I struck out with this book.
On the surface I thought remote island, creepy house, unexplained events, sure I’m in.
But I couldn’t get into the groove of the story and the characters just didn’t grab me.

This book was not for me. It did not keep my attention and I do not wish to continue it. I am very grateful for the access to this book and do not have a proper rating as I do not plan on finishing this title. Thank you so very much for this opportunity. I look forward to trying other books either by this publisher or even the author in the future.

Vanessa was a famous artist who decided to make Eris, an island off the coast of Scotland, her home. Quite isolated, it is exactly the type of place Vanessa would love.

"For twelve hours of the day, in two six-hour chunks, this causeway is passable on foot or by vehicle. When the tide comes in, Eris is unreachable."

Eris reminds me of Eel Marsh House in The Woman in Black.

Sounds wonderful, doesn't it?! Just me?! Oh....

After losing her battle to cancer, Vanessa leaves her paintings, sculptures, and papers to an ex-boyfriend, who is also a rich gallery owner. After he is "accidentally" shot and dies, his son takes over the gallery. The son brings in his college buddy, Becker, who is an expert in Vanessa's art, to curate the collection. Becker takes the job...and then he takes the son's fiancé.

Does Paula Hawkins ever write about people who aren't horrible?! Just wondering...

Desperate to do a good job - and see all the things that no one else ever has - Becker visits Eris and meets Grace, the executor of the will and Vanessa's... friend? Confidant? Doctor? Partner in crime? All of the above?

This story is exactly what I expect from Hawkins. A complicated story. Loads of secrets. The absolute WORST people. Sounds about right.

I finished this in less than 2 days - that also included 20 hours of work. Just couldn't put it down. Another great story by Hawkins!

This unfortunately wasn't for me. I liked the setting and the ending was satisfying but the overall story wasn't for me. I wasn't into the art snobs and just don't really care for rich people behaving badly

*The Blue Hour* by Paula Hawkins is a suspenseful gothic thriller centered around the discovery of a human bone hidden inside a sculpture by the late artist Vanessa Chapman. As art historian James Becker travels to a remote Scottish island to investigate the origins of the bone, he uncovers a web of dark secrets surrounding Vanessa’s life, her enigmatic companion Grace, and the mysterious disappearance of her philandering husband years earlier. The novel unfolds through shifting perspectives and timelines, revealing a complex and tragic tale of love, betrayal, and the hidden darkness within the art world.

For anyone that enjoyed Hawkins' breakout hit, *The Girl on the Train*, this latest entry will not disappoint. Complex and dislikable characters, plot twists galore, and a sinister vibe throughout make this a compelling read.

Ok the first 2/3 of the book had you not wanting to put the book down, extraordinarily addictive—the last 1/3 hmm just did not hold up!


Many thanks to NetGalley and Mariner Books

The author of “The Girl on the Train” gets into art in “The Blue Hour,” alternating between male and female narrators and between past (“interstitial” diary excerpts) and present. The result is a choppy but compelling examination of obsessions of art and heart.

In a lone house on an island accessible only at low tide, reclusive artist Helena Chapman lived until her death, sharing little of her work. James Becker, a young curator fascinated with Chapman, travels to the island, ostensibly to learn what happened to many of the works that were bequeathed to the collection he manages.

Instead, he meets and is confounded by Grace Haswell, who was Chapman’s faithful companion and now keeps her secrets, including what happened to her philandering husband, who disappeared mysteriously years before. The mystery grows ever twistier, including the question of whether a bone in one of Helena’s sculptural pieces is actually human.

“The Blue Hour,” out Tuesday, is quite a page-turner, but the ending is what will stick with most readers. And that, unfortunately, is quite a turnoff.

Here's a read that starts off on a slow, measured pace that builds and continues to build to an ending that isn't quite expected.
The atmosphere, throughout the book, is tense and is not your routine thriller. This is more of an exploration and character study of troubled people and how they interact, which keeps you guessing as to the outcome.
This is quite an intense story, which I expected from the author who always delivers!

3.5 ⭐️’s
Vanessa Chapman was an enigmatic artist, living on an island in Scotland that was only accessible at low tide, an island that contained some dark secrets. Vanessa worked diligently on her art, but not her social skills. When she met Grace, a physician, after breaking her arm, the two became unusually entwined. Grace needing Vanessa much more than Vanessa needed Grace. When Vanessa’s notoriously unfaithful husband, Julian goes missing, all eyes are on Vanessa, but nothing is ever proven. Years go by and when Vanessa dies, she leaves her entire art collection to her arch nemesis Douglas Fairburn. Why? When a human bone is found in one of her art pieces, everyone is sure it’s Julian’s. As the Fairburn Gallery tries to figure out what’s going on, and get Grace to finally part with the remaining pieces of Vanessa’s estate, the secrets of the island start to enfold. When Becker, representing Fairburn, goes to Eris Island to speak with Grace, he doesn’t push, he decides it’s better to go as a friend, to learn as much about Vanessa as possible, after all, he rather idolized her. But as things turn darker, Becker is caught in the middle, a middle he desperately wants out of! This story was a slow burning tale of underlying suspense. One that kept the pages turning, never quite answering all the questions. One that Hawkins writes beautifully, but going for the shock factor in the ending pages left me frustrated, hoping for just one more page …
Grace is reminiscent of Annie Wilkes from Steven King’s Misery. An eccentric character to be reckoned with! Thank you to Mariner Books and NetGalley for an ARC of this book.

I really, really enjoyed this slow burn mystery. I think many readers were anticipating a thriller, which this is not—more an excellently written tale of secrets and dread, which I will express when selling it. I hope it does well!

I am so thankful to Mariner Books, Paula Hawkins, and Netgalley for granting me advanced access to this galley before publication day. I really enjoyed the dialogue and plot of this book and can’t wait to chat this one up with my friends!

I normally like Paula Hawkins’ books but this one was so slow and boring. The characters are all horrible people, the plot line is predictable, and I hate the ending. This one was not it for me.

This was slow going for me until about the halfway mark and then it ramped up majorly. I was kind of getting Misery vibes and I love that but the ending did nothing for me…I feel like there was no closure and I was kind of waiting for it. No, actually, I really need it to be happy. But overall, it was entertaining and that’s what I’m here for!

The Blue Hour by Paula Hawkins is such an atmospheric novel! It’s set on an island that is routinely cut off from the world due to the tide blocking any exit routes. This book features a dysfunctional family, messed up friend relationships, and an art mystery that might involve a human bone. I really liked this story and recommend that readers check it out. It makes for perfect dark and stormy fall reading. Read and enjoy!

A very atmospheric thriller that will have you questioning every character and their motives. The story centers around the works of the elusive Vanessa Chapman, a famous artist whose last years were spent in Eris, a remote island only accessible for the twelve hours that the tide was out. A revelation about one of her pieces of work opens the door to the secrets hidden away and safe guarded by Vanessa’s friend and companion, the embittered Grace.
The story is a slow burn, with the Scottish island a haunting character in itself. The stormy remoteness not only sets the mood but provides the added danger and mystique to the setting. The character driven story is woven through a dual timeline with flawed, unreliable and unlikable narrators who lives are an entanglement of deceit and love. The pretentious sophisticated aspects of the art world clash with the simple nature of the people on the island like the waves crashing ashore.
What emerges is a sense of foreboding within this locked-room mystery until reaching its final twisty climax. It was just too much of a slow burn which made it drag in parts for me.
More psychological suspense then thriller, means the suspense relies on the mastery of Hawkins writing. And in that, she does not disappoint.

I always look forward to books by Paula Hawkins - this one was no exception! Hawkins knows how to keep me engaged and turning pages. She turned this into a one sit read for me!

From the first page I was hooked. I enjoyed the art aspect of it and liked the alternating timelines. The short chapters kept me reading. I liked the Vanessa and Grace story line. Grace definitely had some mental issues which contributed to her actions while on the Isle. This book was a slow burn and at times too slow and too wordy. It's interesting to me that a book a little over 300 pages felt much longer than that. Overall a good mystery that had a great ending.

If you tell me a book is set on an isolated Scotish island, I am definitely going to read it. The setting felt like it’s own character throughout, providing for an atmospheric and haunting read. The dynamic between Grace and Becker was so interesting as they both loved Vanessa in their own ways. At the end of the day, I would call this a suspense and not a thriller.

Wow- what a thriller- very cerebral and psychological. I have a slight pet peeve of being trapped and this book really hit a nerve. Living on an island that is cut off to the world depending on the tides would be a recluse's dream. Vanessa, an artist, has her studio there. Posthumously, a human bone is found in one of her pieces and now a mystery starts to unfold. Who's bone is it? How do all these characters intertwine and fit into the story. I found this one to be a very slow burn but still poignant and bothersome on the human condition. Thank you to Mariner Books and Net Galley for an advanced copy.

A slow-burning character-driven mystery that spins an actually fairly straightforward plot into novel length by using a tortuous time framework.

In the present day, James Becker is the curator of a private collection of artwork gifted by the now-deceased Vanessa Chapman to the Lennox family at Fairburn House. When it emerges that one of the pieces features what looks like a human bone, his boss tells him to get up to Eris Island where she lived with her companion Grace, and collect all the remaining notes and artwork that were bequeathed to them.

Second timeline is extracts from Chapman’s diary, somewhat pretentiously labeled as Interstitials. These have no dates on them so we don’t know where exactly they fit into the past. Also in the past, we have snippets of Grace’s history.

Though Becker is ostensibly the protagonist, he’s a bit of a blank. We mainly know him through his convoluted relationship with his employer and his family. Really, Grace is the lead and she is a not unfamiliar type: an embitttered woman who silently seethes about what she sees as all the injustices done to her.

By jumbling all these timelines together, what actually happened to Chapman’s husband, Julian, becomes the big mystery and we are nudged into thinking that’s where the human bone came from. Far too obvious, of course!

The author does a great job in building a creepy and claustrophobic atmosphere, both at Fairburn House and, more notably, on Eris Island. Grace is a terrific flesh and blood version of her stereotype, and while she never transcends that origin, she makes a very heavy presence on the page.

Paula Hawkins, of course, made her name with The Girl on the Train, but none of her subsequent novels have quite lived up to that genre game changer. The Blue Hour doesn’t either, but it’s a step or two closer than her previous ones.

Thanks to Mariner and Netgalley for the digital review copy.