Item: The Suspect
Rating: 3.5
Author: Suzanne

Early Review: THE SUSPECT by Fiona Barton

January 21, 2019/14 Comments/by Suzanne

The Suspect by Fiona Barton

Series: Kate Waters #3
Published by Berkley Books on January 22, 2019
Genres: Mystery, Thriller
Pages: 416
Source: Netgalley
Amazon
Goodreads

FTC Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley. All opinions are my own.

THE SUSPECT review

Fiona Barton’s latest thriller The Suspect is the third book in her popular Kate Waters series. In this novel, we follow journalist Kate Waters as she investigates what has happened to two teenage girls who have gone missing while traveling in Thailand. Kate is an ambitious journalist – she always wants to be the one to get the exclusive and be the first to discover the truth. This case is no different, although it does have the added motivation that it would have her traveling to Thailand.

Why is Thailand such a draw for Kate? Because that’s where her estranged son has been living for the past two years. She hasn’t seen him even once in those two years and he rarely ever tries to contact her or his dad and is evasive the few times he has spoken to them. Kate is hoping this investigation will give her the opportunity to check in on him herself and hopefully convince him to come home.

Kate decides that getting close to the families of the missing girls is the best way to ensure she is at the forefront and has access as the pieces of the investigation start to form a picture of what has happened to the girls. At first this seems like a brilliant move, but then the investigation takes an unexpected turn that has her regretting her decision to get so close to these families.

The Suspect is a suspenseful story that kept me reading late into the night. I knew just based on the novel’s title that a crime had potentially been committed, so as soon as I read that two teens had gone missing in a foreign country, I couldn’t put the book down until I knew what had happened to the girls and who was responsible.

The story itself was engaging because the fear of losing a child is a fear that all parents can relate to. Barton does a particularly good job of depicting the two sets of parents and how frantic with worry they are. There are several scenes where they get emotional and lash out at each other, desperately looking for someone to blame. The raw emotions in those scenes felt very real, and it was easy to put myself in these parents’ place and imagine what they were going through.

Another aspect of the story that I thought was very well done was the way Barton chooses to present the story from four different points of view – Detective Sparkes (who appears regularly in this series and often works with Kate), so that we get law enforcement’s perspective on the investigation, and of course, Kate so that we also get the media’s perspective. In addition to those two points of view, we also hear from the mother of one of the missing girls and from one of the missing girls, Alex. I loved the depth and the added layers that each perspective brought to the story. Any more than four POVs might have gotten too confusing to keep track of, but these four really came together to paint a full picture of what happened and to show how each piece fell into place. Alex’s perspective was particularly effective since we can witness firsthand the days and weeks leading up to the girls’ disappearance.

All of these elements made for a well-paced read that I didn’t want to put down.

Even though I enjoyed the story overall, I did have some mixed feelings about The Suspect, the first being that I found it hard to connect with Kate Waters. I experienced the same thing with the second book in the series. I like Kate well enough and I think she’s a talented journalist, but even three books in, I still just don’t feel like I really know much about her. In that sense, the books remind me of procedural crime dramas where the characters take a backseat to the crimes being investigated. There’s obviously nothing wrong with that and from a mystery standpoint, the story is fantastic, but because I prefer to feel some kind of a connection to the main characters, I found that aspect a little lacking in The Suspect.

One other issue I had was that I felt like we learned what happened to the girls a little too soon. I know the book is called The Suspect and therefore implies that the suspect is the primary focus, but I just would have preferred a little more buildup to the reveal of the crime.

The Suspect is another riveting mystery from Fiona Barton. Even with the couple of issues I had with it, I still found the story very engaging and wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to anyone looking for a good thriller.

GOODREADS SYNOPSIS:

The new must-read standalone crime thriller from the author of Sunday Times bestseller, The Widow, and the Richard & Judy No. 1 bestseller, The Child – featuring unforgettable journalist, Kate Waters.

The police belonged to another world – the world they saw on the television or in the papers. Not theirs.

When two eighteen-year-old girls go missing on their gap year in Thailand, their families are thrust into the international spotlight: desperate, bereft and frantic with worry.

Journalist Kate Waters always does everything she can to be first to the story, first with the exclusive, first to discover the truth – and this time is no exception. But she can’t help but think of her own son, who she hasn’t seen in two years since he left home to go traveling. This time it’s personal.

And as the case of the missing girls unfolds, they will all find that even this far away, danger can lie closer to home than you might think

About Fiona Barton

In Barton’s own words…

“My career has taken some surprising twists and turns over the years. I have been a journalist – senior writer at the Daily Mail, news editor at the Daily Telegraph, and chief reporter at The Mail on Sunday, where I won Reporter of the Year at the National Press Awards, gave up my job to volunteer in Sri Lanka and since 2008, have trained and worked with exiled and threatened journalists all over the world.

But through it all, a story was cooking in my head.

The worm of my first book infected me long ago when, as a national newspaper journalist covering notorious crimes and trials, I found myself wondering what the wives of those accused really knew – or allowed themselves to know.

