A disturbing domestic/psychological drama that focuses on a grief-stricken mother as she tries to understand why her daughter died. Less about revenge and more about the dark journey grief and damaging early life experiences can take a person on.

I received a copy of this book from One More Chapter via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Thank you to @BarnabyWalter and @0neMoreChapter for this advanced copy of The Woman on the Pier in return for an honest review.

Description 🔖

Caroline Byrne has suffered. Her daughter Jessica was killed in tragic circumstances. What Caroline can’t work out is why Jessica was murdered in Stratford, when she was supposed to be staying with a friend in Somerset.

Drowning in grief, Carline starts to go through Jessica’s phone and finds messages between her daughter and a boy called Michael. They were supposed to be meeting that fateful day, but he didn’t show up. Caroline surmises that it’s Michael’s fault that Jessica died. Michael is the reason that Jessica is dead and Caroline will make him pay.

General Thoughts 🤔

This was such a good book. I will come clean and admit that I had no idea what to expect. As I sometimes like to do, I didn’t read the blurb and didn’t read any reviews beforehand, I just dived straight in. It was the cover and this authors reputation that got me interested in the book. I’m so glad I went in blind because right up until events would happen, I had no idea they were coming. There were so many slap in the face moments for me in this book and I didn’t predict any of them.

There were many uncomfortable moments for me but only uncomfortable because it’s not my reality. It found it heartbreaking that this work of fiction is in so many ways, other people’s reality. I think I actually would have liked for the book to have delved into some of this a little bit deeper, but it wasn’t a must have and didn’t make me enjoy the book any less.

Characters 👫👬👭

So Caroline was completely and utterly unhinged but who could blame her? She lost her daughter in a way that nobody could ever imagine would happen to them so naturally she wanted someone that she could pin some “logical” blame on. I was hoping and hoping that she would see sense and realise that yes, Jessica shouldn’t have been stood up in Stratford, but just like she couldn’t have predicted what would happen, nobody else could have either. I felt Caroline’s pain and her grief and I understand how she became completely blinded by it.

I don’t do spoilers in my reviews, so I’m not going to talk specifically about any of the other characters other than to say I felt so very sad. Someone should have been able to help and rescue these poor people, but instead they were able to float under the radar and try to find their own ways to deal with their pain.

Writing Style ✍️

This is the first book that I’ve read from this author but it definitely won’t be the last. They were able to build the perfect amount of tension without it being overwhelming. The chapters were short and snappy meaning I literally did keep telling myself “one more chapter” just like the publisher.

I liked that this book was tense and kept me highly engaged but also covered some important and difficult topics. I thought that the author did a great job of not brushing these under the rug but also covering them with the correct level of sensitivity.

Conclusion & Scoring 🎖️

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and will definitely be recommending it to my friends. It’s the perfect book to curl up on the sofa with and it’s not overly long so you could binge it easily (which I love to do). This is being released at the perfect time of the year, so get it for yourself or for a Christmas gift and enjoy!

After reading the blurb to The Woman on the Pier I was really looking forward to reading it. I have read this author's work before and enjoyed it. But unfortunately it was nothing like I expected. It started off well but then became slower and went off in tangents and it covered a lot of dark issues that I wasn't comfortable with. It became a little wild and unbelievable at times however I was curious to know how it ended and perservered. I found the ending was abrupt and a bit far fetched but did try to bring it all together.

Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for an ARC in exchange for an honest opinion

I was a BIG fan of B P Walter’s last novel and this one stands just as high in my opinion!

I will say I think I preferred The Dinner Guest, but this one stands on its own, feeling more like a novel about a grieving unhinged mother over that of a thriller, but it doesn’t stop it being just as page turning as I found The Dinner Guest

Thank you to Netgalley and One More Chapter for the ARC of this one!!

After reading the blurb to The Woman on the Pier I was really looking forward to reading it but unfortunately it was nothing like I expected. It covered a lot of dark subjects which I would never voluntarily read about and it just did not work at all for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my ARC.

