I have never read a book by Flynn Berry before. I was absolutely blown away by this book, and so sad that it had to end.

A young woman is always on the lookout for her father, who murdered her nanny and attempted to murder her mother before fleeing the country. His tight-knit, powerful group of friends and classmates is her best bet for finding out what really happened, and where he went. She follows them, tries to infiltrate their lives anonymously, and get answers. The story is told in alternating timelines - then and now. The way it unfolded was fascinating, had a great pace, and ended up being surprisingly emotional in the end. I can't wait to read more of Berry's books!

When I requested an ARC of this book, I had no idea it was loosely based on a real-life crime. I found that out and it stuck with me the entire time I read this book.

I found this book very interesting, the characters alone would have kept me reading if nothing else did. The descriptions and the pacing of the story were satisfying and all in all, it was a good read. I'll definitely look for more from this author in the future.

In “A Double Life” the writing continuously propels the reader through the story.

Claire, now in her late thirties, is a physician with the National Health Service who has created a quiet life for herself. One day Scotland Yard contacts her with the information that there has been a sighting of her father. He is the man who disappeared after killing Claire’s and her brother’s nanny and badly injured her mother more than twenty five years ago. This event drives Claire to begin a search for this man.

This novel artfully weaves together the story of the killings with the present day lives of Claire and her brother. From the home where the killings occur, to the estate where her father’s rich, titled friends live, and to a beach on the Mediterranean Sea the vivid sense of place puts the reader into the middle of the action.

“A Double Life” provides a commentary on how the British rich and titled class close ranks to protect one of their own. It also portrays how the violence of the murder affected Claire and her brother.

I was so engrossed with “A Double Life” I read it in one day.

This was a pretty good mystery, but the slow pace and limited character development prevented me from fully immersing myself in it. That being said, the writing was strong and I think I would read more by the author in the future.

Unfortunately, I didn't really enjoy this book and had trouble getting through it. It was very jerky and confusing at times. I didn't like Claire and found her neurotic personality very annoying. I did not like Under the Harrow either, so I will not be looking for Flynn Berry's books in the future.

Claire is a doctor working at a small practice in London. What people don’t know is that Claire is also the daughter of a notorious murder suspect. Twenty years earlier, a brutal crime was committed in Claire’s family home while she and brother slept upstairs. She was awakened by a noise and made her way downstairs and saw the brutality. Her father was the prime suspect in the crime. Claire’s mother insisted he’d been in their home that night. Her father’s car had been found near the English Channel and there was blood on the front seat. He’d disappeared. Her father’s friends came to his defense. Later, her mother took her two children to settle in Edenborough and changed their names to avoid be associated with the Lord. The police have, several times, reported to Claire that her father has been sighted. None of those sightings were her father. As the book opens, her father has been sighted once again.

This book is written in such a way I found it hard to relate to the characters. The story at times felt ponderous. Berry wrote the story at a snail’s pace. Unfortunately, I like my reads to move along quicker than this. I continued reading hoping Berry would pick up the pace, but she didn’t.

If you like your books to move along, this is not the book for you. But if you enjoy a leisurely paced book, do pick this one up.

I was instantly intrigued upon reading the synopsis of A Double Life by Flynn Berry. Take a look:

Claire is a hardworking doctor leading a simple, quiet life in London. She is also the daughter of the most notorious murder suspect in the country, though no one knows it.

Nearly thirty years ago, while Claire and her brother slept upstairs, a brutal crime was committed in her family’s townhouse. The next morning, her father’s car was found abandoned near the English Channel, with bloodstains on the front seat. Her mother insisted she’d seen him in the house that night, but his powerful, privileged friends maintained his innocence. The first lord accused of murder in more than a century, he has been missing ever since.

When the police tell Claire they’ve found him, her carefully calibrated existence begins to fracture. She doesn’t know if she’s the daughter of a murderer or a wronged man, but Claire will soon learn how far she’ll go to finally find the truth.

Loosely inspired by one of the most notorious unsolved crimes of the 20th century – the Lord Lucan case – A Double Life is at once a riveting page-turner and a moving reflection on women and violence, trauma and memory, and class and privilege.



I knew I needed to read this book since its inspired by an unsolved crime. I love seeing how an author’s mind works and puts together a story based on something that happened in the past. This promises to be chilling and maybe a little creepy and a tad scary too!

A Double Life
August 1, 2018

|

Dorothy Sasso




In the interest of full disclosure, I went to the same high school as author Flynn Berry. I think she started after I graduated though, but I remember hearing her name through my brother, who recalls that they went on a date once or something like that.



