One of our Books of the Year 2015.
October 2015 Debut of the Month.
An intriguing and successful experiment in presenting a crime thriller from a different angle, Richmond's accomplished debut encourages the reader to become the sleuth. Alice Salmon dies in what initially appears a tragic case of drowning. An academic tries to assemble the pieces together and get to the bottom of the mystery and we follow his attempts through the traces of herself Alice scattered in her wake, online and elsewhere: tweets, newspaper cuttings, blogs, diaries, letters, emails. An ever-shifting perspective blurs before the reader's eyes until the whole begins to coalesce and unpeels layers and layers of deceipt and secrets. Another variation on the currently thriving unreliable female narrator bandwagon but one that makes it work in a unique manner. Will give you a lot of second thoughts about what you leave behind in your own day to day life! Genuinely chilling. ~ Maxim Jakubowski
The Lovereading view...
This is likely to be one of 2015's most haunting and unforgettable debuts. Accident, murder or suicide? The whole mystery of Alice Salmon’s death is revealed in a series of letters from Professor Jeremy Cooke to an old friend which he never sends (why?) and Alice’s diaries, tweets, blogs, Facebook entries, emails, newspaper articles and the like. This adds a huge amount of suspense to the tale. Alice is fairly unstable, self-harming in her teens. She uses her diary for release, like blood-letting, but how reliable is her narrative? She was a young journalist (25) when she died. Jeremy Cooke had a long ago affair with her mother and knew Alice at university. He wants to write about her final days/hours, hence his research. The police are completely baffled! This shocking story of love, loss and obsession where everyone - including himself - has something to hide. It is a great read.
| Primary Genre | Thriller and Suspense |
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This is the year's most haunting and unforgettable debut. Who is Alice Salmon? Student. Journalist. Daughter. Lover of late nights, hater of deadlines. That girl who drowned last year. Gone doesn't mean forgotten. Everyone's life leaves a trace behind. But it's never the whole story. I will stand up and ask myself who I am. I do that a lot. I'll look in the mirror. Reassure myself, scare myself, like myself, hate myself. My name is Alice Salmon. When Alice Salmon died last year, the ripples from her tragic drowning could be felt in the news, on the internet, and in the hearts of those closest to her. However, the man who knows her best isn't family or a friend. His name is Dr Jeremy Cooke, an academic fixated on piecing together Alice's existence. Cooke knows that faithfully recreating Alice, through her diaries, text messages, and online presence, has become all-consuming. But he does not know how deep his search will take him into this shocking story of love, loss and obsession where everyone - including himself - has something to hide ...T. R. Richmond is an award-wining journalist who's written for local, regional and national newspapers, magazines and websites.
What She Left features in the following genres: Thriller and Suspense, Books with reviews by our Reader Review Panel, Crime and Mystery, Debut Books of the Month, Modern and Contemporary Fiction, eBooks of the Month, Book Club Recommendations, Fiction, Recommendations, General Fiction
What She Left is available in Paperback, Hardback
What She Left was written by T. R. Richmond and published by Penguin Books Ltd
What She Left has 374 pages
£15.29
