Greenwich Park: A twisty, compulsive debut thriller about friendships, lies and the secrets we keep to protect ourselves

After not been a book Perseus for so long since having little ones, I saw this pop-up on social media, I ordered it on a whim, I tried a few other books to get back into reading, but none gripped me, until Greenwich Park. It’s absolutely amazing, chapters how it’s written aren’t over lengthy which I liked, the storyline was gripping & until the very last sentence it had you. I can’t wait for the Authors second book coming out in June, a must read

I enjoyed this book especially as I’m familiar with the areas it’s set in.Well written and keeps you hooked

Really good read.

This debut psychological thriller focuses on the privileged offspring of the Haverstock clan and their respective partners and is primarily set in the locale of Greenwich Park where two of the three siblings live. Helen is six months pregnant and married to architect Daniel who is in partnership with her brother, Rory, in the family business. Rory’s wife Serena is also pregnant and all four of them came together as a set when they were at Cambridge a decade ago. Helen and Rory’s youngest brother, Charlie, is a DJ with a druggy past and journalist girlfriend in Katie who is covering the prosecution of a serious rape case.The novel is narrated in the main by insecure Helen who is desperate to be best friends with sister-in-law Serena, and when she is signed off work early due to high blood pressure, pretty lonely. Having suffered four miscarriages prior to this pregnancy, Daniel is reluctant to attend the antenatal classes that Helen has booked and when Rory and Serena also bail out, she is grateful when she is befriended by the only other single woman there - outspoken Rachel who smokes and drinks and seems anything but maternal. Suddenly Rachel is popping up every time Helen leaves the house and whilst she might have reservations about her new friend’s brash behaviour, it makes up for Daniel working all hours and the disruptive renovation of her Grade II listed childhood home that he is masterminding. When a distraught Rachel turns up at Helen’s house with a suitcase and seems intent on staying, despite no shortage of ready money, it introduces extra tension to a household counting down the weeks until the birth..My heart sank when I realised that this was yet another psychological thriller that begins with a new friend appearing out of nowhere, popping up everywhere and ultimately becoming a cuckoo in the nest. It’s so blatantly obvious that there is an agenda behind Rachel’s sudden appearance but of course this doesn’t occur to Helen until halfway through the novel. Naturally by this time Rachel has disappeared and things slowly start to ramp up around 70% as the police take a highly unlikely but keen interest in locating her. Even with suspension of disbelief it was hard to keep patience with the whole scenario and I spotted the incident which connected the newcomer to the group at just 20% of the way through. Serena contributes next to nothing to the narrative and it is left to Katie to drive the story forward by piecing together a few clues and making Helen see sense, a task not helped by Helen’s fondness for embroidering her memories. Whilst the final chapter contains a volley of twists that only a psychic could have foreseen, it does necessitate an information dump in the final 5% and I really felt that some of this complexity could have been introduced into the novel earlier on and made for a more satisfying read. Rachel’s connection to the group is disappointingly easy to spot and the novel just too drawn-out to prove particularly suspenseful with a pace can only be described as sluggish.

Greenwich Park was a compelling and taut thriller which will be hard to review as I don’t want to give anything away.The story centers mainly around two expectant couples and an interesting lady called Rachel who Helen befriends in antinatal classes. The mention of pregnancy and anti natal classes always makes me anxious so I was immediately on edge from the beginning of this book. It becomes obvious from the start that nothing is as perfect as Helen thinks which I thought very intriguing. I found I had to keep reading to find out what happens.The story is told from each of the characters point of view which allows the reader to get to know more about them. I enjoyed slowly learning more about them and their past as the story goes on. None of the characters are particularly likeable and I found I didn’t warm to any of them through the book. I felt maybe slightly sorry for Helen at times but she also annoyed me with her niavity and clinginess. I felt like giving her a shake at times as she just didn’t seem to be getting what was going on.The tension in the book slowly creeps up as the story goes on until I found it impossible to put the book down. There are definitely some odd things going on and I think I thought of every scenario in my head as I tried to unravel what was happening. There are quite a few false leads, especially towards the end which I always enjoyed and I definitely didn’t guess the ending which is always a sign of a well plotted book. The ending was very well done and I liked the way it ended. One particular bit had me cheering as I was so pleased things had ended up that way. I did have a few questions about what happened but I think if the author has tried to answer everything it would have seemed too perfect.This is the author’s debut novel and I’d definitely be interested in reading more from her in the future.Huge thanks to Bloomsbury for my copy of this book via netgalley.