Scan barcode
zara93's review against another edition
5.0
This book is a great example of great storytelling!
The writing is absolutely amazing, it felt as if the writer REALLY thought of every word and it wasn't just there by accedent. I have to say that I've managed to guess "the last plot twist" quite early but still I enjoyed the book especially the first half. I loved Eve character so much, my heart broke for her and for Daved. I wish there was more of them in the book but oh well.
The writing is absolutely amazing, it felt as if the writer REALLY thought of every word and it wasn't just there by accedent. I have to say that I've managed to guess "the last plot twist" quite early but still I enjoyed the book especially the first half. I loved Eve character so much, my heart broke for her and for Daved. I wish there was more of them in the book but oh well.
jackiehorne's review against another edition
4.0
Started this late last night and had to finish it today. Intense, tension-filled murder mystery, told from the POV of Melody, who was the victim of an attack six years ago, and from that of Eve, who is found murdered at the start of this book. Finely-honed language, strong character construction, and detailed descriptions draw you in to the stories of these two women, and the man who ultimately connects them. Especially adept at illustrating how trauma makes you question your own perceptions.
akuhlma03's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
judithdcollins's review against another edition
4.0
A special thank you to St. Martin's Press and Minotaur Books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Nice cover. 4.5 stars
Colette McBeth’s psychological thriller THE LIFE I LEFT BEHIND will keep you glued to the pages until end, with this suspenseful crime mystery of two women.
Told from three perspectives and voices there is Eve, a murder victim, and Melody who was left for dead by Eve’s attacker from previous years, and detective Victoria Rutter, the investigating officer on Melody’s case, along with some secondary characters.
Over six years ago Melody was attacked and left for dead. She was found and her close friend and neighbor David was found guilty and put away in prison. Melody was devastated, and soon thereafter grew very untrustworthy of everyone and built a shell around herself with security systems and quite the recluse.
Then David was released, from prison and Eve was murdered very similar to the same way Melody was attacked and a new investigation started. Is David killing again or a copycat? Even though Melody lives the life of seclusion, now she is forced to be in the center of the investigation and possibly David was not the real killer? If not, whom and when will they strike next? Who can she trust?
What happened to the original investigation and was David set up? The similarities between the two gals are creepy, as both blonde and slender and both with a necklace. How are the two connected?
A gripping crime thriller, leaving you guessing until the end. Of course, Eve is dead but we still from her and there is much emotional drama and intensity from all three voices. Readers also experience the fear and anxiety from Melody with her PTSD, as she tries to appear cool on the outside, when she is not after spending time shut away in her haven. Her journey to finding her way back before the tragic event in her life, so the emotional intensity is there.
I really enjoyed THE LIFE I LEFT BEHIND better than the first book, Precious Thing, as listened to the audiobook, so may not have been wild about the narrator. This was was more of a page-turner and hard to put down, in my opinion.
I liked the storyline much better as more of a true fast-paced crime thriller and allowed for the writer to shine through her well-paced writing and nicely developed characters with many twists and turns to keep you intrigued until the end with the different voices, adding to the mystery.
Look forward to reading more from this author!
Judith D. Collins Must Read Books
Colette McBeth’s psychological thriller THE LIFE I LEFT BEHIND will keep you glued to the pages until end, with this suspenseful crime mystery of two women.
Told from three perspectives and voices there is Eve, a murder victim, and Melody who was left for dead by Eve’s attacker from previous years, and detective Victoria Rutter, the investigating officer on Melody’s case, along with some secondary characters.
Over six years ago Melody was attacked and left for dead. She was found and her close friend and neighbor David was found guilty and put away in prison. Melody was devastated, and soon thereafter grew very untrustworthy of everyone and built a shell around herself with security systems and quite the recluse.
Then David was released, from prison and Eve was murdered very similar to the same way Melody was attacked and a new investigation started. Is David killing again or a copycat? Even though Melody lives the life of seclusion, now she is forced to be in the center of the investigation and possibly David was not the real killer? If not, whom and when will they strike next? Who can she trust?
What happened to the original investigation and was David set up? The similarities between the two gals are creepy, as both blonde and slender and both with a necklace. How are the two connected?
A gripping crime thriller, leaving you guessing until the end. Of course, Eve is dead but we still from her and there is much emotional drama and intensity from all three voices. Readers also experience the fear and anxiety from Melody with her PTSD, as she tries to appear cool on the outside, when she is not after spending time shut away in her haven. Her journey to finding her way back before the tragic event in her life, so the emotional intensity is there.
I really enjoyed THE LIFE I LEFT BEHIND better than the first book, Precious Thing, as listened to the audiobook, so may not have been wild about the narrator. This was was more of a page-turner and hard to put down, in my opinion.
