I found this book to be difficult to review; I find B.P. Walter to be a talented author. However, the book wasn't exactly what I expected from the synopsis. I hesitate in giving away too much of the plot because I would definitely not want to spoil it for others. I'll just say that It definitely didn't go in the direction I expected. That said, it did pull out some twists along the way that were well done and added to the storyline. I guess another difficulty I had was that I really didn't like the main character, Caroline. I understood she was a grieving mother and I believe that was depicted well. But I didn't like her before and couldn't find it in myself to like her after either. As much as I didn't like her, I really disliked her husband. So all of that added to the my negative feelings about the storyline, I believe.

A good portion of the story, it felt like Caroline was always looking for people to blame. For me, I liked seeing her find some resolution and answers at the end of the story - - even if they weren't exactly what she wanted to hear or know.

I believe this book would have been better classified as a marital strife and/or grief book. With a few exceptions, it didn't truly feel like a thriller to me. There was a mystery tied to it though. I know it was difficult to classify, but I believe if it was tucked into one a little better, people would have received it with a different opinion.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC. I voluntarily chose to review it and the opinions contained within are my own.

The Woman On The Pier is the fourth novel by British author, B.P. Walter. Successful screenwriter Caroline Byrne is a little concerned when messages to her teenaged daughter, Jessica go unanswered during a terrorist attack in East London, but reassures herself that Jessica has gone to visit a friend in Somerset, so she should be safe. Police at the door in the early hours tell a different story: Jessica was at Stratford Station, and was shot dead by a terrorist.

Her marriage to Alec, already unstable, deteriorates even further, especially as Caroline becomes a relentless irritant to Jessica’s friends, their parents, police, and any witnesses, as she tries to fathom why her daughter was in Stratford. She cannot understand why Jessica lied to her. But then Jessica’s phone, returned by police, offers a clue: a stream of messages to and from a Michael Kelley, whom she was to meet at that fateful place, where he failed to appear.

Now a mother who is determined to have something more to blame for the death of her daughter than a bunch of dead terrorists, Caroline seeks to saddle this young man with the responsibility, refusing to listen to reason from her husband. She heads to Southend to track him down and confront him.

Walter pack so much into this story that you’ll need to don your disbelief suspenders: a paedophile ring, self-harming teens, terrorists, teen boys connecting with MILFs, infidelity, child abuse, drug abuse, post-traumatic amnesia, mistaken identity, a body at the bottom of a staircase. It seems that not one character leads a plain, dull, ordinary life: each one has major issues. The story is told by two narrators over a dual timeline.

The story is populated by unappealing characters behaving badly who mostly fail to redeem themselves, although at least the teens have an excuse. The establishment of the characters’ backstories is, at times rather clumsy, tell instead of show. The lead-up to the events described in the blurb, and the title, is painfully slow. Much of the plot is melodramatic, the dialogue often real eye-rolling stuff; there are a couple of twists, but too little, too late for them to impact on a poor rating. Disappointing.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Harper Collins UK – One More Chapter.

Caroline is a well-known and successful screenwriter, married to Alec and mother to a teenage daughter, Jessica. Caroline and Alec’s marriage is not very good as he tends to try and make her look bad in front of Jessica. When Jessica asks to go to a town a ways away to visit with her friend for the weekend, Caroline is not in favor of it. But Alec insists that Jessica be allowed to go leaving Caroline to have to accept the decision.

While Jessica is gone, there is a terrorist bombing near London leaving many people dead and injured. Caroline is thankful that Jessica was not going there and breathes a sigh of relief. But when the police knock on the door with the terrible news that Jessica was in the middle of the bombing and is now dead, her parents are devastated.

Caroline is getting counseling and trying to work through her grief. Alec prefers to take walks. Their marriage has suffered and they just tolerate one another. When Caroline decides to check Jessica’s phone, she finds some chatting between her and a boy named Michael. It turns out that Jessica wasn’t going to meet her friend but was supposed to meet Michael. Now, Caroline blames him for Jessica’s murder and is determined to get revenge.

