The Girls: The gripping Richard and Judy Book Club pick

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You live on a picturesque communal garden square, an oasis in urban London where your children run free, in and out of other people’s houses. Lisa Jewell has definitely gone over to the dark side for her latest two books, The Third Wife (reviewed here) and now The Girls. Both books are much darker in content than her previous novels and are almost in the psychological thriller genre. However I’m not complaining, as regular readers of this blog will know, I love a good chiller and this certainly doesn’t disappoint.

While the storyline had some issues for me-I had a good idea how this was going to play out relatively early on-it was Jewell's descriptive writing style and character development that really drew me in. This is a well written family drama with a good dose of mystery/suspense to keep everyone on their toes.Finding all of the Lisa Jewell books is not the easiest task. Believe it or not, many of the books have different names when published in the US vs. the UK. They also have different publication dates. If children are left unsupervised, with no responsibility, can they grow up to be good people, or do they become what they are around? When her lifeless body is eventually discovered, Ana is sent to the big city to collect Bee’s belongings from her apartment. Things happen in that park differently to how they happen in the real world. Different rules apply.” Upon come home from work not long after her twenty-fifth birthday, Libby Jones receives a life-changing letter.

So, overall, I enjoyed the book, although it wasn’t exactly what I was expecting, and think fans of psychological suspense will like this one too. Then she cries out and clutches at her chest when a figure appears at her side. it is Max, the football mad loner of the community. He's only nine, three years younger than her. She can't believe he's still out here, wandering alone at this time of night. As ever, he is holding his beloved football, squeezing it tight against his stomach. he looks at Pip, his eyes wide and appalled. He looks as though he's about to say something, but no words come. He turns then and runs, down the hill, toward the lights. From the very beginning we know something terrible has happened, which lends an ominous air to all that follows. After a family disaster Clare and her two daughters move into this gorgeous place that because of its communal space, acres that are shared by all the houses surrounding it, seem like a good place to call home.Toby Dobbs’s father gives him a massive Victorian house with numerous bedrooms as a wedding gift. His marriage however ends in a month. COVER LOVE! The first thing that drew me to this book on NetGalley was the cover. That mixed with the concept of living in a somewhat communal neighborhood sold me. I’ll be honest, I’ve always dreamed of what it would be like to raise my baby girls in a simpler time; one where “it took a village” and everyone’s door was always open to visitors. I think our generation has lost something important in the fact that we are so incredibly isolated as families now; not borrowing sugar from our neighbors and having another families kids over for the night so that their parents could have a night off. This book did a fantastic job of solidifying that vision for me while also bringing to light all the things that can go wrong when you are too close to your neighbors.

You live on a picturesque communal garden square, an oasis in urban London where your children run free, in and out of other people's houses. The book begins with the discovery of bones in the Thames River that is related to a 30-year-old cold case.This story is told from three perspectives. A man loses his memory and is trying to figure out who he is. Simultaneously, a woman can’t find her husband who has disappeared without a trace. When Melody Browne was nine years old, she burned down their house in an act that turned all her belongings and memories into ashes. As dinner continues to get cold, Lisa can only help but wonder what was keeping his husband. After waiting for a while, Lisa decides to call the local police, who inform her that she needs to wait because her husband has not gone for such a long time. Early one morning on the shore of the Thames, DCI Samuel Owusu is called to the scene of a gruesome discovery. When Owusu sends the evidence for examination, he learns the bones are connected to a cold case that left three people dead on the kitchen floor in a Chelsea mansion thirty years ago. THE AUTHOR: Lisa was born in London in 1968. Her mother was a secretary and her father was a textile agent and she was brought up in the northernmost reaches of London with her two younger sisters. She was educated at a Catholic girls’ Grammar school in Finchley. After leaving school at sixteen she spent two years at Barnet College doing an arts foundation course and then two years at Epsom School of Art & Design studying Fashion Illustration and Communication.