3.5 rounded down as it all got a bit wild.
I have read a couple of this author's books before and enjoyed them so I had quite high hopes going into this, his latest. It was ticking along quite nicely until it, well, kinda went off at quite a tangent and thrashed about a bit in the middle before the author managed to rein it in towards the end and bring it to a satisfactory, albeit a bit far-fetched conclusion.
I say all this as, reading a few of the other reviews (after finishing the book myself) I fear that maybe other readers will not be as willing to persevere as I was, and also that they might need a bit of hope that the ending does make sense.
It also leaves me with a quandary as to how much more I can say here without spoiling things. So I guess I'm not going to say anything... Apart from to reiterate that I really didn't see any of that coming at all. Although there were a few hints about certain things that I dismissed out of sorts which I now kick myself for not paying more attention to.
Characterisation is - well - interesting pretty much covers it for me. It's hard to explain exactly what I mean by that as, well, nothing is quite as you expect. What I can say categorically is that I really didn't like any of the characters. Not even when I learned more about what made them tick. Nope. Sorry. Not for me. I did feel for certain of them along the way - well, I'm not heartless. And I sympathised and empathised, but I did not really like any of them. Felt sorry for them and what they were going through.
The plot was as already described. A bit hit and miss along the way. There was also quite a lot that came across as being a bit too contrived. And some that was just plain over the top. But I guess it's fiction... Pacing was just as unbalanced but did fit the narrative as it progressed so was consistent there.
All in all, not the strongest of books but not enough to stop me reading this and any future books. I appreciate that not every book will suit every reader. This was just not quite the book for me.
My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

Caroline Byrne is grieving for her only daughter caught up in a terrorist attack and killed. But also for her marriage which was over before her daughters death. She finds out why Jessica wasn’t where she said she was going in the day of the attack and goes off to find the boy she was supposed to be meeting, with no clear plan of what would happen next. This story examines grief, guilt and skirts around the dreadful issue of child abuse. I found it difficult to read and not all of my questions were fully answered hence the middling score. Thanks to Harpercollins Uk and Netgalley for the opportunity to read in exchange for a review.

Spectacular storytelling which went to places I really wasn't anticipating from the innocent looking cover.

Caroline and Alec's beloved teenage daughter Jessica has been caught up in an atrocious terrorist incident in London, whilst her parents are convinced that she should be in Somerset as planned. The shock of her death sends waves through her parents' comfortable middle class lives, leaving a string of destruction in its wake.

As readers we know from the beginning that Jessica was planning on meeting a boy in London and has lied to her parents. The story flits between texts between Jess and the boy, Caroline's life 3 months prior to the attack and afterwards, and the Boy, keeping you on your toes and letting snippets of information seep through to build a rounder picture of what happened on the day in question.

Very deftly written and plotted, I kept sneaking off to read another chapter or two which is always the sign of a great book
Thanks for the chance to read it

Thanks to Harper Collins, BP Walter and NetGalley for the ARC of The Woman on the Pier.

I don't really know how to start with this review as this book was extremely different to what I expected. The blurb and the cover painted a picture of a fast paced thriller, but in reality this was quite a hard hitting, trigger warning needed read that left me feeling a bit deflated after reading it. Similar to The Dinner Guest, I also felt that a major part of the story line was revealed on the cover, yet 90% of the book was the lead up to this and not the aftermath, which didn't really work for me.

When Caroline's daughter Jessica is killed in a terrorist attack, her life is never the same again. Jessica wasn't even supposed to be in Stratford that day - she was meant to be meeting a friend in Somerset, so why was she there? Caroline discovers that she was in fact meeting a boy - a boy who failed to show, He is the reason why Jessica is dead, and she is determined to make him pay.

There are some really challenging themes to this book, so trigger warnings definitely required for sexual abuse, self harm, drug addiction, murder and terrorism to name but a few.

Started off with real promise but not for me unfortunately. A generous 3 stars because I didn't hate it, but I would have struggled with the themes if any of them had been closer to home.

A page-turning thriller from B P Walter. Caroline needs to know why her daughter Jessica died and, when she discovers Jessica's involvement with a boy called Michael, wants revenge. I found it difficult to empathise with Caroline but stuck with it to find out what happened.

Not at all what I was expecting from the blurb and rather disappointing. The actions of the main character seemed to get more and more unbelievable and she was an unlikable person despite the tragedy Tharp she and her dreadful husband had suffered.

