Title: Follow Me Down by Sherri Smith
Pages: 443
Published by: Titan Books
Publication date: 21st March 2017
Genre: Thrillers & Mystery
Format: Paperback
Amazon UK – Waterstones
Synopsis:
They say only the guilty run…
Mia never intended to go home again, but has no choice when her twin brother goes missing. Back to the people she left behind, the person she used to be, and the secrets she thought she’d buried.
Her brother Lucas, a popular teacher, has disappeared on the same day as the murdered body of one of his students was pulled from the river. Trying to wrap her head around the rumours of Lucas’s affair with the teenager, and unable to reconcile the media’s vicious portrayal of Lucas with her own memories of him, Mia is desperate to find another suspect.
All the while, she wonders, if he’s innocent, why did he run?
My review:
A huge thank you to Titan Books for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!
When I saw this I knew immediately I had to read it because that cover is amazing and the synopsis is so damn intriguing! Just this sentence “They say only the guilty run…” made me want to read this book! It sounded like the perfect crime thriller because straight away you can tell it has suspense, mystery and flawed characters. From the very first page you are pulled into the story and it is immediately apparent that Mia’s life isn’t perfect. Mia and Lucas had a difficult upbringing and as soon as she gets a phone call from the police she believes it is her mother causing trouble again. But she is shocked to find out the call is about Lucas who seems to live the perfect life. The police believe he murdered a teenage girl and is now on the run. Mia refuses to believe he could murder anyone but she finds herself asking if he is innocent, then why did he run?
Mia is in a very difficult situation because she is forced back to the life she tried to forget about and the only reason she is there is because her brother is the main suspect for murder. On top of that, everyone is watching her because they believe she knows the whereabouts of her brother and is actually covering for him. It was interesting watching how Mia reacted to this because I have a brother and I could never, ever imagine myself in that situation. She is forced to question how well she truly knows her brother, the one person she thought she was closest to. She really has to rely on the bond between siblings and the feeling that you’d know if something had happened to them. I love how strong and determined she was to prove her brothers innocence. She wanted to restore his name and character again. The author got the relationship between siblings spot on in this book! She also has to comes face to face with her mother again and is forced to battle her own personal demons. She constantly relives memories she has with her mother and some of them aren’t pleasant. Lets just say her mother wasn’t a very nice character and played favourites with her kids. So along with Mia trying to prove her brothers innocence she also has to face her mum again after all these years. That made for an interesting subplot and added to Mia’s character development.
I really enjoyed reading from Mia’s perspective because whilst she came across as a strong and resilient character at first, she is actually far from perfect and is a deeply flawed character. Mia self-medicates, she pops pills in secret like there is no tomorrow. There were times when the stress got too much for her so she reached for pills and knocked them back to calm her nerves. I thought this was gave the story a very interesting twist and it really made Mia a likeable character. She knows what she is doing is wrong and she tries to stop herself but she finds herself turning to them time and time again. As the story progresses you start to see the stress getting to Mia and she starts to fall apart but her main goal remains proving her brothers innocence. Everything she does is for her brother and even when she is threatened by other people, she doesn’t burst into tears and run away, she stands and fights for herself and Lucas.
It was interesting because we don’t know what Lucas is like so it constantly made me question if he was the killer or not. All we had were what other people had said about him and what Mia believed to be true. There were times when Mia was an unreliable narrator because she hadn’t seen her brother in years and she popped pills. So I was constantly questioning how well she knew her brother but then the author was throwing more pieces into the puzzle. There would be random hints dropped about other possible suspects so then I was doubting myself and believing it was someone else. As well as finding out about the life Lucas has lived we also find out about the girl who died and if she really was the perfect girl the media portrayed her as. Everything starts to unravel the more Mia investigates behind the police’s back. Shocking secrets are brought to light in this addictive crime thriller!
By the end of the book I felt like I was being spun in all these different directions. I was constantly guessing who the killer was and at one point I was determined I finally had my answer only to be left with my jaw hanging open at the end! I would never, ever in a million years have guessed that ending! I didn’t predict one single twist that happened in this book! It exceeded my expectations and left me reeling. It was suspenseful, thrilling and exciting. I loved every single page I read and I couldn’t put this book down. I would highly, highly recommend it! It’s one of my favourite crime thrillers now.
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