Hannah has returned to her family home to care for her ailing father. He has taken a fall and been hospitalised so Hannah is dividing her time between the challenging hospital visits and staying in her childhood home surrounded by all the memories which this brings back. Her dad’s dementia means he is not always aware of what is happening around him and he often seems to believe he is living in the past if his reference points and stimulus bring his memories to periods long gone.

This is how Hannah finds herself on a dangerous and traumatic spiral in The Daughter. Hannah had been going through a very difficult time in her personal life and the combination of stopping her medication and not taking proper care of herself means she has lost a lot of weight. Hannah’s father had not seen her for a while before his fall and hospitalisation and when he looks at his daughter from his hospital bed it appears his dementia leads him to believe that Hannah is actually her mother Jen. Jen died when she was the age which Hannah is now and Hannah’s father was the primary suspect in her murder.

From his hospital bed Hannah’s father sees his “wife” and with a flash of apparent lucid thought he tells Hannah he is “sorry”. Sorry for what? What has her father felt he needs to apologise to her dead mother for? Could it be that he is *finally* confessing to her murder and showing remorse as his life draws to a close?

Hannah decides she must discover the truth about her mother’s death. The incident which effectively destroyed her family and set their lives on an unforseen path. To do this Hannah needs to connect with her estranged brother (now a successful TV star), engage with her creepy and over-familiar neighbours, chase down old friends of her mother (who do not want to be known as such) and even speak with the policeman that was convinced her father was a murderer.

The Daughter is a web of lies, scandal, tragedy and secrets. Hannah herself has skeletons in her closet and as she digs deeper into the life of a mother she barely knew someone may turn her own mistakes against her.

Liz Webb has done a great job keeping this domestic drama a tense and engaging read throughout. I knew with certainly at least three times where the story was heading and I was wrong each time. I got there in the end but I definitely enjoyed being wrong and revisiting my suspicions.

Scandals, secrets and lies all make for great stories – this is one such story.

One of the first things my therapy supervisor said to me was ‘no two kids have the same childhood, even those who grow up together’. This kept going through my mind as I started to read Liz Webb’s book and grew ever more apt as the story unfolded. As regular readers know I do like to indulge in a good thriller and despite knowing nothing about the book or the author, something drew me in when I read the blurb. I’m so glad I took the chance to read it because it is a dark, psychological, and unsettling domestic noir based around the violent death of the charismatic mum in the Davidson family. Hannah doesn’t always have her life on track and she lives away from her physicist father Phillip, but is called when he ends up in hospital. Now suffering with Alzheimer’s and at the end of his life, Hannah has to make a tough choice; does she leave him in the hands of strangers or should she be the one to nurse him in his final months? It’s not long before Hannah finds herself back home and falling into a time warp. Not only has her father left the decorating and furnishings back in the 1990’s, there are piles of magazines and other detritus still littering the same place. It’s as if he stopped when his wife Jennifer was found in the woods at the back of the house, with a kitchen knife plunged into her chest. Hannah finds her surroundings bringing memories and inevitable questions to the forefront of her mind; no one was ever charged for her mum’s murder. This house is haunted. Her mum’s most successful photographs are still hung on the walls and her dark room is untouched, the wardrobe is full of her colourful clothes with the ghost of Chanel No 5. Just the faintest trace touches the air when Hannah runs a hand over her mother’s clothes. Hannah’s very presence completes the picture, she’s a waif compared to the overweight woman she’s been for most of her life. Now she’s the image of her mum, so much so that an unexpected glimpse in a mirror makes her jump. Her brother Ryan, now a famous actor, has commented on her ‘stuckness’, her inability to move beyond that day in the 1990’s. Hannah doesn’t think she’ll ever be able to move forward and pursue a life for herself, until she can resolve what truly happened that day and who killed her mother.

