The July Girls by Phoebe Locke is an immersive and atmospheric read featuring a strong narrative voice in the form of protagonist Addie. She lives in Brixton, London with her dad and older sister Jessie and times are tough. Her dad works all hours as an illegal taxi driver and Jessie does her best to give Addie a good life, ensuring she is clothed and fed and that her homework is done on time.

The titular July Girls are the women who every 7th July are murdered by an unknown serial killer who keeps a momento from them earning him the moniker Magpie Killer. We learn about these women in chapters dotted throughout the book, chapters which are almost short stories providing deep insight into the characters. These are not faceless women dropped into a book to prop up a plot. They each become living, breathing women with families, careers and friends and their loss feels like a blow to the reader. I really admired this and the respect with which they were written about.

Addie’s 10th birthday falls on 7th July 2005, a day where London was subject to a terror attack and a night where Addie’s dad comes home late covered in blood. When Addie and Jessie find the purse of a woman in their father’s bedroom they track down her husband. He believes his wife has been killed in the bombings and, struggling with his grief and a small baby he allows Jessie to ingratiate herself into his life employing her as his nanny.

This is an exceptional book. Addie is a wonderful character who is written brilliantly. We follow her as she grows from a young girl who is an avid reader and looks at things from a childlike perspective to a young woman whose upbringing has had long lasting effects. I fell in love with her and cannot under emphasise how beautiful the depiction of a girl living in a dysfunctional family is. Set against the backdrop of London’s terror attacks and riots the book feels very real and there is tangible fear in the pages and a pervading sense of menace. I really enjoyed reading a book set against real-life events and it was handled so delicately that it sent chills down my spine.

Contrasted with this are some beautiful explorations of family and family relationships. Addie and Jessie’s relationship with their dad is a difficult one and Jessie bears the brunt of protecting Addie from his temper. Jessie’s boyfriend, Dellar, initially a source of jealousy for Addie becomes a surrogate brother who brings her books, watches films with her and provides a sorely need source of love. But then, their father will return and the mood will change because he is a volatile man and tempers can be easily lost.

This is the sort of crime book that I love. An enthralling plot which took me in directions that I didn’t see coming, well-drawn characters and tender and insightful moments. It is a strong, literary novel which I couldn’t put down. It reminded me a little of Tana French, particularly in the way it explores humanity and relationships and its observation that it is the small things that matter the most. Overall, I highly recommend this. It is an engrossing, entertaining page turner of a book which had me transfixed.

Here’s a mystery about a killer, nicknamed “Magpie”, who every year, on July 7th, abducts and kills a woman. In this case, though, it’s not the police’s investigation we follow, but this story seen through the eyes of Abigail, a young girl born on July 7th as well: because on her 10th birthday, her father comes home covered in blood, and that’s when she starts questioning more and more what other secrets her family is hiding.

Just as much as a crime story—there is an investigation as well, after all—“The July Girls” is the story of a small family, specifically Addie and her big sister Jessie, who’s more a mother to her, since their mum has vanished abroad and never comes home. Their father is seldom around either, trying to make ends meet as an unlicensed cab driver, and it is clear from the beginning that Jessie loves Addie so much that she tries to shield her from basically everything, including their relatively bleak prospects in South London. And when things take a turn for the worst, we also get to see how the sisters’ life goes on, how Addie gets bullied at school because of her father, and how she tries to make sense of the events that unfolded until that point.

The novel spans about ten years in Addie’s life, which is good: it allows the readers to ‘see’ her voice mature, and her thoughts processes go from a girl’s to an adult’s. It’s also good in that it makes the killer’s arc into a slow-going investigation, as is definitely needed here, with the murders happening only once a year: if it had been solved in two years, it wouldn’t have been as suspenseful, for sure.

I kept guessing and guessing regarding who the killer might be, as there were a few valid options here. There were several twists and turns, and while a couple of them were slightly erring on the far-fetched side, I still found the novel as a whole a pretty good one, that kept me reading and interested until the end.

I’ve heard lots of good things about Phoebe Locke and after reading this I can’t wait to get stuck into her first thriller The Tall Man.

It is difficult to do The July Girls justice in my review but I’ll try my best!

