What a twist

I really enjoyed this book. It switches between 2 ain characters view point over 2 time periods. I was actually devastated by the twist without giving too much away .

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1 person found this helpful

Twists and turns

The twists and turns keep you wondering to the very end and they don’t disappoint!

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Very good.

I didn’t see that coming!!!! Very good indeed!!!! All that they said, and more. Well done all round.

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Wow

the book takes a little while to get into, but goodness once you’re into it you’re right into it. So so good!

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A bit of a struggle

This took a long time to finish. The initial court scenes were painful and cringe worthy but the book improved dramatically once I got through these chapters. The whole eclipse thing as well as some of the characters motivations were also quite ridiculous. However the twists and overall story was ok. The performances were good. 3.5 star overall

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4 people found this helpful

tense, claustrophobic and clever mystery

I’m not sure exactly what made me pick out He Said / She Said from my Alpine TBR list, only that I am really glad that I finally picked it up, and that I went into this completely blind. What a great mystery! As soon as Laura and Kit made their appearance, I knew that I was going to like this book. Do you find that sometimes you just instantly bond with a character / characters? I love it when protagonists stand out from the fray through some unusual quirk or characteristic that makes them interesting and three-dimensional. In this case, Laura and Kit are both eclipse chasers, people who will sacrifice their time and savings to travel the world to view total solar eclipses. Apparently, only those who are located in the path of the moon’s full shadow can see a total solar eclipse, which makes people traverse continents to be in the right spot at the right time. Who knew? Who also knew the four different phases of an eclipse, which draw parallels to the very distinctive parts of this clever story of danger and suspense?

Kit and Laura’s story starts with the total solar eclipse of August 11, 1999, on the Lizard peninsula in Cornwall, when they are both only twenty-one years old and freshly in love. Many mysteries rely on the characters’ bad luck of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and sadly, for Kit and Laura this auspicious day will turn out to be their undoing. Not only is the eclipse “clouded out”, with weather conditions impairing visibility, but a chance encounter shortly after the eclipse will change their lives forever and see them go into hiding afraid of ... well, you will need to read it to find out!

I love novels that describe situations that could happen to anyone and that have life-changing implications. What would I do in that position? How would I react? The question was ever present in my mind as Laura and Kit try to live with the fallout of the incident at Lizard Point, which is being slowly unmasked through Laura’s and Kit’s retellings of the past through both POVs. I will not go into the plot at all, because anything may spoil the surprise for someone, and the novel hinges strongly on plot twists and surprises – so if you are a fan of that particular genre (like I am) you are in luck! In fact, the twists are so clever and so sneaky that the book easily makes it onto my “brilliant twist” list, and I am not usually easily impressed.

He Said / She Said is a slow burning, character driven mystery with a constant undercurrent of menace and danger that had me totally enthralled and gave me goosebumps. I am so glad that I listened to this novel on audio, which gave me the opportunity to fully immerse myself in the atmosphere of its tense narrative. A rich cast of supporting characters who were as compelling as Kit and Laura themselves, and the interesting background of the solar eclipse chasing scene added additional depth and interest for me, and I looked forward to every minute I could spend in my car listening. For me, these sort of atmospheric, tense and claustrophobic mysteries are the best kind, and I gasped out loud a few times as the couple stumble along their path towards their undoing. For lovers of courtroom drama, there was also an interesting and confronting courtroom scene, but again I cannot elaborate for fear of giving something away – let me tell you though that it was an eye opener!

So, before I open my big mouth and gush out a secret, I will try and sum this up in a few words: this tense, claustrophobic and clever mystery is a must-read for lovers of slow-burning, character driven, twisty psychological thrillers. It messed with my mind, which is the best compliment I can pay to any book in the genre. The only reason this was not a 5-star read for me was the ending, which was a bit too drawn out for me, as the author tried to tie up all loose ends but in my opinion ended up over-explaining things when a full-stop could have kept me reeling in shock and surprise. A minor quibble. I loved it. Thank you, and I will definitely pick up other titles by the author!

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1 person found this helpful

Wow!

What an amazing story. I really enjoyed this. Found it slow to start but found myself yelling out “what!” And then replaying it to make sure I was there!

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look forward to the ending.

beginning is very slow with too much explanation which feels unnecessary. some parts of the story feel like they've been dragged a bit too long. as you come closer to the end though most of the explanations fall into places. the ending is filled with twists and turns bit on some level it feels like everything is crammed into couple of chapters. overall good book though and the story is also interesting.

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Excellent

I listen to a lot of books within this genre and found this one to be particularly good. The narration is excellent and the story had me hooked from the early stages. It was one I struggled to put down.

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Great thriller!

I really didn’t see the twists coming. Great narration and compelling characters. Very unexpectedly good!!

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