This book is difficult to encapsulate and share my feelings. It’s a dark story filled with rage and lots of downtrodden and pathetic characters It is also a story of intense grief and how people confront and handle it in different ways. I cannot say that I enjoyed the book because it left me cringing and I don’t feel like I gained some type of satisfaction from reading it.

Copy provided by the NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

DNF at 38% - I just didn’t know where it was going. The author has a lovely easy reading approach and such realistic characters but I found it difficult to connect with the protagonist. I don’t understand what the end game was here and read about 5 pages of a description of a seaside town. I will definitely give B P Walter another try as I loved The Dinner Guest.

Having read the book, I feel the title is misleading. The incident on the pier doesn't happen till almost the end of the book and it certainly isn't the main part of the story. In fact it gives away the outcome of a confrontation we know is going to happen.
Jessica is killed in a terrorist attack at a London train station and the story is basically how her parents Caroline and Alec cope with this. They thought Jessica was spending a weekend with a friend, instead they discover she was actually supposed to be meeting a boy at the station. This boy becomes the focus of Caroline's anger and she is intent on revenge. I thought the grief of the parents was well written and I enjoyed the book to a certain extent, however, I felt it all became a bit ludicrous and at times wondered if we were going to find out a lot of what was happening was down to an unreliable narrator. The story went in circles and I felt the car accident didn't really add anything.
The family of the boy was well written and tragic, I really felt for the brothers. It was all a bit depressing and the one thing that sticks with me is the vomiting - so much vomiting!

Caroline allows her daughter to spend the weekend at her friends parents house. While she is away a terrorist attack happens in Stratford. At first Caroline is not worried because her daughter is somewhere else. Then she learns the devastating news that her daughter was in Stratford and was killed in the attack. She wants to know why her daughter was not where she was supposed to be and sets off on a mission to find out.

The book is set in the UK, which is one of my favorite places. While the setting is not the main part of the book, I love reading books set in the UK. The book is set in dual timelines and multiple narrators. The dual timelines helped fill in the past and understand the characters. Near the end of the book several shocking events are revealed. It is heartbreaking and none of the adults are innocent.

Trigger warning: contains child abuse and broken homes.

I really enjoyed this book although I agree with other reviewers that the subject matter could make it a difficult read for some. Definitely a book with several changes of direction and the relevance of the title only became clear towards the end. However I thought it was interesting and well written and I would recommend it.

This is an unexpected read and I felt that the title is not an accurate representation of the plot as the scene at the pier is covered in two or three pages. However there is a lot of content and an array of characters who come with their own stories, mostly harrowing and the misunderstandings that happen between them.

Central character Caroline is devastated when her teenage daughter is killed in a terrorist attack and can’t understand why she was there at all, she should have been hundreds of miles away. With the break up of her marriage and her crumbling mental health Caroline discovers a message exchange on her daughter’s phone and decides to find the boy who she feels has killed her girl.

There are some very dark secrets uncovered and some of the plot was a difficult read, covering mental health, self harm and child abuse. This was a good book and well worth a read.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

After reading The Dinner Guest and finding it pretty average, I thought that I would give B P Walter another try, just in case this was more my thing.
Sadly I just don't think that I'm a fan.
At times this just felt silly and really far fetched.
Again, like in The Dinner Guest, the characters are truly unlikeable, making it difficult to root for or even care what happens to them.
I hoped that this would be better but I actually think that I liked this less than The Dinner Guest. It just didn't work for me.
Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

📚 BOOK REVIEW 📚
The Woman On The Pier By BP Walter - Harper Collins publication date 11th Nov 2021

💜 Caroline and Alec are having marriage issues. Especially after the terrible tragedy of their daughter. Caroline goes to look for the person, whom she blames for the tragedy!

This dark thriller, covers multiple situations that could make people uncomfortable.
A very gripping story. Really enjoyed it.
That ending though .....
Stopped too fast and short for mr!

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This is my first novel by B.P Walter. When I saw the cover and read the description, I thought that I have to read this book. Unfortunately, the book started out strong for me but was a little difficult to finish.

