A review by xabbeylongx
The Seventh Victim by Michael Wood, Mathew Horne, Joanne Froggatt

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

SPOILERS AHEAD
Book Review: 
This book I actually really enjoyed. I thought the plot twist was magnificent, and I’m glad that my suspicions were correct! Wood’s books pan out over a long period of time, which I’m not usually a fan of, but I think it works quite well in this case. 
I love the characters. Diane, Caroline and Alex, the trio I never knew I needed. I love how far all of them come, especially Diane - that bit at the end, with her husband? LOVE! I need more of that in books. I can never understand how people can ruin everyone else’s lives around them, just to keep their own secret safe. Diane’s husband (I’ll be honest, I can’t remember his name) was having an affair, granted it’s bad, but is it worth killing your own child over? And also, he left Diane for that same woman mere months after Zachary was killed, so it doesn’t take a genius to put two and two together, and know that he was cheating. What a spineless bastard. 
I felt very uncomfortable whenever Jonathon was mentioned, which is awful, but Wood did such a good job at making such a detestable character, and I feel like that’s quite difficult to do. However, I despise Jamie - ironically, more than I do Jonathon. I think he is a nasty piece of work. I love my girl Caroline so much, and I think I don’t really see what Jamie is doing as anything but controlling, rather than comforting. I just wanted to get that off my chest. 
The plot is fantastic, the plot twist even better, the twists and turns of the novel keep you so intrigued, and the characters and their arcs are so so SO good! The only minor point I have is that the novel went on and ON for a while, sometimes it was repeated, so it could have been made a bit shorter. Often, I was waiting for something to happen, and it would take ages to get to the other point. Other than that, a fabulous read. 
 
Book Summary: 
We start off the book as Jonathon tries to steal a child, Sam, waiting for his mother in the playground. She’s never late, but due to insane amounts of traffic, she is today. When she gets there, it is raining, and all the teachers are gone. In the distance, she can see someone walking away, hand in hand with her Sam. He tries to run off with him, but the mother manages to apprehend him, and they get him arrested. 
When they go into Jonathon’s flat, they find clothes from a load of other children. There’s a pattern with his victims, they soon find out. The victims are often ‘taken care of’, washed, enclosed in a white sheet, buried in shallow graves, for dog walkers to find. They are often always near their homes. Jonathon targeted families that were unhappy, with neglected children. He wants to give them a better life. He befriends them, they trust him, and then he rapes them and ends them in a humane (!) way. So far, he has over 10 victims, and they keep finding these tiny graves buried all over the country, but he never admits to anything. 
They form a support group, the parents of the victim’s of Jonathon, in a way to cope. Most have found their child’s, their little boy’s, body, and now they have closure and somewhere concrete to rest him. Unfortunately, for Diane Marshall, that isn’t the case. Her boy, Zachary, was thought to be the seventh victim of Jonathon’s, but yet they never found anything linking him to the murder. Diane and her mother write to Jonathon all the time, trying to get him to tell them where Zach’s body is hidden, so Diane can move on. Her ex-husband, who had an affair during Zachary’s disappearance and then left her and built another family, has already moved on without her, but she can’t move on until she has closure. 
Unfortunately, when Jonathon dies in prison, after being diagnosed with cancer, the secret of where Zach’s body is buried goes to the grave with him. That is, until, Diane finally receives a letter from his in his death. In the letter, Jonathon admits to all the murders, all except one… Zachary’s. 
Everyone says the letter is a sham, that Jonathon was manipulative and that he’s just sending her on another giant goose chase. Unfortunately, though, Diane hasn’t moved on, and needs to. She has another son, Marcus, who is married to Greta and they have a child together, but because of her attachment to Zachary, their relationships are stunted. She intends to investigate the letter. Caroline Turner, who was an integral part of Jonathon being charged in the police station (now, ironically, retired as a dog walker, after the Jonathon case took its toll on her) is sought out by Diane, who asks, pleads, for her help. She ends up saying yes, and inviting her journalist friend, Alex, who wrote a book on Jonathon, to help uncover the secret as to who killed Zachary. 
They interview everyone close to the family, and try to find things left from Jonathon’s will to help them find Zach. They go up and down the country, talking to people and exploring leads. When they are taken to a holiday cottage, somewhere hidden, they expect to find him there. Although they find victims, it is not the victim they are looking for. They are being threatened from every angle, property being damaged and cars set on fire, threatening notes. Caroline, who was harassed by Jonathon when he was alive, is having issues with her husband, Jamie, because of her still looking into the case. Alex, whose wife was targeted by an ex-lover of Jonathon and now remains in a coma, also is finding it difficult, especially when they make the decision to remove her from her life support. They think that it’s that same woman who targets them now, but when they find out she’s dead, they don’t know what to think. 
Diane’s husband goes missing one day. His partner (who’s much younger than him) phones up, wondering if she’s seen him. Her and her husband haven’t got on for years now, and he’s been adamant that she should drop looking into the letter, until he decided that he still loved her, and they were having an affair. That’s why Diane went after him. She found him on the roof of his work, and he admits to killing Zach. He saw him leaving Beth’s house, when he was having an affair, and Zach said he was going to tell. He shook him, he lost his footing, and he hit his head. He was dead. Whilst he was orchestrating a search to find Zach, he already knew that he was dead, and had his body on the drive in his van. Diane is shocked, and her world ends. She tells him to do everyone a favour and jump. So he does. 
When Diane rings up, she tells them that her husband committed the murder of her son, and then took his own life. Alex thinks he knows better, because her husband screams, and people who commit suicide generally don’t tend to scream. However, they find Zach’s body, dig him up, and Diane gets the closure she needs. She now has a proper place to bury him, and can try and move on. As can everyone else, of course. 
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