"This is how it begins.
With a near-empty building, the inhabitants forced out of their homes by property developers.
With two women: idealistic, impassioned blogger Ella and seasoned campaigner, Molly.
With a body hidden in a lift shaft.
But how will it end...?"

The synopsis asks how the book/story will end, but I am sorry to say I did not stay around long enough the find out. I found it to be too contrived and unbelievable by 100 pages in, so stopped reading an can only give feedback on that portion, which is 1 star from me.

Thanks very much to the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this title. Many thanks, Dave

This is how it ends by Eva Dolan.
This is how it begins.

With a near-empty building, the inhabitants forced out of their homes by property developers.

With two women: idealistic, impassioned blogger Ella and seasoned campaigner, Molly.

With a body hidden in a lift shaft.

But how will it end?
A really good read. Different. Wasn't sure if I liked the characters. 4*.

Another superb novel from one of true rising stars of British crime writing. For me, Eva Dolan has become a must-read crime writer, blending compelling storylines with fascinating characters and deep-seated, important real-life issues. With THIS IS HOW IT ENDS she continues to cement herself at the forefront of British crime.

I really struggled with this This is How it Ends - it had amazing reviews so I was really exciting to read it. However, I disliked all the characters, which I'm sure is intentional but was enough to put me off as I need to like at least one character in order to keep me engaged. But I can see why it's had such good reviews as there was a slow burn of suspense and plenty of drama - just not for me.

I wasn’t sure about this book when I started it but stuck with it and boy I’m so glad I did. It is a psychological suspense thriller and after the first few chapters I was completely hooked.

Great read! Looking forward to reading more by this author! I highly recommend this book and author to all!

This was such a good read, and one of those books that really stays with you. It’s told from two perspectives and is told in such a unique way. It opens with a party and leads to a dead body in an empty flat. Molly and Ella are left trying to work out what to do. The novel is then told from Molly’s perspective going forwards to see what happens in the aftermath, and Ella’s story begins at this point and starts going backwards in time so we slowly get to find out how she came to be here. I was hooked on this really clever novel and I can’t recommend it highly enough! I actually finished reading it a while ago now but it’s still really fresh in my mind, which is always the mark of a fab novel!

I am currently working on expanding our school library's senior section after years of a dismal and uninspiring selection of books that our older readers never checked out. My job has been to seek out much more diverse, gripping and modern books that will get them into reading by appealing to as broad a range of readers as possible. This really appealed to me because of its fantastic narrative and sense of atmosphere, combined with believable characterisation and its page-turning nature. It's hard to get young people into reading and if the library is not stocking the kind of book that they might grow up to buy as adult readers then we are not really meeting their needs. I can imagine this provoking lots of discussion after finishing it and a long queue of people trying to reserve it as they've heard so much about it. Will definitely be buying a copy and know that it's going to be a very popular choice. An engrossing read that kept me up far too late to finish reading it. It certainly stood out from the other books that I was considering and I look forward to converting more Eva Dolan fans in the future!

My biggest problem with this book was that I couldn't get into it. Maybe it was that I haven't read a book in this genre for quite a while and apparently was not in the mood for it. It was okay-ish but I won't reread it or anything.

What I love most about Eva Dolan's writing is the way that she is able to take an idea, something so simple in concept, twist it up, tear it apart and bring it back into a story so complex, full of life - and death - and dose it in authenticity punctured with a true social conscience, whilst keeping the reader enthralled, invested in the characters while despairing, at times, of their actions. In This Is How It Ends she manages all of this and more, keeping readers on the edge of their seat and hiding the root of the mystery in plain sight making you both absolutely certain and yet completely unaware of what is really happening.

The story is centered around two characters, Ella and Molly, both of whom are keeping a secret, Ella's secret, about events following on from a party at which Ella is protesting about the destruction of an entire community in the name of gentrification. Something happens, which is explained throughout the course of the novel, but we do not know why or how exactly and it is the discovery of truth which acts as the central arc throughout the book. Now I don't want to say too much about the plot itself other than Ella is kind of an apprentice to Molly, a woman who has made a career out of campaigning for the under privileged and those she feels are being oppressed, and looks up to the woman. But both of them have secrets and both are bonded by more than this central theme, however this act may be the thing which drives them apart.

