His & Hers by Alice Feeney #NetGalley #HisandHers #book #review @alicewriterland @HQstories

His & Hers by Alice Feeney

Published by HQ

Publication Date: 28th May 2020

Genre: Mystery & Thrillers

My thanks to the publisher for allowing me to read and review this title prior to publication.  All thoughts and opinions are my own and unbiased.

Book Description:

If there are two sides to every story, someone is always lying…

 

Jack: Three words to describe my wife: Beautiful. Ambitious. Unforgiving.
Anna: I only need one word to describe my husband: Liar.

When a woman is murdered in Blackdown village, newsreader Anna Andrews is reluctant to cover the case. Anna’s ex-husband, DCI Jack Harper, is suspicious of her involvement, until he becomes a suspect in his own murder investigation.

Someone is lying, and some secrets are worth killing to keep.

My Thoughts:

Anna Andrews: a regular fixture on the one o'clock news programme - well, she has been since the early departure of regular newsreader Cat Jones, whose maternity leave started somewhat earlier than planned. Anna loves her job, it's the lynchpin in her life, the thing that keeps her otherwise chaotic existence together. So when she is suddenly deposed by the return of Cat and finds herself back in her old job out in the field of newsgathering, she's none too happy.  She wants her glamorous job behind the camera back -but how far will she go to get it?
DCI Jack Harper, early 40s, unmarried and unhappy in the place he finds himself in life: sharing a home with a nagging woman and a demanding 2 year old. He has landed up back in Blackdown, his childhood home after his promising career in the Met hit the skids and life unceremoniously landed him back where he started.
The two characters lives collide when Anna is sent to do a live broadcast in Blackdown following the discovery of a woman's body. The detective in charge is Jack - who we then discover happens to be Anna's ex-husband. They have years of history together and their previous relationship leads to much sparring between the pair.
The chapters alternate between His and Hers points of view as it soon becomes obvious that both of them know the victim of the murder case. Titbits of information dropped by each of them lead the reader to wonder just how much the pair know about the crime. There's also a mysterious anonymous voice which drops in every now and then - each time more intriguing than the last.
By about 90% through this book I had at least 4 or 5 suspects lined up as the possible killer. There are layers of history woven through the story which lead you one way then another but absolutely none of them gave away the final conclusion to the book. I really did not see the identity of the murderer coming and felt completely bamboozled when the reveal was made.
One of my top reads of the year so far, there are certain triggers in this book to be aware of. There's bullying, alcoholism, and grooming all going on but not in a sufficiently shocking way that would make the reader want to put the book down in my opinion.  Definitely one I would recommend to crime-thriller readers everywhere.

About the Author:

Alice Feeney's debut novel, Sometimes I Lie, was a New York Times and international bestseller. It has been translated into over twenty languages, and is being made into a TV series by Ellen DeGeneres and Warner Bros. starring Sarah Michelle Gellar. Her second novel, I Know Who You Are, is out now.

Alice has lived in London and Sydney and has now settled in the Surrey countryside. She writes in her garden shed with her dog, a giant black Labrador who is scared of feathers. 

Find her on Twitter: @alicewriterland