Tuesday, October 22, 2019

Review: Little Voices by Vanessa Lillie



Kerry Hammond is here to give us her review of a new psychological thriller by a debut author.

Little Voices by Vanessa Lillie was published on October 1, in Trade Paperback, by Thomas & Mercer. It is the author’s debut and promised to be a gripping novel psychological suspense. How could I pass up the chance to check out a new author?

Devon didn’t plan for motherhood to happen quite the way it did, with a premature birth and a traumatic delivery that threatened to take both her life and that of her baby girl. When she is finally released from the hospital, rather than enjoy her new family and motherhood, she learns that her friend Belina has been murdered. It happened on the very day she went into labor, the last day she saw Belina. Devon can’t seem to stop thinking about what might have happened and when the police accuse her college friend, Alec, of Belina’s murder, she feels she needs to step in. The problem is, the police are telling her to stay out of it, the voices in her head are telling her she’s a horrible mother, and Alec isn’t telling her the information she needs to clear his name.

Devon was like a dog with a bone as she tried to solve her friend’s murder. We didn’t learn as much about the women’s friendship as I would have liked, but it was clear that Devon’s need to find the killer came from something inside her, some inner turmoil, as much as it did her connection to Belina. As the story progresses, we learn more about Devon’s struggle with the voices in her head and what is really driving her to obsess about the murder.

The novel is set in and around Providence, Rhode Island, amid the fishing boats that struggle to make a living and what appears to be the class structure that exists depending on which side of the city you live. The author drew me into the setting as much as she did the characters and plot. Just when it seemed that every novel takes place in New York City, this one was a pleasant switch to a state that many, like me, know next to nothing about. I could visualize the harsh winter, the sea air, and the fishermen who brave the weather for their next catch. I will definitely look forward to the author’s next book.

This book was provided to Mystery Playground by the publisher. The review was fair and completely independent.

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1 comment:

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