This is one of those books that I can see being a really big hit, but one that I don’t quite understand the hype about. There are some elements of the book that I did really like, some that I really didn’t like, and an ending that fell flat for me until the very last line. I love when books deliver a great last line.

The things that I liked about the story: it was entertaining and kept me interested, even if I didn’t necessary like what the author was doing with the story.

Things I didn’t like: A “mystery” narrator that was thrown in randomly and who wasn’t working for me. An ending that felt a little too complicated, until the last line redeemed it a bit. The story had elements about pregnant women that made me wonder if the author or editor have ever been pregnant because two pregnant women going to pubs, one openly drinking and smoking, would get a lot of comments and attention in real life. I had multiple people make comments to me when I was in line at Starbucks while pregnant, but nobody said anything to a smoking and drinking pregnant woman in the story? Who did it multiple times, in public? Or people at a party with her? That bothered me.

Overall I enjoyed the story and I do think this is a book many people will really like.

This domestic thriller follows pregnant Helen as she makes a new friend - Rachel- at her birthing class. Rachel is brash, unpredictable, soon to be a single mother, and Helen finds herself drawn into a friendship with her. While Helen's husband is off at work, Helen and Rachel spend more and more time together, often unexpectedly running into each other while they are out and about. At first, Helen is glad for the company and someone to distract her from her worries about her pregnancy. However, as their relationship grows and Rachel's behavior becomes increasingly erratic, Helen starts to try and distance herself. Unfortunately, they are too deeply connected for Helen to simply ghost away and when Rachel threatens to expose a secret from the past, it becomes clear that some secrets won't stay buried for long.

TW/CW: pregnancy, past miscarriage, sexual assault, drug use, infidelity

This turned out to be a much more of a psychological thriller than I was expecting. I find that most domestic thrillers have some elements of psychological thriller to them and that is always my favorite part of domestic thrillers. So I was very pleased when this started out pretty standard domestic thriller but pretty quickly took a turn into the psychological and then went full speed down that road. We get into some unreliable narrator territory as well which I think really works well to heighten the tension in the story.

The characters were really well developed but I think a lot of them fall into the 'unlikable' category which I know some readers don't like. Helen has had multiple past miscarriages so she is a little high strung and worried about her current pregnancy that seems to be going well so far. She comes across as judgemental and there were times where she seemed so oblivious of the feelings of those around her (like her husband) that I wasn't sure how someone like her could have actually formed and kept these close friendships. I really loved the amount of history Faulkner was able to insert into these character relationships very easily and they all seemed to get along really well. Which just made it all the more satisfying once the secrets start coming out and

The different POVs did not really work for me well in this book despite that being one of my favorite narrative styles for thrillers. I found the POV switching to be, at least in the first half, pretty jarring and it felt really unnecessary. We're following Helen in her adventures around town for a good number of chapters and then suddenly we're in the POV of this other character who I don't think we'd even heard about before then. Of course, I expected the two POVs to become connected at some point (because this is a story, afterall). It felt like that other POV started off at the wrong point in that character's story arc. Looking back, I can see why Faulkner would choose to start there, but in the moment while I was reading, I really didn't see the point. I do like the POV switching in the last third of the book better because when we're getting a bunch of secrets revealed we can see just how those secrets are affecting the various characters. There were some great reveals done with these different POV chapters but it felt like the author had those moments decided on first and then she had to add in other POV chapters earlier so they wouldn't come in as a surprise that late in the narrative.

There was a pretty strong mystery element to this story that really kicks off after the midpoint twist and I did feel like some of the pieces for that mystery were a little too heavy handed. It felt like each character was given one big piece of information/clue revealed about them that really stood out to me. There wasn't really any other, smaller pieces of information given so then when the twists and reveals start happening in the last 75% of the story, it felt so obvious because I was thinking "of course A character did that, they were the only one that was mentioned doing X". It felt like the mystery hinged, mostly, on the reader not really noticing/thinking too much about these bits of information at the time but then they can look back after the reveal and see the clue was there the whole time. Some of the clues just seemed to be dropped into the narrative in such a heavy handed way that really made me pick up on them immediately and be on the lookout while I continued reading for anyway that information would be useful. Now, of course, this is a domestic/psychological thriller, not strictly a mystery so maybe I'm being too picky about how the mystery thread was handled. I think the reveals and plot points were really well done and there were some surprises for me despite everything I picked up on, but I really would have liked a little more finesse in these elements.

