I have seen so many people read this book, and then two of my friends did it for their work book club, so I thought I would finally get around to it. I requested it at the library and picked it up soon after. It's a really strange book and I'm not entirely if I liked it, but I did find it very compelling.
So the unlikely heroine of the book is Grace. At the beginning of the book she is in prison, serving time for a murder she didn't commit. However, she has committed six murders, so there's some irony that she's serving time for something she actually didn't do. She has started writing the story of what happened with the six murders she did commit, keeping her paper concealed from her cellmate Kelly. Grace is definitely not likeable, but she is captivating.
She was brought up by her single mother, who then died when she was only around twelve, I think. (I'm writing this review quite a while after I read this book as I just haven't been able to get my brain into gear!) She first of all goes to live with her mum's friend, Helene, but then Helene wants to move back to France so Grace moves in with her friend Jimmy's family. She is loved and accepted there, but she's already decided that she needs to kill several members of her dad's family.
She knows who her dad is - a self made millionaire called Simon. He is married and has a daughter just a little bit younger than Grace. He knows that Grace exists and has for her whole life, but wants nothing to do with her life. Grace's plan is to kill her cousin, her uncle, Simon's wife and daughter, and then Simon himself. She will be sure to make them all look like accidents, and then when everything has died down a bit, she will reveal herself as a biological relative and demand some of the money. She wants to set herself up for a better life than how she grew up.
It's a brilliant plan, until she's accused of a murder she didn't commit and ends up inside. She's got an appeal pending, though, and a very good lawyer. It's obvious that there's a twist coming but I didn't at all see what it was. It was a good twist, but I felt the end of the book was a little bit rushed. I also think that it's obvious that Bella Mackie is a journalist primarily - while this doesn't make her a bad writer, it does make her write in a certain way.
I'm giving this four out of five though, and I would read something else by her!
No comments:
Post a Comment