A couple years ago, I learned she published a book, "Under the Harrow", which I never got around to reading. When her second book, "A Double Life" popped up on Netgalley this summer, I was lucky enough to get an e-galley for review.



"A Double Life" is based on the real story of Lord Lucan, an English lord who supposedly murdered his children's nanny, believing the victim to be his ex-wife. After the attack, Lucan disappeared, never to be seen again. It's a fascinating story.



Berry's book focuses on Claire, daughter to the lord, who at the age of 34 remains haunted by her father's disappearance. The plot describes how her parents met and how circumstances led them to the night of the attack.



Since then, Claire has been terrified by, but yet also obsessed with her missing father. She worries he is going to show up at her home. But she can't help wanting to know if he is still alive and where he is.



To that end, she stalks his friends, wealthy members of the British aristocracy, who passionately defended her father, tried to convince the public that Claire's mother was crazy and possibly helped him escape. Finally, she befriends Alice, daughter of her father's closest friends, in an attempt to insinuate herself into their lives and learn where her father is, if he's still alive.



The story is fascinating, as is the real Lord Lucan situation that the plot is based on. However, I had a hard time getting sucked into the monotone writing. I found the pace and style to be very flat and matter-of-fact. The tension is slow-burning, which I'm normally fine with, but I didn't find myself rushing through the pages. I kept waiting for things to get really exciting, which they never did. I supposed "A Double Life" is more of a character driven thriller than action driven, which is fine. I've read and enjoyed similar books, but it was hard to feel much for Claire. Berry creates a character who is haunted by her father, but yet shows very little emotion. Everything seems buried under the surface. Because of this, the book did little for me, disappointingly.



That being said, I would very much like to read Berry's first novel, "Under the Harrow", which sounds very good. I'd like to see if the style that I couldn't get into is the same. I'm definitely willing to give her another shot.

Thank you to Netgalley and Viking for a copy of the eARC in exchange for a fair review.


Claire has been living a quiet life until one night a detective shows up at her door to get a DNA sample. They think they found her father. This sets Claire down a path, she knows that it isn't him, but this time she wants to find him and she wants to know the truth.


She has followed James, one of her father friend's, off and on for a few years. She has finally figured out some of his secrets and she reconnects with Alice his daughter in order to find out more. Once Claire is invited back to Alice's family home, she begins digging around there in order to figure out if her dad was there, buried there or something else.


Claire is determined to find out the truth about the night Emma, her nanny, was murdered and the night her mother was almost killed. Her mother claims it was her father, but his friends claim she was lying. Claire isn't quite sure about the truth, but she lost her mother as a teenager and she wants to know everything.


Whew I couldn't stop reading this, I had to know what was going on. It was told mostly from Claire's point of view, although when she told the story of her mother and father leading up to that night, she tells it like a story told to her. I found it all fascinating and I was on the edge of my seat trying to figure it out. It wasn't super shocking, but I admit some of the twists at the end threw me.


I actually really liked Claire she tried to be honest and I could tell that some of her actions pained her. I am kind of torn on the ending on the one hand it is kind of the best and on the other I still want some a little more.

Some time ago I selected Flynn Berry’s debut for my fiancée to read for the stupid long train commute. Mostly because it got good reviews and was small enough to carry. My fiancée wasn’t particularly impressed, but then again I’m the one in the family who’s a thriller fiend, so when Berry’s sophomore one showed up on Netgalley I decided to check it out and I’m so glad I did. Female authored female driven psychological suspense thrillers are absolutely ubiquitous these days and I’ve read more than a fair share of them and this one is a definite stand out. It isn’t specifically the elaborate twisty plot that’s the star here, it’s the narrative itself, Berry’s writing is terrific. It created a thoroughly compelling narrative tough to put down as you follow a young woman’s efforts to uncover the truth behind a horrific crime her father committed that torn their family asunder 26 years ago. It’s also much cleverer than a mere crime story, it deals with the mores of privilege and class stratification in English society and appears to be strongly inspired by a real life mystery of Lord Lucan. Read all about it https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bingham,_7th_Earl_of_Lucan. Fascinating case made for an awesome book. Genuinely exciting, hugely enjoyable, high quality thrills and drama. Recommended for all mystery fans. Thanks Netgalley.

<i>She said</i> she heard noises coming from downstairs so she went to see what they were. When she reached the landing she found her estranged husband with a length of pipe outfitted with tape.
He attacked her forcing his fist down her throat.

