#BookReview: AND SO IT BEGINS by Rachel Abbott @RachelAbbott @headlinepg

Publication: 11th October 2018 (eBook), 15th November 2018 (Hardcover) – Wildfire

Cleo knows she should be happy for her brother Mark. He’s managed to find someone new after the sudden death of his first wife – but something about Evie just doesn’t feel right…

When Evie starts having accidents at home, her friends grow concerned. Could Mark be causing her injuries? Called out to their cliff-top house one night, Sergeant Stephanie King finds two bodies entangled on blood-drenched sheets.

Where does murder begin? When the knife is raised to strike, or before, at the first thought of violence? As the accused stands trial, the jury is forced to consider – is there ever a proper defence for murder?

This was such a gripping and twisty novel. I read it in two days and I stayed up late at night to finish it. The story is completely unpredictable, you never know what is going to happen, and the characters are so well-crafted that I couldn’t help but been drawn to them.

Four protagonists, four women, four different points of views. The story starts with Stephanie. She is a police officer and she is called in the middle of the night to investigate a call from a woman who asked for help. She arrives on the scene and it is a scene she is familiar with because it was the scene of another death a few years back. I liked the character of Stephanie. She is ambitious and meticulous. She knows that there is something missing from her investigation and she doesn’t stop until she finds out what it is. I also enjoyed the few glimpse we get of her personal life and her relationship with her boss.

The second woman is Evie. I couldn’t really figure her out. I knew she was planning for something bad to happen, but I didn’t know what to expect from this character, I didn’t know whether she was telling the truth or not. She remains a complete mystery until the very end, until the final shocking revelation.

Then there is Cleo. Like Evie, Cleo is hiding something, but she is a character that’s much easier to understand. Her mother died when she was young and since then she’s been taking care of her younger brother Mark, protecting him from everything and everyone, included the women in his life. Cleo is the character that it’s better developed in the novel. Her love for Mark borders to obsession and she’s given up her all life to be at his side, ready to do absolutely everything to protect him.

Lastly, there is Harriet. She is a high-profiling lawyer and she volunteers for a women’s shelter where she protects women who are abused by their husbands, boyfriends, fathers. Strong-willed and determined, she is married to her job and she believes in her clients and fights for them.

The novel is captivating, compelling, and very well-written, the setting is very atmospheric, and the author created multi-layered characters that kept me guessing until the end. This is my first novel by Rachel Abbott but I am definitely going to read more because she knows how to keep me glued to the page and I’d like to thank Wildfire Books for accepting my NetGalley request and giving me the chance to read this brilliant and thrilling novel.