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snazzybooks 's review for:
The Break-In
by Katherine Faulkner
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
The Break-In manages to combine convincing characters, great writing and an intricate, well-planned plot - all of which made me reluctant to put this book down!
We’re following Alice, whose house is broken into one stormy evening whilst she has some friends and their children over to play with her daughter Martha. A seemingly drunk young man, who the paper reports is called Ezra, breaks in, picks up a knife and heads towards the room where all the children are playing… so Alice doesn’t hesitate. She picks up a stool, whacks him around the head with it... and kills him.
Although Alice is hopeful that she won’t be charged with murder, she can’t help thinking about the case and that there’s more to the break-in than chance. This is further reinforced by some anonymous calls she’s been receiving, suggesting as much. She becomes more wrapped up in the family of the boy whom she killed and starts to realise there WAS more to the case than she thought.
I loved the way this book was told - firstly, we see the period after the break in, and jump between different perspectives: Alice’s, Linda’s (Ezra’s mother), Jade’s (Ezra’s sister), Becca’s (the nanny who helps look after Martha) and some other people in Alice’s life too - as well as the occasional newspaper article.
Then in the next section, we go travel to the day of the accident (again seeing lots of different perspectives), and finally we observe the period in the Autumn after the break in. This way we start to find our little nuggets of information we wouldn’t otherwise have known, and it really helps to build the intrigue.
There’s some convenient moments in the story that are there to help the story move along but nothing felt too much - I really enjoyed how the plot sped along and at the same time I felt like I really got to know Alice’s thoughts. She - along with most of the characters, to be honest - isn’t perhaps the most likeable character, but I enjoy a story with flawed characters and the author did a great job of making you really see how mentally stressful this situation is, as well as how little you can know someone you spend so much time with.
This was a well-crafted, intriguing thriller that certainly kept me guessing, much like many of Katherine Faulkner’s books.
We’re following Alice, whose house is broken into one stormy evening whilst she has some friends and their children over to play with her daughter Martha. A seemingly drunk young man, who the paper reports is called Ezra, breaks in, picks up a knife and heads towards the room where all the children are playing… so Alice doesn’t hesitate. She picks up a stool, whacks him around the head with it... and kills him.
Although Alice is hopeful that she won’t be charged with murder, she can’t help thinking about the case and that there’s more to the break-in than chance. This is further reinforced by some anonymous calls she’s been receiving, suggesting as much. She becomes more wrapped up in the family of the boy whom she killed and starts to realise there WAS more to the case than she thought.
I loved the way this book was told - firstly, we see the period after the break in, and jump between different perspectives: Alice’s, Linda’s (Ezra’s mother), Jade’s (Ezra’s sister), Becca’s (the nanny who helps look after Martha) and some other people in Alice’s life too - as well as the occasional newspaper article.
Then in the next section, we go travel to the day of the accident (again seeing lots of different perspectives), and finally we observe the period in the Autumn after the break in. This way we start to find our little nuggets of information we wouldn’t otherwise have known, and it really helps to build the intrigue.
There’s some convenient moments in the story that are there to help the story move along but nothing felt too much - I really enjoyed how the plot sped along and at the same time I felt like I really got to know Alice’s thoughts. She - along with most of the characters, to be honest - isn’t perhaps the most likeable character, but I enjoy a story with flawed characters and the author did a great job of making you really see how mentally stressful this situation is, as well as how little you can know someone you spend so much time with.
This was a well-crafted, intriguing thriller that certainly kept me guessing, much like many of Katherine Faulkner’s books.