I liked the storyline much better as more of a true fast-paced crime thriller and allowed for the writer to shine through her well-paced writing and nicely developed characters with many twists and turns to keep you intrigued until the end with the different voices, adding to the mystery.
Look forward to reading more from this author!
Judith D. Collins Must Read Books
kcfromaustcrime's review against another edition
3.0
THE LIFE I LEFT BEHIND is the second novel from London based author Colette McBeth, her first being PRECIOUS THING. Both in the form of psychological thriller, part of the increasingly common "domestic noir" category, they are however standalone books.
The story here is told using a combination of viewpoints from three main characters. Melody Pieterson is a survivor, brutally attacked and left for dead, she lives in personal imprisonment, whilst her attacker has just been released from jail. The aftermath of the attack has seen her lose her confidence, her social life and her independence. Eve Elliot is also a victim, she's been violently attacked, just after she meets Pieterson's attacker, and starts working on the possibility that he's been wrongly convicted. But she lost her life in her attack and her voice is post-mortem. Finally there's DI Victoria Rutter, a constable at the time of the first attack, she's the officer who identified the CCTV evidence that lead to the jailing of David Alden.
Now obviously these sorts of viewpoints are always relying on the reader establishing some sort of connection with the characters. Because time is spent inside their heads, there must be understanding, and maybe even sympathy. Which is tricky when one of the voices is coming from somebody who is dead, and another could be perceived as overtly comfortable in the role of victim. It's a strange feeling to know that a victim, a character who has been subjected to the most awful attack, and who has every reason in the world to be scared, hesitant and damaged has the potential to be decidedly annoying as well. Mind you, it's not hard to imagine that THE LIFE I LEFT BEHIND will be one of those books that absolutely polarises readers - some will find Pieterson sympathetic and understandable, others less so.
Given that much of the story is also told in flashback, many of the plot threads feel somewhat coincidental or even convenient. Not an unreasonable feeling given the old adage about hindsight. Combine that, however, with the surprisingly quick manner in which Elliot casts doubt on the conviction of David Aldren, conveniently followed by her death, and something in Rutter's attitude about her original investigation and all in all, something doesn't feel convincing. There's just the slightest sense of unreliable narrator here somewhere, without the confirmation. None of that is helped either by the convenient character traits - the dead victim is confident, sometimes regretful but surprisingly sanguine about the whole being dead thing. Meanwhile the living victim isn't really living, and seems to be overtly passive and easily manipulated.
Just to ram that home, there's the increasing doubt about her band of supporters, friends, and in particular her fiancée. There's a fine line between supportive and controlling and we're not too far into the story before Sam's getting creepy and you have to wonder about the odd dynamic in their friendship group as well.
Needless to say, everything about Pieterson and her situation did not sit comfortably with this reader, and as a result, the whole scenario felt contrived and overblown. Other readers, those that sympathise and identify more closely with that character, are going to get a lot more from THE LIFE I LEFT BEHIND.
http://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/review-life-i-left-behind-colette-mcbeth
The story here is told using a combination of viewpoints from three main characters. Melody Pieterson is a survivor, brutally attacked and left for dead, she lives in personal imprisonment, whilst her attacker has just been released from jail. The aftermath of the attack has seen her lose her confidence, her social life and her independence. Eve Elliot is also a victim, she's been violently attacked, just after she meets Pieterson's attacker, and starts working on the possibility that he's been wrongly convicted. But she lost her life in her attack and her voice is post-mortem. Finally there's DI Victoria Rutter, a constable at the time of the first attack, she's the officer who identified the CCTV evidence that lead to the jailing of David Alden.
Now obviously these sorts of viewpoints are always relying on the reader establishing some sort of connection with the characters. Because time is spent inside their heads, there must be understanding, and maybe even sympathy. Which is tricky when one of the voices is coming from somebody who is dead, and another could be perceived as overtly comfortable in the role of victim. It's a strange feeling to know that a victim, a character who has been subjected to the most awful attack, and who has every reason in the world to be scared, hesitant and damaged has the potential to be decidedly annoying as well. Mind you, it's not hard to imagine that THE LIFE I LEFT BEHIND will be one of those books that absolutely polarises readers - some will find Pieterson sympathetic and understandable, others less so.
Given that much of the story is also told in flashback, many of the plot threads feel somewhat coincidental or even convenient. Not an unreasonable feeling given the old adage about hindsight. Combine that, however, with the surprisingly quick manner in which Elliot casts doubt on the conviction of David Aldren, conveniently followed by her death, and something in Rutter's attitude about her original investigation and all in all, something doesn't feel convincing. There's just the slightest sense of unreliable narrator here somewhere, without the confirmation. None of that is helped either by the convenient character traits - the dead victim is confident, sometimes regretful but surprisingly sanguine about the whole being dead thing. Meanwhile the living victim isn't really living, and seems to be overtly passive and easily manipulated.
