Cover Image: Greenwich Park

Greenwich Park

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If you’re after a good fast paced thriller then this is for you ! It’s twisty , compelling and entertaining and is pure escapism . It’s not highly original plot wise but the characters are believable and the writing keeps you engaged , a great debut .

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A brilliantly constructed crime-thriller for fans of London, portrayals of female friendship with a dash of motherhood.

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This debut psychological thriller focuses on the privileged offspring of the Haverstock clan and their respective partners and is primarily set in the locale of Greenwich Park where two of the three siblings live. Helen is six months pregnant and married to architect Daniel who is in partnership with her brother, Rory, in the family business. Rory’s wife Serena is also pregnant and all four of them came together as a set when they were at Cambridge a decade ago. Helen and Rory’s youngest brother, Charlie, is a DJ with a druggy past and journalist girlfriend in Katie who is covering the prosecution of a serious rape case.

The novel is narrated in the main by insecure Helen who is desperate to be best friends with sister-in-law Serena, and when she is signed off work early due to high blood pressure, pretty lonely. Having suffered four miscarriages prior to this pregnancy, Daniel is reluctant to attend the antenatal classes that Helen has booked and when Rory and Serena also bail out, she is grateful when she is befriended by the only other single woman there - outspoken Rachel who smokes and drinks and seems anything but maternal. Suddenly Rachel is popping up every time Helen leaves the house and whilst she might have reservations about her new friend’s brash behaviour, it makes up for Daniel working all hours and the disruptive renovation of her Grade II listed childhood home that he is masterminding. When a distraught Rachel turns up at Helen’s house with a suitcase and seems intent on staying, despite no shortage of ready money, it introduces extra tension to a household counting down the weeks until the birth..

My heart sank when I realised that this was yet another psychological thriller that begins with a new friend appearing out of nowhere, popping up everywhere and ultimately becoming a cuckoo in the nest. It’s so blatantly obvious that there is an agenda behind Rachel’s sudden appearance but of course this doesn’t occur to Helen until halfway through the novel. Naturally by this time Rachel has disappeared and things slowly start to ramp up around 70% as the police take a highly unlikely but keen interest in locating her. Even with suspension of disbelief it was hard to keep patience with the whole scenario and I spotted the incident which connected the newcomer to the group at just 20% of the way through. Serena contributes next to nothing to the narrative and it is left to Katie to drive the story forward by piecing together a few clues and making Helen see sense, a task not helped by Helen’s fondness for embroidering her memories. Whilst the final chapter contains a volley of twists that only a psychic could have foreseen, it does necessitate an information dump in the final 5% and I really felt that some of this complexity could have been introduced into the novel earlier on and made for a more satisfying read. Rachel’s connection to the group is disappointingly easy to spot and the novel just too drawn-out to prove particularly suspenseful with a pace can only be described as sluggish.

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Greenwich Park kept me on the edge of my seat - I couldn't put it down! The switching of perspectives between characters really helped to build suspense, and I didn't see the ending coming. Would recommend!

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Helen is managing to hang onto this pregnancy and is pleased to discover a new friend Rachel at the ante natal classes.
It’s difficult to apply the word enjoy to this read as Helen gets bigger and more uncomfortable both with her size and the odd things happening and the horrible people around her, especially as it becomes increasingly obvious that Rachel is a dangerous woman with an agenda.
But this is an excellent debut thriller, full of twists and sweats and chills.

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I had high hopes for this book: the cover was amazing, the blurbs from renowned authors were so enthusiastic, and the synopsis sounded great. As I read, I found it to be a strong thriller with lots of questions, twists and turns.

Ultimately, though, I found Greenwich Park to be a bit... unfinished. The denouement felt rushed and crammed in, and unfortunately throughout the main body of the book I just hadn't been given enough about the important players to care about them in the final unravelling of all the threads. If I'd seen more of Daniel, Rory, Selena, Charlie and Katie in the novel I would have understood more about what was at stake for them and why what happened, happened. As it was, I didn't see enough of the 'baddies' (no spoilers here) to really appreciate the unfolding when everything gets explained at the end (and BOY, is there a lot of explaining at the end).

