3.5

The story follows three couples linked by family and by friendship. Helen is the main protagonist and she is finally pregnant after a series of miscarriages when she meets Rachel at her first prenatal class and secrets start coming to light.

I found this to be compulsively readable. The book starts with an Afterword - the start of a letter written to Helen by someone in prison trying to justify their actions and then jumps back to the 24th week of Helen's pregnancy where she first meets Rachel. What follows is a multi perspective unravelling of Helen's life as she navigates her pregnancy and this new "friend" who she keeps running into unexpectedly. From the start, it is clear something is off about Rachel and it is apparent that each of the main characters is going to be messy leading the reader to kind of question everyone.

I liked the way Katherine Faulkner wove together the various threads of the story. Not only are there POVs from Helen, Serena (Helen's friend and sister in law), and Katie (childhood neighbor and on and off again girlfriend of Helen's other brother), but there are snippets of unnamed people simply labeled Greenwich Park as well as flashbacks to 10 years previous. While I sometimes struggled differentiating the voice between the three women, I liked that we got to see all of these different aspects of the story.

I also loved that the book was structured as segments of Helen's pregnancy because as we moved toward the 40 week mark, the tension grew almost as if it were a countdown, and really appreciated the commentary on rapists going free when they're well to do white men.

Where I struggled most was the believability. I had a hard time understanding why Helen was so quick to integrate Rachel into her life and then later when Rachel went missing, I had a hard time believing that Helen didn't know anything about her.

That being said, I liked Faulkner's writing style and pacing and overall thought this was a really strong debut and will definitely be on the lookout for whatever she writes next.

I really enjoyed this one, I found it similar to Ruth Ware or Lisa Jewell. In particular I found the shorter chapters made the book fairly easy to read quickly. I also loved the twists, they definitely kept me hooked. Looking forward to whatever this author writes next!

Katherine Faulkner grabbed my interest from the first few pages, and her writing and the characters compelled me to read on! I love love loved this book; it’s a real page-turner. If you haven’t yet got it on your TBR pile, then you really need to rectify that ASAP. I can’t wait to see what Katherine Faulkner comes up with next. I can't believe this was her debut!

While I haven’t finished the book yet what I have read already is very intruding and I’m lookin forward to seeing where it goes from here

Right away I was drawn in by the bold cover and the blurb, which draws comparisons to The Girl on the Train. Sign me up!

This one was a bit of a slow burn for me but still managed to draw me in from the jump. The opening letter is a small preview for the ride you are about be taken on...and trust me it's a crazy, twisty, don't know where we're going next type of ride! I am a sucker for duel point of views, so another added bonus for me. The book does deal with different aspects and stages pregnancy, so those who feel that to be a touchy subject may want to look up trigger warnings prior to reading.

Definitely one to add to your TBR list and definitely an author whose future work I am excited to read. Thank you to Gallery books and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for me review. Four stars.

Katherine Faulkner has been added to my long long list of auto-buy/read authors!

What an impressive debut 👏👏

This book gave me MAJOR Ruth Ware vibes and I didn't even realize until the end that she was the first endorsement on the back of the book! 😂

This book featured a few of my favorite things in thrillers :

1. Short chapters
2. Multiple perspectives
3. Multiple timelines
4. A bunch of twists and then a LAST minute twist at the end

I really thought I had this one all figured out a few chapters in, but nope! I love how she kept feeding the readers twists throughout the whole book and not just one major shock near the end!

I definitely recommend this one and think it will be a great success 👏👏

Helen meets Rachel at her prenatal class and they quickly starts spending a lot of time together. Rachel is pregnant but still drinks and smokes. Helen keeps running into Rachel in her town and assumes she lives near. One night, Rachel shows up at Helen's unannounced and clearly hurt. Helen starts having a bad feeling about Rachel and things starts unraveling. Halfway through this book, I was obsessed and could not put it down. The twist at the end was insane!

This book set in London that is set around a group of siblings and their partners and a woman who enters their lives is one of the better thrillers that I have read recently. There was enough going on that I didn't guess the ending but I also didn't feel like I had missed some key piece when it all came together. In terms of literary merit, how the last few chapters laid out what happened was a little too convenient...but for a reader who didn't want to think too much or go back and reread parts, I appreciated it.

What a debut for Katherine Faulkner! Greenwich Park is twisty, turny, shocking, and will have you on the edge of your seat with an ending you won't see coming.

The book started a bit slow for me simply as all the characters were introduced and their own individual storylines, but it picked up pace quickly and before I knew it, I couldn't put it down. Each character was really well developed. I could definitely see this as a movie or a TV mini-series. I'm still stewing over the ending.