We follow Addie starting around her tenth birthday, getting to know her sister Jessie and her dad who always seems to be working leaving Jessie to look after her little sister. On the night of Addie’s birthday, 7th July 2005, terrorists attack the city of London. Her father comes home covered in blood.

Unable to leave it alone Addison digs and finding out that women have been disappearing every year on the 7th July. Could her dad be the serial killer they nicknamed Magpie?
The novel is told through Addison’s point of view, with snippets from a ‘true crime’ book and interspersed with little insights into the killers mind.

The July Girls starts off as quite a slow burn novel but it was Addison’s narration that kept me absorbed from the start. She was such a compelling character, her voice really comes off the pages making her feel almost real.

Also using the events going on in 2005 and the subsequent years it really adds to the novels authenticity and atmosphere.

I will say this is probably leaning towards domestic drama rather than psychological thriller but it is still a great read and my goodness it was one of the best endings I’ve read in a while.

The July Girls is a complex and emotional tale with realistic characters and settings that will keep you enthralled until the end.

Another extremely clever and atmospheric read from Phoebe Locke, the author of The Tall Man. Fantastic, engrossing plot and memorable characters. Great stuff.

I loved The Tall Man by Phoebe Locke so was looking forward to this.
This is set in London where each year women disappear in July. This follows 10-year old Addie who lives in Brixton with her older sister, Jessie - who is sort of a mother-type figure to Addie - and her dad, who’s a taxi driver and slightly temperamental. On the day of the London bombings Addis’s dad comes home bleeding. She assumes it’s because of the bombing but later finds a woman’s bag in his room...
Interspersed with extracts of a book called Magpie (the name given to the serial killer) this was a quick and easy read. The potential was there. This could’ve been a creepy and unsettling psychological suspense novel. However without revealing any spoilers I personally found this a predictable read with little surprises. For most of the book the plot follows a red herring (that is quite obvious) and in the last 10% you have lots of actions and surprises but there isn’t enough to explain the villain and why he does what he does. Personally to me the villain was under-developed and you had his backstory summarised into a few pages in an info-dumping scene to explain his motivations. Also I just didn’t find myself worrying for Addie who as a protagonist also wasn’t developed enough. She felt like a trope from a YA novel: the girl that reads a lot therefore is a loner who’ll be the hero at the end. For most of the book she’s taken care of and I just never found myself worrying for her in order to be at the edge of my seat. It’s 3/5 from me. Perhaps other readers will feel differently. Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for this ARC in exchange for an honest review. I would highly recommend The Tall Man and would definitely read Locke’s novel however this just wasn’t her best one for me.

Phoebe Locke writes a brilliant psychological thriller and coming of age story set in Brixton, London, where the multiple timelines gives us the background of London's recent history that include the 7/7 London bombings, the death of Mark Duggan and the spreading riots and the devastating and deadly Grenfell fire. Addison 'Addie' Knight has been cared for by her older sister, Jessie, with their single dad, Paul, a man with a dodgy reputation, barred from pubs, out all hours of the day and night, trying but failing to earn enough for the family. Jessie has been working at a struggling wig shop since she was 15 years old, run by Laine. Born on the 7th July, it is Addie's 10th birthday which turns out to be unsettling and worrying day for her, her beloved dependable Jessie fails to pick her up from school, and does not return home that night, it is the day of the London bombings, and her world is shot to pieces when her dad returns home with his clothes covered in blood. Initially thinking her dad was hurt in the bombings, events take a more sinister turn when Jessie finds the purse of a woman in his bedroom.

Jessie tells Addie there is nothing to worry about but the girls turn up at the Pimlico home of the Emerson family, despite Addie's misgivings. The narrative is delivered from Addie's perspective, interspersed with sections from a book written by Laurie K Cooper on a serial killer nicknamed Magpie, who kills a woman every year on the 7th July, the July Girls, taking jewellery and trinkets from them, and posting them to the distraught families of the victims. The body of the first victim, 23 year old Jennifer Howell was recovered from the river, but the bodies of all the other women have never been found. DS Leyton Jones is the first police officer to begin to make the connections between the disappearing women, haunted but determined to find the killer, in an investigation that is eventually led by DCI Mina Barton. We follow Addie through the years, burdened by the darkest fears, a girl who loves her dad and adores Jessie, whose world is to be rocked by family secrets and lies, living under the kind of pressures no child should have to endure.

