Published By: Bantam
Pages: 400
Released On: 11/04/2024
‘We’re not famous anymore. We’re notorious.’
For over a decade, the Lancasters were celebrity royalty, with millions tuning in every week to watch their reality show, Living with the Lancasters.
But then an old video emerges of one of their legendary parties. Suddenly, they’re in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons: witnesses swore they’d seen missing teenager Bradley Wilcox leaving the Lancaster family home on the night of the party, but the video tells a different story
Now true crime investigator and YouTuber Tom Isaac is on the case. He’s determined to find out what really happened to Bradley – he just needs to read between the Lancasters’ lies . . .
Because when the cameras are always rolling, it won’t be long until someone cracks.
*****
Thanks to Anne at Random Things Tours for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review and spot on the book tour.
**Contains Some Suggested Spoilers**
I always try to write my reviews without spoilers so they can be enjoyed by all, but I found it difficult to review this book as I wanted to without trying to beat around the bush, and so there are a few suggested spoilers I’m afraid.
I had seen this book everywhere and was really keen to read it.
It’s not told in a linear ‘normal’ narrative. It’s made up of video footage transcripts, phone transcripts, newspaper articles, news shows, emails, social media, YouTube videos, podcasts etc. It reminded me of Janice Hallett’s books in sense of the formatting. It was quite difficult to master it on my advanced digital copy but I think in the finished copy it will really work. It felt really clever and I couldn’t imagine a better way of telling the story.
It really explores this idea of celebrity culture. Us being obsessed with watching documentaries, following their every move. This idea that famous people are better than us, are somehow above the law. It’s interesting. It was also interesting this idea of wanting to be a celebrity. Of parents who manage their children, who may not actually want the fame but they’re made to by their parents. It’s sad and sadly not always fictional.
It took me a little longer than usual to read. It starts very slowly, and that isn’t always a negative. Would I have preferred if it had got going quicker? Sort of. But I actually think it works in this book as it draws the mystery out and really gets you involved. It gives you time to meet the key players, the location, the setting, the time period, the history, before it gets juicy, and I think it wouldn’t have worked as well without it because you wouldn’t be as invested and you wouldn’t have cared as much about the outcome. Whilst I did enjoy it, I felt the second half really got going and you become so invested in the story and the characters that you’re desperate to keep going, and then suddenly the book’s finished.
It was a lot sadder than I thought it would be. Especially when you consider children being forced to navigate a public life they might not have actually wanted.
There are several mysteries wrapped up in this book which was good. It can be hard to maintain a mystery if there’s just the one thing going on, it can get a bit drawn out and boring. But North has worked in a couple of mysteries that interlink which makes it snappier and more interesting.
There are some conclusions to one of the mysteries (I won’t say which) at about 60% of the way through, which really surprised me as I was then wondering what was going to happen for the next 40%. And even with all the twists and turns, I wasn’t expecting the way it ended. If you predict the ending before you get there, I will be amazed.
It is my only book by North so far, but I would be interested to read others by her. She’s an interesting voice in the thriller world.
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