Behind Her Eyes - Sarah Pinborough

Genre: Thriller/Paranormal/Mystery
Synopsis: Why is everyone talking about the ending of Sarah Pinborough's Behind Her Eyes? Louise is a single mom, a secretary, stuck in a modern-day rut. On a rare night out, she meets a man in a bar and sparks fly. Though he leaves after they kiss, she’s thrilled she finally connected with someone. When Louise arrives at work on Monday, she meets her new boss, David. The man from the bar. The very married man from the bar…who says the kiss was a terrible mistake but who still can’t keep his eyes off Louise. And then Louise bumps into Adele, who’s new to town and in need of a friend, but she also just happens to be married to David. David and Adele look like the picture-perfect husband and wife, but then why is David so controlling, and why is Adele so scared of him?

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Review: After hearing rave reviews for this novel in advance of its release - and having liked previous novels by Pinborough - I eagerly awaited the release of this so I too could read this mindboggling twist ending that nobody sees coming. Despite the fairly generic setup the synopsis hints at, I put my faith in Pinborough that this would be no ordinary thriller.

Well, it's definitely no ordinary thriller. It's hardly even a thriller.

The book starts off relatively well - the writing is fine - well-paced, easy to read and it draws you in, which are the three main things you want from a thriller. None of the characters are particularly likeable, but they don't necessarily need to be - that said, these characters are also pretty flat. As Louise inexplicably decides to get further and further wound up in the lives of a weird married couple instead of acting like a rational person, unusual events begin to take place in addition to the gradual reveal of a slightly convoluted backstory...

I'm not going to spoil it, but I'm not going to leave it entirely spoiler free, either. The glaring issue with this book is that is it a poor mishmash of genres which ultimately shoe-horns in a final couple of twists using a plot device that is not even known to be an option before it actually happens. This was a double-barrel disappointment for me, as the mishmash withdrew all credibility from the novel and ultimately the shock value of the story is founded on an unsunstantiated cop-out.

All in all, very disappointing.

Rating: 2/5 

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