Tattletale

Goodreads Description

Once upon a time, there was a little girl who believed in fairytales. Now she is out to get your happy ending. One day changes Jody's life forever. She has shut herself down, haunted by her memories and unable to trust anyone. But then she meets Abe, the perfect stranger next door and suddenly life seems full of possibility and hope. One day changes Mags' life forever. After years of estrangement from her family, Mags receives a shocking phone call. Her brother Abe is in hospital and no-one knows what happened to him. She meets his fiance Jody, and gradually pieces together the ruins of the life she left behind. But the pieces don't quite seem to fit...

My Review

My feelings about this book are difficult to pin down. There are parts of it that I loved and then other parts of it that I thought were very average.

The book starts with a couple of chapters that don't seem to link to anything in the story, however, as a fan of psychological thrillers I've come to expect that now and again. By the end of the story however, everything had fallen into place and the opening chapters made perfect sense. The whole story pulled together well.

I thought that the majority of the story was slow going and I didn't always feel invested in the story or the main characters. The story is told from three different points of view: Mags, Jody and Mira. I thought that Mags was a fairly unlikable character with her hard outer shell, hard drinking habits and apparent lack of caring for her brother, Abe. Jody, Abe's fiancee, was just a fruit loop, plain and simple. And Mira, Abe's neighbour, seemed to be rather insipid and lacking in strength or character.

What I did like about this book was the revenge that takes place towards the end and also the court scene's, although these aren't very detailed. Being a lawyer myself, I'm always a sucker for a good court scene, with lawyers testing their wits against their opponents. Although the court scenes that I mention never really get to full tilt, I enjoyed them nevertheless.

The mystery around Abe, his life and his fall, all led me to keep turning the pages. There was enough suspense and intrigue to keep the reader engaged. I wanted to know what had happened to Abe and who was responsible for it.

I did find some of the events in the story slightly unlikely. Furthermore, some of the characters who really didn't like each other throughout the book then become good friends by the end, which I also thought was pretty unrealistic. Be that as it may, I found that I liked this story. It doesn't have the major twists and turns of a lot of psychological thrillers that I've read, and it won't go down as one of my favourites of the year, but it's a nice enough read. A solid read, but not a great one.

My Rating: * * *

Publication Date: April 2017

Genre: Psychological Thriller

Format: Trade paperback

Source: My own purchased copy.