Today it’s my turn on the blog tour for To The River. My review is written with thanks to Anne Cater for inviting me on the tour and to the publisher for my copy of the book.

Blurb:

How long can you hide the truth?

The Kelly family has always been trouble.

When a fire in a remote caravan community kills nine people, including 17-year-old Sabine Kelly’s mother and sister, Sabine confesses to the murders. Shortly after, she escapes custody and disappears.

Recently made redundant from marriage, motherhood and her career, journalist Rachel Weidermann has long suspected Sabine made her way back to the river — now, twelve years after the ‘Caravan Murders’, she has the time and the tenacity to corner a fugitive and land the story of the year.

Rachel’s ambition lights the fuse leading to a brutal chain of events, and the web Sabine weaves will force Rachel to question everything she believes. Vikki Wakefield’s compelling psychological thriller is about class, corruption, love, loyalty, and the vindication of truth and justice. And a brave dog called Blue.

Review:

Vikki Wakefield isn’t an author that’s been on my radar before but To The River has definitely changed that. The novel is mostly set either in the caravan park where Sabine grew up, or by the river, where her Pop and his neighbour, Rachel, now live and both settings are described in great detail that gives us a clear sense of what life is like for Sabine and Rachel and helped me to become fully immersed in their story.

The chapters in To The River alternate between the perspectives of Sabine and Rachel. I felt this was really effective in helping the reader to understand their characters and make up our own minds about them. The novel is mostly set in 2019, but Sabine’s chapters occasionally take us back to the past, so that we can see elements of her childhood and gain a greater understanding of how this has impacted her as an adult. Personally, I felt a great deal of sympathy for Sabine and felt sorry for the way she feels she would be judged by the people who she knew as a child. 

The plot of To The River has many layers and I found the story really compelling as I tried to unpack them. There are several questions that need to be answered as the novel gathers pace and I really wanted to get to the bottom of what had happened. Vikki Wakefield’s writing style is fast paced and I love how she made the atmosphere feel uncomfortable and foreboding the whole way through.

To The River is available from Amazon.

You can follow the rest of the blog tour here: