Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
riveting debut novel, not to be missed, 18 May 2006
For mystery buffs who have missed the excellent Claire Francis' dark and subtly nuanced mystery novels can take heart: Vena Cork seems poised to take over this niche, and quite successfully too if her debut novel, "Thorn" is anything to go by.
Rosa Thorn's life, and those of her two children, Danny and Anna, were irrevocably changed when her artist husband, Rob, was killed in a hit-and-run accident. Now, almost a whole year later, Rosa is coping not only with the pain and grief of losing Rob, but with money problems as well. As Rosa and her children try to adjust to lives without Rob, a new school (for the kids) and a new job (for Rosa), the last thing Rosa needed was to have to contend with Anna becoming the apple of the local derelict's eye. And when a young girl is found murdered nearby, Rosa begins to fear for Anna's safety -- especially since she's beginning to sense that a dark and menacing presence is keeping an eye on her family...
"Thorn" proved to be quite the page turner: it was suspenseful and gripping and full of riveting plot twists. I thought that Vena Cork did a rather masterful job of portraying the grief and sense of loss that Rosa, Danny and Anna felt, making the characters accessible and engaging. The manner in which she layered the suspense, building on the tension with each plot twist was wonderfully done as well. All in all, this was a terrific debut novel, worth sitting up and taking notice of. It was absorbing and compelling and possessed coloured the kind of dark, menacing atmosphere you want your mystery novel to have. Definitely an unputdownable.
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17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
fantastic read, 2 Dec 2004
By A Customer
I have to say i was a bit wary of this book, new author and all that, but i need not have worried, the story gripped you from start to finish, i couldn't put it down, i had to see what happened to the family, there are a lot of twists in this book, that keeps you guessing, just when you think you know who is behind all the things going wrong with the family, there's a twist which leaves you wondering. i really do reccomend this book, if you are a fan of Nicci French, you will love this book, i can't wait for another book to be writtwen by this author, she is going to be a author to look out for.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent, 27 Sep 2005
By A Customer
It started a little slow but once it got going, I couldn't put it down. It kept you guessing all the way through and often I got it wrong.
If you are going to buy any book, buy this one. A great read.
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