DESCRIPTION:
Nothing ever happens in sleepy little Fairhill, Vermont.
The teenagers get their kicks telling ghost stories in the old graveyard. The parents trust their kids will arrive home safe from school. Everyone knows everyone. Curtains rarely twitch. Front doors are left unlocked.
But this morning all of that will change.
Because Diana Brewer isn’t lying safely in her bed where she belongs. Instead she lies in a hayfield, circled by vultures, discovered by a local farmer.
How quickly a girl becomes a ghost. How quickly a town of friendly, familiar faces becomes a town of suspects, a place of fear and paranoia.
Someone in Fairhill did this. Everyone wants answers.
And one innocent question could be deadly.
MY THOUGHTS:
Nothing ever happens in Fairhill, Vermont...until it does...
Not your average thriller by Shari Lapena but a pageturner just the same. This time we're taken to Fairhill, a sleepy little town in Vermont where everyone knows each other and nothing ever happens...until it does.
A farmer is working his fields when he notices the circling of vultures over one of his fields and thinking he may have a dead cow or some other animal on his land, he goes to investigate. Nothing prepares him for the horror that assails him. The visceral disemboweled remains of teenager Diana Brewer, her eyes pecked out by the feathered ferals.
The days starts off as normal for teenagers in Fairhill as they head off to school, avoid their parents at all costs and basically anything that is everything to a teenager. Riley Mead is worried though. She has texted Diana several times this morning and she has not responded...which is unlike Diana. She wants to know how she got on with boyfriend Cameron the night before. And then when Riley gets to school, she discovers that Diana is not there. And she does not arrive, making Riley worry more.
And then the principal knocks on their classroom door. The police are here. Diana has been found murdered. Riley's world falls apart. She and her friend Evan, Diana's two best friends, work to support each other and Diana's mother through this terrible ordeal. Who could have done this? And why?
Investigations reveal a creepy customer at the Home Depot where Diana worked, who gave her an inordinate amount of attention which made her uncomfortable. Is he responsible for Diana's death? And some inappropriate behaviour by someone in authority - someone who should be trusted - is also revealed. Could they be responsible for Diana's demise? Who would do such a thing? Diana was popular and well liked. She would do anything for anybody. Why would somebody kill her?
The story unfolds from various third person perspectives - from Riley to Evan to Diana's mother to Cameron and his parents to Diana's various teachers to the police and persons of interests. It has a touch of supernatural to it with Diana suspended between her life and her untimely death as she struggles to recall what happened to her on that night and watches with pain the heartache her loved ones are going through.
While it is not one of Shari Lapena's best, it was a pageturner all the same and I devoured it in good time. It was a fast paced read with short snappy chapters that kept it moving nicely. Despite it dragging a little, I love Shari's writing style which made the story such an addictive read.
I would like to thank #ShariLapena, #Netgalley and #TransworldDigital for an ARC of #WhatHaveYouDone in exchange for an honest review.
MEET THE AUTHOR:
A former lawyer and English teacher, Shari now writes full time from a farm in Ontario, where she lives with her husband.
Her first thriller, The Couple Next Door, was a runaway global bestseller, selling 4 million copies worldwide. It was WHSmith’s “Book of the Year” in 2016 and the #1 Adult Fiction Title in the UK for 2017. All of Shari’s novels have been New York Times, UK Sunday Times, and Globe and Mail bestsellers. Three of her books have been Richard & Judy Book Club Picks. Her books have sold into forty territories around the world and have been optioned for film and TV.
She doesn’t want you to be able to put her books down.
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