Joey Mullen returns to Bristol after working abroad for four years. With a new husband in toe, she hopes that now she can settle down, find herself her own place and start, finally to be a responsible adult. But without a job, she begins her new life, camped in her brother’s spare room. But Joey meets the man next door, a respected married head teacher, attractive and an infatuation begins. But what begins as a silly crush, slowly becomes an obsession. But it seems that Joey isn’t the only one who is obsessed about Tom Fitzwilliam.
The novel opens with a investigation for a murder and peppered throughout the novel are the police interviews with Joey. It’s an excellent ploy to sway the reader and to question the motives of the main character, Joey and whether this obsession with her neighbour has ended in something deadly. I liked this character, I found she was someone with whom I could empathise with. Perhaps we have all been there, getting to that ‘age’, where we feel we should be growing up and settling down, but fighting the teenager within us who would like to do nothing more but throw responsibility out of the window. The character of Tom Fitzwilliam is an interesting one too, at first seeming to be a rather dubious character, but Jewel again, throws a curveball at the end of the novel, challenging our initial character assassination of him. The other characters also play their part, Tom’s son whose creepy obsession with the young woman of his area raises alarm bells, but again, Jewel throws us another surprise which challenges our initial perception.
I have to say, the twist at the end, I didn’t see coming. Jewel though, had scattered clues to the killer’s real identity throughout the novel. It felt well-paced, with all the characters in the story playing their part in this domestic thriller.
Though this wasn’t a novel I would normally pick up, I usually like something darker, I enjoyed it and it intrigued me enough that I read the last few chapters in one sitting.