Now I will admit that I have wavering feelings about both women throughout the novel. At first I felt for Ella, thrown into something far bigger than her. But there are so many facets to her character that I moved between liking her, then not trusting her and back again with almost each and every new chapter. The more the story goes on, the more you learn about her character, the more of an enigma she becomes. Why and how she came to be a campaigner for civil rights is something which is explored throughout, a fact which helps build an element of sympathy with the reader, her motives seemingly altruistic even if her actions aren't always matching. Her background certainly makes for grim reading, the expectation and pressure something many can identify with.

Molly I did grow to like pretty quickly, Eva Dolan drawing a perfect image of the seasoned campaigner, her drive dulled by her advancing years and the realisation of all she has lost or missed out on over the years. Her relationship with fellow resident Callum quite touching to read. You get a true sense of her as a person as the pair interact, and despite her being so worn down by the time we meet her she is a character you can get behind.

The construct of the story is quite complex beginning on that fateful night which changes everything for the pair and then told from the points of view of both Ella and Molly. From this point they take different paths, Molly's story taking the reader onward in the present day, Ella's taking the reader on a journey back in time, showing us how what occurs really came to pass. If you don't concentrate, it could perhaps be hard to follow and I must admit that with listening to the audiobook I did have to concentrate not only on who the current narrator was but as to where we are in time in relation to the 'big event', something you may want to take into account if flitting about between characters and moments in time sis something your struggle with. I think it would probably have been a lot easier to follow in the book but it didn't dull my enjoyment at all once i had got used to it.

And as for 'How It Ends' ... Well it's quite a fitting ending to be fair and I shall say no more than that. This really is a brilliant story, touching upon issues which are affecting hundreds of households in and around London on a daily basis. The development of what were once estates full of families into corporate and high income apartment complexes which are too expensive for most true Londoners to afford, leaving an entire generation disenfranchised and pushed out of the only homes they have known. If you are looking a book which forces you to confront highly topical and all too common issues, then Eva Dolan is someone who can always be relied upon to provide it. This is no exception, a social conscience disguised as entertainment, hard hitting, raw and very, very emotive. A fabulous book and highly recommended.

This is the first book that I have read by Eva Dolan even though I have plenty of her books on my pile which I haven't got round to reading but that Is going to change after reading this book!

The blurb totally sold it to me telling us has it begins, so I am not going to rave on too much about the plot because we all want to know How it ends!

I was sucked in from the every first chapter the author weaves a story with alternating chapters between the characters Ella and Molly telling a story of now and then. With each chapter leaving you wanting more.

I love Eva’s atmospheric style of writing who has weaven a well crafted story set with a modern day theme. Ella who is a blogger and Molly is a campaigner they are brilliant characters.

This isn't what I expected at all….It is a very clever story with plenty of twists and turns which will keep you gripped until the very end. I couldn't put this down and devoured it in one afternoon. Which I highly recommend giving it 4 stars.

This book has been popular with a lot of people, so it would seem I am in the minority. I just can't seem to get interested in it. There's nothing wrong with it but has it has failed to grab me after 20% Life's too short to battle with a book you don't enjoy so I've given up.

Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for letting me have a try.

Ella is a wellknown urban activist squatting in a block of flats scheduled for demolition. One evening suring a celebratory party she goes back to her flat and finds a dead man lying there. She doesn't call the police or an ambulance but allows herself to be persuaded by her friend Molly to dispose of the body in another part of the building. As time goes on Ella is wracked with guilt and also paranoia, is Molly the good friend she seems?

Having read some of Dolan's previous work, the Zadig and Voltaire series, I was already disposed to enjoy this book. However I could not engage with it.

For my money Eva Dolan is one of the best writers of crime fiction working today. Her characters are impeccably created, her plotting clever, her writing elegant and her observations on society sharply spot-on. I've been a fan of the Zigic and Ferreira series since the first book, so I was really excited to see what This Is How It Ends, her first standalone book, would bring.

