Today I’m pleased to be taking part in the blog tour for Magpie. My review is written with thanks to Sabah Khan from Avon Books for inviting me on the tour and for my copy of the book via Netgalley.

Blurb:

The dark, twisty new domestic suspense from the author of Cuckoo

She’s married to him. But does she know him at all?

Claire lives with her family in a beautiful house overlooking the water. But she feels as if she’s married to a stranger – one who is leading a double life. As soon as she can get their son Joe away from him, she’s determined to leave Duncan.

But finding out the truth about Duncan’s secret life leads to consequences Claire never planned for. Now Joe is missing, and she’s struggling to piece together the events of the night that tore them all apart.

Alone in an isolated cottage, hiding from Duncan, Claire tries to unravel the lies they’ve told each other, and themselves. Something happened to her family … But can she face the truth?

Review:

I heard a lot about Cuckoo when it was released. I haven’t got around to reading that yet, but I was eager to see what Sophie Draper can do. I wasn’t disappointed! The novel is separated into “before” and “after” chapters but it’s not clear what divides these times until the very end. This is just one question that runs through Magpie and I was forever intrigued as it reached its climax.

Magpie is set in rural Derbyshire and Draper sets the scene wonderfully. It makes the novel incredibly atmospheric: the scenes in the woods in particular are really creepy and I often felt my skin crawl!

At the heart of Magpie is a dysfunctional marriage and it’s brilliantly observed. Through the dual narrative, the reader sees both sides of the story. This made it very easy for me to get to know the characters and understand their actions and they have left a very poignant mark on me.

Magpie is available from Amazon.

You can follow the rest of the blog tour here: