Five Strangers

This is one of the most interesting books I’ve read so far this year. It’s largely a book about perspective and the perspective of five different characters. Does perspective equal truth? This book does a great job of answering that.

I was not at all prepared for how much I would enjoy Five Strangers!
It is a gorgeous February day, actually, Valentine’s Day and Jen Hunter is waiting for her friend Bex at Hampstead Heath. A day for love turns tragic with no warning as a man murders the woman he was with and then commits suicide. For the five witnesses, it is something that will affect each of their lives and something that none of them will ever forget.
Jen had lost her job and her boyfriend, and even if she was not already having an awful day, this tragedy will have unimaginable repercussions for her. She receives a message asking her if she is certain about what happened at the park. At first, convinced this is obviously someone's idea of a cruel joke, events soon lead her on a journey to find the truth. Is it possible that the five of them have somehow been deceived?
Her investigation uncovers many secrets but as she digs deeper, she slowly fears that she is either losing her grip on reality or that someone once very close to her wants her dead. The more I learned about Jen, the more I questioned whether or not she was an unreliable narrator or if something more sinister was occurring. Told from Jen and Bex's POVs, I found out how far someone would go to fulfill their own sick agenda as I flew through the pages.
You know how you can love a book but also dislike writing a review because you don't want to give anything away. Yep, this is that book. All I will say is that this story took off in a way I never expected.4.5 stars.

Massive surprise! I was hoping for it to be good of course, but I thought this might be a bit generic and wasn't that sure. It did everything perfectly. The writing, the plot, the narrative, the characters, everything! And this it where you see that the difference between a good novel and a great one, are not always about big things, but more in the way the author handle every little details in it and Adamson does it like a master. I definitely recommend it!

Wow, this book should definitely be turned into a movie.. When Jen Hunter and four bystanders witness a horrific murder-suicide in a lovely park, it seems as if it is a cut and dry case. However,Jen,recovering from a horrible break up with her boyfriend and the loss of her job as a blog writer, thinks that she and the witnesses have all missed something. Jen turns to her best friend, Bex, to help her keep from having another mental breakdown and perhaps discover what really happened on that horrible day.
Adamson cleverly reveals more about each character until all is revealed.

We LOVE unreliable narrators! But is everyone unreliable? Can I trust anyone in this story? Oh man, it threw me. It surprised me. It got me. Everything is distorted and only perceived. I loved this book so much.

It’s Valentine’s Day in London and Hampstead Heath is filled with people celebrating the holiday. Suddenly a fight breaks out between a man and woman as they start to yell at each other. This argument then leads to violence that leaves the woman dead and then the man proceeds to commit suicide.

There were five strangers that had observed the entire incident. One of them, Jen Hunter, is a journalist and instinctually questions the facts of the event they had witnessed. Is there more to the story than a simple lover’s quarrel gone wrong?

E.V. Adamson has created a fantastic thriller that will pull you in and keep you guessing. I loved the fast pace and the alternating POV between Bex and Jen, this kept me fully engaged from beginning to end. It was a mental puzzle with all of the pieces falling into place one by one. I can highly recommend this one to thriller/mystery fans!

Many thanks to Scarlet and NetGalley for my ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This review will be posted to my Instagram Blog (@coffee.break.book.reviews) in the near future.