Book Review of Alice Feeney’s His & Hers

HQ €11.99

More psychological thriller than police procedural, although comfortably straddling both genres, His & Hers is a clever novel, deftly written and tight as a drum.

When TV journalist Anna is sent back to her dreary hometown to report on a murder she is more than a little disgruntled. She’d been anchoring a TV show and now feels she’s been pushed aside. Her ex-husband Inspector Jack Harper is, she finds when she arrives, in charge of the murder investigation. This divorced couple are the ‘he’ and ‘she’ of the book’s title and most chapters are recounted from one or the other’s perspective. But there’s also a third voice, an anonymous and sinister one and it’s this voice in particular which undermines the veracity of both Jack and Anna’s respective stories.

The plot rattles along beautifully, with him saying potato and her saying potahto and a young female police sergeant who appears to be stalking Jack. But then Anna seems to be on the receiving end of a stalker’s attentions too. To add to the complexity, the murdered woman is known to both Jack and Anna and it becomes clear that in fact both of the central characters might have had reason to kill her. But who did?

Alice Feeney’s third novel is a case study in how to wrongfoot a reader. Even the most seasoned noir enthusiasts won’t guess the ending here, although you’ll be on high alert throughout. Hard to put down.

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