The ending was absolute perfection and honestly kicked up my rating a whole star. I thought the way everything came together was done really well and this is where all the multi-POV chapters really paid off. The tension and pacing was great and I felt like I couldn't turn the pages fast enough. We were neck deep in unreliable narrator mode so there was also this underlying aspect of maybe nothing is as it seems and there's going to be a twist completely out of left field. The book opens with a flash forward so we sort of know the general direction the story is headed, but we don't know the who or why of how, specifically, we get to that scene in the future. I thought the narrative device Faulkner uses to give the reader the big explanation of the 'why' behind the actions of certain characters was really well done and didn't feel info-dumpy as many reveals at the end of these thriller/mystery books can. I also loved the last line of the book and the implication that line provided was a really great moment.

Overall, this was a really great domestic/psychological thriller with fantastic characters, tension, and a great ending.

Thanks NetGalley and Gallery Books for the ARC

Expected publication date is January 25, 2022

*Thank you to NetGalley, Katherine Faulkner, and Simon & Schuster for an ARC in exchange for an honest review*

Previously published at https://www.mysteryandsuspense.com/greenwich-park/

“Nobody had ever had a rainbow, baby, until they had the rain.” -Jim Croce

Katherine Faulkner’s debut novel, Greenwich Park, is nearly flawless. Told from three unique points of view, only one of them 100% reliable, and one point of view that we hear throughout the book, though the identity is kept a secret, revealed in the last chapter. This book has it all; robust characters, surprising twists, many secrets and a shocker at the end and it is all so well played.

Helen, married to Daniel, is expecting her “rainbow baby” after four miscarriages. Serena, Helen’s sister-in-law, expecting her first baby, is married to Helen’s brother, Rory, who is Daniel’s partner in Rory’s architecture firm they inherited from their father Richard. Kate, a journalist, is dating Helen’s younger brother, Charlie, and is the most reliable of the narrators. And then we meet Rachel; Helen befriends her at her prenatal class, in which her husband and sister-in-law, supposed to attend with her, don’t show up. Though it is hard for the reader to imagine Helen’s attraction to Rachel, as Rachel is wild, smokes and drinks while pregnant, and mysteriously shows up wherever Helen is, they form a friendship and bond as they are both on early maternity leave. But who is Rachel, and what is her fascination with Helen? And how does she seem to know so many things about Helen’s life? When Rachel shows up at Helen’s home, with finger marks around her throat, and asks for a place to stay until she can get on her feet, things escalate. Unfortunately, Helen comes across as a doormat, not standing up to her while Rachel steals things from their house, trashes her room and wears Helen’s deceased mother’s clothing. As two weeks turn into many weeks, it seems Rachel has no intention of going anywhere, and furthermore, Helen believes she may know who the father of Rachel’s baby is.

Helen and Serena are expecting their babies at the same time, though they appear to be having very different pregnancies. Helen is fraught with worry and anxiety, while Serena seems relaxed, though cold and self-absorbed. Regardless, Helen worships Serena, even buying the same jewelry she admires on her sister-in-law. Throughout the story, there are flashbacks to Helen and Serena’s friendship and how terrible Serena has been to her. Throughout Greenwich Park, we are constantly reminded of how gullible Helen is, and we want to jump through the book and shake her a bit.

Kate, Charlie’s girlfriend and the only reliable narrator, is a reporter investigating the rape case of a young girl, which brings her to another incident at Cambridge college that happened ten years ago. But her digging takes her to the different direction she never intended to go! Though Charlie and Helen are not close, as Charlie has always been the outcast, he plays an interesting role that becomes more important as the novel goes on.

I loved this roller coaster ride so much! It is definitely a page turner and I read in one sitting. The action is slow building, but then quickly becomes intense as things escalate with Rachel. As the reader, I enjoyed not knowing where the story was going and the ride to get there. It is difficult to describe the potency of this novel. It was mind bending and powerful. There is a twist right at the end that will leave you reeling. Wait for it.

Greenwich Park is Helen’s story. She and her architect husband Daniel met at college and are now living in a house that they are renovating in the desirable Greenwich Park neighborhood near her brother Rory and his wife Serena. So life, at least on the surface, seems good. Things are not always what they seem and life begins to fall apart when Rachel, young and pregnant, befriends Helen in a prenatal class that Daniel is too busy to attend. Helen, especially vulnerable after past miscarriages, quickly becomes close to the unreliable Rachel and thinks it’s a coincidence that Rachel keeps turning up every time Helen goes out. There’s a reason for that, of course, and it’s part of the many secrets that the couples share. Secrets that, if revealed, will threaten ways of life and life itself.

