Scan barcode
A review by ladyk23
La vita di prima by Colette McBeth
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.