Title: The Watcher
Author: Ross Armstrong
Published: April 2017, MIRA Books
Format: Hardcover, 370 pages
Source: Publisher
Summary:
She’s watching you, but who’s watching her?
Lily Gullick lives with her husband Aiden in a new-build flat
opposite an estate which has been marked for demolition. A keen
birdwatcher, she can’t help spying on her neighbours.
Until one
day Lily sees something suspicious through her binoculars and soon her
elderly neighbour Jean is found dead. Lily, intrigued by the social
divide in her local area as it becomes increasingly gentrified, knows
that she has to act. But her interference is not going unnoticed, and as
she starts to get close to the truth, her own life comes under threat.
But can Lily really trust everything she sees?
My thoughts: I love when I get unsolicited books, especially ones that are from debut authors…you just never know what to expect. Luckily, this one ended up being such a crazy, twisted ride with one interesting, compelling narrator that just begged you to keep reading to see what was going on with her!
It’s no surprise that I love a really good psychological thriller and this one is just that. I will say I was a little weary of the whole bird-watching thing, but that just adds to a crazy dimension to the story. It’s told in journal-like format from the perspective of Lily and she is a bit out there – to the point where you start to wonder if you are dealing with an unreliable narrator – luckily for me, I absolutely cannot get enough of these types of books, so this totally appealed to me.
I loved that I had no idea where this book was going. I was on edge the entire time, trying to put the pieces together, trying to guess what Lily really saw through her binoculars while she was birdwatching one day. She’s convinced a woman was murdered and her mission to find out the truth borders on obsessive. At the same time, the twists and turns that occur in the book are dark and creepy and will keep you frantically flipping the pages until you reach the conclusion.
I enjoyed this atmospheric, haunting novel and will definitely be keeping an eye out for what comes next from Ross Armstrong.
This sounds both intriguing and a very well crafted story. I will be adding this to my TBR.