Just to ram that home, there's the increasing doubt about her band of supporters, friends, and in particular her fiancée. There's a fine line between supportive and controlling and we're not too far into the story before Sam's getting creepy and you have to wonder about the odd dynamic in their friendship group as well.
Needless to say, everything about Pieterson and her situation did not sit comfortably with this reader, and as a result, the whole scenario felt contrived and overblown. Other readers, those that sympathise and identify more closely with that character, are going to get a lot more from THE LIFE I LEFT BEHIND.
http://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/review-life-i-left-behind-colette-mcbeth
saram618's review against another edition
2.0
I have nothing profound to say about this book. It exists, I read it, I'll probably forget it in a week.
ladyk23's review against another edition
4.0
After finishing Michelle McNamara’s I’ll Be Gone In The Dark I was chomping at the bit for a fictional murder mystery/thriller book and The Life I Left Behind did not disappoint.
I haven’t read any other novels by Colette McBeth so I didn’t know what to expect from her writing style, pacing, characterisation, plot etc. And all of these things can be crucial to this type of novel. Your characters have to not only be realistic, but you have to feel something for them, otherwise you just wouldn’t care if they lived or died.
In McBeth’s case she made her job especially difficult by having one of her narrators be dead already. No easy task as I know from reading Her Fearful Symmetry which also features dead narrators. However I’m happy to say in this instance McBeth excels. Eve (the dead narrator)’s voice is crucial to the telling of this particular tale, and at no point does she feel any less real than the other two narrators of the story - Melody or DI Rutter. Which really is a feat of good characterisation and good writing.
The story opens with a dog walker who stumbles upon the body of a young woman in a London park. The body belongs to Eve Elliot, who worked as a producer on a TV show that investigates wrongful convictions. She’s just cracked the last piece of a puzzle to overturn a conviction for David Alden, a man who was sent down for the attempted murder of Melody Pieterson.
Melody’s not been doing so well since David was released from prison, and when she learns that not only was Eve working on overturning her attempted murderer’s conviction, but that she’s also been murdered - seemingly by the same man who attacked Melody and left her for dead years ago - Melody starts to see that maybe it wasn’t David who attacked her. She finds herself wondering why he would kill the woman who was about to prove his innocence?
Add to that the fact that Eve bears a striking resemblance to Melody, and was found with the same chain in her hand as Melody was, and there is no escaping the fact that Eve’s and Melody’s lives are inextricably linked. Will Melody be able to uncover the truth before her attacker comes back to finish what he started?
This book had moments of being really gripping, but it also took the time to make you understand the characters and really feel the journey that they went on. As such I’ve had a look at McBeth’s other novels on her Goodreads author page and I’ve already earmarked a few I’d like to read following this one. She’s definitely piqued my interest now and I’d be keen to read what she’s done since.
With regards to The Life I Left Behind I can safely say that I’d recommend it to fans of the thriller/crime genre, it’s got a twisty turny plot, good believable characters, and is a well written, keeps-you-guessing whodunnit.
I haven’t read any other novels by Colette McBeth so I didn’t know what to expect from her writing style, pacing, characterisation, plot etc. And all of these things can be crucial to this type of novel. Your characters have to not only be realistic, but you have to feel something for them, otherwise you just wouldn’t care if they lived or died.
In McBeth’s case she made her job especially difficult by having one of her narrators be dead already. No easy task as I know from reading Her Fearful Symmetry which also features dead narrators. However I’m happy to say in this instance McBeth excels. Eve (the dead narrator)’s voice is crucial to the telling of this particular tale, and at no point does she feel any less real than the other two narrators of the story - Melody or DI Rutter. Which really is a feat of good characterisation and good writing.
The story opens with a dog walker who stumbles upon the body of a young woman in a London park. The body belongs to Eve Elliot, who worked as a producer on a TV show that investigates wrongful convictions. She’s just cracked the last piece of a puzzle to overturn a conviction for David Alden, a man who was sent down for the attempted murder of Melody Pieterson.
Melody’s not been doing so well since David was released from prison, and when she learns that not only was Eve working on overturning her attempted murderer’s conviction, but that she’s also been murdered - seemingly by the same man who attacked Melody and left her for dead years ago - Melody starts to see that maybe it wasn’t David who attacked her. She finds herself wondering why he would kill the woman who was about to prove his innocence?
Add to that the fact that Eve bears a striking resemblance to Melody, and was found with the same chain in her hand as Melody was, and there is no escaping the fact that Eve’s and Melody’s lives are inextricably linked. Will Melody be able to uncover the truth before her attacker comes back to finish what he started?
