The Daughter by Lucy Dawson
Genre: Psychological Thriller
Read: 28th June 2018
Purchase: Amazon
★★★★ 4 stars
"The Daughter" is the first book I have read by Lucy Dawson, so I wasn't sure what to expect. But it turned out to be a great psychological thriller despite not being not edge-of-your-seat kind of stuff.
It begins in November 1999 with Jess taking her 5 year old daughter Beth to school, where surprisingly, the head teacher - Simon Strallen - there turns out to be a guy Jess had a quick fling with after her mother died 5 years before. You do the maths. It wasn't hard to work out that Beth was actually his daughter and not her husband Ben's. This is discovered in the beginning so it's not much of a spoiler. However, things start to get interesting when Simon's wife, Louise, also a teacher at the school, cottons on to things and confronts her husband. However, all that is put aside when Jess gets the call that no mother wants to get - the one that says something has happened to her child. Jess and her husband Ben must then face life without their little ray of sunshine Beth. But life isn't even as simple as that. And so Jess's life spirals as she comes face to face with a choice she must make to save her husband.
Fast forward seventeen years and Jess is happily married to Ed, who incidentally knows ALL about her past - Simon, the affair, her marriage, Beth and Beth's tragic death - and now has a two year old son. So when they put their house on the market and begin looking around for another, nothing prepares Jess for the shock of what she is confronted with when her and Ed are given an exclusive viewing to a house just a few streets away. And soon Jess' past comes backs to haunt her as someone begins a cruel game of cat and mouse with her, taunting and frightening both her and their nanny, and enraging her husband Ed. Their house is broken into; all the clocks are set to the exact time Beth died; a mirror falls and breaks narrowly missing her 2 year old son; a magpie is left in the nanny's room. Someone knows about Jess' past. And someone wants Jess to pay.
So much happens in this book to give you cause to think "is it her?" or "is it him?" Though not so much edge-of-your-seat, more of a slow burn, some things are predictable some are not. I did work out who it was long before the end of the story but spent most of the time trying to figure out how and why. But the revelations at the end are both shocking as well as heartbreaking.
But one thing is for sure...it all goes back to Beth. I was still left wondering about her death even after I finished the book. Did we really find out the truth? I'll leave it to you to judge for yourself.
It begins in November 1999 with Jess taking her 5 year old daughter Beth to school, where surprisingly, the head teacher - Simon Strallen - there turns out to be a guy Jess had a quick fling with after her mother died 5 years before. You do the maths. It wasn't hard to work out that Beth was actually his daughter and not her husband Ben's. This is discovered in the beginning so it's not much of a spoiler. However, things start to get interesting when Simon's wife, Louise, also a teacher at the school, cottons on to things and confronts her husband. However, all that is put aside when Jess gets the call that no mother wants to get - the one that says something has happened to her child. Jess and her husband Ben must then face life without their little ray of sunshine Beth. But life isn't even as simple as that. And so Jess's life spirals as she comes face to face with a choice she must make to save her husband.
Fast forward seventeen years and Jess is happily married to Ed, who incidentally knows ALL about her past - Simon, the affair, her marriage, Beth and Beth's tragic death - and now has a two year old son. So when they put their house on the market and begin looking around for another, nothing prepares Jess for the shock of what she is confronted with when her and Ed are given an exclusive viewing to a house just a few streets away. And soon Jess' past comes backs to haunt her as someone begins a cruel game of cat and mouse with her, taunting and frightening both her and their nanny, and enraging her husband Ed. Their house is broken into; all the clocks are set to the exact time Beth died; a mirror falls and breaks narrowly missing her 2 year old son; a magpie is left in the nanny's room. Someone knows about Jess' past. And someone wants Jess to pay.
So much happens in this book to give you cause to think "is it her?" or "is it him?" Though not so much edge-of-your-seat, more of a slow burn, some things are predictable some are not. I did work out who it was long before the end of the story but spent most of the time trying to figure out how and why. But the revelations at the end are both shocking as well as heartbreaking.
But one thing is for sure...it all goes back to Beth. I was still left wondering about her death even after I finished the book. Did we really find out the truth? I'll leave it to you to judge for yourself.
No comments:
Post a Comment