Haven’t They Grown? Sophie Hannah-Psychological thriller

Oh what a tangled web we weave…..Beth is taking her son to football and realises that

she is very close to where her long time friends live. They fell out twelve years ago, we

don’t know quite why. She is stunned to see her friend get out of her car followed by

her children Thomas and Emily  who are the same age as they were then. They haven't

grown. Understandably this throws Beth and she wants to find out more. Her family

are rather divided about what she has seen but as time goes on and she gathers more

evidence they too realise that things are not as they should be. Oooh!! I love books

like this. A nugget of something that then grows into something larger, where there

are more questions than answers. I liked Bath and Zannah her daughter who both

came across very well and their tenacity for that something amiss. This is brilliantly

written and even as you begin to get answers, something just something doesn't sit

right and you know there is more to come but not a clue what it is. A book that

enveloped me and kept me there. Nothing to frighten or disturb, just that sense

of wondering and knowing something isn't as it should be. If you want a gripping

read and how some people can plot the unthinkable, read on. 

For more reviews please see my blog http://nickibookblog.blogspot.co.uk/

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All Beth has to do is drive her son to his Under14s away match, watch him play, and

bring him home.Just because she knows that her former best friend lives near the football ground, that

doesn't mean she has to drive past her house and try to catch a glimpse of her. Why

would Beth do that, and risk dredging up painful memories? She hasn't seen Flora

Braid for twelve years.But she can't resist. She parks outside Flora's house and watches from across the road

as Flora and her children, Thomas and Emily, step out of the car. Except...

There's something terribly wrong.

Flora looks the same, only older just as Beth would have expected. It's the children

that are the problem. Twelve years ago, Thomas and Emily Braid were five and three

years old. Today, they look precisely as they did then. They are still five and three.

They are Thomas and Emily without a doubt Beth hears Flora call them by their

names but they haven't changed at all.

They are no taller, no older.

Why haven't they grown?

SophieHannah is an internationally bestselling crimefiction writer, translated into 49 languages and published

in 51 countries Her psychological thriller The Carrier wonthe Specsavers National Book Award for Crime Thriller ofthe Year in 2013 Sophie is the author of the bestsellingPoirot continuation mysteries The Point of Rescue and

The Other Half Lives have been adapted for television asCase Sensitive, starring Olivia Williams and Darren BoydSophie is also a bestselling poet who has been shortlistedfor the TS Eliot award Her poetry is studied at GCSE andA level Sophie is an Honorary Fellow of Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge She lives in Cambridge with her family

PRAISE FOR SOPHIE

HANNAH

‘One of the strongest successors to the James/Rendell line’

Mark Lawson, Guardian

‘Hannah’s real gift is in revealing the contorted and convoluted nature of the human

heart.’ Scotsman

‘Hannah's plots are like intricate jigsaw puzzles whose pieces you cannot believe will fit

together, until you see the completed picture. Her denouements tend to make more

sense in retrospect than at the time. The fun in reading . . .isn't in learning whodunit,

but in following the labyrinthine byways of its author's peculiar worldview and the

twisted motives of her characters’ New York Times

‘One of the great

unmissables of this genre intelligent, classy, and with a wonderfully

Gothic imagination’ The Times

‘Hannahlike Patricia Highsmith and Ruth Rendell before her is an expert at

exploring the delicate line between the ordinary and the monstrous ’ Independent

‘Sophie Hannah

rarely puts a foot wrong in her complex psychological thrillers’

Financial Times

‘A novelist whose ability to turn a domestic setting into a forum for high drama is

difficult to match ’ Daily Express

‘

Her books are so distinctive that they deserve to be placed in a separate sub genre of

their own.’ Spectator

‘For those who demand emotional intelligence and literary verve from their thrillers,

Sophie Hannah is the writer of choice’ Guardian