This Nowhere Place

I’m not quite sure where to start with this book, other than to say it is a brilliant! It is a mystery thriller but yet it so much more. It is actually a really multilayered story about small towns, families, relationships, racism, and addiction and it manages to be sensitive to all these issues without deterring from the story but at the same time managing to be relevant. What I really like though is the way the story focuses on quite a few main characters without getting confusing or losing anything in character realism or development, each character has their own distinct personality and issues, and each plays their part perfectly as the mystery unravels.

I picked this book up on a lazy Sunday after seeing a teaser posted by the Michael Joseph team on Twitter and I’m not ashamed to say that I finished it in one sitting. “This Nowhere Place” is an entirely addictive yet refreshing take on a thriller that I highly recommend to anybody looking for a dramatic, escapist read.

Despite never having visited Dover myself, Bell depicts the rugged and desolate landscape of the howling cliffs, Western Heights and Grand Shaft in such vivid detail that any reader will become instantly transported to Dover. Serving not merely as a backdrop for the action, instead the white cliffs deserve as much recognition as the main protagonists, becoming inextricable from the hauntings that happen there.

The “Dover Girls” become a local ghost story when two teenagers are found dead and one is left with life-threatening injuries in the small town, but when a determined journalist begins to dig and survivors begin to talk, will the mystery finally be solved? Or will the waters be muddied further to preserve the secrets of that fatal summer, and protect the people they love?

Everybody has an agenda, everybody has somebody to protect.

When best friends Cali and Jude discover refugee Mo alone and quivering in the rocky coves of the cliff face, they throw caution aside and do everything in their power to help her. The characters of the three girls are all beautifully written into the narrative, each with their own quirks and moral complexities. Before long, however, friendships begin to crack, resentment grows and it dawns on the trio that the white cliffs of Dover are an awfully dangerous place to make enemies.

Written in such a poignant age, themes of hostility and belonging not only burden the three friends but also mirror the political landscape. As journalist Tarek Zayat reports on the riots and violence of far-right hate group New Nationalist Action Alliance; the chilling realities of a refugee camp, and the sheer desperation and bravery of those immigrants who tackle the deadly crossing to chase a better life, perhaps the problematic roots trace back much further than first assumed. As his documentary-research continues, Tarek is confident he is closing in on the culprits.

“All along he’s treated them as witnesses, rather than suspects. That changes now.”

Bell expertly tackles themes of immigration, mental illness, LGBT+ acceptance, alcoholism and drug abuse, and grief and loss with the maturity and flair of a stellar writer.

“This Nowhere Place” is an excellent book that is wholly deserving of outstanding praise with its publication in March 2021. Gripping from the very first page, Bell writes with confidence, power and evidenced research to produce this atmospheric novel. The wider narrative is entirely worthy of a Netflix adaptation and would make for a certain cinematic success.

Thank you to the team at Michael Joseph / Penguin Random House for providing me with an ARC of this book, and I wish you all the best with the publication of this book. This honest review has been supplied at the request of the publisher but all the opinions given are my own.

I absolutely loved this book. It’s full of realistic characters in trade in suspense. I highly recommend it to anyone that likes the psychological thriller