I did find myself rooting for Hannah, despite her flaws and her past behaviour - with more revelations popping up when I didn’t expect them. She feels more vulnerable and is honest about how broken she is by the past. The author carefully keeps her on that edge so I was mostly on board with her version of events, but every now and again I would question whether she was truly a reliable narrator. There was her drinking and the impression she has of her family life and her mother. She sees her mother as a beautiful free spirit, with her gorgeous rainbow clothes, her glamorous and creative career as a photographer with it’s world of gallery openings and meeting other artists. She sees her parents as very different, her father being much older and in a more steady career as a physics professor. When her parents couldn’t be there, Mrs Roberts and her husband from next door would step in with her more old-fashioned parenting style and her good looking son Marcus. This return home and her father’s deterioration seem to trigger something in Hannah and her brother is convinced she’s in a downward spiral where her mental health is concerned. He now stars in a BBC murder mystery series based in Spain, where his wise-cracking detective solves murders within the ex-Pat community and has famous co-stars happy to swap a guest starring role for a week in the sun. He’s also written a book titled Solving Me which Hannah thinks is pompous at best, but probably arrogant and a potential challenge. His childhood is peppered with incidents of their parents arguing, usually about their mother’s behaviour and he’s completely convinced that their father murdered her after years of being pushed too far.

I loved how the author balanced the story with the darkness and tension, broken by the realties of being a carer and the humorous little allusions to her father’s research subject. Their pets are named after Feynmann (the dog) and Schrödinger (the cat of course) á la Sheldon’s cats in The Big Bang Theory. The Schrödinger reference is very apt with Hannah alluding to their mother as potentially living and dead at the same time. For years her head has been full of simultaneous movie reels, each one with a different ending to the story, she would love to be able to shut down all those other screens and see what really happened. The caring details, everything she’ll need to bring Dad home from the hospital, are spot on. One detail I loved because it showed experience, or at least talking to those with it, and it was the ‘shit-stained’ sole of her father’s foot visible to to a person standing at the bottom of the bed but often missed by the busy healthcare assistant doing this morning’s strip wash. The investigation she conducts gives her a lot more questions about her mother, as she remembers her. She’s warned by the original detective on the case that she might not like what she finds. Even her mum’s art seems to hold clues: the close-ups of tiny domestic objects till it’s hard to know what they are; the fascination with motorcycle stuntman Evil Knieval and the moment of being in free fall; an entire series called Falling showing objects in that moment before they land. What she seemed to forget is that Evil Knieval’s stunts finally went too far with disastrous consequences. As the revelations about Jennifer Davidson begin the story becomes even more fascinating, because Hannah gets to see the person her mum was before becoming a parent and whether motherhood changed her at all. I enjoyed the interplay between the siblings and was engrossed in finding out whose version of events was closer to the truth. This was incredibly well-written, tense and psychologically very clever. It left me thinking about how others see our parents and who they truly are when they’re not being mum and dad.

Appearing on the blog tour this week

A compelling and totally riveting story of Hannah Davidson who moves back home to look after her father who has dementia. and her brother is a tv actor and she has not seen him for years. When her father keeps saying forgive me Hannah thinks he means he is sorry for killing her mother but the police could not find the killer.
As her father gets worse she gets in touch with her brother who eventually turns up and starts to take control. The more she delves into her mothers killing the more questions she has.
Hannah decides to take advantage of the fact she is the spitting image of her mother to try and flush out the killer.
The story is a real whodunnit and keeps you guessing well done to Liz Webb.
Highly recommend.
Thanks to NetGalley & Allison & Busby for a advanced copy.

A book that totally entranced me.

It’s not an unusual situation for a “good” book, but it was darn right clever getting to the conclusion.

Your the age your mother was when she was murdered. You have an enstranged brother.
Your father is going senile/dementia and you have ALL these questions with no one to answer them.
You just want to get to the bottom of….

“Dad, did you kill my mother.”

What an astonishing question to ask you’re Father?

Can she get answers from her enstranged celebrity older brother? Will he know the truth?

I sincerely loved this read. The way that the author put me a steering seat yet, I didn’t know whether the next instructions would be to turn left, right or proceed ahead.

Very well written with absolutely believable characters.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from The Daughter before I started reading it and I have to say it took me a little while to get into the novel. The book is written in the first person, in the voice of Hannah as she is visiting her dementia-stricken father in hospital after he has had a fall. Hannah’s voice was not clear to me to begin with, I wasn’t even sure if the character was male or female at first and, as a result, it took me a little while to become invested in the story.

