Pushed to breaking point, Cara Burrows abandons her home and family and escapes to a five-star spa resort she can’t afford. Late at night, exhausted and desperate, she lets herself into her hotel room and is shocked to find it already occupied – by a man and a teenage girl. A simple mistake on the part of the hotel receptionist – but Cara’s fear intensifies when she works out that the girl she saw alive and well in the hotel room is someone she can’t possibly have seen: the most famous murder victim in the country, Melody Chapa, whose parents are serving life sentences for her murder. Cara doesn’t know what to trust: everything she’s read and heard about the case, or the evidence of her own eyes. Did she really see Melody? And is she prepared to ask herself that question and answer it honestly if it means risking her own life?
Click to buy Did You See Melody? by Sophie Hannah
Once again Sophie Hannah shows that she is one of the best plotters around! The story was very well set up and the twists continued to the very last page. The descriptions of the spa resort were very evocative (and envy-inducing!) and I did like the characters, particularly Tarin.
As with all the Sophie Hannah books I’ve read to date, the devil is in the detail and the revelations are revealed slowly, like dealing a pack of cards; you can’t guess the twists, because you don’t know to start with what you should even be trying to figure out!
For all its pros, though, there are a few cons: it is pretty slow to get to the mystery; Cara’s own personal demons are a little bit of a damp squib; and there were one or two plot points that you felt should go somewhere but didn’t. Despite these minor quibbles, overall this is another engrossing read and I’m still thinking about the ending!
Thank you to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for the ARC of Did You See Melody?
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