I hope Katherine Faulkner has more books coming because she will easily become an auto-buy author for me.

Thank you Gallery Books and NetGalley for the gifted digital ARC in exchange for my honest review!

4.5/5 stars

I thought this book had so much potential! It met that potential overall but some of the thriller twists didn’t pan out. The characters, oh my goodness, the characters. They are the epitome of Team No-One. There wasn’t one character who didn’t me nuts in one way or another. I’m positive this was the author’s intention. And she delivered! Check this book out if you’re into domestic thrillers and enjoy books like Gone Girl.

Helen Thorpe is not happy. She signed herself and her husband up for a prenatal class, and instead of joining her, he has to work late. She also thought that her brother Rory and his wife Serena were going to be there. They had all signed up together, since Helen and Serena were pregnant at the same time, so it made sense that they would take this class together, learn about the breathing, support each other, laugh together about the other couples.

Instead Helen is alone.

So when Rachel shows up, also alone (but she’d never planned it any other way), she immediately befriends Helen. Rachel jokes with her, helps her from feeling so alone. Helen finds her a little pushy, but she is lonely there, so she spends the evening with her.

Helen’s husband Daniel apologizes when he got home. But ever since he started working with Rory, he’d been taking on more and more of the workload, having to stay late at the office to get things done. Helen and Rory and Daniel and Serena had all become friends at Cambridge.

Rory and Helen and their younger brother Charlie grew up in a beautiful historic house in Greenwich Park. Their father was a renowned architect, and when he and their mother died, the house had gone to Helen. Their father’s architecture firm had gone to Rory. And Charlie had gotten cash. Now, Daniel and Helen were doing a renovation to the house. Rory and Daniel both worked at the company. And Charlie was a DJ at a hot club and dating a journalist named Katie who had grown up just down the street from the family.

It’s just days after that first prenatal class that Helen is out shopping, and avoiding the workers at home causing so much noise and mess, when she bumps into Rachel again. Rachel insists that Helen join her for a coffee, and Helen agrees. As the weeks go by, they become closer friends, meeting for coffee and going to their class together.

In truth, Helen is a little uncomfortable about Rachel, as she is still drinking alcohol and smoking despite being pregnant. But she feels abandoned by the rest of her friends—by her old work friends, who are all busy when she wants to get together; by Serena, who is busy with Rory and with her photography; and by Daniel, who is spending so much time at the office. So Helen spends time with Rachel. And when Rachel shows up on her doorstep with marks around her neck, saying she has nowhere to go, then Helen takes her in and lets her stay there, even though was supposed to be her anniversary dinner with Daniel.

But after a couple of days, Rachel won’t leave. And Helen finds some suspicious things in with Rachel’s possessions. Helen starts to wonder if Rachel had ulterior motives for coming to stay with them. She wonders if Rachel had come to that class looking for Helen specifically, trying to meet her and work her way into her and Daniel’s life together. But why? And when their bonfire and fireworks party gets out of hand and Rachel goes missing, Helen is relieved to be done with her.

But then the police show up, wanting to ask questions of Helen. As she tries to remember what happened that night, Helen tries to piece together what happened. But it turns out, everyone has secrets they’re trying to cover up, and the layers of deception go even deeper than anyone expected.

Greenwich Park is Katherine Faulkner’s debut novel, and it is filled with more stunning reveals than you expect. The characters are strong and crafted with care, with interweaving relationships that will make you question what you know about family, and the plot is tight. Secrets are revealed slowly, until the end of course, when it all comes oozing out from all corners of the world.

I have heard Greenwich Park compared to the runaway bestseller The Girl on the Train, but I’m not sure that’s a good comparison. The Girl on the Train is polarizing—most readers either love it or hate it (full disclosure here: I loved it)—and I don’t think that Greenwich Park has that same dynamic to it. I think readers will just love it, swept away on this roller coaster of a thriller. This is a beautiful novel, and I think fans of mysteries and dramas and thrillers will all find something to love in its pages.

Egalleys for Greenwich Park were provided by Gallery Books through NetGalley, with many thanks.

Greenwich Park
Author, Katherine Faulkner
Pub date: 1,25,22

Thank you @gallerybooks and @netgalley for the e- arc of this gripping debut suspense novel!

After years of trying to conceive, Helen is finally pregnant. With a baby on the way, she and her architect husband are remodeling and preparing for the future that they've always planned together in their gorgeous, inherited Victorian home in Greenwich Park.

