Publication: 1st November 2018 – Constable
If everyone is lying, who can you trust?
The Halfway Inn is closed to customers, side-lined by a bypass and hidden deep in inhospitable countryside. One winter’s night, two women end up knocking on the door, seeking refuge as a blizzard takes hold.
But why is the landlord less than pleased to see them? And what is his elderly father trying so hard to tell them?
At the local police station PC Lissa Lloyd is holding the fort while the rest of her team share in the rare excitement of a brutal murder at an isolated farmhouse. A dangerous fugitive is on the run – but how can Lissa make a name for herself if she’s stuck at her desk? When a call comes in saying the local district nurse is missing, she jumps at the chance to investigate her disappearance.
The strangers at Halfway wait out the storm, but soon realise they might have been safer on the road. It seems not all the travellers will make it home for Christmas . . .
“Halfway… a timely reminder for travellers that they are exactly at the midpoint between where they are going and where they are coming from – wherever that is!”
This novel has the perfect setting for a gripping and suspenseful murder story. A small town in the middle of a snowstorm with blocked roads and no phone signal. Add a killer on the loose, people looking for a shelter from the snow, a remote farmhouse, and the landlord of a closed inn who seems to be hiding something, and I found myself spending a Sunday afternoon completely immersed in this novel.
The story is told from three different points of views. One is a young woman with a complicated past and secrets to hide. She is hitch-hiking through the country when she is caught in the snowstorm. A nurse gives her a lift in her car, but from here things get more difficult and darker. Then, there is an old man bedridden by old age and disease. He thinks about his past, his estranged son, and his current obscure situation. And lastly, there is a young and ambitious officer who wants to prove herself and dreams of the bright light of the big city, but she is stuck at her desk. What do these three characters have in common?
The novel is slow-paced but full of tension. Page after page, there is a weird feeling of something bad about to happen that kept me glued to the pages. A series of gruesome murders and the dark atmosphere that frames the story make for a chilling and haunting read.
The characters have a past full of secrets, often disturbing, that are slowly revealed. Although I didn’t find them very likable, the protagonists of the novel are multi-layered, complex, and very well-drawn.
HALFWAY is a dark, claustrophobic, and gripping novel and I’d like to thank Emma Welton for inviting me to take part in the blog tour.
Beverley Jones was born in the Rhondda Valleys, South Wales, and started her ‘life of crime’ as a reporter on The Western Mail before moving into TV news with BBC Wales Today.
She covered all aspects of crime reporting before switching sides as a press officer for South Wales police, dealing with the media in criminal investigations, security operations and emergency planning.
Now a freelance writer she channels these experiences of ‘true crime,’ and the murkier side of human nature, into her dark, psychological thrillers set in and around South Wales.
Halfway, her fifth crime novel follows the release of Where She Went by Little Brown in 2017.
Bev’s previous releases, The Lies You Tell, Make Him Pay and Fear The Dark are also available from Little Brown as e books.
Social Media:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/bevjoneswriting
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bev.jones.9083477
Website: http://bevjoneswriting.co.uk/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34040919-where-she-went
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Beverley-Jones/e/B00F6I6XQG/ref=dp_byline_cont_book_1
Purchase Links:
Waterstones: https://www.waterstones.com/book/halfway/b-e-jones/9781472127914
Foyles: https://www.foyles.co.uk/witem/fiction-poetry/halfway,b-e-jones-9781472127914
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/halfway-5
NOOK: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/halfway-b-e-jones/1129819188?ean=9781472127921
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