Halfway by B E Jones Constable November 1st 2018
If everyone is lying, who can you trust?
The Halfway Inn is closed to customers, side-lined by a bypass and hidden deep in inhospitable countryside. One winter’s night, two women end up knocking on the door, seeking refuge as a blizzard takes hold.
But why is the landlord less than pleased to see them? And what is his elderly father trying so hard to tell them?
At the local police station PC Lissa Lloyd is holding the fort while the rest of her team share in the rare excitement of a brutal murder at an isolated farmhouse. A dangerous fugitive is on the run – but how can Lissa make a name for herself if she’s stuck at her desk? When a call comes in saying the local district nurse is missing, she jumps at the chance to investigate her disappearance.
The strangers at Halfway wait out the storm, but soon realise they might have been safer on the road. It seems not all the travellers will make it home for Christmas . . .
My Review
It was nearly Christmas, it was snowing and it was the middle of nowhere in Wales, and strange things were afoot. There had been a murder, a killer was on the loose and things were starting to look decidedly dodgy.
A great premise for a novel and one that was both chilling and suspenseful.
The dark murky weather immediately set the tone, the danger levels heightened, the tension at times unbearable.
Jones characters were thrown into this murk and were a disparate bunch, all with pasts that you were not quite aware of at the beginning but which slowly unravelled the more I read.
You knew that one of them was guilty of murder but what Jones did brilliantly was to keep me guessing as she wove a tangled web of mystery and intrigue.
It is very difficult to talk about the characters without giving too much away, but what I did like was their differing backgrounds which markedly shaped their actions and choices, often with grim consequences.
What I didn’t know was how or if they would all be connected and this is where Jones excelled telling each of the characters stories in alternating chapters, so that we got a real sense of their thinking and reasoning.
I did wonder if they would eventually all come together, and what the outcome would be, but I just knew that whatever it was it would be tense and very dramatic.
Halfway was not like your average thriller, fast paced with police and sirens everywhere, instead Jones slowly set the scene of the landscape, setting and the characters.
I loved her descriptions of the old Halfway Pub, with its broken furniture and eerie atmosphere, the old landlord, bedridden upstairs, full of secrets but unable to communicate or warn anyone.
I have to admit to racing through Halfway, largely due to its addictive nature and would recommend to anyone who enjoys a character driven and compelliung thriller.
I would like to thank Constable for a copy of Halfway to read and review and to Emma Welton at Damp Pebbles Blogtours for inviting My Bookish Blogspot to participate in the blogtour.
About the author
Beverley Jones was born in the Rhondda Valleys, South Wales, and started her ‘life of crime’ as a reporter on The Western Mail before moving into TV news with BBC Wales Today.
She covered all aspects of crime reporting before switching sides as a press officer for South Wales police, dealing with the media in criminal investigations, security operations and emergency planning.
Now a freelance writer she channels these experiences of ‘true crime,’ and the murkier side of human nature, into her dark, psychological thrillers set in and around South Wales.
Halfway, her fifth crime novel follows the release of Where She Went by Little Brown in 2017.
Bev’s previous releases, The Lies You Tell, Make Him Pay and Fear The Dark are also available from Little Brown as e books
Social Media:
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Website: http://bevjoneswriting.co.uk/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34040919-where-she-went
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Beverley-Jones/e/B00F6I6XQG/ref=dp_byline_cont_book_1
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