Consumed in bliss, although mildly disappointed because her husband and sister- in- law, who is also pregnant, couldn't make it to the prenatal class with her as planned, Helen meets Rachel. And the two begin an unlikely and convenient friendship- Rachel is a single mother- to- be, who doesn't seem very maternal at all... She smokes, drinks, barely speaks of her baby, and is beginning to act a little strange... She seems to be showing up everywhere Helen is and Helen is beginning to question Rachels motives... but she just can't seem to figure out what it is that she should be questioning...

Told in multiple points of view, with Helen as the main narrator, Faulkner weaves together her suspenseful thriller quite unreliably. While reading, you are led to question the narrative throughout, causing you to flip through the pages in an unsettling attempt to figure out just what is going on here!

As Helen's friends and family also begin to notice that her strange new friend's behavior seems a little off, they begin to wonder if she is somehow connected to the secrets of their shared past... A twisty and psychologically complex novel that explores the anxiety of impending motherhood, dark secrets from a traumatic past, and unreliable relationships that end with a shocking, but satisfying conclusion.

With her first baby on the way, Helen plans on meeting her pregnant sister-in-law Serena at a prenatal class. When Serena cancels, Helen meets Rachel, who is not someone she can imagine being friends with. Rachel likes to smoke and drink without carrying too much the effects it will have on her baby. Despite all of that Helen feels a kinship forming, maybe because she is lonely or she feels she can be a good friend to Rachel. Soon Rachel begins infiltrating herself in Helen's life, causing tension with her husband and family members. When Rachel threatens to expose a long-buried secret, she doesn't realize that someone will do anything to keep her quiet.

I thought this was a good book with many twists. So many people were harboring secrets and most were unlikeable characters. The ending was good that explained and tied everything together. An enjoyable debut book and I look forward to reading more from this author in the future.

Thank you Netgalley and Gallery Books for the opportunity to read this book.

I have been a bit burnt out of books like this, but after some very heavy literary reads, Greenwich Park was exactly what I needed! It was propulsive, surprising, and characters that I either loved or hated- either way, I was very invested in their outcome.

Helen is finally having the baby she has dreamed of. She has suffered losses and she is always on edge, worrying about the worst that could happen. She arranges a birthing class with her brother Rory and his wife Serena, who are also expecting. When they don't show up and her husband Daniel doesn't either, she is surprised by the overt attention of another young mother Rachel. She is everything that Helen is not. She is outgoing, wild, drinking and smoking while pregnant, just over the top. She ingratiates herself in Helen's life and they soon become friends but then Helen starts wondering just who Rachel really is. Everything becomes suspect. (Though there are some things that you want to shake her and tell her to wake up and open her eyes!) When someone goes missing after a party, everything becomes a whirlwind of suspicion and just plain craziness!

I loved this book! I love how it kept you wondering just what the heck was going on and who was really involved in it all. The side story of Helen's friend Katie investigating a rape case, adds another mysterious twist. I had it figured out after a while but close to the end so it ruined nothing about the read. I am such a fan of a really good twist and turn and an ending that leaves you super satisifed. Greenwich Park is all of these.

Thanks to Netgalley and Gallery Books for an advanced copy for review.

This was a solid debut thriller. I really thought I knew exactly where this book was going and I was completely wrong. I didn’t love how much of a pushover Helen was. She let people take advantage of her and treat her very poorly (hello, allowing people to throw a rager at your house when you’re super pregnant!) I thought Katie was super interesting and I would have loved to know more about her. I also was very intrigued by Rachel and her brazen attitude and actions. I think this is going to be wildly popular this year!

Thank you so much to the publishers for sending me an advanced copy of Greenwich Park in exchange for my honest review!

Greenwich Park by Katherine Faulkner is a debut thriller that will really satisfy readers of the genre. The writing is very atmospheric and will totally immerse you into the world of these characters. There are multiple povs and unlikable characters. Buckle up!

Three families who also happen to be longtime friends are expecting. Helen is lonely so she makes a new friend at her prenatal class who is so different but interesting. Is this a new friend or a foe? A twisty psychological thriller that will keep you glued to the pages!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Gallery Books for this ARC!

Helen Thorpe lives in the beautiful, moneyed neighborhood of London’s Greenwich Park, in the historic home she inherited from her wealthy parents. Her husband Daniel is partners with her older brother Rory in the architectural firm her father founded. And finally, after four traumatizing miscarriages, she’s twenty-four weeks pregnant and looking forward, both hopefully and fearfully, to becoming a mother.

Her pregnancy has been difficult though, almost from the very beginning. Her best friend Serena, who’s married to Rory, is also expecting in the same month but seems to be having a much easier time of it. Helen signs up herself, Serena and their spouses for birthing classes but, when none of the other three show up, makes friends with the only other singleton in the class. Rachel, with her loud clothes and make-up and her lax view of healthy pregnancy practices, is not the kind of person Helen would normally befriend. But when the two women keep bumping into each other, Helen reluctantly accepts Rachel into her small social orbit, to the dismay of the other people in it.

