Two Little Girls by Frances Vick
Published by Bookouture
Publication Date: 17th April 2019 ebook
Genre: Mystery/Psychological Thriller
335 pages
Book Description:
An innocent girl is taken. The family's lodger confesses.
But that’s not the whole story. That’s not even the beginning...It’s 1985 and the disappearance of ten-year-old Lisa Cook shocks the nation. Her best friend, Kirsty, traumatised and fearful, gives evidence that helps to put the Cook family’s lodger behind bars.
…But what if Kirsty made a mistake?
Now, decades later, Kirsty leaves a life she loves to move back to the hometown she hates – tortured by her memories, she’s determined to finally uncover the truth about what happened to Lisa that day. But someone is waiting for her there, someone close to her family. Someone who is hoping to finish off a job that was started years ago…
An absolutely gripping emotional drama for fans of The Couple Next Door, Whisper Me This and Laura Elliot.
But that’s not the whole story. That’s not even the beginning...It’s 1985 and the disappearance of ten-year-old Lisa Cook shocks the nation. Her best friend, Kirsty, traumatised and fearful, gives evidence that helps to put the Cook family’s lodger behind bars.
…But what if Kirsty made a mistake?
Now, decades later, Kirsty leaves a life she loves to move back to the hometown she hates – tortured by her memories, she’s determined to finally uncover the truth about what happened to Lisa that day. But someone is waiting for her there, someone close to her family. Someone who is hoping to finish off a job that was started years ago…
An absolutely gripping emotional drama for fans of The Couple Next Door, Whisper Me This and Laura Elliot.
My Review:
If ever there's a book of two halves it's this one. It starts out in 1985 with the two little girls from the title of the book; best friends Kirsty and Lisa who are in their last year of primary school, caught in that limbo between being children yet having the desire to be teenagers but not quite there yet.
Lisa is the loud one of the pair, the leader who comes up with all sorts of hair brained ideas - and far-fetched stories of swimming with dolphins on her holiday in Spain, of kissing boys much older than herself, and her mum's lodgers being princes from Oman who wanted to marry her and Kirsty and take them abroad to be princesses. Kirsty is pretty sure that Lisa makes all these things up but doesn't want to fall out with her but one afternoon when walking home from school the way her mum has warned her not to go, Kirsty has had enough of being taunted by Lisa for being childish and loses her temper with her, running off and leaving her in the park. She says nothing to her mum when she gets home, muddy and tearful, as she doesn't want to get in trouble for being in the park. It's not til the next day that it comes to light that Lisa is missing, and is never seen alive again.
Kirsty carries the guilt of abandoning her friend with her over the years, together with the knowledge that Lisa's mum's lodger has been charged with her abduction and murder partly down to the evidence given by Kirsty, whilst being pressured by the police. The lodger misunderstands why he has been arrested and gives a confession to what he thinks is for visa issues, then realises it is too late to retract or change his statement. The guilt eats away at her and puts restrictions on how she lives her life.
The second part of the story moves on thirty years, and this is where the book changes pace and direction quite abruptly. Having moved to London to try and escape her past, Kirsty gets a call from her sister back in their home town announcing her pregnancy and begging Kirsty to move back to help her in the early days of motherhood. One of several manipulative people in the book, Vicky wheedles her way to persuading Kirsty to agree despite her boyfriend Lee's resistance to the idea. Secrets start emerging from the past of several of the characters, including the history surrounding Vicky's friend and psychic cleanser Angela. This was the point in the story where the pace picked up but my interest waned. The coincidences were a step too far - I understand small town mentalities and the whole six degrees of separation thing, but there were too many for my brain to consider feasible.
The threads of the lives of the different characters became really quite tangled and I wasn't sure what was fact and what was fabrication which is what kept me going with this book - I wanted to know what happened to Lisa. Being as no body had ever been found, was Kirsty going to turn up with one of her tales of where she had been for years? Or was she really the victim of some terrible event that night? All sorts of scenarios were lurking in my mind, and in this respect I have to praise the author for keeping the reader in suspense right to the end of the book. Whether I can say I actually enjoyed the story I'm not too sure, but I would recommend people read it for themselves with an open mind as there is plenty to think about.
Lisa is the loud one of the pair, the leader who comes up with all sorts of hair brained ideas - and far-fetched stories of swimming with dolphins on her holiday in Spain, of kissing boys much older than herself, and her mum's lodgers being princes from Oman who wanted to marry her and Kirsty and take them abroad to be princesses. Kirsty is pretty sure that Lisa makes all these things up but doesn't want to fall out with her but one afternoon when walking home from school the way her mum has warned her not to go, Kirsty has had enough of being taunted by Lisa for being childish and loses her temper with her, running off and leaving her in the park. She says nothing to her mum when she gets home, muddy and tearful, as she doesn't want to get in trouble for being in the park. It's not til the next day that it comes to light that Lisa is missing, and is never seen alive again.
Kirsty carries the guilt of abandoning her friend with her over the years, together with the knowledge that Lisa's mum's lodger has been charged with her abduction and murder partly down to the evidence given by Kirsty, whilst being pressured by the police. The lodger misunderstands why he has been arrested and gives a confession to what he thinks is for visa issues, then realises it is too late to retract or change his statement. The guilt eats away at her and puts restrictions on how she lives her life.
The second part of the story moves on thirty years, and this is where the book changes pace and direction quite abruptly. Having moved to London to try and escape her past, Kirsty gets a call from her sister back in their home town announcing her pregnancy and begging Kirsty to move back to help her in the early days of motherhood. One of several manipulative people in the book, Vicky wheedles her way to persuading Kirsty to agree despite her boyfriend Lee's resistance to the idea. Secrets start emerging from the past of several of the characters, including the history surrounding Vicky's friend and psychic cleanser Angela. This was the point in the story where the pace picked up but my interest waned. The coincidences were a step too far - I understand small town mentalities and the whole six degrees of separation thing, but there were too many for my brain to consider feasible.
The threads of the lives of the different characters became really quite tangled and I wasn't sure what was fact and what was fabrication which is what kept me going with this book - I wanted to know what happened to Lisa. Being as no body had ever been found, was Kirsty going to turn up with one of her tales of where she had been for years? Or was she really the victim of some terrible event that night? All sorts of scenarios were lurking in my mind, and in this respect I have to praise the author for keeping the reader in suspense right to the end of the book. Whether I can say I actually enjoyed the story I'm not too sure, but I would recommend people read it for themselves with an open mind as there is plenty to think about.
About the Author:
The only child of parents who worked at a top security psychiatric hospital, Frances Vick grew up receiving disquieting notes and presents from the patients. Expelled from school, she spent the next few years on the dole, augmenting her income by providing security and crewing for gigs, and being a medical experiment guinea pig. Later jobs included working in a theatre in Manhattan, teaching English in Japanese Junior High Schools, and being a life model in Italy, before coming back to London and working with young offenders and refugees. Her first novel 'Chinaski' was published in 2014, her second, bestselling novel 'Bad Little Girl' came out in February 2017. Her third, ‘Liars’ also available now.
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