His & Hers by Alice Feeney

 

"There are two sides to every story: yours and mine, ours and theirs, His & Hers. Which means someone is always lying."

When you start a book with one such amazing hook, you know you are going to have a good reading experience.

A body of a woman is found on the bonnet of a car. Stabbed multiple times. Such a heinous crime is beyond one's imagination anywhere in the world. And if it was happening in a small town like Blackdown, a tiny British village, tongues would wag and that is not a helpful thing for an ongoing investigation. 

Anna Andrews, a local reporter and news reader has come to cover it. Interestingly, its her hometown. Jack Harper, is the Detective in charge of the murder investigation and he has his eyes on Anna. Anna asks questions that have not even been released to the press. So how on earth does she know what to ask?

What is making matters worse is Jack was having a clandestine affair with the murdered woman. He didn't kill her. But, she was killed the night they had met!

Before Jack and his colleague Detective Priya Patel can get to the bottom of the first murder investigation, another woman is killed. Same modus operandi. But, why?

The common thing between the two murders is that they were classmates. Part of a larger group of five girls; Anna being one of them. 

Anna, by the way is Jack's estranged/ex wife. So has she come back to Blackdown from London to get to the bottom of the affair that Jack was supposedly having? How much does Anna know about these women who were murdered? Three more to go, herself included. 

The book is divided between His & Her version. And then there is a killer who is also narrating some bit of the story. Is this another person? Or is it Jack or Anna themselves? Whose version is the truth? 

To know answers to so many questions, you'd have to read/listen to this book. As for me, I watched the Netflix series and then read the book. I preferred the series as I felt the narration lacked emotion. It was more reporting rather than being perturbed that something so horrific was going on in their lives. The series of course was adapted for a show and excluded unnecessary details that was mentioned in the book. The story line is good and ending even better. Be ensured that your wildest guess would be incorrect too!

I loved some of the dialogues/quotes from the book:

“I think when we finally get what we think we want, it loses its value. It's the secret nobody ever shares, because if they did, we would all stop trying.”

“We all have cracks, the little dents and blemishes that life makes in our hearts and minds, cemented by fear and anxiety, sometimes plastered over with fragile hope. I choose to hide the vulnerable sides of myself as well as I’m able at all times. I choose to hide a lot of things.

The only people with no regrets are liars.”

“Parents spend their youth trying to understand their children; children spend their adulthood trying to understand their parents.”

“You can’t help someone find their way if they won’t admit they’re lost.”