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The July Girls by @phoebe_locke

By Pamelascott

Every year, on the same night in July, a woman is taken from the streets of London; snatched by a killer who moves through the city like a ghost.

Addie has a secret. On the morning of her tenth birthday, four bombs were detonated across the capital. That night her dad came home covered in blood. She thought he was hurt in the attacks - but then her sister Jessie found a missing woman's purse hidden in his room. Jessie says they mustn't tell. She says there's nothing to worry about. But when she takes a job looking after the woman's baby daughter, Addie starts to realise that her big sister doesn't always tell her the whole story. And that the secrets they're keeping may start costing lives.

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[There is a moment with each of them]

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(@Wildfirebks, 25 July 2019, 352 pages, paperback, ARC from @AmazonUK via Amazon Vine)

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I was blown away by this book. It's one of the best and most original thrillers I've read in ages. This book focuses on the two daughters of a man suspects to behind the disappearance of a different woman every July. Eight have been taken and one body found when the suspect escapes from police custody. I loved the POV for this book. I don't think I've read anything that tells the story of the children of a suspected serial killer. Jessie and Addie are very different. There are strong hints that Jessie may have covered up their father's guilt, not out of malice but because she had a baby sister to take care of. The book is split into two halves. The first half deals with the disappearances and events leading to Jessie and Addie's father fleeing the police. The second half focusses on the ten years following their father's escape as the girls try to move on with their lives and shed the stigma of being the daughters of a possible serial killer. Things are not helped when a book about their father, Magpie is released and they fall under public scrutiny again. I thought this was a corker of a book.

The July Girls by @phoebe_locke

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