However, after a couple of chapters, things began to fall into place and my interest was piqued. Hannah is clearly a troubled young woman, engaging in destructive behaviours, and I was curious about what had led her to this place. As we find out more about her dysfunctional family and the tragic events that splintered their family decades before, the reasons begin to make sense, but I was left wondering if she was an entirely reliable narrator, which always makes a book more interesting. Not knowing whether you can believe what the main protagonist is telling you always builds tension, and even Hannah herself questions whether her memories are reliable when they conflict with those of other people present at the time. Who is mistaken? Who is lying to themselves, or others, to hide the dreadful truth?

This mistrust bleeds through to the other characters, particularly her father, who is in a fog of confusion and has begun to mix Hannah up with his long-dead wife, and her brother, from who she has been estranged for 14 years and is practically unknown to her now, and who practises make-believe for a living. Who is telling then truth and who will benefit from lying? These are the puzzles the engaged reader if left to solve.

The cast of characters is small and manageable, the plot engaging and tense and the writing easy to read and flows well. I thought this stood out as a story I hadn’t read before in the domestic thriller genre and, after a shaky start, I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. It is full of twists and turns and interesting ideas about families, how they work and how they can mess you up. A theme many people will be able to relate to on some level. This book has a different feel to many books in the genre, an interesting edge to it and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a new author.

A good test of whether you should read this book is how you felt about Rachel, the protagonist from The Girl on the Train. If you sympathised with her plight and thought her actions were reasonable, you’ll probably enjoy this - it’s actually a better book than TGOTT. Unfortunately, I was repelled by Hannah’s pathetic selfishness, stupidity and histrionics and didn’t enjoy being in her head for the whole story.

Hannah Davidson has never got over the unsolved murder of her glamorous mother Jen when she was fourteen. Now 37, she has moved back home to care for her father, Philip, who is dying of cancer and has advanced dementia. Her older brother, a successful actor, wants nothing to do with his family. Drinking too much and blaming everyone but herself for the mess she’s made of her life, she becomes convinced that her father was the killer, and must face justice before he dies. Using her newfound resemblance to Jen and the clothes still in her closets, she determined to trick Philip into revealing the truth, but her increasingly unhinged behaviour unlocks past secrets that will threaten them all.

This was recommended by an author I admire, and I agree that it’s an accomplished first novel and psychological analysis of a woman stuck with the mind of a teenager by past trauma and parental incompetence, now having to deal with losing the father she adored. I just can’t stand these kinds of characters, so the first person present narration was torture for me.
The mystery was well done, with plenty of twists. I did guess how it would turn out - not that it was necessarily obvious, I just read too much Crime. I did like the ending and that Hannah does finally grow up after uncovering the truth. Please don’t be put off by my lukewarm review which probably says more about me than the book, especially if you love psychological suspense, unreliable narrators and sordid family secrets.

Thanks to NetGalley and Allison & Busby for the ARC. I am posting this honest review voluntarily. The Daughter is available now.

Hannah has returned to her family home to look after her father who is suffering from dementia. Having never fully recovered from the death of her mother, Hannah has struggled to lead a normal life and decides to use this opportunity to find out what really happened to her. Was it suicide or murder, and who can she trust as she gets closer to the truth?

The most interesting aspect of this story for me was the way Hannah used her father's illness as a way to connect with the past and go back in time to find out more about what happened. For her father, who was suffering from dementia, at times he felt like he was actually back living at the time his wife died. This gave Hannah the perfect opportunity to ask questions and to try and replay events as the memories were so vivid for him. I don't remember ever reading a mystery or thriller book before that used this idea and it definitely gave an uneasy feeling to the story. In a way, it was quite sad to read, but at the same time it was an interesting take on a murder mystery.

I loved Hannah as a character. She was obviously troubled but determined and sarcastic which took the edge off quite a dark story. The Daughter was an addictive and unusual domestic thriller, perfect for anyone who likes a bit of humour or black-comedy as well as more typical crime thriller fans.