Ella Riordan is a young blogger and activist, with a failed career behind her, as we discover as the story unfolds. Molly is a veteran political activist with a pedigree of anti-establishmentarianism going back decades. The two women are friends.

One night, Ella calls Molly in a panic. She's killed a man, she needs help...the two women hide the body down a disused lift shaft in a building scheduled for demolition.

How do you live with the consequences of that action? How do Ella and Molly reconcile the events of one night with every day that passes when the body lies undiscovered? This is how the story starts, but to find out how it ends, you need to read the book!

The character portrayal is, simply, magnificent - multi-layered, astute and perfectly in keeping with the plot. I felt like I had been in the flats with the characters and lived through the story with them.

Highly recommended.

This is a complex psychological thriller set in the world of social activism. Ella Riordan is a PhD student writing her thesis on social activism. At first the activists Ella wanted to interview were wary of her but after she was beaten by police at a rally, they began to talk to her. Now she has become involved in trying to stop the eviction of people from a low cost housing tower by developers planning to build a new expensive apartment block in its place. Ella has written a book about the evictions with her friend Molly, an older, experienced activist and photographer and they decide to hold a launch party on the roof of the housing tower. After the party a body is found in the elevator shaft. Ella claims to not know the man or have seen him at the party but Molly feels she is hiding something and wonders if she can really trust her.

While Ella doesn’t get on well with her well off parents, Molly and Eva have almost a mother and daughter relationship which is central to this novel. Eva Dolan has used an interesting technique of telling Molly’s story going forward in time and Ella’s going backwards in time. The reason for this approach all makes sense when the threads all pull together with a giant twist at the end.

EXCERPT: 'I'm going to expose you,' he snarled.

The laughter caught in her throat. It was as if he was there in front of her, face contorted with rage, body blown up and pumped for the fight.

'I know what you did, Ella.'

A man ran up the stairs, clipping her shoulder as he passed, but she hardly noticed.

'And I know how you did it,' Quinn said.

THE BLURB: Ella Riordan is a community activist who became famous when she was beaten by police during a social protest. Now Ella is a squatter in a building where the owners are evicting tenants so they can convert it into luxury condos, and she’s determined to stay and defend the few holdout tenants, despite death threats.

One night after a rooftop party with her fellow holdouts, Ella finds a horrible scene awaiting her in her apartment. In a panic, she calls her neighbor Molly, who convinces her that the police won’t believe she’s innocent. Together the two women concoct a gruesome plan to hide the body down the building’s elevator shaft.

But the secret won’t stay buried for long. As truth hangs in the balance, a neighbor tells Molly he had heard Ella arguing with a man in the hallway and mistrust grows between Ella and Molly, as repercussions of that night threaten to change both women’s lives forever.

MY THOUGHTS: I really did not connect with this book. I read it. I finished it. It was okay.

The book is told from two points of view, Ella's and Molly's, over two timelines, then and now. In some cases this works; in this case it doesn't. There should, ideally, be a 'trigger' for the change in timelines for it to flow smoothly. In This is How it Ends, this never happened. The changes appear to have been totally random, with nothing connecting the switch. I spent a great deal of time feeling confused and going back to the previous chapter to try and figure out what precipitated the change. Usually, the answer was nothing.

This is How it Ends failed to keep me interested. I would read a chapter or two, then wander off to look for something else to do. I never thought I would see the day when I would prefer housework to reading! It wasn’t bad enough that I felt like I should abandon it, but it is not a book that I will be recommending to my reader friends.

However, I know I am in the minority with my feelings on This is The Way it Ends by Eva Dolan, so if you enjoyed the excerpt and like the sound of the blurb, please go ahead and read This is The Way it Ends, and please let me know what you think of it.

Thank you to Bloomsbury UK & ANZ, Raven Books for providing a digital copy of This is The Wayit Ends by Eva Dolan for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions. Please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the 'about ' page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com for an explanation of my rating system. This review and others are also published on my blog sandysbookaday.wordpress.com.

Unfortunately I found this novel to be bleak and terribly boring! For the life of me I just could not connect to the writing or find any passion in reading it. The characters were dull and subject matter not intriguing to me in the slightest.

