Under the harrow

Under The Harrow by Flynn Berry

How well do you really know your sister?

Nora boards a train from London, heading to the countryside where she will visit her sister Rachel for the weekend. Rachel isn’t at the station to pick her up and Nora assumes she is working late at the hospital, and so she makes her own way to her sisters house. When she walks in through the front door she is confronted by a scene that will tear her apart. Her sister has been brutally murdered. Nora is stunned, unstable, and cannot return to her life in London. She must stay and find out who ripped the sister she loved so fiercely away from her. As detectives investigate the heinous crime, fear and immense grief slowly turns to obsession, and it begins to dawn on Nora that her sister may have been harbouring some dark secrets.

Those who follow my blog know that I love a dark thriller, and this one grips you from page 8 with the harrowing discovery and doesn’t stop throughout. Berry’s writing is tight, even clipped at times,  invoking dread, obsession, and confusion. Under The Harrow is a thriller which delivers steady, mounting suspense that escalates as Rachel’s truth is peeled back and slowly revealed. The layers and plot twists are perfectly timed and I was impressed to discover this is Flynn Berry’s debut novel. Once I picked it up, there was no putting it down. I read the whole book in one sitting and thought I had the ending sussed out twice, but was wrong both times. I cannot wait to read more of her work.

If you loved Gone Girl and devoured YOU, then you need to get Under The Harrow immediately.

Smart, sharp and with a strong narrative. Under The Harrow is a thriller which will grip you tightly and not let go until the last word.

4.5 stars. Thank you to Hachette for a copy in exchange for an honest review.

Buy Under The Harrow at Booktopia now!

 

The Book Jacket

Enchantingly dark, a novel for dark psychological gems.

When Nora takes the train from London to visit her sister in the countryside, she expects to find her waiting at the station, or at home cooking dinner. But when she walks into Rachel’s familiar house, what she finds is entirely different: her sister has been the victim of a brutal murder.

Stunned and adrift, Nora finds she can’t return to her former life. An unsolved assault in the past has shaken her faith in the police, and she can’t trust them to find her sister’s killer. Haunted by the murder and the secrets that surround it, Nora is under the harrow: distressed and in danger. As Nora’s fear turns to obsession, she becomes as unrecognisable as the sister her investigation uncovers.

A riveting psychological thriller and a haunting exploration of the fierce love between two sisters, the distortions of grief, and the terrifying power of the past, UNDER THE HARROW marks the debut of an extraordinary new writer.

Biographical Notes

Flynn Berry studied English at Brown University and has been awarded a Yaddo residency. Under the Harrow is her first novel.