Hannah has moved back hone to support her dementia suffering father. Her mother was killed years back and she’s wants to find out the truth about her death. After many years of not seeing her brother after her father ends up in hospital she gets in contact with him. Reese (Ryan) is a actor and has been in movies and tv series. Circumstances are the only reason they are back together and Hannah wants to peruse the killer of her mother.

The story is a who done it and keeps you guessing until the end. It’s well written and the characters are all perfect for this book.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for a copy.

I lean in and whisper the question I have never let myself utter in twenty-three years.
"Dad, did you murder Mum?"
Hannah Davidson has a dementia-stricken father, an estranged TV star brother, and a mother whose death opened up hidden fault lines beneath the surface of their ordinary family life.
Now the same age that Jen Davidson was when she was killed, Hannah realises she bears an uncanny resemblance to her glamorous mother, and when her father begins to confuse them she is seriously unnerved.
Determined to uncover exactly what happened to her mum, Hannah begins to exploit her arresting likeness, but soon the boundaries between Hannah and her mother become fatally blurred.

This is a wonderful read.
Wonderful well written plot and story line that had me engaged from the start.
Love the well fleshed out characters and found them believable.
Great suspense and found myself second guessing every thought I had continuously.
Can't wait to read what the author brings out next.
Recommend reading.

I was provided an ARC from NetGalley and the publisher. This is my own hone\st voluntary review.

The Daughter focuses on Hannah's search for the truth about her Mother's death. When the story starts, Hannah is amidst a midlife crisis; her life is chaos; she's drinking too much and has an emotional eating disorder. Her mind is running circles, and she's suspicious and paranoid that her family members could have partaken in her Mother's murder.

Liz Webb has created a fantastic thriller with a deep plot that doesn't fail to keep the reader engaged. The story unfolds greatly, and I was absorbed in this due to the compelling suspense and the tense atmosphere. The characters are created brilliantly, and I felt emotionally drawn to Hannah. As a reader, I was swept along with Hannah's quest for answers and was eager for a solution, as much as she was.

I expect this read to be a great success, and I recommend this to all fans of this genre. As a debut, this author's writing style is exceptional. I will be picking up future works without hesitation.

The Daughter was a great read. It drew me in immediately and did not let go. Fast paced with plenty of twists and turns, I really enjoyed it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Allison & Busby for my ARC.

"Families can be murder"


Yep! This was just what the 'book doctor' ordered. A thumping good psychological thriller, which I whizzed through in a couple of days. A relatively small cast of characters and physical footprint, and a suspect list which had just about everyone's name on it at one time or another! The plot is really quite straightforward, however the outcome and the getting there, were a whole different ballgame and I really did need my wits about me to keep up with main protagonist Hannah's, often rambling train of thought.

..

Thirty-seven year old Hannah, has returned to her childhood home, ostensibly to care for her dementia and terminal cancer sufferer father Philip, who lives alone and has been hospitalised following a bad fall inside the house. However Hannah, who although she is genuinely concerned for her father's welfare, also has other more selfish motives for packing up her life in Brighton and moving back to her old childhood stamping ground, although it was still not an easy decision. Her mother, Jennifer died in the woods behind the house, when she was only fourteen and her older brother Reece eighteen and on the eve of going off to university. Jennifer's death was at first treated as suicide, but later Philip was, for a short period, under investigation and suspected of her murder. Although nothing was ever proved conclusively, the family was left fractured and Philip a broken man. Reece AKA Ryan, is now a successful actor and has been estranged from his family since the fateful night of his mother's death, which had left a teenaged Hannah feeling alone and abandoned, although her father had done his very best to cope with his daughter's emotional and physical needs.

Now, Hannah needs her father to answer a question which has plagued her every waking hour since that life-changing night. However Philip's mind is so far disconnected from reality, that to know whether his memories of what really happened are reliable or accurate is almost impossible. In some of his more lucid moments though, Hannah begins to get the idea that not everything about her mother's death and indeed her rather unconventional life, was quite as straightforward as she had thought, so when Philip is brought home to end his days and strange things begin to happen around the house, she decides that discovering the ultimate truth of those long ago events, which seem to be casting a long and very present shadow over her final few hours with Philip, is more important to her than she had ever believed possible.

She elicits the help of the original detective who was assigned to investigate her mother's death, even though Chris has since been invalided out of the police force. The suspects begin to line up in Hannah's very fractured mind, beginning with Reece, who is less than pleased to have been contacted by his errant sister. The net widens to include the next door neighbours and their son, who were like a second family to Hannah and Reece when they were growing up, with the two sets of parents ostensibly being firm and lasting friends. A wider sweep encompasses the photographer for whom Jennifer worked and who is still trading.

Hannah has no idea of the hornets nest she will be stirring up when she begins asking questions and her emotions are set to take another huge battering when she discovers that her mother was not the plaster saint she had built her up to be, when just about everything around Jennifer's life was a lie, even though Hannah and Reece appear to have such differing memories of the same events. As Hannah's life and grip on reality tumbles further and further out of control, her father's subsequent death, even though it is upsetting, somehow polarises her thoughts and inner reserves of strength, making her even more determined that closure for herself and the clearing of her parents' reputations, is her number one focus. However, she does woefully underestimate the vile hatred and loathing of her nemesis, and as she has her eyes set firmly on completely the wrong people, she almost loses her own life in calling them to account and bringing about personal retribution and justice.

..

This well structured, multi-layered, gripping and intense storyline, wasn't going to rock the world in the 'action packed' stakes, however the pace was steady enough to keep me guessing right until the end and the cloying air of suspicion with which Hannah cloaked everyone on her suspect list, made for an oppressively tense atmosphere. When writing, how author Liz Webb managed to keep a track of who was doing what to whom, how, where, why and when, was a complete mystery to me, as my poor little brain was constantly fuddled and tied up in knots. The lies, duplicity, double standards, and all those dirty little secrets, were so widespread and attributed to so many different individuals, all with their own agendas, that melding them together into such a highly textured and cohesive storyline, was wickedly clever, slick and polished, and pulled off to perfection. The physical footprint of the story was quite small, however the fluently written narrative and dialogue was crisp and visually descriptive, affording a real sense of time and place. The twists and double twists in the storyline just kept coming, right until the final scene and I simply couldn't avoid being tripped up by the many red herrings spread along the way to put me off the scent. Whilst my own suspect list did include one more name than Hannah's own, which really was an important factor when it came to the endgame, I couldn't conclusively have pointed the finger of accusation at any one individual until that time.

Liz also did a great job of exploring and examining family relationships and the emotional impact certain traumatic events, experienced and witnessed in childhood, can continue to have in adult years, without anyone really realising. In Hannah this hidden damage manifests itself openly and overtly and it is easy to observe the fragility and frailty of her troubled mind. However Reece plays his cards much closer to his chest, which can make him appear cold, calculating and very difficult to connect with. Altogether, a well defined cast of characters, some of whom were more fully developed than others, none of whom were particularly compelling, but all of whom played their parts to perfection.

I would never have pegged this book as a debut novel and I look forward to following Liz Webb's writing, hoping she already has another gripping storyline in the pipeline!

A compelling read!
This book has it all a broken family , lies , secrets and murder all wrapped up into a gripping story .
Hannah is back in the family home caring for her father , he has dementia, and Hannah herself as more than a few issues to resolve.
Her mother was murdered and the killer was never found , she is estranged from her brother and this heady mix left me reading late into the night.
The pace isn’t quick but quick enough to keep your interest and the writing is of a high calibre.
The characters aren’t amiable , they all have their faults just as all humans do , but I can’t say I like any off them , although I felt sympathy for Hannah and her brother and their characters did improve as we learnt more about them .
This book is a essentially a murder mystery , but just labelling as such sells it short and I think the author as written an absorbing tale. I’m looking forward to reading more from Liz Webb.
Highly recommended!
Thanks to NetGalley and Allison & Busby.

What a treat this book was. A proper whodunnit (and why) with a brilliant set of deeply flawed characters to boot. The characterisation in the book is exceptional. I particularly love the protagonist, whose search for her mothers killer leads her to take more and more extreme action but however misguided she is, she always has heart.

