His & Hers by Alice Feeney
Genre: Psychological thriller
Read: 12th December 2020
Published: 28th May 2020
★★★★ 4.5 stars
DESCRIPTION:
If there are two sides to every story, someone is always lying…
Jack: Three words to describe my wife: Beautiful. Ambitious. Unforgiving.
Anna: I only need one word to describe my husband: Liar.
When a woman is murdered in Blackdown village, newsreader Anna Andrews is reluctant to cover the case. Anna’s ex-husband, DCI Jack Harper, is suspicious of her involvement, until he becomes a suspect in his own murder investigation.
Someone is lying, and some secrets are worth killing to keep.
MY REVIEW:
I've always said that there are three sides to every story - your's, their's and the truth! In this case, it was "his" and "her's"...but where WAS the truth in all of this? Because it seems that it was nowhere to be found. As a reader, we don't know what to believe as the narrators appear to be so unreliable...and yet only one of them is. But who is it? And what part do they play in it all?
And then...it comes. And I am speechless. WOW!
Never before have I been played by an unreliable narrator quite like that of HIS & HERS. I am impressed beyond all measures though I feel I need to stop and take a breath and just absorb what I have just read. It all makes perfect sense in the end but...HOW is it even possible? Prepare to be shocked...or impressed...or both!
The rundown...
His: DCI Jack Harper, Major Crime Team, is tasked with investigating the murder of a Jane Doe found in Blackdown Wood.
Her: Anna Andrews, former BBC news presenter now news correspondent assigned to report on the murder. Also ex-wife of Jack Harper.
Blackdown: A picturesque chocolate box village in Surrey, two hours south of London, filled with bad memories for "His & Her".
BBC news correspondent, Anna Andrews, had worked the newsdesk for two years in the previous anchor's absence. Cat Jones went on maternity leave with her first child and subsequently fell pregnant with the second paving the way for Anna to fill her shoes on the lunchtime news. But when Anna arrives one morning ready for make-up and to be prepped for camera, the last person she expected to see walk through the door was Cat Jones in all her redheaded glory. Pasting a smile on her face whilst seething inside, Anna reluctantly stepped aside as her predecessor reclaimed her place on the newdesk whilst she was cast aside.
Then news of a body found in Blackdown Wood surfaces and the powers that be task her with covering the story in a place she never wished to revisit. With her trusty cameraman Richard in tow, Anna returns to Blackdown, where past and her memories will come back to haunt her again. It's still early morning when they arrive at the crime scene and, despite the knowledge that her detective ex-husband had returned to Blackdown, she isn't quite prepared to run into him there.
After suffering a tragedy that broke down their marriage, Jack Harper left London and returned to Blackdown where he no heads the Major Crime Team. He received the call about a Jane Doe found in Blackdown Wood and along with his rather exuberant and eager DC Priya Patel begin investigations. But nothing prepared Jack for what he was to discover upon arriving at the scene. He knew this woman. He was with her last night. And now she was dead.
Then to make matters worse, his ex-wife Anna arrives with a cameraman in tow...seemingly the first of the press to have caught wind of the murder. How was that possible? Who told them? What does Anna know?
Both Jack and Anna share a history together as well as a past in Blackdown itself. Both have a different stake in the case and both have secrets which they are keeping from the other. But is Jack or Anna capable of murder?
Then Jack discovers fingernail clippings in a tic-tac box in his glove compartment and Rachel's phone in his boot. And strangely, a knife from his own knife block in his house has gone missing. Then when there is another murder at the very place Jack had been at the exact time of it occurred, he begins to wonder if someone is trying to frame him. He knows someone is watching him. He can feel their presence even if he cannot see them.
Meanwhile, Anna wakes from yet another drunken sleep to a tidied room and a photograph that was taken on her 16th birthday...a day that she would rather forget. Of the five faces smiling at the camera in that photo, two are now dead. Is someone killing off each of these girls who are now women in revenge for something that happened in their past? But who? Rachel may have seemed the most likely, but she was the first victim. Helen was clever enough to get away with it, but she was the second. Who's next? Her? Anna also feels as if someone is watching her every move...but who...and why?
Tragedy may have torn them apart but another may bring them back together, as Jack begins to wonder if Anna may be in danger...and Anna feels that Jack is the only one she can trust.
However, in summary....no one can be trusted in this thoroughly addictive psychological thriller that will have you turning the pages and keep you on your toes right up to the shocking end. HIS & HERS is filled with red herrings that will confuse you and possibly drive you mad trying to figure it all out. Everyone, it seems, has a motive...but who can you believe?
My first read by Alice Feeney, HIS & HERS starts off slow and grows with a palpable tension that becomes a complex and twisted tale that was so deliciously dark it was thoroughly addictive. Cue the chocolate box village surrounded by dark creepy woods, the brutal murders that were seemingly too close to home and the constant second guessing, this cleverly plotted story truly makes for compelling reading. And then, just when you think all has been revealed, there is that shock ending...
HIS & HERS is told through three alternating perspectives - his (Jack), her (Anna) and an unknown person that could be him, her or someone else entirely. Both are equally convincing despite being unreliable narrators. It will have you guessing, second guessing and even third guessing the complex turn of events resulting in these brutal murders. But nothing is as it seems...and no one is who they seem either. Even revisiting Anna's teenage past leaves nothing to chance. I can also understand Anna's need to be liked and accepted...something every teenager is sure to experience at some point in their lives. But those girls were truly horrible.
Despite being a slow burn, HIS & HERS does pick up with a promise to deliver the goods...and it does! I especially love the use of the friendship bracelet Anna made as a teenager used on the cover and incorporated into the ampersand (&).
I will however include a trigger warning:- rape, animal abuse and grooming.
Deliciously dark and addictive, HIS & HERS is a fast, fun and entertaining read that had me snookered right up to the end!!
I would like to thank #AliceFeeney, #NetGalley and #HQStories for an ARC of #HisAndHers in exchange for an honest review.
MEET THE AUTHOR:
Alice Feeney is an author and former BBC journalist. Her debut novel, Sometimes I Lie, was a New York Times and international bestseller. It has been translated into over twenty languages, and is being made into a TV series by Ellen DeGeneres and Warner Bros. starring Sarah Michelle Gellar.
Alice has lived in London and Sydney and has now settled in the Surrey countryside, where she lives with her husband and dog. His & Hers is being published around the world in 2020.
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