We all have those authors whose books we’ll read without even reading a blurb or description of what they’re about; sometimes not even bothering to look at the title! Well, Lesley Kara is definitely one of the authors who fits into this category for me! So much so that when I started reading this, it took me a couple of pages to realise that I’d actually read it last year when I received a pre-release copy from Penguin Random House SA – but the book I’d read was titled “This Girl, That Girl”!
Rebecca has tentatively returned to her beautiful home, the home that her aunt insisted be built specifically to accommodate Rebecca’s debilitating ME (also known as CFS – Chronic Fatigue Syndrome). Despite the fact that her beloved aunt was murdered in her upstairs apartment by her fiance, who then killed himself, Rebecca is determined to bravely continue living there – even though the murder is much publicised and called “the bedroom bloodbath” and all of the locals continue to walk past and stare at every opportunity they get.
Dee runs a funeral home called Fond Farewell with her friend Lindsay. She’s struggling with some personal issues, as well as trying to keep the business going and organising a memorial event for one of her best friend, Gina who disappeared ten years ago. She really feels like she’s crumbling under all the pressure, and to make things even worse, someone has started posting really nasty things about Fond Farewell on their Facebook page.
When Rebecca approaches Dee about her aunt’s funeral service they strike up a friendship, and when strange events start to occur, they both believe there might be more to her aunt’s death than was originally thought. But Dee is really dealing with a lot right now and with the anniversary of Gina’s death approaching, it seems like Lindsay is going off the rails too: wild, irrational behaviour seem to be her way of dealing with things, while Dee would prefer that they both stay focused, both on the business and in planning a memorial event befitting their friend. Once she realises that Rebecca’s aunt briefly taught Gina, and may have mentored her, she starts to dig deeper into discovering what the connection between the two really was, and if Gina’s disappearance and the murder upstairs could be connected.
Told from the alternate points of view of Rebecca and Dee, the reader is able to see the full back-story develop. Kara does this so well, slowly weaving the two stories together until we see the whole picture. The suspense builds right from the very first chapter and even though you don’t know where things are heading, you know that when the truth is revealed, it’s going to be shocking!
Lesley Kara never disappoints! This is a great 4-star read. Thanks to Random Things Tours for the blog tour. Take a look at what other bloggers are saying about The Apartment Upstairs …
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