Oooo this was all the dysfunction wrapped up in intrigue and excitement. It hit the ground running, sucked me in for the duration, spitting me out at the end satisfied but exhausted!
Hannah has returned home to care for her dementia suffering father. She has a brother but they have been estranged for years. Her mother murdered when she was young. In fact, at the same age Hannah is now, pretty much. Hannah has had a it of a sad life, her brother has suffered too, but I'll leave you to discover the warts and all of that as the author intends... Suffice to say that the death of Hannah's mother has never been properly explained and she now realises that with her father declining rapidly, the chance of the whole truth coming out is swiftly passing on. A truth that Hannah really needs to hear...
I loved this book. Less is more going in though so I would be careful if you read many more reviews. What you do need to know is that it is a bit of a slow burn initially. The family is so dysfunctional that the author needs time to build up the layers of the past and the present. To describe the nature of the characters, build them, create them, divulge just enough to keep the reader intrigued. And then, once the foundations are laid and the building starting to take shape, out comes the wrecking ball and it becomes a fascinating outing watching it all crumble and fall... Leaving certain characters exposed and raw...
And what a motley crew of characters... There aren't many main ones but each has their part and each plays that part well. The extras do likewise, all have something to give. I can't say I really liked many of them, I am a big fan of dysfunctional families but, whew, this one really does excel and I wasn't fond of any of them. That said, they did elicit a certain amount of sympathy along the way and connections good or bad were definitely there.
As already mentioned pacing was slow initially but it did speed up towards the end. Slow is not always bad as long as you are not impatient and if what you are waiting for is worth it, and I have to say that, in my opinion, in this case, it most definitely was.
All in all a racking read from a new-to-me author - is this a debut ? If it is, then kudos to the author for the quality. Either way, I'm excited to see what she serves up for next time. My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

Jen was beautiful, exuberant, larger than life, but twenty three years ago, she died from a single knife blow to the heart. Her killer was never identified. The death shattered her family; her physicist husband, Phillip, retired and became a recluse and her eighteen year old son, Reece, left two weeks later and never spoke to his father again. He also cut himself off from his fourteen year old sister, Hannah, who became a school drop-out and left home as soon as she could. But now she’s back as Philip’s carer, because he has dementia and is close to death. She believes that he killed her mother and that her brother, who is now Ryan a TV and film star, had given him a false alibi. Hannah is hoping that the truth about the murder will arise out of her father’s ramblings and Reece’s assumed guilt feelings. But are things quite as clear cut as a first glance would suggest? Perhaps the solution lies in the wild life that Jen had lived outside the family? Hannah, who bears a strong resemblance to her mother, and is now the exact age her mother was when she died, starts to dress in her mother’s clothes and replicate her make-up, to disconcert her family and other people who knew Jen at the time.
At heart, this is a murder mystery, with an unusual underlying tension. It is not a thriller in the conventional sense, but it has something of the pace and easily drives the reader forward with some trepidation. It is also the story of a family destroyed, but with a hope of salvation if not retribution. The characters are all very believable and the plot is logical. It is, however, a bit linear and I had the mystery solved quite early on. But I still read it with enjoyment because the prose is exceedingly good and I was interested to see how well the author held my attention. The ending is a bit overwrought, but cleverly uses little allusions from Hannah’s early history. It is not perfect but, for a debut novel, it augurs well. It isn’t really a 5 but it is easily more than a 4, so benefits from my round-up policy.
I would like to thank NetGalley, the publishers and the author for providing me with a draft proof copy for the purpose of this review.

I found this very slow and hard going and didn't warm to any of the characters. I struggled to get halfway through and dnf.