With Greenwich Park, Katherine Faulkner has written a solid, suspenseful domestic thriller. All characters, whether likable or not, are well developed. The plot is at times deliberately slow paced but picks up in the final chapters. And after the conclusion, there’s one more shocker that you won’t see coming. 5 stars for this debut novel.

Thank you to NetGalley, Gallery Books and Katherine Faulkner for this ARC.

I struggled to get through this one and gave up after several weeks and only 30% in. I enjoyed the author’s writing style and the storyline was promising but I just couldn’t stay interested. I have seen the glowing reviews from others so I know I’m definitely in the minority on this one. I’m going to try again but this time with the audio version when it comes out!

Pregnant and undergoing extensive house renovations, Helen is anxious to embark on motherhood after experiencing multiple pregnancy losses. She joins a prenatal class and befriends the odd but captivating Rachel who quickly inserts herself into Helen's daily life and causes much discomfort, especially when Rachel takes it upon herself to move in to Helen & her husband's home claiming to be in a dangerous situation.

Helen feels compelled to help Rachel but her questions and uncertainties begin to build until finally there is a heated confrontation and Rachel leaves.. only to be never seen again. Helen is left wondering if she caused harm to Rachel as her memories of their final conversation are unclear. Meanwhile, the baby inside of her continues to grow but she can't help but fixate on where Rachel is and why everyone is her life seems to be keeping the truth from her.

Greenwich Park was a captivating thriller - most notably due to the structure of the chapters which follow the last 17 weeks of the main character's pregnancy. Having experienced the discomfort and anxiety of the last few weeks of pregnancy, I could easily put myself into Helen's shoes. I was captured by the story from start to finish and while I was able to correctly guess some of the ending, there were definitely some very unexpected twists up until the very end.

Rating: 3/5 stars

Synopsis: Helen, a well-off and happily married soon-to-be mother, meets Rachel, a young and somewhat abrasive stranger, at a prenatal class, and the two slowly become new friends. But, because this is a psychological thriller, there are dark secrets everywhere and it soon becomes apparent there are mysteries that need to be solved and lives that may be at risk.

My Thoughts: This book took me much longer to read than it should have, which is never a great sign. Try as I might, I just never found myself fully engaged with the writing or the story, and some aspects actively annoyed me. For example, the book feels as though it has not yet been fully edited, as it is littered with typos and minor narrative inconsistencies—normally I would never call that out in an ARC, but given that the book has been out in the UK for, I believe, almost a year now, it felt a bit jarring to encounter those issues here. Almost all of the characters were terrible people and unpleasant to read about. Most concerning, there was a scene involving a (presumably Latinx, based off his name) construction worker speaking in “broken English” that was, frankly, painful and a bit offensive to read.

All of that said, there were redeeming moments that ultimately make me comfortable giving a 3-star review and recommending this to thriller fans. For one, two of the characters (Katie and DCI Mark Carter) were fantastic, and I’d happily read about them in future novels if Faulkner decides to continue her writing in the same universe. The biggest factor in my rating, however, and the thing that saved this from being a 2 star read: that last page. Genuinely, one of the best executed endings I can recall reading in a long time—and worth everything it took to get there.

Thanks to Gallery Books and NetGalley for providing me an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Recommended for people who like: psychological thrillers; somewhat slow-burn dark mysteries; dark family dramas

CW: Rape/sexual assault; pregnancy/pregnancy loss; suicide/self-harm; mental health/depression; drugs; death.

What’s it about (in a nutshell):
Helen is expecting and so far, so good with this pregnancy. When her husband and other family members don’t show up for their first pre-natal class, Helen is forced to make friends with Rachel, the only other non-partnered person in the class. And from that point on in the story, everything gets twisty, turny, and jaw-droppingly crazy.

What I Enjoyed:
I enjoyed the psychological play in this story where nothing and no one is as they seem. The pace of the story is incredibly fast, with new twists and revealed secrets with the turning of each page. Everyone is suspect, and it is hard to discern fact from fiction until it is laid out at the end.

The story takes a few steps back in time that are brief and not confusing yet add to the suspense as just enough clues are dropped to understand how they relate to the current situation. And then there are also a few brief sections, simply titled Greenwich Park, which are obscure and add to the suspense and atmosphere just purely based on the situation unfolding in the scene.