Over all, I wouldn’t classify this book of as a thriller and it was rather depressing to read. Maybe it was bad timing during the time I read it. While I can see some readers really enjoying this book, there are all some readers that will have a hard time getting into it.

I struggled through this book I’m afraid. I found the plot a little far fetched and I wasn’t to keen on the characters. Obviously this is a matter of taste and I’m sure some people will really enjoy it, it just wasn’t my cup of tea

I'm going to be honest, I really wasn't sure what to expect with this book. The premise intrigued me purely because it seemed that there was only one obvious outcome, so I knew it must be an interesting road. But wow! The depth explored of the characters was amazing , I think this would translate amazingly to TV. The writing style truly grabbed me, the informational reveals were clever and tactical, and having multiple POVs allowed for extra places for the author to hide clues. I can't wait to go back and read the dinner guest now 🥰

As so many books do, this story is told by going back in time - then the present - then back in time etc. Although this book was unsettling in content I didn't find that it rang true for me and sometimes was just plain silly. I can however understand it being popular and so although I wasn't greatly enamoured of it I can understand others liking it. Unfortunately it was not for me.

(3.5*) Caroline Byrne is a successful TV script writer whose marriage to Alec verges on, at best, uncomfortably difficult to, at worst, shambolic. And it only gets worse when their sixteen-year-old daughter is killed in a terrorist attack in London when they believe her to be a long way away in Cornwall. They both handle their grief differently, Caroline’s distress is the harder to watch. Her rage sends her down an unforgiving path of revenge. It’s not enough for her to know that the terrorists involved were killed too. She needs more; someone to blame.

When she finds Jessica’s phone, she reads messages that explain why her daughter was in London that day and not visiting a friend as she’d told them. In fact, she was supposed to meet a boy who failed to turn up. That failure, in Caroline’s mind, is the reason her daughter was still at the station when the bombs exploded. If he’d shown up, she’d have been safe – she would have still lied to them but she would, at least, be alive.

Now Caroline has a name and an address, and she sets out to meet the boy and to exact revenge for her daughter’s unnecessary death.

To be fair to Caroline, her husband is of no emotional help during this time, but then again she’s not exactly thinking straight herself. I didn’t like either of them at all and found it hard to empathise with them beyond the awful ordeal of losing a child to terrorism. For the first half of the book, I floundered. Caroline’s unhinged desperation felt overdone compared to Alec’s indifference. It was only when Caroline met “the boy” that I felt interested enough to read on.

His story is a tough one to read; themes featuring the sexual abuse of children are never comfortable reads. In this case, the boy’s story is unsettling and heartbreakingly sad. It takes Caroline a while to grasp that, though vengeance is never far from her mind. The scene on the pier, after which the book is named, is brief but dramatic. Blink and you’ll miss it, but its part in the overall story is paramount.

Overall, it became a compelling read. I’m glad I stuck with it. As a huge fan on The Dinner Guest, I had high expectations that I don’t feel this book met. That said, I’ll be sure to check out whatever this author creates in the future.

A disturbing psychological/domestic thriller about a mother who lost her only child to a terror attack. She learns her daughter was out to meet a boy named Michael Kelley at Stratford station. Michael never came and Jessica ended up waiting for an hour before terrorists opened fire on innocent civilians.

I had a hard time trying to like Caroline - she was nasty and rude most of the time. Seeing her situation from a psychological perspective, her uncontrolled emotions made sense but sometimes it was just over the line.

Though one of the main characters (Caroline) was annoying, I was curious to know what she would do when she faces Michael. Somehow, the way things ended did not do justice. I had a lot of expectations from this story - after all, I have read B.P Walter's The Dinner Guest and felt it was one of the best books of this year. Unfortunately, I cannot say the same about The Woman on the Pier. This story was just not for me.

The Woman on the Pier by BP Walter
I give this book 4 stars

Screenwriter Caroline Byrne is desperate to know why her daughter died.
She discovers messages Jessica had been sending a boy, she realises he’s the reason why her daughter is dead.
And so she makes a choice. He’s the one who’s going to pay.
That is her promise. Her price.

