I found the main character's perspective to be extremely difficult to follow at times and for that reason I did not connect well with the protagonist. I am not sure if she was supposed to appear as an unreliable narrator or simply scatty but the bouncy narration did not go well with my sleep-deprived brain and because of that, larger sections of the mystery also passed me by. I am realising that crime fiction is not really my thing particularly when it deals with violence against women and so this was perhaps not the book for me. I will keep my review private since it could not be more positive.

Omg......... this book was amazing I flew threw the pages with Olympic speed I was hooked from the very first page. I found it full of twists and turns threw out and it kept me on the edge of my seat all the way threw  I would defiantly recommend this book if you like a good book to keep you reading threw the night hopefully you enjoy it as much as I did

Well-written, in an unobtrusive, minimalist and yet descriptive style. Successful particularly in describing the sibling relationship, although the plot felt somewhat predictable.

When Nora takes the train from London to visit her sister in the countryside, she expects to find her waiting at the station, or at home cooking dinner. But when she walks into Rachel’s familiar house, what she finds is entirely different: her sister has been the victim of a brutal murder.

Stunned and adrift, Nora finds she can’t return to her former life. An unsolved assault in the past has shaken her faith in the police, and she can’t trust them to find her sister’s killer. Haunted by the murder and the secrets that surround it, Nora is under the harrow: distressed and in danger. As Nora’s fear turns to obsession, she becomes as unrecognizable as the sister her investigation uncovers.

A riveting psychological thriller and a haunting exploration of the fierce love between two sisters, the distortions of grief, and the terrifying power of the past.

I like a book to be fairly fast paced and engaging, but, for me, this book was very slow and boring. I'm afraid I really didn't enjoy it and I personally wouldn't recommend it. 2*

THE COPY OF THIS BOOK WAS PROVIDED BY PUBLISHERS FOR AN HONEST REVIEW.

EXPECTATIONS: I am so buried under the books I have purchased myself that I rarely now take ARCs but Orion publisher contacted me about this book saying it is similar to Gillian Flynn writing and previously I have reviewed The Grownup from them so I naturally ended up saying yes.

THE WORLD: As it is the same with most crime books this book stays with the boundaries of our own world too. We are invited to United Kingdom in this story, to a small town most of the time. You know I have lived in UK previously and so reading about it was rather nostalgic for me. However, sometimes it made me think if somebody who never visited UK would be able to follow some of the details. Personally, I just lacked some description to be honest. Yes, we do have a world we are all familiar with and that in a way does not need much describing but not all of the readers have been in the small talking where action takes place or London for that matter and are familiar with everything author is mentioning. Other than that I think it was pretty basic world that we often see in crime books.

CHARACTERS: I was thinking for a bit before writing this review as to how many characters should I describe without risking spoilers. So I ended up with a conclusion that I will only talk about Nora. She is a sister of Rachel, woman that was killed, and is kinda unstable. Really, this is the first thing that comes to my mind. Maybe not even kinda but very unstable. Basically Nora finds Rachel dead in her house and police is trying to figure out what happened and who did it. In the meantime Nora is going off the grid and pretty much thinking anybody did it. But not even in a paranoid way, it was more of just really no common sense very illogical thinking. If you asked me I think Nora should have been locked up. And no I am not saying people with mental illness should be locked away. What Nora was thinking and planning...that was dangerous to people around her and anybody she gets obsessed with. I mean seriously. I cannot give you examples without spoiling so you just going to have to take my word for that but yeah...I greatly just purely disliked Nora. I have no idea if this was the intention of the author and if was then nice job but if not then in this case Nora was just well very unlikable and in no way I could relate to her.

ROMANCE: This point is very weird in the book. There are some one night stands that are actually hard to follow and you end up with whaaaat did she just slept with him? Also romance of Rachel...did I miss something and it was just crazy Nora or was romance antagonized in this book? Hmm.

GOOD: There were some really good ideas, I think this book is a debit novel of the author so it will always amazes me how people can have these sort of ideas straight away.

BAD: Unfortunately, these same ideas I just mentioned above were not developed further. If only the ending was done differently, I mean there was so so much potential but ending was just wrong. It was out of the blue and too fast and you end up again with whaaaaaat?

OVERALL: It was a crime books I agree but as a Gillian Flynn fan I would say comparison is wrong here. Gillian Flynn is a genius, the way she writes makes you hate and love characters at the same time. Flynn Berry however good is not yet there and so I would recommend this book to crime lovers but would ask you to not expect Gillian Flynn in it.

