Cover Image: Greenwich Park

Greenwich Park

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Member Reviews

Readers will not be able to solve this mystery, which is both its strength and weakness. The book starts out in "Hand that Rocks the Cradle' fashion; I believed the heroine was at risk of having her baby stolen from her. The truth is a bit convoluted and hard to swallow. The twist ending is perfect.

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I received a copy of this book as an ARC from @NetGalley and wow wow wow! It was so good and it kept me hooked from start to finish. The whole time I was thinking one thing was happening, only for it to turn out completely different! 4/5 ⭐️‘s, would 100% recommend reading this book!

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Set in London, this thriller features three narrators: Helen, expecting her first child after years of trying; Serena, Helen’s sister-in-law, also pregnant, and Katie, Helen’s erratic brother Charlie’s girlfriend.

Helen has just gone on early maternity leave for her high-risk pregnancy, and she finds herself at loose ends. She meets the younger Rachel at a prenatal class; Helen’s husband cancels at the last minute and Rachel’s there alone. Rachel, younger, loud and inappropriate (she smokes and drinks in spite of her condition) attaches herself to Helen, and Helen, for reasons that I couldn’t quite figure, lets her.

I tried to accept that Helen was lonely and rather neurotic, and didn’t have the wherewithal to shut down Rachel’s persistent attempts to insinuate herself into Helen’s life. But Rachel is also repellent, and Helen did seem to be repelled by her at times. Between that and the fact that Rachel starts suspiciously turning up everywhere that Helen is, it’s hard to credit that Helen wasn’t more wary of Rachel.

From there, it’s a twisty ride through secrets of the past (something mysterious happened while Helen, her husband Daniel, her brother Rory, and Serena were all at Cambridge together) and the present (gee, why *is* Helen getting repeated calls from lenders regarding the mortgage she definitely never took out?). Meanwhile Rachel is lurking in the background like a malevolent spider, hovering over Helen and interfering with her relationship with Daniel.

The resolution was…pretty good? It tied the past and the present together neatly, and nobody’s behavior seemed hugely out of left field. I didn’t care for most of the characters that much though – Helen is too mousy to really root for, and everyone else besides Katie (who has a smaller role in spite of being one of the narrators) kind of sucked. Still, I’ll give Greenwich Park a low B+, for pure readability. It manages to build a tone of increasing claustrophobia and dread leading up to the climax, and that’s something I like out of a thriller.

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Although I wasn't overly thrilled with the ending, this was still a solid debut novel by Katherine Faulkner. Most of my questions that I had were wrapped up at the end so that was satisfying but for some reason there is part of me that just didn't love it. I thought there was a decent amount of character development but would have liked a bit more to make the ending more dramatic. I did feel that the pacing in this is quite slow as well and thought much of this could have been sped up for dramatics. Rachel as a character was my favorite because she has a vindictive mission which you do not perceive until later while smoothly molding herself into their lives. I changed my opinion throughout and was afraid for the ending. The final twists were definitely shocking.

Thank you NetGalley and Gallery Books for this eventful ARC book in exchange for my honest review!
I can't wait to read more from Katherine Faulkner.

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What a fun little thrilling ride!

For a first thriller, this book was rather good. The characters were interesting, the three points of view had me on my toes.

Who is Katie and what does she want with this upscale group of friends and family?

The way Faulkner weaved everything together was incredibly fascinating. The story was fresh, interesting, and devious.

My only gripe would be the info-dump at the end. I wish the author had worked that in without the long explanatory chapter as she weaved such good morsels through the rest.

I’ll definitely be picking up the next book by this author.

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Interesting domestic suspense, not sure I’d call it a thriller. I thought I had the ending figured out but that wasn’t the case!

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I was sucked into this book relatively quickly, and enjoyed it, but did kind of figure out what was happening at some point and knew who to suspect. Whenever that happens, I get antlers disappointed. However, I did enjoy it and have already recommended to a coworker

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Wow. I really enjoyed this a lot more than I thought I would - I thought being a mother would play more into it, but I was glad it didn't. It was hard to put down. All of the characters felt very real. I didn’t mind the 3 perspectives - lots of cliffhangers there!

Some parts dragged a leeeeetle & while I enjoyed what the ending was, it didn’t like how it was told as much. The telling felt a little anticlimactic, and I wish it was SHOWN rather than told.

I loved the setting, loved the close family ties and how the group went back very far.

I had many theories throughout reading the book and I was dying to put it all together. I thought it actually might be more complicated/enmeshed/intertwined than it ended up being. I KNEW there was something shady about Daniel as he was so regularly absent, but very interesting how it all came together. I thought he was the one who maybe raped Rachel and she was having his child, but I guess that would've been too obvious. Helen was also a little toooo naive if you ask me.

Also once noticing how often Helen said she was tired, you can’t unnotice it! Overall a big page-turner that was super enjoyable.

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Ok wow! This one had so many twists and turns I couldn’t keep up with them all! Helen finally has a pregnancy that seems like it’s “sticking” after years of miscarriages. She is befriended by Rachel, who’s a bit rough around the edges, at prenatal class. Even though something doesn’t seem right with Rachel, Helen feels out of place in her circle of family and friends and encourages the friendship. As her pregnancy progresses, Helen’s husband and friends begin acting strangely, and Rachel doesn’t appear to be who she pretends to be. When Rachel goes missing, Helen and her reporter friend Katie try to figure out what is really going on.

