. I loved the landscape and the sense of place and time, which Hawkins paints vividly, as we go back and forth throughout the novel via diary entries, letters and tales told, and consequently catastrophic revelations are slowly made. It’s a novel that remains within the thriller genre, but it’s also first and foremost, a well written character driven novel about love, obsession and murder.

It would be firm 4 stars for me if it wasn’t for the ending - but I’ll let you decide if it’s a satisfactory one or not.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Transworld publishers for an ARC.

Ahhh, I was so bloody excited to read this book as “The Girl On The Train” is one of my favourite thrillers but Ahhhh…I absolutely hate it WITH the burning fire of a thousand suns!

Boring plot, boring characters, excruciatingly slow and I should have DNF’ed it when I had the urge to.

Not my cup of tea.

This is intoxicating and claustrophobic in all the best ways. An instant bestseller for sure and I would not be surprised if it were picked up by Netflix or similar

Wonderful, just wonderful!! A totally engrossing & original story - I loved it! The characters are intriguing & very well written. It’s not really a thriller but it is a thrilling story that really keeps the reader guessing and wanting more.

I’m somewhat embarrassed to admit that this was the first book I’ve read by Paula Hawkins – nope, I didn’t even read THAT one. I’ve seen a few reviews saying this book is ‘not like’ the author’s previous work: the terms ‘more literary’ have occurred more than once. While I cannot comment on the comparison, I can say I really enjoyed this book.
The premise of the novel was what intrigued me as someone who lives with a full time artist: the discovery of a human bone in a late artist’s work and the ensuing investigation by the estate who had been bequeathed her works – with James Becker, estate curator, travelling up to the small Scottish island she lived on and trying to find out from the late Vanessa Chapman’s friend/ carer/ confidant Grace what actually happened all those years ago and what is she not revealing about the full portfolio of work.
This is a slow burn of a novel: if you have to be tied to big genre tags and want constant and escalating deaths in your crime fiction you may be disappointed: for me, that was exactly what I enjoyed about it. This is a character driven piece, told from multiple viewpoints from the living and, through diary format, the dead. Like the artist’s work at the centre of the piece they are layered and the more time we spend with them the more we see, And to be clear – it’s a wide and varied cast: not just James and Grace at the centre, but the upper class Sebastian and his mother: owners of the estate since the mysterious death of the patriarch who was strangely bequeathed the collection despite an explosive falling out with Vanessa years ago. There’s Helena, James’ pregnant wife previously engaged to Sebastian, a cast of local characters past and present James encounters in person and through his research… there’s a lot of mystery and many questions to be answered and we’re drip fed the details throughout the novel.
It's a book about a lot of things: you don’t need to have a deep appreciation of art to ‘get it’ but if you do it seemed authentic in its approach to me. It is about art, but it’s about a lot more: love, passion, obsession, trust… and how we manage secrets.
It may be a ‘slow burn’ story but it’s in no way a slog – I read this over three sittings and found myself thinking about what was going to happen next in between reads: not always the case in more ‘action packed’ books. I’d definitely recommend this book to anyone looking for an intelligent, well written book – whether they’re fans of Girl on a Train or, indeed, crime/ mystery books in general.

Paula Hawkins is a very versatile author and demonstrates this once more with ‘The Blue Hour’. A recurrent theme (or should I say plot device) is her use of the unreliable narrator, and this is also apparent in her latest novel which is set not in urban surroundings as the now famous “Girl on the Train’ was, but on an isolated Scottish island that is only accessible for twelve hours a day. A property on this inhospitable place forms part of the legacy that art curator James Becker has been asked to administrate on behalf of the Fairbourn Foundation. This task puts him at loggerheads with Grace Haswell, executor of the will of the artist who has passed away, and whose human legacy also continues to leave long shadows: the unfaithful husband who disappeared from the island, the secretive friendship between Grace and the artist Vanessa, and the myriad secrets people on the island keep. This is a thriller that meanders backwards and forwards against the bleak landscape and leaves you questioning your own judgment before the plot ends with a final crescendo. Not as convincing, perhaps, as Ms Hawkins’ debut work, but a good read nevertheless. My thanks go to NetGalley and to the publishers for the free ARC that allowed me to read this title ahead of publication and to publish an unbiased book review here.

