A haunting tale of a mother’s grief and mental anguish, The Woman on the Pier is a gripping read. The writing almost makes you feel like you’re stumbling through Caroline’s pain as she tried to comprehend and come to terms with her daughter’s death. Not quite as succinct as The Dinner Guest, this is nevertheless a clever read.

I was excited to read The Woman on the Pier after really enjoying The Dinner Guest earlier this year, and it certainly didn’t disappoint.

This had me gripped from the very beginning. I didn’t see the twist coming (always a good sign) and it felt like a powerful and authentic depiction of a mother slowly losing her mind in the aftermath of her child’s tragic and sudden death. All of the characters felt completely real and believable - Alec, Caroline’s husband, deals with his grief in a different way to his wife, but while some novels would’ve painted him as the villain for the comments he makes and how he treats Caroline, I found him to be an entirely flawed, human character. We see the novel from the perspective of two characters, alternating between chapters, which gives the whole story a 360 feel as though you’re watching events unfold from above.

This was a book I couldn’t put down and would wholly recommend. I just knocked one star off (as I did for The Dinner Guest) as the ending fell a little flat again for me. I just felt with the build up of the book and how tense it was all the way through, the ending was going to be a bit more explosive.

This was my first book by this author and I am sad to say that this book just wasn't for me. The plot itself was so outlandish it was laughable and made no sense at all. This mother going out for revenge would have been a cool plot but the mom was just plain wacko. Caroline has no redeemable qualities in this story and I hated her so much. Maybe her daughter wasn't killed by terrorists...maybe she wanted to get away from her crazy mother. I have heard that The Dinner Guest by this author is a good book so maybe I'll give that a try?

Two strangers meet on the pier. Only one walks away.

At the core of this story is a grieving mother who is trying to uncover the mysterious circumstances surrounding her daughter’s murder. She becomes unhinged and desperately needs to make someone pay for her loss.

It all starts with Caroline’s daughter, Jessica, who wants to spend time with her boyfriend, Michael, in Stratford and tells her mom that she’s going to spend the weekend with her friend in Somerset. We can all identify with this scenario. We’ve all been teenagers….once….a long time ago! BP Walter builds on this situation and layers unlikeable characters, superfluous characters, and terrorist attacks with dark subject matter including child abuse and then attempts to stretch it over a far-fetched plot. It was disturbing.

BP Walter focuses on themes of grief, blame, revenge, buried secrets and lies which all seep across three generations. It’s a lot to process. However, this seems to have been a well-received book so please check out other reviews.

I was gifted this advance copy by BP Walter, Harper Collins UK, One More Chapter, and NetGalley and was under no obligation to provide a review.

I really really wanted to like this book since B.P. Walter's Dinner Guest is one of my favourite reads this year.
But somehow it would not click for me. Maybe it is due to my expectations. I thought I was going to read a suspense thriller but that's not what you get when you immerse into the Woman on the Pier.
The main characters went on a wild ride, which I could not really follow. IMHO too many subplots were going on; for me this felt a little forced.
I am sorry, that this was not my cup of tea and I would like to thank
# Netgalley #HarperCollins UK #One More Chapter and #B.P. Walter for this ARC

What a disappointment. I was so excited to have been granted the opportunity to read this ARC but I can’t say that I enjoyed this book in the least. The characters are unlikeable. The storyline is unpleasant. It took me several attempts to get into the book. I struggled to move through the terrorist and grief content. This kind of a read just isn’t for me. I loved the Dinner Guest by BP Walter but The Woman on the Pier is no where close to being the same kind of read.
Thank You to HarperCollins UK, One More Chapter for the opportunity to read this ARC.

Thank you for the advanced copy.

A very sensitive subject matter tackled very well, well written, characters were OK.

Overall, recommended

I loved The Dinner Guest so I jumped on this one! Caroline’s daughter dies in a terrorist attack, wrong time, wrong place. Caroline finds her daughters phone, she decides she needs revenge. I don’t always love these types of books. This one was ok and well written but perhaps not my favorite.

Disturbing, Dark Suspense…
Things are not as they may seem in this disturbing, well written, dark suspense. Written compassionately and with empathy, a tale of secrets, lies and tragedy and, with clever twists aplenty, the reader may well be fooled along the way. Wholly engaging.

I'm going to keep this review very short because I hate to leave bad reviews. But I have to be honest.

I was really excited to read an ARC of The Woman on the Pier because I absolutely loved The Dinner Guest by B. P. Walter. Unfortunately, by the end of this book, I wanted to slit my wrists. Not really, but that's how depressing I found it. It's no small feat to write a book about a woman drowning in grief after her daughter is killed in a terrorist attack and leave the reader despising the poor woman. How could I not feel empathy for such a tragic character? Not even an ounce, at least not after the first few chapters. The same for her husband. Now add to that pedophilia and incest, and you’ll understand why this novel left me in such despair.