This is hugely atmospheric and chilling storytelling, so emotionally engaging as the reader is immersed into Addie's world with her dysfunctional family. Just when you think you can see where the novel is heading, Locke deftly shifts it into other more surprising twisted directions. For me, what made this read stand out was the stellar characterisation, young Addie growing up on a Brixton estate, part of an impoverished London family whose mother left early on, raised by Jessie, with a father who is barely there. Her relationships, such as that with Jessie's boyfriend, Dellar, who truly connects with her, her love of books, Harry Potter and what is going on in her life is portrayed with a real tenderness. This is a wonderfully gripping and compulsive read which I just devoured. Many thanks to Headline for an ARC.

WOW, what a thrilling read!!! It was so suspenseful, I'm almost scared to leave the house myself now (seeing that tomorrow is July.....) It was well written, fast-paced and entertaining from beginning to end. I just had to see what Addie and her sister's secret were, (no spoilers I promise), and couldn't wait to finish the book. Highly recommended.

This is a decent thriller about a single parent family, with 2 girls Addison and Jessica. Addison is effectively a 'mum' to her younger sister and the book deals well with the pressures of young, vulnerable girls and their relationships.
The father is erratic and unstable and the story weaves the family dynamics, along with topical news items and then, girls who go missing.

It definitely maintains suspense and is difficult to predict, which I liked. For me, it did meander at times, but, overall this is a good read.

Thanks to Headline and NetGalley for the opportunity to preview.

This book is so aptly titled.

Every July around the same day, same time a girl disappears.
All that the perpetrator leaves is a piece of jewellery belonging to that girl.
Hence, he’s known as “Magpie”.

The two young girls are Addison and Jessica. Jessica being the eldest of the two.

Because of family circumstances Jessica becomes “mom” to her little sister and little Addison looks up to her elder sister.

But one night, on the night of Addisons 10th birthday she witnesses something terrible.
Someone goes missing, her dads covered in blood and things in the book go off with a bang.

Without giving anything away, you are in for a treat.
Some latter part seemed a bit overstretched here and there but I forgave that because the author has done a beautiful job in keeping my attention.

Set in Brixton in South London in the early 21st century, The July Girls is a fast-paced psychological thriller.

On the morning of Addie's 10th birthday in July four bombs are detonated across London. When her father returns home that night he is covered in blood and she thinks he has been injured in the attacks. When her older sister Jessie finds a woman's bag covered in blood she tells Addie not to say anything. On that same night, over a number of years, a woman is killed and no-one knows who the serial murderer is.

I found the first half of the book more believable and enjoyable than the latter part. There are lots of twists and turns to keep up with but readers of the genre will not be disappointed. Many thanks to NetGalley and Headline for the opportunity to read and review The July Girls.

THE JULY GIRLS is exactly what I crave in a crime novel. A fast-paced story that’s so immersive and finely crafted I forget I’m reading and end up feeling I’ve just lived through it.

Set in London, it’s the story of two sisters, raising themselves more or less alone in Brixton, whose lives become unwittingly entangled with that of a seemingly uncatchable serial killer. Every year, on the same in July, he takes another girl’s life and then sends back an item of her jewellery to taunt the detectives trying to catch him. It’s for this reason the tabloids have dubbed him ‘Magpie’.

For most novels, this would be plenty to be getting on with. But here, this is merely the backdrop against which a far more moving and engaging story also unfolds. The coming of age story of the two sisters who end up inextricably linked to the Magpie case. Jessica, is just seventeen when the story begins, and Addison, is ten. Although their father lives at the same address and occasionally provides for them, Jessica has been running the household since their mother left the picture five years earlier.

My heart went out to these two (beautifully drawn) girls and the bond between them. Jessica loves Addison like a daughter; Addison adores her mother-figure big sister. But their story is just one of several Ms Locke uses to take love in all its forms and stretch it to snapping point. Why? Because where there is love, there are stakes. By showing us people who love, what she is really showing us people who have everything to lose - and who, as the sisters will learn, can be pushed to unexpected lengths to protect it.

I loathe spoilers, so am deliberately avoiding commenting on the plot itself, other than it is intricate and kept me guessing (unsuccessfully!!). But such were the nuances of observation and atmosphere of the piece it felt like reading an episode from one of the later seasons of THE WIRE. What better way of commenting on the growing cycle of children in poverty and/or, children raising other children, trying to stay under the radar of social services, than by showing us how they cope with the 7/7 bombings, the London riots of 2011 or, indeed, coming to the attention of Magpie?