<i>He said</i> he was walking past the house when he witnessed the fight. He came in to aid his wife and the burglar ran away.

<i>The evidence</i>
Although his DNA is present at the scene of the crime and blood is found in his car 70 miles away there is no DNA underneath her fingernails indicating a close struggle. He is a Lord and has friends in high places that are willing to vouch for him and secure his alibi. During the inquest her reputation is brought into question including concerns over her mental health and her sexual proclivities.

<b>A Double Life</b> is about the aftermath of such a tragedy. Based on the real life story of Richard John Bingham, 7th Earl of Lucan who disappeared in 1974 after attacking his estranged wife and bludgeoning the nanny to death. The narrator Claire is the daughter. It is now over 20 years later but she and her brother still bear the wounds. They have been forced to flee the country and change their names in order to avoid all of the media attention. Both have been psychologically traumatized. Robbie is addicted to pain killers and Claire is obsessed with finding her father. She finds it difficult to reconcile the father she knew with the monster who slayed her beloved Emma. Perhaps when she finds him he could prove his innocence. Maybe her mother was mistaken.

<b>A Double Life</b> does not read so much as a mystery as it does a domestic thriller. It has a depth that is not found in your typical fast-paced thriller. If you don't mind a slow burn, <b>A Double Life</b> may be just the book for you.

Unfortunately this book didn’t do it for me. Too long and not very thrilling. I would not recommend this book to anyone but thank NetGalley for the opportunity to review it.

Claire desperately wants to find her missing father to discover his reasons for living A Double Life.

Claire was only eight when her father bludgeoned her live-in babysitter Emma to death and attempted to do the same to her mother. After her mother escaped the house, her father disappeared. When she is told he may have been found, Claire reminiscences about her mother and father’s romance and life before the crime. Claire’s father is the first British Lord accused of murder in the 20th century. He and her mother were separated and planning to divorce before the incident. Could her mother have set up the crime to keep her father’s wealth?

A Double Life begins slowly with a very long flashback about how Claire’s parents relationship began. If I hadn’t been reading this book to review it, I probably would have stopped reading as it was boring and seemingly pointless. The book does have an eventful conclusion. However, the overall melancholy feel and depressingly dark inevitability was just not for me. A Double Life is recommended to those readers of literary fiction who enjoy escaping into someone else’s, so much worse, life. 3 stars.

Thanks to the publisher, Viking Books, and NetGalley for an advanced copy.

Sometimes the structure of a book interferes with the reading. Here Ms Berry writes the interior life of Claire, daughter of an accused murderer who has been on the run for decades. The damage done to Claire and her family has lingered and triggered drug addiction in Claire's brother. Claire has become a high functioning obsessive.

This book does not appeal to me for a lot of reasons. It is written in the first person, a form I think is difficult. Then there is the tangled backstory and present day action. Then there is the carefully repeated history of the crime that Claire could not know, the exact sequence of events during her parents' courtship, and her mother's exact thoughts, her emotions. Her mother could not have ever spoken in this detail and so these many segments must be products of Claire's obsession. If Claire is imagining some of the story, how much?

So I didn't enjoy this and I skipped about 70%, reading the first chapters, getting oriented and settled into the story before I realized how irritating it was. Then I jumped to the last 10% to read the end because there were only a few ways this could turn out.

NB The New York Times published a review of "A Double Life" in the book section 2018/07/20.

A Double Life tells the story of an upper class Englishman who disappeared after apparently murdering his children's nanny (mistaking her for his wife) and then attempting to murder his wife, while his two young children slept. The mother, grievously injured, made it out of the house to get help. It is she who named her husband as the attacker. The story is told from the point of view of his daughter, Claire, now 34, and a doctor in London.

Claire, her brother Robbie, and her mother are all living under new identities due to the notoriety surrounding the case, but no one knows that. They have had no contact with her father's family who never approved of Claire's mother, and now blame her for his disappearance, saying that he could never commit murder and it was her mother's accusations that forced him to flee. From time to time, police detectives come to Claire to tell her that they have a report that someone has spotted her father, which brings the whole traumatic experience back to the forefront of her thoughts. After many false spottings, she becomes obsessed with trying to find her father, so that she can learn the truth of what happened that night. Is her father the loving man she remembers, or the cold blooded killer?

When she gets a strong lead on where he is, she goes to look for him. I won't say any more so as not to spoil the book for those who have not read it yet.

The book is well-paced, and the main characters very realistic. I enjoyed the way Berry heightens the suspense. The book does a good job of exploring the effects of a traumatic experience on the rest of a person's life. Claire handled it by becoming obsessed; her brother didn't want to know anything about his father, but became a drug addict.

