Five Strangers
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
Five strangers witness a brutal murder in broad daylight — but can they truly believe what they saw?
With its grassy hills and breathtaking city views, London’s Hampstead Heath is the perfect place to spend an afternoon with friends and loved ones—and on an unseasonably warm Valentine’s Day, the lawns are especially full. So when an aggressive lovers’ quarrel breaks out, there’s an audience of park goers nearby to hear the shouts traded back and forth, and to watch as the violence escalates suddenly to murder, then suicide.
For the five strangers who observed the gruesome act, the memory of the gore is unshakable. But one of them—disgraced journalist Jen Hunter—is compelled to question the truth of what she thought she saw. Are the facts of the case plain as day, or were they obscured, in the moment, by the glaring sunlight?
As she mounts an obsessive investigation for a seemingly-impossible alternative, the lives of the other witnesses begin to unravel, each in its own particular way. Soon one thing becomes clear: the crime they witnessed was more terrible, more twisted, and more far-reaching than they ever could have imagined.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The pseudonymous Adamson's uneven debut opens with an intriguing setup. On a beautiful Valentine's Day on a hill in London's Hampstead Heath, five people, all strangers to each other, see a horrific murder/suicide involving a couple sitting on a park bench. One of the witnesses is journalist Jen Hunter, who lives with retired journalist Penelope Frasier in Penelope's enormous mansion in Hampstead. After Jen publishes a newspaper article about the crime, she and her best friend, Rebecca "Bex" Shaw, set out to interview the other four witnesses. When Jen is threatened by a mysterious stalker and frightening texts, things seem to point to her ex-boyfriend Laurence Robertson as the culprit. Bex persuades Jen to move in with her, and together they plot to kill Laurence. Meanwhile, the older and more experienced Penelope investigates the four other witnesses plus Bex, as well as the murder and suicide victims on her own, uncovering dark secrets and an interconnectedness no one else suspects. Unfortunately, the plot bogs down with repetitive, melodramatic dialogue and predictable narrative turns until reaching the clever if far-fetched ending. There's enough talent to suggest Adamson's capable of better next time.