The Daughter
Hannah Davidson is 37 and is back living at home with her Dad. He is slowly succumbing to dementia but she has nowhere else to go now that her life in Brighton has spectacularly and shamefully imploded. She drinks excessively and is caring for Dad alone. Reece, her elder brother, has reinvented himself as a TV detective and they haven’t seen each other for 15 years. He left for university almost immediately after their mother, Jen, was found stabbed to death in nearby woods in 1996.
Jen was a butterfly, a magnet that drew people to her and then repulsed them when they realised that they were unimportant and merely part of her entourage. To Hannah’s younger eyes, she was glamorous, a photographer with another life of exhibitions and galleries. Now all that remains is a wardrobe of smart clothes and an elegant, dusty bedroom. But how much of Jen’s life was actually real. As Hannah begins to delve deeper into her family’s secrets, she discovers that the glamour wasn’t even skin deep.
Hannah is now the same age as Jen was when she died. No-one was ever charged although Dad and Reece were suspects as were their neighbours, the Roberts. But it all came to nothing, and Jen’s death has remained unsolved. Hannah is tempted to ask Dad if he did it but he is now lost in the mists of confusion. And so, she decides to do her own detective work and find the killer. She dresses up as her mother in Jen’s old clothes and begins to realise the power that Jen had. Chris, the retired detective who oversaw the case, warns her about disturbing sleeping dogs but she is determined to solve it. If Dad was the killer, it may be her only chance before he is gone forever. But turning over stones brings other family secrets out into the open and Hannah realises that the family next door may be more than just friends.
I’m not really sure of what to make of this book as I found Hannah a difficult character to like. At times it was hard to believe that she was 37 as she often seemed a lot younger. Dressing up as her mother had elements of a small child doing it and yet I could empathise with how empowered it made her feel. However, Reece/Ryan was too cardboard for me. The character that I felt most empathy with was Dad who had withdrawn from life after Jen’s death having regretted marrying her and even his own daughter suspected him of murder. There was something so sad about Dad lost in dementia being pacified with a mechanical cat in place of the new deceased family pet. But this is a book of two halves and the pack quickened in the second half. However, the climax felt a little anti-climactic after such a build-up. But, I didn’t see the revelation or the reasons as there were several artfully concealed red herrings in the story
Quinces feature heavily in the narrative and I saw them as a metaphor for Jen. Initially sweet but then a bitter aftertaste. Making quince jam is one of the memories Hannah has of Jen from when she was little and memories are a key theme in the book. It’s the way that people remember events differently even if they were all there at the same time. Reece has successfully reinvented himself and Hannah is jobless and broke, living off Dad’s money while paying off a substantial debt to an ex-employer. The truth about Jen’s supposedly gilded life is exposed by one of her ex-lovers.
There were surprises throughout the book and, at the end, there was a reconciliation of sorts between Hannah and Reece. But it was an interesting idea which could have been explored further.

My thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an ARC.

Hannah Davidson has a dementia-stricken father, an estranged TV star brother, and a mother whose death opened up hidden fault lines beneath the ordinary surface of their family life, At thirty seven, Hannah is losing her grip on both her drinking and a cache of shameful secrets. Now the spitting image of her mother Jen Davidson, and the same age as she was when she died, Hannah is determined to uncover exactly what happened to her mum, but soon the boundaries between Hannah and her mother become fatally blurred.

What a gripping and creepy read. Hannah is caring for her father who has dementia. Hannah's mother had been murdered at the age of thirty seven. The same age Hannah is now. Her TV star brother, Reece, has written an autobiography. He blames his father for his mother's death.

It did take me a little while to get into the story as the pace is slow to begin with, Hannah wants to find out what really happened to her mother. The characters are flawed, believable, but not always likeable. The last 30% of the book was worth sticking with it for, This is a really good debut novel.

I would like to thank #NetGalley #AllisonBusby and the author #LizWebb for my ARC of #TheDaughter in exchange for an honest review.

Hannah Davidson is caring for her father who has dementia her dad keeps thinking Hannah is her mum because she’s the same age as her mum was when she died and Hannah looks just like her and he keeps apologising to her
Hannah’s mum Jennifer was murdered and her estranged tv star brother Reece Who is releasing a autobiography and he doesn’t have anything to do with our father because he blames him for her death and Hannah looks into her mother death to see if their dad is responsible or not she won’t stop until she finds out the truth
Really enjoyed this book I couldn’t put it down
Thank you NetGalley and Allison & Busby