The Flower Girls by Alice Clark-Platts – Buddy Read

A huge thanks to @Netgally for an ARC copy of this novel in return for an honest and unbiased review.

This is my Review of the Month for the review collection on LovelyAudiobooks.info

Synopsis

YOU’LL NEVER FORGET THE FLOWER GIRLS

The Flower Girls. Laurel and Primrose.

One convicted of murder, the other given a new identity.

Now, nineteen years later, another child has gone missing.

And The Flower Girls are about to hit the headlines all over again…

 

My Thoughts

What a book!

I read this as part of a buddy read with my fellow bloggers.  Check out their reviews here and see if we cannot tempt you:

Zooloo’s Book Diary

Sinfullywickedbookreviews

http://portablemagic.net/index.html

The story is told through multiple perspectives and across a duel timeline and uses short chapters to keep the pace very brisk to the point where the plot just races by in a flash.

We being the main plot on New Year’s eve in a Devonshire hotel.  A little girl, Georgia, is reported missing.  Parents are frantic but cagey, the cook is known to the police and Hazel is one half of a murderous duo (Rosie/Hazel and Laurel) nicknamed The Flower Girls – known for killing a toddler, Kirstie,  when they were aged 10 and 6.  With a new identity, Hazel becomes terrified of being blamed and has to get used to a new life where everyone knows her real identity despite having no memory of what happened.

Alongside the search for Georgia and Hazel’s own perspectives, we get snippets of Laurel’s life.  Laurel has been in jail since she was 10 years old as she was old enough to go to trial for the murder of Kirstie and her sister Rosie wasn’t.  Laurel has never defended herself or spoke about that day.

Just as a cliffhanger appears, the timeline changes to that fateful day when baby Kirstie was brutally murdered and each chapter tempts us with tiny morsels of what happened but never enough to fully complete the picture.

This book times it’s perspective and timeline changes so well – leaving you gasping and desperate to read on to find out what happens next.  With every chapter you change your mind about what is going on – looking for any subtle hints throughout the narrative to the point where you start to invent things that aren’t necessarily there.  Every chapter leaves the reader with a chill but a determination to read on.  The build up to the end is fast and furious and when you get there – it will blow your mind.

I cannot recommend this psychological thriller highly enough.