Today I am pleased to be joining in with the blog tour for Sewing The Shadows Together. My review is written with thanks to Heather from Bloodhound Books for inviting me on the blog tour and for my copy of the book.

Blurb:

Can you ever get over the death of your sister? Or of your best friend?

More than 30 years after 13-year-old Shona McIver was raped and murdered in Portobello, the seaside suburb of Edinburgh, the crime still casts a shadow over the lives of her brother Tom and her best friend Sarah.

“Shona had been gone for so long but the memories still came unexpectedly, sometimes like a video from the past, sometimes distorted dreams, but she was always there.”

When modern DNA evidence shows that the wrong man was convicted of the crime, the case is reopened. So who did kill Shona? Sarah and Tom are caught up in the search for Shona’s murderer, and suspicions fall on family and friends. The foundations of Sarah’s perfect family life begin to crumble as she realises that nothing is as it appears. Dark secrets from the past are uncovered, and there is another death, before the identity of the real killer is finally revealed…

Set in Edinburgh, the Outer Hebrides and South Africa, Sewing the Shadows Together is a thoroughly modern murder mystery that keeps the reader guessing to the end. Filled with characters who could easily be friends, family or people we work with, it asks the question:

Do we ever really know the people closest to us?

Review:

Sewing The Shadows Together is brilliantly atmospheric. Firstly, it is set over three separate locations, and whilst they are all very different, they are all described in great detail, which made me able to picture each one, drawing m in to the lives of the characters who live there. Secondly, it is clear that each  character has secrets, some more dark than others, but I was constantly rethinking my ideas about who to trust, and I was compelled to keep reading as I wanted to find out what everyone was hiding. I enjoyed the sections at the beginning of each part, which gave the reader a glimpse into the past, allowing us to think about what happened.

The characters themselves have a wide variety of personality traits:  some of which made me warm to them and some of which fuelled my suspicion! I really enjoyed getting to know them, and gradually investing in their lives. The relationships, especially those within families, are impeccably observed and I loved seeing how the dynamic between them changed as the novel developed.

The writing in Sewing The Shadows Together is generally poetic, but I particularly appreciated the use of poetry throughout the novel, as these emphasise the beautiful writing.

Sewing The Shadows Together is available from Amazon.   

You can follow the rest of the tour here: