This was a hard book to connect with. The main character is definitely likable, but that is where the positive parts of it end. It definitely needs some work.

(I received a free copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.)

The Valley is a fast-paced, psychological thriller about a murder. It is both a classic page turner and a dark morality tale.
The Valley it refers to is more a mindset than a precise geographical area. It is the modern urban successor to the middle class suburbs of the sixties and seventies, with tastefully extended Victorian terraced houses taking the place of mock-Tudor semis. There is the same fear of being left behind, the same frustration at unrealised dreams, and the same desire to live in something more meaningful than a postcode.
It is similar in style to books like The Talented Mr Ripley and The Secret History, with an enigmatic and charismatic anti-hero at its centre, but set in the contemporary middle class London surroundings that most novel readers can relate to.

I really wanted to like this book. The blurb didn't give too much away and I thought there was going to be a really good mystery...

While I was right about the mystery of the missing people, I just found the characters and their motivations hard to connect with. They aren't badly written - don't get me wrong there - but I found them all (except maybe with the exception of John Flood) to me somewhat pretentious (for lack of a better word) and I just found them difficult to feel anything for.


Paul
ARH