1994, Jennie waits for her best friend to arrive so they can escape their unhappy homes and make a fresh start in London. But Hannah never shows up at the station as planned, and actually disappears completely. Present day, Jennie is a police detective and is called to her former school when a body is unearthed in the basement. Has Hannah been found at last…?
The Reunion is a police procedural and murder mystery with a very powerful emotional thread.
Jennie is haunted by her lost friend and finally she has the chance to investigate and find out the truth. She is reunited with childhood friends but they are now suspects in the murder case and she has to maintain a profesional distance. I enjoyed the police interviews and the way the secrets gradually get revealed as the case progresses. The police characters felt authentic and I thought they acted realistically in the investigation process.
Jennie faces huge emotional upheaval as she discovers secrets about Hannah that make her question just how well she really knew her. Jennie’s career is at risk due to her personal connection with the victim which she is trying to downplay. This puts her at odds with her colleagues and superiors which adds an extra dimension to the plot and her character.
I LOVED this book! Great plot, characters and twists. Jennie is a great lead character. Her emotional involvement in the case means that she is totally focussed on finding the killer. I suspected everyone as their lies and alibis are revealed so I was kept guessing until the end. The tension and dark atmosphere of the book are maintained well while the style of writing is easy to read and engaging.
The Reunion is a gripping murder mystery with a fab lead female detective.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
A skull looks up at Jennie from the trench, but it’s not the chalk-white bone and grimacing teeth that send her reeling. It’s the heart-shaped gold pendant, its delicate chain snapped in two. The necklace Hannah never took off. It can’t be Hannah. But it is.
When Jennie Whitmore arrives at her school reunion, she immediately regrets her decision. Why would she choose to surround herself with people who were never nice to her? Who still aren’t, even now she’s a police officer? The only person who truly looked out for her all those years ago was charming, beautiful Hannah. Until the day she disappeared.
Jennie is ready to finally put White Cross Academy behind her, the old school building demolished the morning after the party. But with the demolition comes a call: a teenage girl’s remains have been found on the grounds.
The instant drop in Jennie’s gut tells her that the remains might be Hannah’s, but when she’s called in to examine them, the truth becomes undeniable. Hannah didn’t run away and abandon Jenny thirty years ago; in fact, she never left White Cross at all.
Suddenly, Jennie has a murder to solve. The murder of her best friend. But can she do so before her colleagues discover just how closely connected she is to the victim? Before a mystery stalker makes good on his threats to silence her for good?
The Reunion is a gripping mystery perfect for fans of THE SANATORIUM, Lucy Foley, and Ruth Kelly.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS:
MJ. Arlidge has worked in television for the last twenty years, specialising in high-end drama production, including prime-time crime serials Silent Witness, Torn, The Little House and, most recently, the hit ITV show Innocent. In 2015 his audiobook exclusive Six Degrees of Assassination was a number-one bestseller. His debut thriller, Eeny Meeny, was the UK’s bestselling crime debut of 2014 and has been followed by ten more DI Helen Grace thrillers – all Sunday Times bestsellers.
Steph Broadribb was born in Birmingham and grew up in Buckinghamshire. Most of her working life has been spent between the UK and USA. As her alter ego – Crime Thriller Girl – she indulges her love of all things crime fiction by blogging at www.crimethrillergirl.com . Steph is an alumni of the MA in Creative Writing (Crime Fiction) at City University London, and she trained as a bounty hunter in California. She lives in Buckinghamshire surrounded by horses, cows and chickens.