Having said all that, I do think that Faulkner is a good writer and Greenwich Park shows a lot of promise. All of the basic and important aspects of a thriller were there: the red herrings, the clues, and secrets, the lies. I would definitely check out more books from this writer as her career progresses.

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This was pretty readable for a debut novel, but the writing wasn’t remarkable in any way. I felt almost from the beginning that I could guess the denouement of this story and unfortunately I wasn’t wrong- I have read several books with a similar storyline. I found that Helen humouring Rachel over drinking and smoking was a bit of a stretch given her history with pregnancies. Many thanks to Netgalley for an arc of this book.

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Eeeeep! I was genuinely sad to finish this, I zipped through it on a rare sunny London day and could not get enough of it. Add to this the fact that it's set in London and it's a winner in my book (!).

I desperately wanted to know more about this weirdo Rachel- why is she stalking Helen's lovely life? Why does she know so much? Such a quick-paced, absorbing debut, I am genuinely impressed. A rare feat.
While there are some unanswered questions towards the end, I don't consider this a bad thing. A little bit of mystery is good, and none of my questions felt vital enough to bring the story to a close. What a hoot!

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Thank you to Netgalley for the chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

I wasn't sure what to expect from this book but WOW! It was fast paced, full of twists and turns. I would recommend this book and is certainly a top 2021 read for me.

The story mainly follows Helen, who is heavily pregnant with her rainbow baby. She meets Rachel at the local antenatal class, but not long after this Rachel turns up at her house claiming to be in danger and needing a place to stay. Then things get weird! We also hear from the points of view of Helen's brothers and their wives/girlfriends. There are a lot of characters but unlike some books I found it very easy to keep track of who was who and the way all the stories pull together to conclude is very clever.

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A gripping read that I could not put down. I was hooked from the first page. Full of twists and turns.

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I read Greenwich Park after a very long reading slump - I wanted something that would grip me from page one and Katherine Faulkner delivered. This is one of those thrillers where you’ll reach the end of the book and immediately want to flip back to page one and start again, piecing together all that you missed along the way.

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This was a very clever, well thought out and well written psychological drama. The characters were interesting and at times, extremely irritating. There were many twists and turns to keep the reader interested and the ending was extremely entertaining and not totally unexpected.
Highly recommended.

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Absolutely loved this pacey, gripping novel about motherhood and alienation. Set during a heatwave, secret after secret unfurls. For fans of obsessive, dark portrayals of female friendship and betrayal. Highly recommend.

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A terrific read - keeps you guessing about the real villain of the piece but there’s a lovely little final twist which made me smile. I liked the links to the past and the way that story slowly unfolded. I’d have liked a bit more on the back stories of some of the characters and I would have liked Helen to have been a little stronger and less of a pushover because I didn’t really feel her weakness was warranted from what we knew about her. I’d definitely recommend this though - I struggled to put it down.

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Great thriller! Kept me wanting to read throughout and for once a book I didn't guess the identity! Very well written and would recommend this book! Also loved the character development in this, really getting to known the characters as the story unfolds!

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Great read.. just wanted to keep turning the pages! Love how you slowly learn about the characters but do you really know who they are!

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I find prisons very interesting and was really looking forward to reading this. The story overall was a good one but it was not what I was fully expecting. I was hoping for more prison life but most of the book is set outside the prison. However it was good to read about prisoners adjusting to the outside world again and trying to get back into society.

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With thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The premise of this book sounded right up my street. Who is Rachel and what does she want with Helen? Sadly I found it so frustrating. As a women who has suffered serval miscarriages I couldn't believe Helen's laissez faire attitude to her pregnancy or her inability to see what was right under her nose.

That aside it was not the worst thriller I've read by a long way and actually the last line saved it some what.

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would like to thank netgalley and the publisher for letting me read this book

what a book, kept me glued right to the end

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There is just something about this book that doesn’t sit right with me. They call it a thriller but honestly it just felt a bit flat to me. Don’t get me wrong the endingwas shocking but part of the storyline was predictable and I can admit I finally guessed right about something in a book. I was buddy reading this with some friends and I said this book reminds me of a tv drama and I just wanted a bit more nail biting and action I guess. Thriller is such a broad term but this book definitely had a lot of suspense and I didn’t really dislike any characters so it wasn’t all bad.

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