Brighton Beach, 1993: Teenagers Nell and Jude find the body of a young woman and when no one comes to claim her, she becomes known as the Brighton Mermaid. Nell is still struggling to move on when, three weeks later, Jude disappears.
Twenty-five years on, Nell quits her job to find out who the Brighton Mermaid really was - and what happened to her best friend that summer.
But as Nell edges closer to the truth, dangerous things start to happen. Someone seems to be watching her every move, and soon she starts to wonder who in her life she can actually trust.
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[The ground is uneven and crunchy underfoot, and I stumble when I hit it]***
(Arrow Publishing, 17 May 2018, 490 pages, ebook, copy from the publisher via NetGalley and voluntarily reviewed)
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Dorothy Koomson is one of my favourite writers and I had high hopes for The Brighton Mermaid. I was not disappointed. Koomson started out writing chic lit but has written excellent psychological thrillers for years. I was blown away by this book. The storyline is non-linear for the most part, moving back and forth between Nell's current investigation and the life-altering events 25 years before. This works really well, holding my interest and building tension and suspense. Nell and her sister Macy are brilliantly written, complex characters. I loved them both a little. The book gets pretty dark as well especially when Nell and the people helping her are targeted. Things get dicey as Nell discovers the truth about the body she found all those years ago, a truth that tears her and Macy's world apart. The Brighton Mermaid is gripping and I loved it. I look forward to Koomson's 2019 novel, already pre-ordered. I got this book months ago from NetGalley and regret that I waited so long to read it.