In all, there are three narrators, and I would qualify as unreliable at least two of them. Of course, I won’t tell you which two because what fun would that be. The three narrators are Helen, Serena – Helen’s older brother’s wife, and Katie, Helen’s younger brother’s girlfriend. Helen is on leave from work because she has some issues with high blood pressure while pregnant. Serena is a professional photographer and also pregnant, and Katie is a journalist. Three professional ladies who are respected in their particular field hold so many secrets from each other that it’s hard to discern who is telling the truth and who is lying.

Characters:
All of the characters were developed okay. Enough so you could understand them but not to the point where you could guess anything before the plot reveals it.

Rachel is my favorite character, which may seem odd to some, especially those who have read the book. She’s just so interesting that she immediately draws my attention and holds it for the duration. I liked that she enjoyed shocking people even when it also shocked me. I could easily see why Helen was drawn to her against her better judgment, and I think I would have also been.

What I Wish:
The ending is so well wrapped up, but I love a creepy open-ended conclusion. I know many people don’t, but that’s my favorite kind of ending for this genre.

To Read or Not to Read:
If you are looking for a story that will spin you around, you have to give Greenwich Park a go. You never know where each door in the wall around the park will lead you.

Helen, Katie, and Serena have all grown up together. While Helen and Serena are preparing to welcome their newborn infants, Helen meets an extremely friendly Rachel at her prenatal class. Rachel is not like the other mums-to-be though. She is loud, constantly drinking, and smoking. But Helen is lonely so a friend is better than no friend, right? What does Rachel really want? Why is she always hanging around?

This was a solid debut novel by Ms. Faulkner. This thriller had a nice closed ending so all of the questions that I had were perfectly wrapped up. There was also some decent character development. However, I felt that the pacing was a little slow. It definitely was not as fast paced as A Girl On The Train. Also, I think that the author's biggest mistake was not writing Rachel a few jokes.

Greenwich Park is the well-written debut by Katherine Faulkner. It took me a little while to get into this one, but it kept my attention and I appreciated the thought and detail put into the story, especially the ending. I did feel like a few parts dragged on a bit. And I wish there had been some diversity, as every character was a cisgendered white person. But overall this was a strong debut novel and I would read more by this author in the future.

This book was a first by this author for me.

It was well written but I had a hard time getting into it. I couldn't connect with any of the characters. I basically didn't like any of them. It just didn't do it for me.

Thank you #NetGalley for this ARC.

3/5 stars. I gave it 3 stars because I actually finally finished it. It took me months though. I just had a hard time with it.

Let me start out by saying this is great for a debut! There are several moving pieces and POVs in this book. It made for quite the story. Helen was too naive for me and annoyed me a tad and I’ve read a lot of slow burns recently so that could be why I feel this to be somewhat unmemorable . The cover and ending are fantastic though!!!

Thank you to @netgalley for my advance copy!

This is one of those thrillers that I could so easily see being adapted on the big screen. I've seen it compared by other reviewers to The Girl on the Train, and I would whole-heartedly agree, while maintaining that this is a story totally its own with explosive twists that aren't as predictable as I thought they'd be. The story follows three couples--Daniel and Helen, Rory and Serena, and Charlie and Katie, whose lives are slowly but surely uprooted by unnerving newcomer Rachel, a pregnant woman who befriends Helen in a prenatal class. Full of unreliable narrators, layered plot twists that are complex and perfectly executed, "Greenwich Park" is a showstopper of a thriller that is propulsive until the very last page. Faulkner's writing is gripping, descriptive, and weaves together a perfectly-paced, plausible story that stands out among other thrillers thanks to its profound characters and thoughtful execution. Could not recommend this highly enough!

*Thank you to NetGalley and Gallery Books for my advanced reading copy of this title in exchange for an honest review*

A brilliant dark and twisted thriller, Greenwich park starts off fairly sedately with some good character introductions and a hint at their backstories and friendly interactions and then suddenly the pace rockets and both the characters and the story take off at a tremendous rate.
Edge of the seat stuff and an amazing debut- I look forward to more from Katherine in the hopefully not too distant future.

To be honest, this book took me a very long time to finish. I just couldn't connect and kept putting it down. The story was interesting, but it was just very slow moving. It picks up pace around 75% and at that point was hard to put down. Very juicy twist at the end.

This book was so good. It reminded me of Gone Girl but so much better. This book is about Helen and Rachel who meet at a pre-natal class. Helen seems to have a perfect life. Rachel has a wild and crazy life. She ends up moving in with Helen. Rachel is somehow involved with her brother and there were some other wild twists I never saw coming. It was almost as if Helen was punished for being too nice and accepting? I love it when I don't see the twists coming in a book. I really enjoyed this book. It was a thriller storyline that I have not read before. I devoured it in a weekend!