Thank you to the publisher for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This Is How It Ends by Eva Dolan

One March evening, a party is held in Castle Rising, a doomed residential block in London, to celebrate Ella’s new Kickstarter project. Her new book will call attention to all of those men, women and children without a voice who have been forced out of their homes by greedy property prospectors. For this is what has happened to the residents of Castle Rising and now there are so few left, most tempted away by increasing financial offers. But for those who have stayed, young Ella is their voice. She has a cause she believes in. And she is helped by Molly, a 60-year-old resident in the tower block who has years of social activism behind her. A photographer, Molly’s walls are covered in her images of past battles, such as Greenham Common. These two have a mother and daughter kind of relationship, a strong and real dependency. And when, in utter panic, Ella calls Molly to her in one of the flats on the night of the party, Molly knows she will do everything to support Ella, even if that means helping her to hide the dead body lying at Ella’s feet.

And so begins This Is How It Ends, a book of such brilliance, power and originality that I want to shout about it. It has a premise that is immediately intriguing – two women joined together by their desire to help society and right its wrongs at great risk to themselves are faced with a moral dilemma. How can they live with themselves after they have hidden a body, even if he was killed in self-defence? And all set within the context of a tower block in London that is both doomed and rat-infested. With each one of its empty flats haunted by the lives of the people who once lived there, while the few who still remain are among the most vulnerable in society. It is irresistible, supported by the fact that this novel is every bit as beautifully written as you’d expect from Eva Dolan, who is such a fine author.

And yet, this is just the premise and everything that follows through this astonishing novel isn’t at all as I expected it. This means that this is one of those particularly difficult reviews to write because I want to say nothing about it! Suffice to say, this is an ingenious plot. It will astonish and confound you. You will marvel at its developments and you will applaud Eva Dolan for her ingenuity and confidence. This is jawdropping stuff.

The structure of the book backs up the plot perfectly. The novel is divided between the perspectives of Ella and Molly. Molly’s story moves forward from the night of the party in present tense, while Ella’s narrative, told in past tense, moves backwards in time. This works brilliantly and is handled with great skill.

Eva Dolan’s previous novels, which feature DS Ferreira and DI Zigic of the Peterborough Hate Crimes Unit, are superb. Crime fiction with a conscience, they present a strongly insightful portrayal of some of the troubles facing society today, especially immigration, prejudice and poverty. In This Is How It Ends, which incredibly surpasses the previous marvellous novels, the action moves to London and Eva Dolan looks at another type of oppression and corruption – that of greedy landlords and developers who put profit above safety and the quality of their residents’ lives, and the failure of those who should protect them and their right to protest. We’re all aware how topical a concern this is.

But this is not an author who preaches to the converted. She is far more clever than that. Instead there is another powerful undercurrent to this novel, and that is the relationship between women, the mother and daughter dynamic. The characters of Ella and Molly are beautifully drawn. People are complex, fascinating, and their actions not always predictable. I could not put this book down. Its rewards are immense. With no doubt at all, I predict that this will be in my list of top books of 2018.

Other reviews
Tell No Tales
After You Die
Watch Her Disappear

I am a massive fan of Eva Dolan’s writing. Her last book, Watch Her Disappear, from her Zigic and Ferreira series, was the epitome of good writing and with this stand-alone novel Dolan has excelled herself.

This is powerful writing with plausible, fully worked out characters that have depth and meaning. The well plotted storyline has many layers which slowly peel back until the truth is exposed. What makes this book special is that flawless combination of utterly believable, well drawn characters with a contemporary theme that gets to the heart of social inequity in this country and yet is a timeless book about friendship, love and betrayal.

The writing is so powerful that I felt as if I had been punched in the stomach when it ended. That’s partly because, like all really good books, I identified with it. Her subject matter was a part of my life; I know the people she is writing about and there is a truth in her words that rings loud and clear across the high rises of London.

I don’t really want to talk much about the plot, because this is a book where the story speaks for itself, but I think it’s a work you will lose yourself in.

Complex, layered, skilled, passionate and beautifully crafted, if this does not stand the test of time over decades I will eat my hat.

I loved this book. It goes straight onto the 2018 must read list without a whisper of hesitation.

Buy it, read it, weep.