The Dead Friend Project | Joanna Wallace
REVIEWED BY LINDA HILL
With her marriage over and three children to care for, Beth is struggling after her best friend Charlotte is hit by a car and killed. All her other friends believe it to be an accident, but Beth is convinced someone murdered Charlotte and she’s determined to find out who it was.
The Dead Friend Project: book review & synopsis
The Dead Friend Project is a compelling story of complex relationships, subterfuge and mystery. As Beth’s attempts to find Charlotte’s killer become an obsession, and she spirals into increasingly unreliable behaviour and a reliance on alcohol, we can never quite trust what she tells us.
The story was so intriguing I couldn’t put it down, unsure if Beth was ill, mad, or the only sane person in the story. In fact, Beth’s mental health is a mature and interesting aspect of the book, because Joanne Wallace convinces us to judge Beth in the same way her friends do, inviting us to become part of the action.
All the women presented in the story feel true to life. None is perfect. I loathed Emily and yet I felt sorry for her, trapped in a spiral of one-upmanship. So many readers will identify with the need to compare ourselves with others that leaves us feeling wanting.
A wider look at society…
Themes of friendship and loyalty, and the way the past impacts our lives, elevate The Dead Friend Project from an entertaining thriller into a book that also shines a light onto society. These aspects add depth and interest. The writing is incisive, dark and acerbic.
There’s so much that is familiar to readers, such as recalcitrant children, rocky marriages and playground politics. However, there’s a real sense of menace and danger too that is exciting and engaging. With short chapters that whiz past and touches of razor-sharp observational humour, the narrative grabs our attention and holds us spellbound.
I thought The Dead Friend Project was brilliant. It’s a fast-paced mystery thriller that keeps us guessing until the end. It’s an acute look at friendship and society, and the assumptions we make about others. It’s finely balanced between the prosaic and the dramatic, feeling real and exciting. It’s most definitely a book to pack in a suitcase or to read in the garden!
The Dead Friend Project by Joanna Wallace is out now (Viper, HB, £16.99) and available from Amazon.
Read more fiction reviews by Linda Hill including Redemption by Jack Jordan, Our Holiday by Louise Candlish, The Unforgettable Loretta, Darling by Katherine Blake, My Favourite Mistake by Marian Keyes, The Intruders by Louise Jensen and A Lesson In Cruelty by Harriet Tyce.
