The Woman on the Pier is so much more than it's synopsis. It has so much depth and weight to the story that it stays with you long after you have finished reading it.

The Woman on the Pier by B P Walter is a dark and taut thriller that plunges the reader into the psyche of a woman who is grieving the sudden loss of her daughter. We are left to ponder where our own thoughts would lead us in a similar situation, and the author does an admirable job of drawing out these very complex emotions.

Caroline's daughter Jessica is in the wrong place at the wrong time when there is an attack in Stratford. Why she is in Stratford when she was meant to be in Somerset with a friend is the cause of great consternation. But when Caroline looks through the messages on Jessica's phone and discovers a correspondence with someone named Michael, it soon becomes clear that this mysterious man is the reason that Jessica was drawn to Stratford on that fateful day, and Caroline knows exactly where to lay blame.

This is my first read from this author, and I look forward to more. If you are compelled by a dark and deep dive into the workings of the human mind, you will want to add this to your TBR. 3.5 stars

Many thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins UK, One More Chapter for an ARC.

This was the most depressing book I have read, I can’t think of anything positive to say. I admit to giving up before I used razor blades and a An of petrol.

The story kept me hooked and the crises that the characters were going through felt real. It made me question what I would do in the same type of situation, which made the novel all the more impactful.

The Woman on the Pier is a Thriller which tells of the lengths a mother will go to for her child.

The story was full of secrets which added to the suspense and not forgetting the massive twist that unfolded.

The characters all have dark and murky pasts which have made them who they are today. This is a busy book with lots going on and also highlights the huge difference between each characters life and upbringing.

Although I guessed a few parts quite early on, the last part of the story was a surprise and yet I feel like the story could have gone on further!

wow. What an intense story-- on loss, grief, abuse, family secrets and so much more. Caroline's daughter Jessica was murdered in a London area terrorist attack, this is devastating in itself, but also a mystery to Caroline because Jessica was not supposed to be anywhere near the city when it happened. Caroline goes on a hunt to find out why Jessica was there, learning so many horrifying secrets on the way.

This is an author that I’ve never come across before so I was excited to read this one.

I enjoyed the book but I didn’t find it different to anything that I’ve read before. I enjoyed the characterisation of Caroline the main character and I could sympathise with her in wanting to bring justice for her daughters death. A decent read:

First of all , Im a sucker for a great cover. Thats what attracted me to this book in the first place. This book was a bit dark for me and the timeline confused me alot. There are many triggers in this book so I didnt feel like this was a feel good book. I liked it but I didnt love it.

A great suspense. Every time I thought i had unravelled what was going on, the story twisted and turned and revealed another layer. A mother is heartbroken and confused following the loss of her daughter.. she digs deeper to uncover a secret romance and takes action to avenge her daughter. When she locates the boy she suspects that let her daughter down all is not quite so black and white and new layers are revealed. Events spiral to a dramatic conclusion. A brilliant audiobook listen that will keep you tuned in. Perfect vocals to create suspense. #thewomanonthepier #bpwalter #netgalley

The Woman on the Pier…going, to be honest here, I felt like the title was the biggest spoiler. It’s not until you finish the book just how big a spoiler you have been dealt. The story dealt with difficult content and if you are triggered by child death and terrorist attacks, I would advise you to stay clear of this one. A mother and father grieving for their teenage daughter’s lost life and potential, Jessica. A marriage crumbling from the very seams. Secrets that could destroy everything. Jessica planned to visit her friend in Somerset so why on earth was she killed in a terrorist attack at Stratford train station?

I really enjoyed B.P. Walter’s, The Dinner Guest but I just felt The Woman on the Pier lacked something. I didn’t feel there was a big mystery as to why Jessica was in London on that fateful day. The prologue gave us the biggest insight into why she would be there, so I wasn’t shocked to discover she was killed. The story is split into the narratives of The Mother and The Boy. It’s a story that is purely about a mother’s grief and the lengths she will go to understand why her daughter was killed.

The Woman on the Pier is earth-shatteringly destructive in its portrayal of a life taken too soon. It rips a hole through her parent’s marriage and lives. Caroline and Alec haven’t gotten along for a long time, but they kept each other secrets and lived a life of hatred and one-upmanship. Caroline was resented for her successful career in screenwriting and Alec liked to prove her to be the helicopter parent.

Caroline can’t let sleeping dogs lie. Her daughter’s life has destroyed her. Jessica’s phone was retrieved after the attack, and she decides to go through her messages. That’s when she discovers THE BOY. The boy that she had decided to meet up with, the boy that stood her up. The boy that inadvertently killed her. Caroline is incandescent with rage. How could this boy stand her daughter up and get her murdered? She presents this information to Alec who suggests that she is looking for any reason, even to the point that he thinks that if it was a man she would be satisfied.

