"I don't know what your book club is like, but mine is the sort that ends up with me stranded naked in the river with a dead man and a murderer on the loose”.
What a hilarious and unexpected opening to this captivating thriller Black River by Joss Sterling (this is literally the first sentence of Chapter One). I went into this read completely neutral and unsure of what to expect. If you asked me which genre of fiction, I would say it’s a character-driven crime thriller, however, it doesn’t neatly fit in the crime thriller box, there’s something extra in there. Almost like a Bridget Jones, Columbo, No1 Ladies Detective Agency mashup which is extremely refreshing.
It moves from lighter funnier moments, to chilling so jaw-droppingly quickly at points, it will make you do a double take. It scared me a few times as well which again, I wasn’t expecting. Suffice to say I’m not inclined to go wild swimming anytime soon!
The setting of Oxford works really well and is accurately portrayed – the author Jess Stirling lives there, and you can tell. If you’ve visited Oxford, you’ll really feel it pouring out from the pages and that just adds yet another great surprise to the overall atmosphere because you’re thinking what, in Oxford?
I’m a huge fan of a multi-perspective plot and this one does not disappoint. We hear from Jess, Michael, Leo, and there are many other characters, learning quite a lot about them in a short space of time.
Let’s talk about our main protagonist Jess Bridges. She’s gutsy yet at times vulnerable, sharp, funny/sarcastic, impulsive, and a magnet for unusual situations. Weirdly very relatable. Given this is the first time we meet Jess I felt we really get to know her in this book, there’s more to come but you get a really good sense of who she is and what’s going on in her life. I also really enjoyed the fact that this book had some strong female characters in a non-cliched or forced way – Jess is good at what she does and thinking on her feet, she’s not just sitting around waiting to be rescued.
There are strong characters here regardless of gender which was also great – many different layers and examples of power struggles come into play, familial, in various professional settings, on set, in the force, between old colleagues. And considering there are so many things going on all the strands of the subplots are woven together well.
This is a tense and gripping whodunit of a tale, that had me suspicious of everyone at one point! I worked who the murderer was [no I’m not going to spoil it] but it wasn’t predictable and did make sense which is very satisfying.
I definitely want to continue with the next books in the series and can’t wait to see where Jess finds herself next…
This was my first OMCReadalong and I loved it so a big thank you to the OneMoreChapter team and Netgalley for my ARC.
Comments