Book Review (No spoilers!)
Behind Her Eyes by Sarah Pinborough

I met Sarah Pinborough at a luncheon. We were both invited to talk about our books, and afterwards I received a copy of her latest – at the time unpublished – book. To be honest, I had never heard of Sarah Pinborough before. If you research her on Wikipedia, you’ll find she writes both Young Adult and Adult thrillers, and has published 20 books. She also writes for television, and has had her work adapted for films. So quite well known. Not sure how I had managed to miss her.

Anyway, I loved her book. I was also given one of her YA books (13 Minutes) and that never appealed – but then I was a young adult a very long time ago.

However, ‘Behind Her Eyes’ was brilliant. If you enjoy books with a lot of suspense, where things happen that you think you ‘almost understand’, then find at the end that everything you thought you knew was wrong, this is a book for you. There was also some humour in the book, which I loved. It is rare to smile when reading a thriller. (Sarah herself is funny, she has a good sense of humour, and this filters into the book. In fact, I thought the main character was very like Sarah, so perhaps she is based a little on herself. Not that I can claim to ‘know’ her, having only met her once.)

Sarah writes well. Her prose is fast flowing and her characters are believable (they also swear quite a lot, so this is not a book my mother would enjoy!) There’s nothing difficult, or ‘clever’ in the book – I don’t think you’ll learn anything (unlike when you read something by someone like John LeCarre, who has obviously researched a topic thoroughly and then woven the knowledge into the story.) However, the plot itself is very clever.

Personally, this is not a book I will reread. If you have a Kindle, I would buy a copy on that. There are some books which have to be owned and can be read time and time again because they are beautifully written. However, this is more a fast read, something to eat up quickly and enjoy in the moment. When you get to the end you will feel slightly stunned, it finishes with a bang. A great book to read when you have an afternoon to yourself and want to indulge in something fun. I will be looking for her other books now, Sarah Pinborough is definitely on my list of ‘favourite authors’.

Behind Her Eyes is published by HarperCollins, and I assume is available now as it was due for release January 2017.