Before You Die
Samantha Hayes
Random House UK, Cornerstone
ISBN: 9781448164622
Description:
The gripping new psychological suspense novel from the author of Until You’re Mine.
Oh God, please don’t let me die.
It has taken nearly two years for the Warwickshire village of Radcote to put a spate of teenage suicides behind it.
Then a young man is killed in a freak motorbike accident, and a suicide note is found among his belongings. A second homeless boy takes his own life, this time on the railway tracks.
Is history about to repeat itself?
DI Lorraine Fisher has just arrived for a relaxing summer break with her sister. Soon she finds herself caught up in the resulting police enquiry. And when her nephew disappears she knows she must act quickly.
Are the recent deaths suicide – or murder?
And is the nightmare beginning again?
My View:
I haven’t read Ms Hayes earlier book so had no expectations from this novel other than a good narrative well told. And that is exactly what I got – a strong narrative, a clear and honest writing style, some credible characters, a few plot twists and turns and a resolution …of sorts.
This is a solid effort but not one that I found gripping or indeed compelling and I did think the character Gil needed a bit of softening and less of the stereotyping. A good read but not impressive.
Reading, Writing and Riesling 
Carol – I appreciate your candor. I’m glad you found the novel to be a solid read, even if not truly compelling. And I always think it really interesting to start a novel with absolutely no expectations. In today’s world of social media, that can be hard to do, but I think it’s a good way to approach a ‘new to me’ author.
A solid read is appealing to many – but for me I need a little more ….to keep me interested but that probably says more about me or the books I have been reading lately than about this particular book. I think it is really hard to review in isolation – for example I read the novel What Came Before – Anna George – and could not sleep until i had written pages of my review and then I couldn’t pick up another book for days…I was emotionally drained. The next book had to live up to this level of enjoyment. Then picked up Teach Her – Mark Kotting – a read that was definitely not for me – regardless of when or what else I had been reading.. what came before effects my next read.(no pun intended) 🙂
I think that’s true of a lot of us, Carol. It’s so hard to approach each book with an entirely clean slate. I’ve done exactly the same thing – perhaps unfairly judged a book because of the book I’d read just previously, or thought more of a book than I should objectively have thought for the same reason. That’s part of what makes it hard to review at times I think.
Totally agree Margot- it is tricky isn’t it?
Carol, I listened to Until You’re Mine on audiobook by this author and found it really good. Especially seeing it had a twist at the end that I didn’t see coming – I love books like that! I shall wait till this is available and let you know how it compares to her other book.
Thanks Janine – I too read the first book was excellent…looking forward to hearing your comparison.
Hmm – I’ll be starting this some time this week, but yours is the second review I’ve seen that’s saying this one isn’t so impressive…I too really enjoyed Until You’re Mine but looks like this one might not be up to the same standard,
glad I am not alone…