The only saving grace is that Walter's is an excellent writer. Be forewarned though, this is not a suspense thriller as it is advertised. It is about an unhinged mother looking for someone -- anyone -- to blame for the death of her daughter in a London ISIS attack. The rabbit hole she goes down is indescribably bleak.

Thank you NetGalley and One More Chapter/HarperCollins for providing me an eARC in exchange for an honest review. I wish I could have written a more positive review.

I really enjoyed BP Walter's first book, The Dinner Guest but this book was even better, if you can imagine that! It was disheartening to learn the main character's daughter died in a terrorist and she happened to be at the wrong spot at the wrong time because a date was a no show. Obviously the rest of the book was how the mother goes for revenge on the mysterious Michael and we learn about the events leading up to the attack and also is justice was served. And the twists, O-M-G!!!

I am definitely purchasing this to own at publishing and recommending this as must read to my friends and acquaintances who enjoy thriller/suspense read. I thought this was going to be predictable but it was far from that. So very glad. Think I found another author to get hooked on and look forward to the next book by BP Walter.

Thanks to Netgalley, BP Walter and Harper Collin UK 1 More Chapter for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Available: 11/11/21

''The Woman on The Pier' is the second book that I have read by B.P. Walter and based on my previous experiences, I was excited to receive my copy.
I must admit to having high expectations for this book ... and ''The Woman on The Pier' not only met, but surpassed my expectations!
The story tells us about Caroline and the unexpected death of her teenage daughter Jessica in a terrorist attack in London. Set between Essex, Kent, and Australia, events are told from the perspective of Caroline (The Mother) and a friend of Jessica's (The Boy). as we learn of the months leading to the attack and then the terrible consequences for both of our protagonists.
The themes of grief and revenge are central to the novel, there is so much more to the tale, specifically related to the teenagers involved and this aspect of the novel is utterly heartbreaking. This is a story that will stay with me for some time to come.

I loved the dinner guest but unfortunately i didnt like this book. The characters for me were unlikable.
Thank you to netgalley and the publ8shers for allowing me to read this book.
My opinions are my own and only my own

Caroline is struggling to cope with the murder of her daughter Jessica. Upon finding her daughter’s phone after her death, it comes to light that Jessica was supposed to be meeting a boy in Stratford instead of going to Somerset with her friends, which she told Caroline. However, the boy didn’t show and Jessica waited, leading to her death. After learning this, Caroline is out for revenge.

The subject matter was very sensitive and different from previous books that I have read by this author. However, the difficult subjects were handled well, and presented in a bold way. There was intrigue to complete this story and to find out what happened upon meeting the boy, but this felt like a laborious task to get to the end. I found that I struggled at times to get through the novel but the plot was enticing, so I knew I had to make it to the end. I have to admit I am disappointed that I struggled so, because I really enjoyed The Dinner Guest, which earned a place on my top 2021 reads.

The main thing that I would have liked more in the novel was more information about Caroline’s childhood. It would have been useful to get a background to the character and thus a potential explanation to her characteristics. There were some very uncomfortable and disturbing scenes to read with Caroline’s grief and revenge. I struggled to like this character as she was so difficult to like despite her terrible situation. Her attitude was rude and hard, whereas I think the reader could benefit from some exploration into her past to understand her demeanour in a more understanding way.

Overall, I did have high expectations when starting this book because of how much I enjoyed The Dinner Guest, so perhaps this has tainted my view. This book features many upsetting subjects, which was dealt with by the author in a sensitive and thoughtful way. Despite some of the flaws, there is still so much I want to know with these characters, in particular the outcome with Evan.

This review will be published on my blog www.fortheliterature.wordpress.com on 08/11/21

Oh this was so well done, you could really feel the pain of the characters and I was completely caught up in the story. Tragic, gripping and well written..

Took me a while to get into this book but overall it was a good read which I enjoyed but not as much as The Dinner Guest.

Thank you to Netgalley and Harper Collins (OMC) for allowing me to read this book.

This gripped me from beginning to end, forcing me to stay up far too late (yet again...), and unlike other reviewers, I enjoyed this a lot more than "The Dinner Guest."

The premise was excellent, relatively original and, on the whole, well executed. The characters were more believable than those in "The Dinner Guest," although some of their actions were quite far-fetched. Like almost every other 2021 release, the story is told in alternating viewpoints (and alternating timelines).

There were a couple of areas of the plot which I felt would have benefited from elaboration, and others which could happily have been omitted, but overall the pace was good and kept me wanting to find out what was going to happen next.

The story is slightly tricky to categorise, and I suspect some people with certain expectations of a "dark suspense thriller" will be disappointed, but if you embark on it, as I did, with few preconceptions, it is an engaging read and certainly offers elements of "darkness," "suspense" and "thrill."