Greenwich Park was a slow starter for me with some of the side stories being confusing. When it seemed wrapped up, there were so many loose ends still needing to be tied up. The last chapter wrapped everything up. I thought this could have been done in a better way instead of word vomiting all the tied up strings. The last line was the best, though!

If you like thrillers and complicated relationships, you may enjoy Greenwich Park.

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I thoroughly loved this book. It had lots of twists and turns and kept me hooked until the end! Well done.

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Who is this Rachel and why has she inserted herself into Helen's life? I needed to know the answer so I flew through this book. I didn't know there could be so much drama in one family - yikes! If you're a fan of domestic thrillers, try Greenwich Park.

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Helen meets Rachel at a prenatal class. Rachel is an odd duck and seems to be stalking Helen. Helen takes Rachel under her wing despite her husband's protest. One day Rachel disappears and Helen finds out her husband has a past connection with Rachel.

The writing was good but very predictable. There was a surprising twist at the end I didn't see coming. The characters were great. The sections about Greenwich Park interspersed throughout the book are supposed to be an overshadow of the story, but only left me confused and didn't add to the storyline.

Thank you to NetGalley and Gallery Books for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!

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This book took a bit for me to get into, but once I did I was hooked. Fun psychological thriller that kept me guessing.

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This book falls into my perfect genre. However, I had a hard time liking the characters in this story. It took me a while to get through this one. Sorry for the late feedback, it just took me a while to get through. Thanks so much for the chance to read this book.

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I loved it. The written, characters, plot all fit nicely together to make this a good read. I will for sure keep my eye out for this author in the future.

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This was my first thriller of the year, and I am glad it was so good!

This story focuses on Helen, who is preparing for the birth of her first child with her husband Daniel. On the day of her first prenatal class, Helen is upset that Daniel can't make it. In the class, she meets Rachel who is also alone because she is single while pregnant with her first child. The women introduce themselves to each other and stroke an unlikely friendship, which becomes the main plot of the book. Rachel seems to be eager to be Helen's friend, who is not a very social person and only has one good friend, her sister-in-law Serena and her college friend, Katie. As the story develops, Rachel ends up moving into Helen's home, which makes Daniel very uncomfortable. Rachel can manipulate her way into Helen's life, and soon it becomes clear that she is a threat to their family. As Helen tries to uncover the truth behind Rachel's pregnancy and the secrets she's been keeping, weird things start happening in the home. And when Rachel goes missing, Helen realizes that she was right about everything she suspected.

Honestly, this was a thrilling thriller. I loved the story and how convoluted it was. Katherine Faulker does a really good job of telling a story filled with red herrings that make the reader come up with theories that ultimately end up being wrong. I loved how many twists this book had, and how I was misled to believe that something was happening yet it was something completely different. I found that Rachel's pregnancy storyline was clever. I liked how the foreshadowing was so clear once it was revealed yet I failed to notice it when I read it. It only becomes clear after Rachel and Daniel's secrets are revealed. In addition, the last line of the book was epic. I did not see that one coming, and I was screaming when I finished it. So clever and well written!

The book is told from three different POVs: Helen, Katie, and Rachel. Each one of them adds details to the story that become important to build up the tension that leads to the big revelation at the end of the book. I liked Katie's character the most as she provides facts told from the perspective of an outsider. While she is close friends with Helen, she can see Rachel's intentions from the beginning and advises Helen accordingly. Helen seems extremely gullible, and I was so frustrated with her when she allows Rachel to move in. She is childlike and too trusting, and I couldn't believe that she was willing to put her own family at risk for someone she had just met because it's clear that Rachel made her uneasy from the beginning. Surprisingly, I liked Rachel at first. Besides the fact she seemed indifferent to her pregnancy and the well-being of her child, her personality was fun at first. Of course, my opinion changed as her behavior got more erratic, but after her secrets are revealed, I felt sympathy for her.

I'd say that besides Katie and Helen, I didn't like any of the secondary characters. Serena is over the top and condescending, and I found her attitude arrogant. I couldn't believe that Helen considered her friend because, to me, it was clear from the beginning that she thought she was better than Helen. Daniel was also aggravating. I couldn't believe how rude he was to Helen and how badly he treated her even though his success is the result of his father-in-law's help. He seemed resentful of Helen's love for her family home, and all of his actions were those of a deceiver. I found him very unlikeable, so I was glad when he was exposed.

Overall, this story was a fast read. I liked how the pace was so consistent throughout the book. A solid thriller with an engaging story!

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“Greenwich Park” got off to a slow start, but it got better. There were many twists and turns, but I still struggled to get through this book.

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After reading the synopsis for this book I was really looking forward to it but unfortunately I never really got invested in any of the characters and thought parts of the book were confusing or repetitive. Even the "big reveal" wasn't as exciting as I was thinking it was going to be. There was a little suspense but this book barely held my interest.

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DNF - Did not finish. I did not connect with the writing style or plot and will not be finishing this title. Thank you, NetGalley and Publisher for the early copy!

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Thank you to netgalley.com for the ARC.

This was a page turner thriller. Set in England with a woman who on paper has the perfect life, but in reality has a history of insecurity, parental loss, and infertility. All these factors come into play throughout the story.

While I sort of figured out the twist ahead of time, it was still a good story and fun to read.

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