On what seems like a normal day, Nora arrives at her sister, Rachel's, house to find her brutally murdered. Reeling from the discovery and at a loss to understand how this could have happened, Nora sets about trying to discover who killed her sister.

I love a book with an unreliable narrator and this is no exception. From the off Nora's behaviour isn't what would be seen as appropriate. She sets about stalking the man she sees as the main suspect in her sister's murder, trying to goad him into a reaction and then gives her sister's teenage goddaughter the go ahead to collect something from the house, forgetting that its still covered in blood from the murder. Nora's actions are so obsessive that its fascinating to see the fog slowly lift from the character's eyes as she suddenly understands where the police focus lies. It's at times a claustrophobic read but once you adjust to the writing style it becomes really absorbing and I had that weird mix of satisfaction and disappointment you get when finishing a really good book. It could have easily been a standard thriller but the writing style is something which definitely marks this book out from the crowd. A gripping story with a interesting take on the relationship between sisters.

A received a ARC from NetGalley in exchange for a fair review.

I am so sorry but this book was just too boring. At times it picked up but then just fell back into the same meandering prowse. Not one for me. Sorry.

Almost painful to read, the story of a sisters murder and the surviving sisters attempt to find her murderer. An interesting read that, whilst I can't say I enjoyed but it was a good read

Gripping and a real page turner. Will definitely look for this author in future.

I loved this one - probably for different reasons than I would normally enjoy a psychological thriller - Under the Harrow is more psychological melodrama with a main protagonist who is quite obviously an unreliable narrator and whose stream of consciousness prose makes for a lilting if occasionally odd feeling read.

It keeps you off balance - when Nora arrives at her Sister's house to find her murdered, she obviously goes into shock but it is a slow path to mental instability. Obsessed with finding the killer, she takes strange and mostly irrational seeming steps to finding them. At the same time we get a sense of her relationship with Rachel - which over the past years has been defined by an attack Rachel suffered in her younger life.

It is clever writing here if you can let yourself go with it - very unsettling, Nora's thoughts slip from one thing to another and back again seamlessly, sometimes in the same sentence. The sense of place can be hard to grasp because of it, she remembers things from holidays and other events in their lives without due process, her grief is tangible exactly for that reason. At the heart of Under the Harrow is the relationship between siblings, that love/hate/love vibe which can become all mixed up when one loses the other. I found it utterly compelling.

Some of the novel is set in my neck of the woods which made the read all the more poignant for me personally, the solution to who killed Rachel is hidden in the depths of the prose here, this is not really a book where you make best guesses - you just kind of go with it and wait for Nora to get there. The end was melancholy yet fulfilling and Nora is not a character I will forget easily.

Overall I'm a fan of this one. Pushing the boundaries a little in style and substance with some utterly beautiful writing and occasional throw away phrases that just speak to what grief is in an extremely insightful way, I really can't wait to see what Flynn Berry does next.

If you like your psychological thrillers to send you from A to B to C with huge twists and sudden reveals then Under the Harrow won't give you that - what it WILL give you is a considered, intelligent, slow burn journey of discovery which is ultimately rather heart wrenching.

Recommended.

I love a good unreliable narrator. It seems as if they’ve become very popular since Gone Girl and the like, and I can see why. The relationship between sisters is a complicated one, based on both rivalry and loyalty. Nora and Rachel are close, and Rachel’s murder affects Nora deeply. She becomes obsessed with finding out who killed her sister,

I didn’t understand the assault on Rachel as a teenager. Perhaps it was based on a true story, but it just didn’t sit right with me. I also didn’t understand how it related to her murder. It felt disjointed and jerky, but perhaps that was all part of Nora being unreliable.

Props to the author for describing Polperro exactly right. Being a Cornish maid, I know it well. And to describe loving Cornwall and loving life is, of course, something I approve of. Berry is a wonderful storyteller, and Under The Harrow is a great debut. The premise and build-up of Under The Harrow was excellent. It was thrilling and captivating. But the execution, and the big reveal, was sadly a bit of a let-down. It felt rushed, and it speaks volumes that I fell asleep at 98%, in the middle of Rachel’s killer being unveiled.

Under The Harrow is a short read, one that will grip and shock you. And with a few tweaks, particularly regarding the ending, it could be a fantastic read.