Peek-a-boo I see you…
When five-year-old Helen Stephens witnesses her mother’s murder, her whole world comes crumbling down. Rejected by her extended family, Helen is handed over to child services and learns to trust no-one but herself. Twenty years later, her mother’s killer is let out of jail, and Helen swears vengeance.
Jason Moody runs a halfway house, desperate to distance himself from his father’s gangster dealings. But when Helen shows up on his doorstep, he decides to dig into her past, and risks upsetting some very dangerous people.
As Helen begins to question what really happened to her mother, Jason is determined to protect her. But Helen is getting too close to someone who’ll stop at nothing to keep the truth hidden …
The Elephant Girl begins with the murder of five year old Helen's mother, and Helen witnessing it albeit hazily as she suffers an epileptic fit probably due to the trauma, therefore she is later classed as an unreliable witness by the police. She does remember seeing her mother's best friend Fay there holding the knife and covered in blood, as Fay is high on drugs and mentally unstable she cannot remember what she has done and is arrested for murder.
Fast forward twenty years and Helen has escaped to Goa having lived a miserable life, pushed from pillar to post in care, not able to trust anyone and rejected by her mother's family. She receives a visit from her step-grandmother's solicitor asking her to return home which she vehemently refuses, so he leaves her with the cryptic message that Fay has been released...
As expected, she hotfoots it back to the UK, and with one thing in mind - revenge!
I really don't want to say any more as I don't want to ruin the plot for anyone!
As I expected the storyline is fantastic, I thoroughly enjoyed Henriette's first book - Up Close and had high expectations for The Elephant Girl, which did not disappoint!
It's a real page turner, the twists are brilliant and the plot is very well thought out. I thought I had rumbled who was to blame twice through the book, I was wrong on both accounts!
I loved the characters, especially Fay and Lee. They all had personalities which shone out, even the bad guys! Mainly, I enjoyed seeing Helen's character grow, the friendships she forged, especially with Charlie, and the bond grow between her and Aggie. I really felt for Helen with the stigma she always carried from being an epilepsy sufferer and feeling to blame for her mother's death, which I thought was well researched.
I would definitely recommend this book, you won't want to put it down!