This book was totally not what I was expecting from the title .This dark and deep storyline tackles so much…..trauma,grief,secrets,
abuse, revenge and relationships. Once l started reading,l was sucked in and couldn’t stop!
I loved that some of it is set in Southend,Essex as this is very local to me.We hear from Caroline and Michael and their narrative is haunting and tragic, l felt so many emotions while reading this. It didn’t let up and l had no idea what way it was going to go…….Fantastic!
With thanks to Netgalley,BP Walters and Harper Collins UK,One More Chapter for my chance to read and review this book

Caroline and Alec’s teenage daughter, Jessica, was killed in a terrorist attack in East London and unsurprisingly they are struggling with their grief.

The story unfolds from the perspective from ‘The Mother’ (Caroline) and ‘The Boy’ (Jessica’s secret boyfriend).

I must say that I finished the book, but it felt like an ordeal to get to the end. I felt like I’d been mis-sold the book - it didn’t really feel like a thriller. Rather, I felt like I was wading through whole lot of misery and pain.

It just wasn’t a book for me.

A disturbing domestic/psychological drama that focuses on a grief-stricken mother as she tries to understand why her daughter died. Less about revenge and more about the dark journey grief and damaging early life experiences can take a person on.

I received a copy of this book from One More Chapter via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Thank you to @BarnabyWalter and @0neMoreChapter for this advanced copy of The Woman on the Pier in return for an honest review.

Description 🔖

Caroline Byrne has suffered. Her daughter Jessica was killed in tragic circumstances. What Caroline can’t work out is why Jessica was murdered in Stratford, when she was supposed to be staying with a friend in Somerset.

Drowning in grief, Carline starts to go through Jessica’s phone and finds messages between her daughter and a boy called Michael. They were supposed to be meeting that fateful day, but he didn’t show up. Caroline surmises that it’s Michael’s fault that Jessica died. Michael is the reason that Jessica is dead and Caroline will make him pay.

General Thoughts 🤔

This was such a good book. I will come clean and admit that I had no idea what to expect. As I sometimes like to do, I didn’t read the blurb and didn’t read any reviews beforehand, I just dived straight in. It was the cover and this authors reputation that got me interested in the book. I’m so glad I went in blind because right up until events would happen, I had no idea they were coming. There were so many slap in the face moments for me in this book and I didn’t predict any of them.

There were many uncomfortable moments for me but only uncomfortable because it’s not my reality. It found it heartbreaking that this work of fiction is in so many ways, other people’s reality. I think I actually would have liked for the book to have delved into some of this a little bit deeper, but it wasn’t a must have and didn’t make me enjoy the book any less.

Characters 👫👬👭

So Caroline was completely and utterly unhinged but who could blame her? She lost her daughter in a way that nobody could ever imagine would happen to them so naturally she wanted someone that she could pin some “logical” blame on. I was hoping and hoping that she would see sense and realise that yes, Jessica shouldn’t have been stood up in Stratford, but just like she couldn’t have predicted what would happen, nobody else could have either. I felt Caroline’s pain and her grief and I understand how she became completely blinded by it.

I don’t do spoilers in my reviews, so I’m not going to talk specifically about any of the other characters other than to say I felt so very sad. Someone should have been able to help and rescue these poor people, but instead they were able to float under the radar and try to find their own ways to deal with their pain.

Writing Style ✍️

This is the first book that I’ve read from this author but it definitely won’t be the last. They were able to build the perfect amount of tension without it being overwhelming. The chapters were short and snappy meaning I literally did keep telling myself “one more chapter” just like the publisher.

I liked that this book was tense and kept me highly engaged but also covered some important and difficult topics. I thought that the author did a great job of not brushing these under the rug but also covering them with the correct level of sensitivity.

Conclusion & Scoring 🎖️

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and will definitely be recommending it to my friends. It’s the perfect book to curl up on the sofa with and it’s not overly long so you could binge it easily (which I love to do). This is being released at the perfect time of the year, so get it for yourself or for a Christmas gift and enjoy!