Title: Did You See Melody?

Author: Sophie Hannah

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 330

Rating: 3/5

Here we have another one of Sophie Hannah’s thriller novels, and by this point I’m starting to wonder whether there’s actually any value for me to continue reading them. It’s not that they’re bad – in fact, far from it – but they are pretty generic. I find that that’s generally the case for most thrillers, to be honest.

Hannah’s pretty good at one specific thing, though, which is that she teases us with the back story and uses the rest of the book to slowly reveal it. In this case, we’re following a main character who’s left her husband and her kids behind to disappear for a couple of weeks at a luxury resort. We’re not sure why, but we soon find out.

Then there’s Melody, who’s a missing child that may or may not be at the resort. The protagonist has to decide whether she saw what she thought she saw and, if so, what to do about it. There are quite a few different moral dilemmas here and the protagonist definitely occupies a grey area, but that made her more interesting even if it didn’t make her particularly likeable.

With books like this, I tend to not worry too much about trying to predict what’s coming, and so I let this one just wash over me and took it as it came. That worked pretty well for me, but I can’t tell you how you’ll get on if you’re the kind of reader who looks for clues and a trail of breadcrumbs.

And so when it comes to the question of whether or not I’d recommend this one, it really depends. My friend Charlie Heathcote wouldn’t like it because he’s not much of a Hannah fan, and you’re unlikely to get on with it unless you really like reading thrillers. Not sure if that helps.

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