The Brighton Mermaid: The gripping thriller from the bestselling author of The Ice Cream Girls

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Koomson is the queen of the big reveal, and takes her time slowly building the tension in this truly gripping read’ ( The Sun) Shortly after that Jude disappeared and was never heard from again, and the sisters have to continue with their life, despite the directions the police investigation was going in. The Brighton Mermaid by Dorothy Koomson made it onto our list of New Books to Look Out for in May 2018. The reason it made this list initially is that I love Dorothy Koomson’s books and I always read her new books. Having read it I would promote it to the top of my list of books to read this year let alone in May.

Before reading The Brighton Mermaid my favourite book by Dorothy Koomson was The Chocolate Run but now my favourite book by her is The Brighton Mermaid. This is not a particularly fast moving read but it is quite gripping as a slow burner. Nell is still obsessed 25 years later with finding Jude and identifying Brighton Mermaid, so called because of where she was found and the intricate tattoo of a mermaid on her arm. Recent developments which are initially hidden from the reader and the upcoming 25th anniversary of the discovery have accelerated her investigation. Nell uses a mixture of genealogy, names and DNA in her hunt - I can't explain it more as the science went a bit over my head (it's not very technical I'm just a science duffer) but it seems to work for all the people she helps except herself and her quest. Gostei de A Sereia de Brighton, especialmente pela expetativa que criou desde o início, aquele mistério todo em volta do cadáver da que ficou conhecida como a Sereia de Brighton, uma mulher jovem assassinada que Nell e Jude encontraram quando tinham apenas 14 anos. A própria Jude desaparece pouco depois, sem deixar rasto e esse é outro mistério que ia deixando uma linha aqui, outra acolá, de mistério e me mantinha presa. Twenty-five years on, Nell is forced to quit her job to find out who the Brighton Mermaid really was – and what happened to her best friend that summer.

This is a book told from two viewpoints, Nell and her sister Macy. Both of their lives changed massively in 1993, when Nell and her best friend Jude find a dead body on the beach, who is unidentified but definitely murdered. The girl’s mother had been similarly altered by the harassment her husband had suffered at the hands of the police. What Pope had done had sliced away pieces of my father’s soul, leaving him diminished. He was still him – he had the same stature and deep, commanding voice. But he was also fretful in quiet moments, distant where before he had been engaged.” Fiction and storytelling were still a HUGE passion of mine and I continued to write short stories and novels every spare moment that I got. In 2001 I had the idea for The Cupid Effect and my career as a published novelist began. And it's been fantastic. In 2006, third novel, My Best Friend's Girl was published. It was incredibly successful - selling nearly 90,000 copies within its first few weeks on sale. Six weeks later, it was selected for the Richard & Judy Summer Reads Book Club and the book went on to sell over 500,000 copies. Oh, there I go again, this is meant to be about me, not my novels. This will creep its way under your skin and stay there long after you finish the final few gut-twisting chapters. Brilliant’ Heat

The story is told through the characters of Nell and her sister Macy, and seamlessly switches between the past and the present. Both sisters have been affected by past events. Nell has commitment issues and is seemingly obsessed, whereas Macy is riddled with anxiety issues. Even knowing where they were both coming from and sympathising with them, I found both the sisters incredibly hard to connect to. However, their character development is incredibly intriguing and often made me almost forget about the mysteries that needed solving. These are complex, multi-layered characters that drew me in and kept me immersed throughout.

As the anniversary draws closer Nell’s search becomes more dangerous and it is clear someone is trying to put her off. Macy has a lot of resentment towards Nell from that night and because of a secret she must keep from her and has kept from her for almost 25 years. I grew up in London and then grew up again in Leeds when I went to university. I eventually returned to London to study for my masters degree and stayed put for the following years. I took up various temping jobs and eventually got my big break writing, editing and subbing for various women's magazines and national papers. I’ll straight up tell you that I was utterly thrilled to be granted an ARC of this book because Dorothy Koomson has long been one of my favourite authors; her storytelling skills are off the scale! Unputdownable novels such as Rose Petal Beach, The Ice Cream Girls and That Girl From Nowhere all embody her phenomenal talent of writing genre-crossing bestselling books! Ok, so now you know I’m a huge fan. This book did not disappoint; it is everything you’d hope for from Koomson, and some.

It uses the same five words to control me. Sometimes I think I look in the hopes it will be different, that the screen after the message tone will say something else. But no, it’s the same as always: He needs to see you.” In the present Nell has been saving up to be able to afford to quit her job to focus on a search that has consumed her for almost 25 years – who was the Brighton Mermaid? In her spare time Nell has spent time focusing on searching for missing people using a mixture of genealogy research and DNA. Twenty-five years ago, Nell and her best friend Jude, discover the body of a young girl on a Brighton beach. Despite having the most wonderful mermaid tattoo, the girl is never identified and her killer is never caught. A few weeks later, Jude disappears. Now, Nell has taken a year off work to try and figure out what happened to Jude and maybe finally solve the murder of the Brighton Mermaid, as she was called. There will soon be some very special visitors at the world’s oldest aquarium on Brighton’s seafront. In these limited evening sessions, guests are invited to dive in and explore the aquarium, before they get to see an extraordinary swim display. This includes our new state-of-the-art attraction, Day & Night, which offers guests the chance to experience the 24-hour wonder of a coral reef as it moves through the day in a 750,000-litre display!I would like to thank Netgalley and Random House UK, Cornerstone for an advance copy of The Brighton Mermaid, a stand alone novel set in Brighton.

I wrote my first novel called There's A Thin Line Between Love And Hate when I was 13. I used to write a chapter every night then pass it around to my fellow convent school pupils every morning, and they seemed to love it. I am a huge fan of Dorothy Koomson, having loved the other novels I've read by her (including The Ice Cream Girls and The Friend), so I was incredibly excited to get the chance to read her newest release, The Brighton Mermaid. The premise sounded really interesting and I knew I'd be treated to Koomson's excellent writing. The years Pope victimized, and bullied Nell and her family were made possible by the inherent attitudes of the police. Pope’s attitudes not only effected the girls but also had long lasting effects on both parents as well. We were going to find out that she had been murdered. That her last minutes were awful, full of terror and pain. I looked into the faces of the police officers, saw how angry they were that we were wasting their time like this, and knew our lives were never going to be the same again.” I’ve never seen such violence before…. All I could do was watch as dad’s facial muscles were tautened by torture, his body twisted and held in unnatural ways, blood spilling from his mouth. This was brutal and horrifying, cruel and inhumane.”In 1993 Nell and her best friend Jude find a dead body on Brighton Beach at 3am whilst they are walking home from a party. The narrative is fast-paced and kept me wanting to read on, and I love the element of mystery interwoven with topics around family, friendship and secrets. There's a mix of emotions, with some quite disturbing themes cropping up alongside slightly more light-hearted parts. I loved the sense of time and place that Koomson always creates so well - I may only have been a very small child at the time this was set but I could picture myself there, in the early 1990's, right there with Jude and Nell as they made their horrifying discovery. The story begins twenty-five years ago; it’s 1993 in Brighton Beach and Nell and Jude are teenagers. They’ve sneaked out without their parents knowledge to go to a party thrown by a local boy. They are making their way home in the early hours when they discover a body laying on the sand.