Clare is mother to Grace and Pip, and they have moved into a new neighbourhood surrounding a communal garden square in London. It’s the sort of places where kids come and go from each others’ houses and hang out in the garden on summer evenings. After a neighbourhood party, where Clare drinks too much, thirteen-year-old Grace is found unconscious in the garden late at night. The question is: what happened to her and is the neighbourhood really as safe as they presumed. Jewell did a fantastic job raising suspicions about many of the characters, and the relationships and storylines of the various families seemed very real. The slow reveal kept me turning the pages – all in all I really like this new direction for Jewell.
The Girls, by Lisa Jewell, is about dark secrets, a devastating mystery and the games people play. The summary says: "You live on a picturesque communal garden square, an oasis in urban London where your children run free, in and out of other people's houses. You've known your neighbours for years and you trust them. Implicitly. You think your children are safe. But are they really? Midsummer night: a thirteen-year-old girl is found unconscious in a dark corner of the garden square. What really happened to her? And who is responsible?" The Girls is out in July 2015.
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