It took the liberation of my career change to turn that fascination into a tale of a missing child, narrated by the wife of the man suspected of the crime, the detective leading the hunt, the journalist covering the case and the mother of the victim.

Much to my astonishment and delight, The Widow was published in 36 countries and made the Sunday Times and New York Times Best Seller lists.

It gave me the confidence to write a second book ,The Child, in which I return to another story that had intrigued me as a journalist. It begins with the discovery of a newborn’s skeleton on a building site. It only makes a paragraph in an evening newspaper but for three women it’s impossible to ignore.

The Child will be published in June 2017 and I am embarking on my next novel. My husband and I are still living the good life in south-west France, where I am writing in bed, early in the morning when the only distraction is our cockerel, Titch, crowing.”

Website | Facebook | Goodreads

Discussion: Setting Blogging Goals and Managing Expectations in 2019

January 17, 2019/50 Comments/by Suzanne

It’s that time again. Time to reflect on what I accomplished with my blog last year and where I hope to take it in 2019. Overall, I’m very happy with where I am with my blog. After almost three years of blogging, I feel like my blog is a good reflection of what I’m all about, at least in the bookish sense anyway. Every year I feel like I become a little more comfortable with what I’m doing and worry less about comparing myself to others. I know what I am and I know what I’m not, so this year I’m gearing my goals towards tweaking a few things here and there about myself as a blogger that will challenge me a little without turning blogging into a chore rather than a love.

CONSISTENCY. I have long since figured out that I will never be one of those amazing bloggers who is able to post every day of the week. I’ve only accomplished that a couple of times in my nearly three years of blogging and I just found it to be way too stressful. So instead of trying to post every day, my goal for this year is continue to improve on my consistency. Four posts a week is usually easily manageable for me, even if I have a lot going on in my personal life, but I’d like to stretch myself a little more this year and try to consistently get to five posts every week and occasionally even six as time allows.

REALISTIC EXPECTATIONS. I always aspire to be one of those super organized bloggers who has their posts scheduled way ahead and every year I fail miserably. 2019 is the year to finally admit to myself that blogging way ahead is just never going to happen. Although I might be a great planner in my own mind, I’m the absolute worst at actually executing the plans I make. The majority of the posts I write are done the night before they are scheduled to go live. I’m just a procrastinator at heart. Always have been, always will be. So, my goal in this area is basically to take an organizational baby step and try to get three or four posts scheduled ahead. I’ve done it for the past two weeks and although it will take some getting used to, I do like that it has freed up my time each evening so that I can more easily blog hop and/or read. We’ll see how long I can keep it up. Wish me luck!

via GIPHY

FOCUS. When it comes to social media, I’ve tried and failed at pretty much every platform. I’m just a socially awkward person and I’m never going to do more than sporadically post on either twitter or Facebook. In 2018, however, I did finally start my own Bookstagram account, and while I don’t have many followers yet and don’t post as often as I probably should, this is actually a platform that doesn’t make me feel like the Queen of Awkwardness. I love taking bookish photos and looking at everyone else’s photos. I find it almost therapeutic. All of that said, my goal for 2019 is to focus my social media attention on that Bookstagram account (posting more consistently, commenting on other posts, etc.).

SELF CONTROL. Yep, you probably know where I’m going with this one. I’ve finally gotten to the point where I do get approved for a fair number of ARCs on Netgalley. The temptation to go hog wild and request everything under the sun is always there, but I’m determined to exercise better self control in 2019. I love to read and review ARCs but I also have a major goal this year of clearing out more of my backlist so I’m aiming for a better balance between ARC reading and reading books I’ve purchased.

BE MORE SELECTIVE. Along similar lines with not requesting too many ARCs, I’m also aiming to be more selective in terms of the blog tours I take part in and in the challenges I join. My goal is to only take part in tours for ARCs I already have a copy of, or for books I’m definitely interested in reading that publishers I work with have invited me to take part in. I’m also trying to be more selective in the challenges I take part in. I want to read more audiobooks this year, read more from my backlist, read more retellings, and write more discussion posts so I have chosen only those challenges that I think will help me achieve those goals.

via GIPHY

So that’s what I’m hoping to see on my blog in 2019. Wish me luck!

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Have you set goals for yourself for the upcoming year? Do we share any?

Top Ten Tuesday – Top 10 New-to-Me Authors in 2018

January 15, 2019/38 Comments/by Suzanne

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Top Ten Tuesday has been one of my favorite memes ever since I started blogging, so huge thanks to Jana for taking over the hosting duties!

This week’s TTT topic is Top 10 New-to-Me Authors in 2018. I read a lot of great new authors last year, especially because I was taking part in a challenge to read more debut authors. In addition to debut authors, who are of course new to everyone, however, I also tried to make a point to read a lot of authors who have been around for a while but I just hadn’t gotten to yet. I read way more than ten of those as well, but below is a list of my favorites and what books of theirs I read. If you’re fans of these authors, I’d love recs on which of their books I should try next!

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