Title: THE WHISPERS
Author: Heidi Perks
ISBN: 978 1529 1570 17
Publisher: Penguin Random House UK
Pages: 396
Source: Private Copy
A MISSING WIFE. FOUR FRIENDS. WHO IS TELLING THE TRUTH?
Anna Robinson hasn’t been seen since she went on a night out with her four closest friends.
She has a loving husband and a son she adores. Surely she wouldn’t abandon them and her perfect life. . .
But what has happened to her?
At the school gates, it’s not long before the rumours start. Anna’s oldest friend Grace is beside herself with worry – desperately searching for answers, and certain that someone is hiding the truth.
With each day that passes, Anna’s life is under increasing threat. And as the pressure mounts, it won’t be long before something cracks. . .
Official Summary
20 September 2023
I am enjoying this author’s work. This is my third Heidi Perks book and already I cannot wait to read another one of her books. When you open this book, you will find yourself consumed by a gripping tale about friendships. The question is which friendships are healthy and which are toxic. You won’t want to close this book before you reach the last page, it’s a brilliant read.
The author jumps around between timelines and characters from one chapter to the next and when starting the book you need to stay focused and keep track of where you are. However, as you get to know the characters keeping up becomes easy. I love the twist in this book. The author tells her story and then whips everything around showing how easily you misunderstood what was coming.
Anna and Grace have been best friends since they were five years old. When Grace moves to Australia at seventeen both girls are destroyed by the idea of being split up. As time passes Anna builds a new life for herself. Until Grace returns to town. Grace wants life to pick up where it was – but Anna has moved on and has new friends. When Anna disappears, it feels as if Grace is the only one who is concerned. However, there is more to Anna’s disappearance, and Grace is the last one to know the truth.
I loved the twist in this story. The author delivers a truly whiplash experience that you never see coming. It was fantastic. I am not sure when last a story surprised me this much.
The women in this book are brilliant. As you read you get to know more and more about them. The jump between timelines creates a slow reveal which means you are never sure what is coming next. You are aware that some of the friendships in this book are not quite healthy, but it takes a while to understand which are the bad ones. This keeps you on the edge of your seat right to the end.
This is only my third Heidi Perks book and the more time I spend reading her work, the more I enjoy her writing. I love the surprises her stories hold. This one is an easy addition to my loved list for 2023.
If you are keen on a brilliant twist, then this is the book for you. The Whispers looks at friendships and shows the effects of a toxic friendship and how it can impact your life. This is a fabulous read you do not want to miss.
Also By Heidi Perks
The Last Resort
Two people.
Two sides of the story.
Whose do you trust?
When Erin and Will start having couples therapy, they hope it will fix the rift that has appeared out of nowhere in their marriage.
Their therapist Maggie can’t work out which of them to believe, and whose truth she can trust.
Then Erin is brought to hospital in a critical condition following a hit and run, and everyone is desperate to unravel the truth.
Because if it isn’t an accident, then someone close to Erin must be responsible . . .
About the Author
Author bio from the author’s site
I’ve always loved reading and writing and for as long as I can remember I’ve been making up stories, poems and even magazines that I’d sell to unsuspecting family members for 20p. I fell in love with Enid Blyton and books like The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles, and somehow managed to get through GCSE’s and A-levels while spending most of the lessons staring out of the window and creating other worlds in my head.
In 1997 I graduated from university and moved up to London to begin a career in marketing. But after three years I moved back down to the south coast and, drawn back to the sea, eventually to my home town of Bournemouth where I still now live with my husband and two children.
After fifteen years of marketing and thrown into the new world of motherhood I decided to make some changes to my life. I left my job in 2012 to look after my family and finally took pen to paper to start writing a novel I’d been thinking about since a holiday six months earlier.
The following year I was accepted onto the inaugural Curtis Brown Creative online Novel Writing Course, which fuelled my desire to become an author even more, and I began writing Beneath The Surface. This was published by Red Door in March 2016.
By then I was already deep in the throes of Now You See Her. I met the amazing Nelle Andrew from PFD who offered me representation and after a year we had two incredible pre-empts for the book from Emily Griffin at Century and Marla Daniels at Simon and Schuster in the US.
Thank you for visiting the blog and reading my review. Are you a Perk’s fan? What is your favourite book? Leave a comment below and I will try to add it to my TBR. I have a copy of Come Back for Me sitting on my TBR which I hope to read soon. I look forward to hearing what you think of this book, so please share your thoughts.
