![]() ![]() ![]() She’s nominally in charge of a teenage niece she doesn’t know and the house where the events that drove her and her sister apart took place. Jules Abbott has returned to her home town following the apparent suicide of her estranged sister. ![]() After that initial dramatic incident, the narrative proper begins. It’s not clear whether it’s a historic or a contemporary event, but as first pages go, it’s arresting. The opening of Into the Water is shocking: a woman bound and drowned at the hands of hostile men. Her debut thriller The Girl on the Train has sold a staggering 20m copies worldwide and been made into a film starring Emily Blunt as the dysfunctional protagonist. ![]() That’s the challenge Hawkins faces with Into the Water. To come up with a second, a third, a fourth – that’s a lot harder. To come up with one high-concept thriller with a genuine “OMG” moment is a big ask. We readers journey hopefully, willing that moment to arrive. There must be a sudden twist in the direction of travel, taking us to an entirely unexpected destination. These books need to deliver at least one shocking moment when the reader realises that they have been looking at the picture the wrong way up. ![]()
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