This is a chilling and disturbing novel--and I mean that in the very best way! When daughter Jessica turns up dead, it is assumed she was the latest victim of a terrorist attack which, of course, devastates her parents. But as her mother searches deeper and deciphers messages on her iPhone, we see that nothing is as it seems and there is much more to the story than a bomb that took innocent lives. This is a heartbreaking story as we see a marriage falling apart, relationships in shambles, and neglected teens that have incriminating secrets in their pasts. So don't attempt this unless you are in a place where you can handle family trauma and all of the baggage that comes with dysfunction in a society that is reluctant to see the truth in the underbelly of families.

Way too boring, way too much vomiting and not enough action.
Nothing good to say about it. None of the characters stand out  or are even slightly likeable. The majority of actions and conversations do not make much sense. Plus characters are constantly vomiting for one reason or another and it's really too much.
Don't waste your time..

Tying together three generations in a story filled with secrets, lies and deceptions - The Woman on the Pier is a fast-paced, enjoyable mystery.

I thought that this book would be a gripping thriller, but it was a huge disappointment. I found it a bizarre and rambling story about an unlikeable woman, which I struggled to develop any interest in. The characters are all unappealing, and unbelievable, and I am certainly not in a hurry to read any other books by this author.

A sad story of a mothers grief after the death of her daughter in a terrorist attack. As her marriage and her mental health falls apart she discovers a secret and finally someone to blame for her daughters senseless death but as her hate takes over will she loose everything for revenge.

With a plot that moves between Essex, Kent and Australia and its protagonist of a grieving mother, this novel immediately gripped my interest. Caroline Byrne, a scriptwriter who lives in Southend-on-Sea, has lost her teenage daughter Jessica in a shocking terrorist attack and, wild with grief, is determined to attribute blame to someone. Finding details of a young man that Jessica has been chatting to online in the last few days of her life, Caroline sets out to hunt this person down. Over the course of the subsequent chapters, the plot is steered through many serious forms of abuse, violence and addition, and led by two unlikeable characters in the shape of Caroline and her unsupportive husband Alec. Although the subject matters are so grim and the novel would have been just as good had it rested on fewer of such serious issues, is worth persevering. I would like to thank the publishers and NetGalley for the free ARC that allowed me to produce this review.

This book was a bit of a disappointment for me. I really enjoyed B P Walter's "The Dinner Guest", but I just couldn't relate to the protagonist of this story. It was too much of a "I must have my revenge" story than a thriller for me.

I must say initially that this book was not at all what I was expecting. I loved The Dinner Guest, so was super excited to be given the opportunity to read this one. This one just missed the mark for me. The stories were disjointed, the characters not developed enough, the relationships all big unexplored messes and so so so many triggers.

Although the writing was on point, I felt like the story had so much mashed together that if it had stuck more to the revenge style plot I may have enjoyed it better. The book was engaging, but it was more like how in the heck is this book going to tie all this together rather than oooooh, what’s going to happen next. I realize it feels like I’m bashing this book- but I don’t mean to. There was good to it, I think my disappointment in what I thought it could be just overwhelmed my thoughts.

This story is about an unhinged Mom in a loveless marriage losing her daughter in a terrorist attack (which is not even really discussed) and how she looks to blame someone, anyone for her loss. She finds text messages from a boy on her daughter’s phone (after 3 months…?) and decides to find him, unsure of what she’ll do when she does. Her search for answers is the rest of the story.

This is definitely not a fast paced thriller in my book, I would characterize it as a domestic thriller. Don’t bother reading the synopsis- just go in blind- maybe you’ll enjoy it more. But be ready for triggers like child abuse and neglect if you do.

Thanks to Netgalley and One More Chapter for inviting me to an advanced copy.

I’m guilty of going into this one blind which was a big mistake as there are so many triggers (child abuse, sexual abuse, terrorism and addiction to callout just a few). It's also not a suspense thriller but more a domestic thriller about an unhinged mother who needs someone to blame for the death of her daughter. But the main problem for me was that the mother's character was so unlikeable even pre-tragedy that it was hard to muster any sympathy for her. And, the boy's story is a tough read - too tough for me. It's also an overwhelmingly tragic tale from the off, with no happy ending and no closure!