In Her Shadow

by Mark Edwards

[zooloo1983]

I ordered this on audible after reading all the fab reviews on the blog tour back in October from so many recommendations I thought it must deliver! So no pressure or anything

So did it deliver? Yes, Yes it did!

We are lead down the garden path completely with the ghosts and spirits, wondering if we were going to be going just as crazy as Jessica. Four years after her sister Isabel’s death, Jess just cannot rest. There seem to be forces working against her wanting her to open up old wounds. Did Izzy really fall? Or was she pushed?

I liked how we were in the present day with Jess, going through the mundane every day when her little girl Olivia is apparently being haunted by her Auntie Izzy, an auntie she never met.

With the other storyline, it takes us back into the past, we are with Izzy and the days leading up to and including her death.

This was quite a journey and my first outing with this author. It was atmospheric and thrilling as more suspects begin to come out the woodwork making my head spin and questioning EVERYBODY.

There is so much I want to say about the story but I cannot without giving anything away. I will say how Mr Edwards has used each character as his own manipulative little pawns worked fantastically. The innocent, the chilling, the naive, the sinister and the unforgivable. Everyone had a part to play, and they all delivered their roles. Near the end, it finally clicked in my head who I should be suspecting and that’s when the anty ramped up for me as I was shouting at the narrator to hurry up and get Jessica up to speed with me!

This book does not fly at a fast pace, instead, Mr Edwards takes his time. He sets the scene and he likes to frustrate the reader (in a good way) as he will drop little bits of bread crumbs and then the next chapter change it up and change the narration. I do love it when the author does something like this, it may be frustrating, but it does its job of one more chapter – gimme gimme gimme!

The book was also very now with a #metoo movement, betrayal, affairs, drugs, stalkers, paranormal. So you know you are in for a treat. Yet, when you mix all of these together it reminds me of the Butterfly effect, one action affects millions of things and things escalate quickly. But at the heart of this book was family. The strong foundations that hold everything together and the togetherness of it all.

Even once the ending has been wrapped up, a clanger has been dropped and left me open-mouthed, wondering what the hell! It also made me question everything I just heard – Kudos Mr Edwards you got me!

I would recommend this book. The narrator, Esther Wane, for me took a while to get used to her voice but I carried on because it was the story that hooked me. However, by the end, I got into the rhythm of her voice and looking at audible she has done a lot of narrating for books I want to read so I will be checking her out again.

I am now off to go and check out more offerings from Mr Mark Edwards, that is how much he has woven his magic on me.