This book had moments of being really gripping, but it also took the time to make you understand the characters and really feel the journey that they went on. As such I’ve had a look at McBeth’s other novels on her Goodreads author page and I’ve already earmarked a few I’d like to read following this one. She’s definitely piqued my interest now and I’d be keen to read what she’s done since.
With regards to The Life I Left Behind I can safely say that I’d recommend it to fans of the thriller/crime genre, it’s got a twisty turny plot, good believable characters, and is a well written, keeps-you-guessing whodunnit.
clairereviews's review against another edition
4.0
Review: The Life I Left Behind by Colette McBeth Publication Date: 1st January 2015
Publisher: Headline Review
ISBN: 978-1472205988
Source: Bookbridgr, NetGalley
Rating: 4*
Synopsis:
Five years ago Melody Pieterson was attacked and left for dead.
She coped by burying the person she was, locking away her memories and creating a new life for herself. Her attacker is behind bars. In four weeks' time she will get married. She's almost normal.
Then the body of another woman is found, close to where Melody was discovered. Like her she has blond hair and green eyes. Like Melody police find a gold bird cage necklace at the scene. And Melody realises her attacker has been out there all along.
The woman's name is Eve Elliot. Melody sets out to discover everything she can about Eve to work out why they were targeted. But the more she gets to know her the more she realises what's wrong with her own life. Eve may be dead but she's the only person who can teach Melody how to live again.
Review:
This book has been languishing on my TBR shelf, alongside McBeth's debut Precious Thing, for a good few months, hidden behind another row of books. To be honest, I had forgotten all about it, but as soon as I discovered it again and re-read the exciting synopsis, I had to read it straight away.
Melody's story is told alongside Eve's, both utterly compelling and hypnotic. The horrific nature of their attacks is told in violent detail, as Melody tries to piece together the events that she has blocked in order to survive.
There are heartbreaking truths and shocking twists as Melody gets nearer to the truth and learns the identity of her attacker and Eve's killer.
The plot is outlined in glorious detail, with McBeth's considerable talent as a storyteller building the layers as there book races towards its conclusion. It's a real page-turner that I begrudgingly put down only when my eyes were stinging with tiredness.
I can't wait to read Precious Thing now!
Publisher: Headline Review
ISBN: 978-1472205988
Source: Bookbridgr, NetGalley
Rating: 4*
Synopsis:
Five years ago Melody Pieterson was attacked and left for dead.
She coped by burying the person she was, locking away her memories and creating a new life for herself. Her attacker is behind bars. In four weeks' time she will get married. She's almost normal.
Then the body of another woman is found, close to where Melody was discovered. Like her she has blond hair and green eyes. Like Melody police find a gold bird cage necklace at the scene. And Melody realises her attacker has been out there all along.
The woman's name is Eve Elliot. Melody sets out to discover everything she can about Eve to work out why they were targeted. But the more she gets to know her the more she realises what's wrong with her own life. Eve may be dead but she's the only person who can teach Melody how to live again.
Review:
This book has been languishing on my TBR shelf, alongside McBeth's debut Precious Thing, for a good few months, hidden behind another row of books. To be honest, I had forgotten all about it, but as soon as I discovered it again and re-read the exciting synopsis, I had to read it straight away.
Melody's story is told alongside Eve's, both utterly compelling and hypnotic. The horrific nature of their attacks is told in violent detail, as Melody tries to piece together the events that she has blocked in order to survive.
There are heartbreaking truths and shocking twists as Melody gets nearer to the truth and learns the identity of her attacker and Eve's killer.
The plot is outlined in glorious detail, with McBeth's considerable talent as a storyteller building the layers as there book races towards its conclusion. It's a real page-turner that I begrudgingly put down only when my eyes were stinging with tiredness.
I can't wait to read Precious Thing now!
elliemcc11's review against another edition
3.0
I was sent this book via Good reads First Reads in exchange for an honest review.
I liked this mystery / thriller. It wasn't too scary, or gruesome but still had a good storyline,
The story starts recounting how a boy finds his mum has died. It then proceeds to document, via the voices of two women, one dead, the search for the killer of the dead woman. One woman had been attacked and left for dead and her friend was arrested, but his family and friends wanted to prove his innocence. They turned to the now dead character for help and the story relates how she went to search for clues and what happened as a consequence. The story concludes with the big reveal - I thought it was either one or other character and thought the ending was generally satisfactory.
I liked this mystery / thriller. It wasn't too scary, or gruesome but still had a good storyline,
The story starts recounting how a boy finds his mum has died. It then proceeds to document, via the voices of two women, one dead, the search for the killer of the dead woman. One woman had been attacked and left for dead and her friend was arrested, but his family and friends wanted to prove his innocence. They turned to the now dead character for help and the story relates how she went to search for clues and what happened as a consequence. The story concludes with the big reveal - I thought it was either one or other character and thought the ending was generally satisfactory.