Paula Hawkin's latest mystery thriller takes the reader on a twisty tour down a London towpath full of murder and mayhem. A towpath in England is a path beside a canal or river, used by people or animals towing boats, also called a towing path. A considerable amount of action in this novel takes place on the towpath as characters travel to and from a neighborhood of houseboats. This provides a noteworthy setting.
Terraced housing is located near the towpath and houseboats, so the reader also gets a unique glimpse into English house styles. Terraced housing in the UK is similar to what's referred to as a townhouse in the US where rows of attached dwellings share walls. This is a thought-provoking backdrop as characters hear action on the other side of a wall without actually witnessing it. So disturbing, yet so unreliable.
A decades-old tragedy connects a number of the book's characters who are victims of violent crimes, traumatic brain injuries, addiction, and dementia. Unsteady and fragile personalities converge when a young man is found gruesomely murdered on a houseboat just a short while after his mother is found dead under shadowy circumstances. With varying accounts of what's happened and differing faculties it's hard to know who is experiencing what reality and what their motivations are. It turns out that everyone has a secret and some of the secrets are burning holes in their hearts. The real question is how long can secrets smolder before they burst into flame?
The reader is guaranteed an absolute bonfire from the author of The Girl on the Train.