Alice FeeneyPsychological Thriller · Thriller·b. 1978
His & Hers
Synopsis
When a woman is found murdered in Blackdown, the picture-perfect Surrey village where Anna Andrews grew up, Anna is sent to cover the story for the television news — returning to a place, and a past, she has spent years trying to escape. Leading the investigation is Detective Chief Inspector Jack Harper, who has his own reasons for wanting Anna to stay away, and his own connections to the dead woman.
Told in alternating "His" and "Hers" chapters, with unsettling interludes from the killer, the novel lets Anna and Jack narrate the same events from opposite sides while each conceals what they know. As more bodies appear and the victims turn out to be linked to Anna's school days, it becomes clear that almost everyone in Blackdown is lying about something, and that the truth is bound up with events long buried.
Alice Feeney builds His & Hers on competing, unreliable perspectives, so that every fact one narrator offers is quietly undercut by the other. The result is a twisty domestic thriller about memory, grudges, and the versions of ourselves we present to the people who think they know us best.
How it reads
Prose complexity 7/10
Content warnings (5)
Sexual AssaultViolenceGraphic ViolenceTraumaAbuse
- It was just ok. Didn’t love the author’s writing style - felt like she was trying too hard and did a lot of telling instead of showing. All characters unlikeable. The back and forth became difficult to follow especially in the back half of the book where there is so much known info and the chapters can be super short. I gave it the stars I did because I was invested enough to want to know whodunnit but overall was just ok.
- Loved this book! Great pick, Angela!