Okay, Ms Gytha Lodge, just stop it. Okay? Stop it. It isn’t fair. How dare you write a book that is so good I couldn’t put it down. How could you write a book so gripping that I couldn’t risk going to sleep until I’d finished it? I’m just a poor, innocent reader! And to cap it all, I enjoyed it so much I’ve had to go out and get the rest in the series!
It’s got me wondering though. What is it that makes a book ‘unputdownable’? It doesn’t happen with every book. I mean how many people have picked up James Joyce‘s Ulysses and said of it that they couldn’t put it down? Not many, I’m willing to bet. But when you get a thriller like this, the way it grips and carries you along on a tidal wave of bibliophilic bliss it renders reading akin to a white knuckle ride. Or do I need to get out more? 😉
Little Sister is the fourth in the DCI Jonah Sheen series. I didn’t know that at the time and it really doesn’t matter if you haven’t read the other three. It’s apparent from reading it that there are past histories for some of the police personnel but because the current mystery is so good you’re not dwelling on any of that.
One of the problems reviewing a book like this is that you run the risk of winning the Spoiler of the Year award. It’s tightly plotted and with such detail that you need to pay attention the whole way through. It’s very cleverly done. But I think that no matter how much attention you pay and how clever you think you are you can’t possibly anticipate some of these twists. They are audacious! But whereas with some books of this genre you get the feeling that the writer is always trying to ‘get one over’ on the reader, I didn’t get that feeling here. I felt as a reader I was working alongside the police. And if I made a mistake in suspecting this or suspecting that and I was wrong the police were making similar errors of judgement.
The basic premise is that two sisters disappear from a children’s home. One emerges from the woods covered in blood claiming that she is absolutely fine but the concern should be for her sister. It seems clear that she knows where her sister is but doesn’t seem willing to tell. And I’m not willing to tell any more about the plot than that!
The two sisters are wonderful portrayals. You think you’re able to discern something of their characters but you’re constantly left wondering. The police team are great. The bond between them and the way they work together is very satisfying. And there’s just enough of their own personal stories to strike a really good balance with the thrust of the main story. It adds a substance to the book as a whole. And I’m sure that’s in part why I am desperate to read the other books.
It’s a perfectly paced book too. I think that’s another factor that makes it ‘unputdownable’. There’s no hiatus, no let up. It’s tight, substantial narrative writing as well. You are given enough but not too much detail. You’re not bogged down by grand yet irrelevant descriptions. It’s challenging in places because some of the subject matter is dark. But that somehow made it all the more important to reach a satisfactory conclusion.
I finished the book on a wave of euphoria. Because it was simply such a satisfying experience. And I’m excited too because I have three more books to read and I’m hoping they are as gripping and as exciting as this one. And having just started the first in the series called She Lies in Wait I loved it that on the back cover it says ‘Seven teenagers went down to the woods. Only six came back.’, and on the cover of Little Sister it says ‘Two girls went into the woods, only one came back.’!
My thanks to Michael Joseph books for a proof copy of Little Sister and a place upon the blog tour.
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