A Double Life
by Flynn Berry
Claire is a hardworking doctor leading a simple, quiet life in London. She is also the daughter of the most notorious murder suspect in the country, though no one knows it.
Nearly thirty years ago, while Claire and her brother slept upstairs, a brutal crime was committed in her family's townhouse. The next morning, her father's car was found abandoned near the English Channel, with bloodstains on the front seat. Her mother insisted she'd seen him in the house that night, but his powerful, privileged friends maintained his innocence. The first lord accused of murder in more than a century, he has been missing ever since.
When the police tell Claire they've found him, her carefully calibrated existence begins to fracture. She doesn't know if she's the daughter of a murderer or a wronged man, but Claire will soon learn how far she'll go to finally find the truth.
Loosely inspired by one of the most notorious unsolved crimes of the 20th century - the Lord Lucan case - A Double Life is at once a riveting page-turner and a moving reflection on women and violence, trauma and memory, and class and privilege.
❃❃A Double Life releases July 31st❃❃
Kobo
Momma Says: 2 stars ⭐⭐
The blurb for A Double Life caught my attention, especially with it being loosely based on an unsolved murder. However, the execution came up lacking for me. The story is a mix of past and present with the past story being told in a series of flashback-like scenes. I agree that the past story needed to be told, but the changes from present to past and back again are abrupt and without any warning. That combined with a choppy writing style made the story confusing and was distracting at best. For me, it felt a bit like Claire was scatterbrained, which may have been the idea, but it just didn't work for me. There is some mystery, but I wouldn't necessarily call this one a thriller unless Claire's behavior counts as thrilling. A bit out there, yes, but I wouldn't say that it had that thriller quality. There is a thrilling scene toward the end that could've saved this one for me had the story ended at around the 97% mark. Instead, it went on to bring in a couple of characters that in my opinion were completely unnecessary. One of those did answer a question raised earlier in the story, but with what had already happened, I didn't quite understand the point. All in all, this one had great potential that just wasn't realized.
❃❃ARC provided by NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP Viking
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