There are a lot of subplots in the book, too, including racial tensions between Nell and Macy's family, and the Police. She was about 11 years old when the murder of the Brighton Mermaid happened and she's also been holding in a major secret for nearly 25 years which has clearly taken a massive toll on her. Personally, one of the strengths of this book is how it weaves it into the story; without becoming a non-fiction book on modern society, it simply reflects out society (accurately, as I believe) in the context of a fictional story and that’s what gives the message all its power. The Brighton Mermaid, although an emotional thriller with some highly tense and threatening moments still feels, to me, like a love letter to my home city – Brighton.

His lips drew back as he loaded more of his poison-tipped words into his bow, ready to fire them at me. He has his own nightmare following this event and eventually moves to a more remote village where Macy has troubles of her own. The narrative is steady at the start to set the scene and then the pace quickens to the point where by the last third of the book I just could not put it down until I had finished it.

The Brighton Mermaid is an extraordinary story told across two time lines when in 1993 Nell and Jude find the body of a young girl on the beach . A great cast of characters and some pretty gritty themes feature throughout the book: institutional racism, coercion, OCD, anxiety, guilt/obligation, privilege, abuse, how vulnerable people can slip between the cracks of society. Loved the tantalising secrets and viewpoints of the different characters on other characters which kept you off-balance and guessing all the way through and I did not guess what it was all about or who could be trusted until the reveal which was good.

I haven't read any books by this author before and really enjoyed the start, thinking it was going to go beyond the usual crime thriller and encompass racism generally and particularly in the Police in the 1990s. Someone seems to be watching her every move, and soon she starts to wonder who in her life she can actually trust . years later, as the Brighton Mermaid anniversary is approaching, Nell quits her long term job, after being backed up into a nasty corner by a certain stalker, to find out who murdered the Brighton Mermaid, and also to discover what happened to her best friend Jude.O primeiro livro que li da autora foi Os Muitos Nomes do Amor, tinha acabado de sair e eu li-o num abrir e fechar de olhos. Our lead character, Nell, is a Black woman, so she receives the wrath of policeman John Pope on both counts. There is so much going on and lots of layers in this book, but everything slots in like a jigsaw piece. It had been building to a fast paced, action packed, adrenalin fuelled finale where all those burning questions that you will have from reading the rest of the book get some answers. Our range of treatments will tempt you if you’ve never experienced beauty treatment before and thrill the most seasoned of visitors!

Não é que nunca tivesse ouvido falar de Dorothy Koomson, mas nunca tinha tido grande motivação para ler os seus livros, muito embora toda a gente falasse bem.Por vezes, acho que tenho duas pessoas dentro da minha cabeça - a que faz coisas disparatadas e a outra que não a impede de as fazer. I am a huge fan of Dorothy Koomson, having loved the other novels I've read by her (including The Ice Cream Girls and The Friend), so I was incredibly excited to get the chance to read her newest release, The Brighton Mermaid. It was exhausting, and I sometimes look back and wonder what I was thinking, what type of madness had taken over my brain to do that to myself.

Quem como eu segue a escrita da Dorothy Koomson, repara que desde o último livro "A Amiga", a sua forma de escrita tem mudado, tendo-se evidenciado neste livro. Dorothy’s writing has moved on a great deal since that book and she is one of the few authors writing who has managed to change genres very successfully.

Nell and Jude’s lives change overnight and whilst Nell struggles to understand why the police are convinced that she and her family have something to do with the body, Jude disappears. Ao saber que haveria mais um livro da Dorothy Koomson não resisti: precisava de ler e saber como estava a escrita da Dorothy. Someone is hell-bent on the truth not coming out, seeming to know all her next steps and her paranoia increases. And as the story developed I realised that even the explicit scenes had a role within the storytelling. Além de ficarem traumatizadas com o que presenciam, são exaustivamente interrogadas pela polícia que desconfia que elas estejam relacionadas com o homicídio.