Her Best Friend - Sarah Wray || Netgalley Review

Two girls. A murder. And a secret that binds them forever. As a teenager, Sylvie Armstrong’s life was shattered when her best friend, Victoria Bland, was murdered. The killer has never been caught – and Sylvie has never spoken about what happened that day.

 Now, two decades have gone by and after the death of her mother, Sylvie is forced to return to her home town, along with her newborn daughter – only to be confronted by the secrets that she has been running from for twenty years. But then Sylvie receives the locket Victoria was wearing on the night she died – and it becomes clear that somebody knows what really happened to Victoria.

 As Sylvie struggles to discover the truth behind the lies, she finds herself in increasing danger from those who will stop at nothing to keep their secrets. Someone who threatens not only Sylvie, but everything she loves...

Review

Victoria and Sylvie were best friends, most of their life so when she turns up in the lake having been up there on the early hours the night of a family party – it effects not only Sylvie but the community in which the girls live and mostly their families. Sylvie hasnt been back for a long long time, having severed ties with her mother so is shocked to discover she has left her house to her.

Overwhelmed with grief as she returns to the family home, she is shocked not only with the home but with the fact a gold heart locket has turned up, and this is the locket that belonged to Victoria and someone out their knows what actually happened to her.

Whilst Sylvie is struggling to deal with all this and look after her baby who just doesnt seem to settle, we meet Sam a freelance journalist who since loosing his actual job he has decided to put his time and effort into making documentaries after the surge in popularity of true crime (making a murderer im looking at you!)

With that, he starts of with visiting the Lake and meeting with Victorias family and essentially following “links” like a detective would. With people offering up the vaguest advice and suggestions, he is starting to hit a dead end. Meanwhile things are building up for Sylvie.

Her best friend was a gripping page turner with an unexpected outcome, whilst in parts I found bits preditiable and I felt sometimes characters were introduced just because however as I started to discover them I felt they all served a purpose. Sylvie was an interesting character to get to know. I really struggled to work her out and I enjoyed learning about her. I also found that we learnt about Victoria (not the baby) as it all unfolded.

The narrative is told over different time frames, the past and present and it leads up to “that day” I stayed up well into the night to finish this because I couldnt wait another day to finish reading it. I know that it is a sure fire hit if I stay up past bedtime to finish a book because lets be honest, I love sleep.

Her Best Friend is a gripping thriller which leads the reader all over and finishes with a bang. I would totally recommend this to everyone, I was not expecting it to be anywhere near as good as it was.