As I am someone who doesn't often read adult crime novels,
this is a great introduction to that genre as it doesn't get in too deep with
piecing together the actual crime and has a lot of people in the story who you
can relate to in different ways. Frieda has a classic case of wanting to help,
but not always knowing the best thing to do and going on hunches more than she
really should. Still, it is interesting to have a book written from the
perspective of someone who really shouldn't get involved too deeply with the
crime world, but manages to anyway. It is also good that she has the escape of
not being involved, technically, with the case at hand. The combination of
different perspectives within this book and the storyline itself were very
engaging. I found myself caring about what happened to certain characters and
wanting to find out what the outcome of all the events would be. There were
some extra twists and turns in the plot that really made me enjoy this book. If
you're new to crime fiction or if you are searching for a different side to
crime fiction, then I would really recommend this book, and series, to you.
***
I have to admit that I have already read the third book in
this series, 'Waiting for Wednesday', but as I read this book I tried to forget
as much as I could about what I had learned from that book and entered this
book as if I had never heard of Frieda Klein before.
One of the things that I really liked about this book was
the insight I got into Frieda's mind and life. Her line of work is one that I
do not know much about and have not heard much about, so I am naturally
interested in it, especially as it is something so powerful. She has the power
to help or hurt people by the role that she plays in their lives and has
experienced so many different things through her work. All that combined means
that she is very easy to follow as a main character and she is also quite
likable because you feel like she could help you or be your friend if she were
real.
The storyline that this book follows is one that can easily
strike fear into lots of people. Nowadays parents have become overprotective of
their children because they fear that the worst will happen if they are left
alone for just a second and in their minds this book could reinforce that fear
they have and make their actions seem justified. As a reader, from the start of
the novel we could tell that these two cases were connected, but it was very
cleverly put at the start of the novel as it meant that when the final twist at
the end told us that Terry was in fact Joanna, everything from the beginning of
the novel began to make sense. I suppose that this story also draws in on the
pain it can cause families if they are unable to have children and demonstrates
the lengths that people will go to to get what they want. It can become quite
scary if we think about it for too long, but that is why I'm thankful that this
book is a work of fiction.
Even though I only live a couple of hours away from London,
it is a place I rarely visit and that is why I enjoyed reading about the
different parts of London in this book. As Frieda tended to walk when she
could, it also meant that we got to see more of the city and we got to see the
city in more detail as it wasn't just described as a blur passing by through a
window. Novels that are linked to a specific place can often hold more meaning
as it is something for the reader to be able to relate to and I think that this
was done particularly well in this novel. I can tell that knowledge like this
stems from a personal interest by the writer(s) and seeing a writer put part of
themselves into a novel makes it a lot more meaningful to readers.
If I had to give a reason for not giving this book five
stars, it would have to be that at times I felt like there were too many
characters for me to be able to keep track of and remember well. Each character
was important to the plot in some way or another, but at times it felt like I
was surrounded by a crowd rather than reading about individual characters.
Overall, this is a great opening book to the series as it
creates likeable characters and has an interesting plot line that you aren't
always sure about where it is leading. I look forward to reading the rest of
the series.
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