All-in-all, quite a satisfying read!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Viking for allowing me to read an e-ARC of this book in exchange for an unbiased review.

The blurb is correct- this is a page turner! Clare is trying to find her father, who disappeared after murdering Emma, her nanny, and gravely injuring her mother, who soldiered on despite a total lack of support from pretty much anyone. The class differences between her parents-Colin and Faye- factors into everything about the case and only compounds the problem of finding him. Loosely based on the Loucan case, this is a sleigh ride of a read, especially for those unfamiliar, as I am, with the details of the real incident. Clare finds a way to enter her father's social circle and to, well, no spoilers.....All the while she's dealing with her brother's opioid addiction, brought on by painkillers prescribed for a sports injury. Terrific storytelling and good twists made this an excellent read. My only suggestion would have been to cut the last few pages, which added nothing to what was a well done thriller and were inconsistent for Clare and the tone of the novel. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. Highly recommend for a good travel or beach read.

Thank you netgalley and Viking publishing for allowing me to read this in exchange for my honest review.

Claire is a doctor who has a "double-life". Her father has been missing for years and accused for the possible murder of Claire's nanny and abuse/possible murder of her mother. No one, besides family, knows about this side of her story. There have been a few spottings of her father before, but this time it seems like the real deal. Claire's kept up on the mystery via forums online, but she needs to know the truth for herself. What will she do to get the truth? Can she ever be safe?

I expected more suspense and mystery to this novel. It was more of a narrative of Claire's life and background information about what happened to her parents as a child. There were also a ton of characters to keep track of. I found myself going back a few times to keep certain people straight in my head in terms of what their role was in the story. The switching timelines also got confusing. There was no real set-up as to when the narrator was going to switch between flashbacks and reality. That was sometimes hard to keep up with. It was just too dry of a mystery for me (at least for it being advertised as a mystery and thriller). I wouldn't find myself reading it again. It could've been a good Dateline show. 

2/5 Stars

3.5 Stars

Claire's father has been missing almost 30 years. He disappeared after committing a brutal crime against her mother and her mother's friend. Claire's mother survived to tell people that her husband had done this. Her father's family disputed it.

Her father's car was found abandoned a short distance away, but he disappeared. Over the years there have been sightings, but it was never her father. The theory is that his family somehow smuggled him out of the country.

Claire is tired of not knowing if she's the daughter of a murderer or a man framed by someone else.

Claire will soon learn how far she'll go to finally find the truth.

This was an engrossing look at Claire's life ... her memories of her father, her life as a child, her life as an adult, trying to take care of her younger brother who has issues of his own... all told in her own voice. This is not a highly suspenseful book, but it did hold my attention. The ending came as a surprise, one I didn't see coming.

Many thanks to the author / Penguin Group - Viking / Netgalley for the digital copy of A DOUBLE LIFE. Opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.

This is Flynn Berry's second novel; it follows Under the Harrow. A Double Life is inspired by a true murder that was reportedly committed by Lord Lucan. Lord Lucan supposedly murdered his children's nanny after he mistook the nanny for his wife. Lord Lucan was never seen again and nothing is definitvely known about what happened to him. Lord Lucan's wife died only recently, never saying anything more.

In this novel, Flynn Berry imagines what might have happened. She tells her story largely through the eyes of the daughter, imagining what life was like for her, her mother and her brother following the horrific murder. Flashbacks about the relationship of the protagonist's parents and their friends add to the seeming veracity of the story.

I found this book to be a page turner and finished it within a few days. There were some plot twists and some food for thought once the full story was told. Anyone out there who reads this, I will be interested in your take on the ending.

Note this is a fictional account and does not in all respects follow what happened to the family.

Thanks for this excellent read NetGalley and the publisher!

Did he do it or was he set up? If he did it, why? Did his friends cover for him and how did he get out of the country? How has he stayed hidden all these years? Where is he? These are the questions that invade Claire's daily life after her father is suspected of murdering her nanny and almost killing her mother. For her brother, it has driven him to drug addiction. So during the course of the book, the reader follows Claire as she follows the lives of her father's old friends, hoping for clues about whether they helped him escape and if they know where he is. Honestly, her obsession gets a bit mentally unstable and strange. But that is the point, right? Ms. Berry does a terrific job of portraying a woman who tries to not let her own mysterious past overshadow her current life while continuing to be stuck in it herself. I look forward to future books from Ms. Berry!