For Rachel knows something that could turn Helen’s perfectly conventional world upside down. She’s cagey about it though, not wanting to confide in Helen till she has enough proof. So when an already suspicious Helen discovers hard evidence that Rachel has an ulterior motive for befriending her, Helen flips out, resulting in a quarrel that sees her emphatically ending her friendship with the younger woman.

In the immediate aftermath of their fight, Helen is just relieved not to have to worry any more about the chaos Rachel brought into her life. But when the police come knocking on her door to enquire about Rachel’s whereabouts, doubt starts creeping into her mind. The day of the quarrel is still hazy for her. She knows she uncovered something incriminating about Rachel but just can’t remember what. This inexplicable haziness is alarming in and of itself even without her family history of depression and dissociation.

Regardless of her confusion, she’s clear on one thing: she never wanted Rachel to come to harm. Now both bereft of and worried over her once-friend, on top of her other pregnancy and mental health concerns, she feels lonelier than ever, and quickly begins to yearn for delivery:

QUOTE
I start to become desperate for it–for the drama of birth, the cataclysm everyone talks about–the end of one part of your life, the beginning of another. Nothing will ever be the same, people say. And that’s what I want, more than anything. To be transformed, to shed the skin of this dead time I am stuck in, with nothing to fill my time but thoughts of Rachel. Thoughts about where she might be, what might have happened to her. And others, that I try to push away. About what I might have done, by sending her away. What I might be responsible for.
END QUOTE

Intertwined with Helen’s story are two other points of view. The first consists of Serena’s cooler musings on pregnancy and their relationship, which began back in university when she started dating Rory. Unlike Helen, she finds pregnancy invigorating. Perhaps more importantly, she’s been able to keep up her photography practice, whereas Helen was told to take early medical leave from work. The sharpness of Serena’s faculties, engaged as she is in meaningful intellectual stimulation, stands in stark contrast with Helen’s by turns listless and hysterical states of ennui.

The second viewpoint belongs to Katie, a childhood friend of Helen’s family, who’s dating Helen’s younger brother Charlie. Katie is a journalist who’s been distracted from all the drama in Helen’s life by her latest assignment, covering a rape trial up in Cambridge. The story has been affecting her more deeply than she anticipated. A young woman got drunk at a party then accused two wealthy students of raping her. Katie finds herself unable to get the details out of her head as she makes the solitary drive back to London:

QUOTE
I had hoped it would help me forget about the evidence that afternoon, about the splinters they said they had found under her fingernails. The way she’d looked down at the floor of the witness box, her hair falling in her face, as they’d said it. As if she was the one who should ashamed. And how the defendants, in their expensive suits, just sat there looking bored, or passing notes, or smirking when the jury wasn’t looking. Even when she had told the court how she felt, after it had happened. How she thought she might be better off dead.
END QUOTE

The way these storylines intertwine makes for a twisting thriller that explores the many different sides of pregnancy and parenthood, as well as the often fraught nature of adult friendships. Most interestingly, it also discusses culpability, and the cost both of lacking compassion and of maintaining appearances above all else. Katherine Faulkner’s writing is strong in this debut novel that has already earned deserving comparisons to Paula Hawkins’ The Girl On The Train, with perhaps even more insight into the psyche of damaged women and what it takes to heal.

When brother and sister (Rory and Helen) meet Daniel and Serena in college they soon become fast friends and after marriage, family.

Ten years later Rory and Daniel are partners in the family architectural firm, Helen and Serena are both expecting their first babies and life is looking good!

When Serena backs out of the prenatal classes she was suppose to attend with Helen, Helen is drawn to Rachel, a single boisterous young woman that drinks and smokes and an unlikely friendship ensues. Soon Rachel turns up everywhere Helen goes. Is it mere coincidence or is she being stalked? When Rachel turns up battered and bruised at Helen and Daniel’s doorstep one night asking for refuge, Helen sees no way she can refuse. As questions arise about Rachel and the family have adverse reactions to her being there, Helen starts to investigate. Her digging leads her to question who Rachel really is and why she’s ingrained herself into their family. When Rachel goes missing, Helen’s investigations bring up suspicions about more than one person in the family. Where has Rachel disappeared to and what are her connections to Helen’s family? The only one that looks innocent is Helen herself, but is she a reliable narrator?

Greenwich Park has a disjointed feel at times but it is just one of those addictive cat and mouse reads that draws you in and one more chapter soon becomes five until the wee hours of the morning and the last page is turned.