She finds out his address which is in Southend and decides that she will make him pay. She will confront him and make him see the pain and suffering that he has caused, by any means necessary. That was the plan anyway, but nothing is as it seems. It was a good story and enjoyed the majority of it, however, it take me a while to warm up to it, and felt the title was hugely misleading, considering it took place in one chapter.

The Woman on the Pier was a heart wrenching exploration of just how child death can have reverberating consequences on multiples lives.

This was a truly page turner read, with dark themes that swept me along. I do like a dark book! I found the characters to be intriguing and well drawn and really couldn't put this book down once I'd started.

After loving The Dinner Guest by this author I was excited to read The Woman on the Pier. I did race through the book and was taken aback by the revelations. It left me feeling a little sad and that not everything had been resolved. I felt so sorry for Michael and his brother as well as The Mother (Caroline), it was difficult to imagine an outcome that would have made any of them happy.

This book is not what I expected according to the title and synopsis. I didn’t find it very suspenseful but the plot was interesting. I didn’t like Caroline very much.
Many thanks to Harper Collins UK and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

What a book, complete twists and turns at every page. Definitely one to recommend.

Thank you NetGalley for my complimentary copy in return for my honest review.

Jess's mother is so overcome by grief that she can only see one person responsible for her death.
But not everything is first as it seems.
Such a fast paced read you just need to know who killed Jess and why. The secrets just spill out with twists looming in the dark.

The Dinner Guest by BP Walter was a completely gripping read. I devoured in one day. A superbly thrilling book. So I went into this one with high expectations. The prose hooks you in. Walter has a nice writing style. I was hooked for the first half, even if Caroline was impulsive and selfish, and her marriage completely frustrating. There was a nice reveal in the halfway point too. Then our protagonist hits her head and gets amnesia 🤦🏻‍♀️ She spends 25% of the novel trying to piece together what the reader already knows.
I ploughed on to see how the story would come together. It was a so-so read.
I think like many readers I felt the cover was highly misleading and false. The pier scene doesn’t happen until the very end and the characters are not strangers, so why is the ending being falsely marketed? 🤷🏻‍♀️ Caroline is completely infuriating and selfish. I found the whole terrorist plot line and the way there were constant bombs going off exaggerated and upsetting. It was insensitive that Muslims were always behind them, according to the author, when there’s so many loner-white-man crimes happening too e.g. a white man in a small town of the UK goes on a rampage with a gun.
Such a shame because there was some plot and some of the reveals at the end were harrowing and could’ve been the inciting incident inside. Unfortunately this a hot mess of a read.

Two strangers meet on the pier
Only one walks away

One of the people at the pier is Caroline Byrne. She is a successful TV scriptwriter currently devastated by grief following the death of her sixteen-year-old daughter Jessica, who was murdered in a shocking terrorist attack at Stratford Station in London.
There are endless questions that plague Caroline? Why was Jessica at the station? Was she meeting someone? Her parents thought she was in Somerset, so why was she not there? Did she lie to them?
Apart from that Caroline’s marriage to Alec is in shambles and Jessica’s death drives even a bigger wedge between them.
The other person on the pier is a teenage boy. Who is this boy who tells the other part of the story? How does he connect to Caroline or Jessica? Why are they on the pier together?
Caroline wants to confront this boy who she believes has hand in her daughter's death. What seems to be an avenging mother looking for answers turns into something else.

This story is about grief, about abuse and so much more. Told from multiple perspectives the story unravels its mysteries in a series of surprises. It’s a very well-plotted and well-paced story with strong characterisations.

Thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for sending me a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

⭐⭐⭐

I enjoyed this author's previous book (The Dinner Guest) so I was excited to dive into this one. Alas, this one just wasn't as good as The Dinner Guest. 🤷🏻‍♀️ That said, I still found it highly readable and entertaining. This author has such an easy flow to his writing that just sucks you into the story and keeps you reading. So yeah, I wasn't as "wow'd" as I had hoped to be, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

**ARC Via NetGalley**

I was a huge fan of The Dinner Guest so was eager to read this next offering from the same author.

The Woman On The Pier immediately showcases a different style of writing and approach. It's a slow burn rather than a fast-paced page turner, focuses on very difficult subject matters, and overall is more of a creepy tale.

We shift perspectives between characters, and this is something I think BP Walter does really really well.

It took a while for me to get to grips with the characters and at first I really found "The Mother" tricky to understand, questioning her reactions and behaviour. On reflection, and having finished the book, I think this is actually a masterful storytelling approach.

The sense of confusion, and (at first), disjointed nature of events provide the mystery and suspense you hope for, give greater insight into the mindsets of our central characters, and take you on the same emotional journey as would be expected in such horrific circumstances. It also sets a solid foundation for the plot developments occuring later on.

The threads all come together in such a satisfying way, and when they do, the end result is shocking, terrifying and overall a brilliant read!

This was a enjoyable book but took me quite a while to get into. Thank you to the author and publisher for this ARC.