Title: Where She Went
Author: B.E. Jones
Publisher: Little Brown Book Group UK
[Synopsis]
TV journalist Melanie Black wakes up one morning next to a man she doesn’t recognise. It’s not the first time – but he ignores her even though she’s in his bed. Yet when his wife walks in with a cup of tea he greets her with a smile and to her horror, Melanie comes to realise that no one can see or her hear her – because she is dead.
But has she woken up next to her murderer? And where is her body? Why is she an invisible and uninvited guest in a house she can’t leave; is she tied to this man forever? Is Melanie being punished in some way, or being given a chance to make amends?
As she begins to piece together the last days of her life and circumstances leading up to her own death it becomes clear she has to make a choice: bring her killer to justice, or wreak her own punishment out to the man who murdered her.
[My Review]
Where She Went is an intriguing novel which centres much more on character development and relationships rather than focussing on a ‘mystery’ as such. It’s not exactly what I expected but I hugely enjoyed reading it, from first page to last. Told from the point of view of Melanie, we (and Melanie herself) soon realise that she’s actually dead, and viewing the life of her murder Peter and his family, as they seem to carry on with their lives. What follows is a really interesting and rather unique story which lets us peek into Peter’s through Melanie’s eyes.
We learn more about what happened in the run up to her death, and see as she tries to lead the police to him in their investigation. I’m not usually a huge fan of novels with a supernatural element, but this is written really well, with Melanie as a ghost allowing us all access into their home life – Peter is such a horrible, despicable character and I hated him so much! We also see news reports through Melanie’s perspective, and her comments on what’s happened can be quite amusing. In a way I wish we didn’t know that Peter was her murderer right from the start, as I’m always a fan of the ‘whodunnit’ elements in crime novels, but the fact that we did know meant this novel was more of a different read for me.
Melanie herself seems a bit unlikable a times, to be honest, but she certainly didn’t deserve to die the way she did – and the story of how that happens actually unfolds in a way I wasn’t expecting, leading to some surprises (despite us knowing who killed her) and therefore keeping me hooked. I found myself wanting to keep picking up this novel whenever I had time to read, and it offers a fresh take on the usual crime novel format!
[Rating: 4/5]
Many thanks to Little Brown Book Group UK and Netgalley for providing a copy of this novel on which I chose to write an honest and unbiased review.
I was waiting for a review on this 😀 I have a copy that I have been picking up and putting back down for ages! Will have to give it a go now 🙂
I don’t want to cause any internal conflict but I DNFed it ????????
Haha oh dear… we need a tie breaker now ????
Haha I’ll keep my eyes peeled for one more review of it haha
The start is a little slow to be fair, but once I did I really enjoyed! Seen a lot of conflicting reviews though so it’s obviously a bit of a marmite novel!
This sounds fun!
Intriguing was definitely the word I had in mind when I read the blurb! Sometimes, unlikeable characters work when the story is right! Great post!
Thanks – it did take me a little while to get into but I think it worked well in the end! ????
Very very torn here! I’d be like you said, I’d really rather you didn’t know from the start who had done it (pardon the pun, if it is a pun!), plus not a total fan of the paranormal thing, plus with the unlikeable characters … and yet I want to go look it out … but then Keeper of Pages (above) just said she DNFed it … (insert emoji frustrated yet happy person here);)
It’s definitely had mixed reviews! I found it took a while to get into but I really enjoyed, I can see why there are mixed reviews though…!