This was absolutely riveting!

Told in three points of view, I was never sure exactly who the heroine of the story was ultimately going to be. This layers the characters throughout the story giving bits of who and what they are even as I was questioning every action and reaction. After all, I knew going in this was a psychological thriller so I was expecting to find twists. I never would have guessed what laid ahead.

From one scene to the next I found myself being pulled further and further into the story. While I was not a particular fan of any of these characters, I desperately needed to know what the ultimate outcome was going to be. I felt as though I were hanging on the edge throughout the last twenty-five percent of the book and the ragged condition of my nails are proof of it.

I read the blurb and ignored reviews that detailed the story. That decision added to my anticipation as well as helped my anxiety over the characters to ratchet up to near torturous levels. What a delicious, mind twisting read!

Greenwich Park by Katherine Faulkner is the latest in the genre of upper class, white-woman-in-danger thrillers that have been incredibly popular with readers over the past decade. This debut novel doesn’t transcend the genre’s tropes, but certainly excels in utilizing many of its most common plot points, twists, and descriptive flourishes. Overall a solid, sudsy novel that won’t linger for too long in readers’ minds, but will certainly keep him or her furiously turning the page to figure out what comes next.

The novel focuses on primarily on three women, Helen, Serena, and Katie. Helen is a member of the Thorpe family, a renowned real estate dynasty of sorts that is most famous for its deceased patriarch’s architectural imprint in gentrifying London. Katie and Serena are connected to Helen through their romantic relationships with her brothers. Serena and Helen attended Cambridge together, where Serena met Helen’s older brother and her eventual husband, and Katie is a family friend of the Thorpes who ultimately becomes the partner of Helen’s younger ne’er-do-well younger brother, Charlie. The story begins when Helen meets a mysterious young woman named Helen at a local Greenwich Park prenatal class. Helen is strange but alluring, and insinuates herself into Helen’s life and as a result into Katie’s and Serena’s lives as well.

Readers who enjoyed The Girl on The Train or the Woman in the Window will find that Greenwich Park is up their alley. Faulkner’s style quite favorably reminded me of Alice Feeney’s and in particular her thriller, Sometimes I Lie, which similarly features multiple untrustworthy narrators and a posh English setting. This will make a fun holiday/beach read for fans of the genre.

Helen has a picture-perfect life. A handsome husband, a beautiful Victorian home in the park, and a new baby on the way. Everything changes when she attends her first prenatal class and meets the wine drinking, cigarette smoking, mysterious Rachel Wells. What Helen really needed at that moment was a friend, and Rachel had perfect timing.

<i>“It occurs to me how grateful I have been for Rachel’s companionship. I find myself admiring her. She is so upbeat about it all.”</i>

But Rachel is not what she seems. She is unstable, unpredictable, and unsettling. Helen starts to become wary when she discovers missing items amongst Rachel’s things. It’s apparent that Rachel is harboring secrets, and Helen is determined to uncover them.

So I haven’t read a thriller in a whiiiile.

This one did not disappoint. The storyline follows Helen’s pregnancy from 24 weeks at the start of her prenatal classes. It's told from three different perspectives. I think it adds to the mystery because you don’t know who is telling the true story. It’s very easy to follow. The scenes were descriptive and I was able to guess the ending but I thought the author did a great job with detailing the chain of events.

I don’t want to give away too much, but this is a must-read for anyone who enjoys crime and thriller novels. I also think it's really good for anyone who wants to get into thrillers but can’t stomach the graphic details on death and dying.

Greenwich Park is a highly desirable area to live with beautiful homes. Helen and her husband Daniel are pregnant after multiple miscarriages. Helen’s brother and his wife are also pregnant and due around the same time. When Helen’s brother and wife bail on prenatal classes, Helen meets Rachel and they become friends, sort of. Rachel’s behavior is worrying to Helen and others.

The cover is what drew me to this book. The beautiful door covered in green with a woman dressed in red at the window. The cover has a lot of meaning in the book.

The book is told from three POV’s, Helen, her sister in law Serena, and her brother’s girlfriend, Katie. At first it was a bit confusing because the book jumps right into a current crime that does not appear related to the rest of the story. I was intrigued to keep reading and I’m very glad I did. This book kept me guessing until the very end.