This seems more literary than Paula’s other books and I really enjoyed it. Set around a famous artists and the art scene it starts with the discovery of a human bone in a sculpture by renown artist Vanessa Chapman, now deceased. This leads to James Becker curator of the collection to visit Vanessas home, which is located on a small tidal Scottish island only accessible for 12 hours a day. Here lives Grace, Vanessa’s friend who lived here with her off and on. There are quite a few characters in this story, Helena, James’s wife and pregnant with his child. She was formally engaged to Sebastian his friend and boss. It is to Sebastian’s father that Vanessa let her paintings and sculptures. There are a lot of side characters, people who knew Vanessa often the husbands she had had flings with and then there is Julian, Vanessa’s husband, a man known for his indiscrete affairs and selling of Vanessa’s paintings behind her back when he needed money. Mysteriously he disappeared one night and Vanessa was always suspected of his disappearance although never charge or substantiated before her death from cancer. As James tries to uncover who the bone belonged to the story flits between the past and Vanessas diaries that James has in his possession as he searches for a truth about an artist he has always had great admiration for..
It’s a stylish novel full of trust and deception, loyalty and obsession.

#The BlueHour. #NetGalley

A human bone discovered as part of an art piece by famous artist, Vanessa Chapman. Vanessa's husband has been missing for 20 years....could this be the end of the mystery of what happened to Julian? Enter Becker, an art curator who wants to get to the bottom of this and the answers lie at Eris, Vanessa's home on a Scottish Island that is only accessible during low tide for around 12hrs of the day.... Vanessa has passed, so Becker hopes to get some answers from Vanessa's long time friend, Grace.

The books starts with the discovery of the human bone as part of the piece and my interest was immediately peaked and I felt excited for the possibilities. Unfortunately that was the extent of the excitement for me. We meet so many characters and I felt I wasn't really invested in any of them.... They all came across as bland and shallow....also some of them unnecessarily sinister for lack of a better word...I just never felt any depth with either of them. The book is told from multiple POV's, as well as diary entries of Vanessa and at times it was a bit confusing as the timelines jump so much. I actually started ignoring the dates, because I just didn't care anymore. I also thought there was so much repetition and a lot said about art and a lot said about nothing.

Even though the book is somewhat predictable, I did enjoy the claustrophobia of the final scenes....they were well done. This is definitely more of a slow burn and not really 'thriller' for me..... Perhaps readers newer to the genre will enjoy this a bit more than I did.

Thank you for this review copy.

Absolutely brilliant, loved it. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me an advance copy, I will definitely be recommending.

Vanessa is a reclusive artist whose husband disappeared 20 years ago. She lives in an island that is inaccessible when the tide is high. Her latest work is displayed and someone realises a bone included in the sculpture appears to be human in origin. The book then takes you back to Vanessa's life and the circumstances under which she made the art. It's not as gripping as Hawkins' previous novels unfortunately but still an enjoyable read.

Thank you to Netgallery and the publisher for this ARC. The publication date is the 10th Oct. This book was brilliant with many twists that kept me on the edge of my seat throughout! I hope this is turned into a TV adaption it would be great! 😊

Thank you #netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read this.

Unfortunately, although I persevered with it, this book just didn’t work for me.

It’s beautifully written, gorgeous cover but I just found it very confusing and convoluted.

The initial foundation of the story was sound but the story-telling itself was very “jagged” and didn’t flow well. It’s constantly jutting from past to present which makes it very hard for the reader to form a pattern of the plot or where it’s going.

I loved The Girl on the train by Paula Hawkins so was excited to read this one.
It was somewhat different to her first book but I enjoyed it just the same.

#TheBlueHour #NetGalley
Really slow.
Eris, an island with only one house, one inhabitant, one way out. Unreachable from the Scottish mainland for twelve hours each day. Once home to Vanessa. A famous artist whose notoriously unfaithful husband disappeared twenty years ago. Now home to Grace. A solitary creature of the tides, content in her own isolation. But when a shocking discovery is made in an art gallery far away in London, a visitor comes calling. And the secrets of Eris threaten to emerge
It was a good concept but it didn't feel like good because it was really slow. I struggle with her books. It could have been better.
Thanks to NetGalley and Transworld Publishers for giving me an advance copy.

Not until the closing stages does this become a thriller. For the most part, it's high-level literary fiction set in the art world. Ideal for fans of the genre.
With thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an early copy in exchange for an independent review.

Wow! This book took me a few chapters to get into but when I did I couldn’t stop reading it. I tore through the majority of it in just over a day.
Beautiful description of the landscape, I could just picture it.