This is the second novel I have read by Phoebe Locke and, as with THE TALL MAN, (which I also thoroughly enjoyed) she has a lot of very interesting things to say here about the intersection about the explosion in true crime investigative podcasts or the book-of-the-murder genre. In THE JULY GIRLS there are excerpts from a book about the Magpie case in a couple of places. When the author of this book is asked about what prompted his interest in the so-called Magpie killer, he is momentarily surprised. In his view, his book isn’t about the killer, but rather the victims. It’s an important distinction and it made me think about Ms Locke’s perspective more globally (albeit, based on just two books). For while there is plenty of heart stopping tension in both novels, there is no gratuitous violence in either. Instead of wallowing in serial killer torture-porn, the focus is on evoking empathy for those stuck with the aftermath of terrible crimes. Line by line, page by page and now, book after book, displays deep understanding not only of what it is to have loved and lost, but then to have dragged yourself back up to try and love again.

In short, Phoebe Locke knows what makes stories, and readers, tick.

With many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for allowing me the chance of reading an advance copy of The July Girls.

This was a cleverly constructed thriller set in London over the first decade of the 2000s.
Every July a woman disappears and is presumed murdered by a serial killer. The police cannot catch him and so the story continues as the years go past.
When 10 year old Addie sees something chilling on the night of her 10th birthday she can’t get it out of her mind and this is where the story really kicks off: on the night of the 7/7 bombings it is Addie’s birthday and it is also the night Liv does not return home to her husband Lex and baby Cara.
Addie confides in her sister Jessie, fearing something is extremely wrong but Jessie convinces her to keep quiet as all will be ok. That is all I will say about the story as I do not want to spoil it for future readers.
There are many twists and turns in the plot which the reader sees through Addie’s eyes over the course of 10 years. Addie’s voice was at times heartbreaking- she is mostly a young girl trying to do the right thing.
The backdrop of London was well drawn with all the awful things that happened in the time period covered, not only the bombings but the riots too as the killer relentlessly kills every year.
I read this book in one sitting- it was difficult to put down and I predict it will be a big hit this Summer when it is published.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for my arc in exchange for an honest review.

This book is BRILLIANT. Unforgettable characters, a great premise and so much you won’t see coming. It’s a stonkingly good thriller, but it’s tender and heartbreaking, too. All the stars. ‬

Just stunningly good. A serial killer story with a twist, told from the point of view of Addie, a young girl caught up in a swirl of events. I’ve deliberately cut part of the blurb from Goodreads as I think this is one of those books that you want to go into knowing as little as possible, and find out for yourself what makes Addie’s story so unforgettable.

I polished off The July Girls in a couple of hours. Impossible to put down, with a truly different spin on the psychological crime thriller.

Easily one of my books of the year so far. Seek this one out folks, you will not be disappointed. Hugely recommended.

I was so excited to receive this ARC as I loved Phoebe Locke’s first novel The Tall Man. I have to say this is better! What an incredible story. The story is told through the eyes of ten year old Addie, so I felt it was more a YA novel. Which is not a criticism at all. Addie is a strong and lovable character and I loved her story. The story was dark and compelling and I found it difficult to put this book down. A few good twists and turns. Highly recommended xx

3.5 stars

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS.

There's a lot of familiar stuff to me in this (No,nobody in my family is a serial killer) the bombings,Brixton,the riots... so I can picture it very well.
For me,and this happens a lot,the first half was better,the tension brewing in the flat,knowing that their dad could explode,but not quite how badly,was there every day.
By the time he was outed as a killer and on the run,it was as bad as it could get.
I did spend a lot of time wondering who the killer was,and I was thrilled to have an explanation of why,at points it looked like it might not happen.
Overall a decent read. Can't ask more than that.

Just finished this fabulous read. Loved the clever plotting, brilliant characters & atmospheric realism of London. A great story - congratulations @phoebe_locke - I really enjoyed The Tall Man but I think this is even better.

Fascinating storyline which made this a real page turner. The characters were all believable and intertwined nicely. A few twists kept me interested till the very end.