Thank you to HarperCollins UK, One More Chapter for an ARC via NetGalley.

Don’t pick up this book and expect to get some kind of thriller. This is a dark book about a mother out of her mind with grief. Caroline lost her daughter Jessica in a terror attack. The thing is, Jessica should have been in Essex with a friend and not in the middle of London. Caroline desperately wants to understand what her daughter was doing there. One day she finally scrolls through Jessica’s mobile phone and there she finds the information she craves. Jessica wanted to meet a boy she met online but obviously he did not appear and left Jessica waiting there too long. Caroline decides he is responsible for her dead. In her mind he is the real killer of her daughter and she is about to confront him.

Like many other readers I loved “The Dinner Guest” so I was excited to see that there is a new book from this author. What I did not expect were so many dark and disturbing themes crammed into it. Caroline is a character who is difficult to like. I could feel for her and her loss and you can never say how you would react after such an unimaginable tragic event until you have to face it yourself. But she makes some questionable decisions and I just could not understand why she did not leave her husband years ago. He was just despicable.

The story is difficult to read. It deals with grief, anger, guilt, abuse and even murder. You have to be in the right mood to stomach all of the tragedy. For the story itself I would have given 3 Stars. There are some weird episodes. Like when Caroline found the boy and makes contact and all the things that happened afterwards. It is just weird and hard to understand how she acted. But I liked the writing and how masterfully the author managed to weave this web of lives together and form such a complex story. The book draw me in from the first page and I wanted to know what happened. Although there are some weird scenes and Caroline is not very likable I overall enjoyed the book (if I can use the word “enjoy” for this kind of dark story). I think B.P. Walter is an exceptional writer and I will definitely read his next book.

B.P. Walter's experiments with form and structure resulted previously in the brilliant The Dinner Guest, an innovative thriller that stood out mainly because of the exceptional handling of the multiple perspective and timeline narrative. In The Woman on the Pier, the author follows the same recipe and delivers a compelling text consisting of a story about bereavement set against a backdrop of terrorist attacks and horrid child abuse that unravels through several points of view and manifold timelines. The themes are highly disturbing, but the mystery and suspense that permeates the book keep the reader turning the pages until the final showdown.

The main characters are all broken in various ways either due to a troubled family history or chronically suffered abuse and their actions are dictated by their fears and insecurities. Caroline, Michael, and Evan are swirling around in a dance of destruction for which they bear no responsibility while they are caught in the midst of a fatal game of revenge initiated by a random terror attack in the center of London. Caroline's obsession to put the blame on somebody for her daughter's death sets the trigger for the plot to unfold and the reader witnesses first hand the repercussions of her choices.

Caroline Byrne is a successful screenwriter who lives along with her husband, Alec, and teenage daughter, Jessica in Kent. Their quiet lifestyle is violently disrupted when Jessica is killed during a senseless act of violence at Stratford train station by armed terrorists. The puzzling thing is that Jessica wasn't supposed to be near Stratford at the time as she has told her parents that she was going to travel to Somerset in order to meet and stay with a friend from school. This fact makes the process of bereavement even more unbearable for the couple.

Fighting to overcome her enormous grief, Caroline will stumble upon a startling discovery when she checks Jessica's phone where she finds a string of messages by an unknown boy called Michael. It seems that Jessica had arranged to meet Michael in the station and he stood her up. From then on, Caroline will swear to find Michael and make him painfully aware of his involvement in Jessica's murder. For her, Michael is the sole responsible for her daughter's fate and he has to pay in more ways than one.

Walter delivers a masterclass on mixed timeline narration and the story jumps back and forth in time in a tempo that could become overwhelming for the reader if the author was less skillful. Nevertheless, there is not a single moment of confusion as we take glimpses into Caroline's past and comprehend her character traits that dominate her overall behavior. We also follow Michael's perspective and we become appalled by the the cruel fate he and his brother had to endure during their early childhood.

Although the protagonists are less than likeable, perhaps because their portrayal is genuine and brazen, the readers get to sympathize with them as we can at least identify with some of their inner thoughts and spontaneous acts. There are many plot twists and moments where the rug is pulled out from under our feet, challenging our perception of the story therefore and the finale is both unpredictable and heart-wrenching. If you enjoyed The Dinner Guest, then this is the next hot thing and you should check it out immediately.

I wish I could give this book a better rating. I have truly enjoyed BP Walter's books in the past, so I was excited to read this one (Thanks NetGalley).

This story revolves around a daughter that was killed in a terrorist attack while being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The mother goes out to try to discover what really happened.

Unfortunately, this story was truly depressing, and could not stand any of the characters and dealt with strong subject matters.

Hopefully Walter's next book will be better!