The tension is exquisite in this brilliantly plotted novel. Pippa and Gabe have bought a house in a prime position above a beach, and with a magnificent view of the ocean. They gradually come to realise that the reason they could afford to live in this area is that their house has been built close to The Drop, a location which is favoured by people wanting to commit suicide. Gabe becomes something of a hero for having prevented seven would-be jumpers; however, he fails to save the eighth, Amanda, and questions arise about what happened exactly on the cliff top.
The story is told intriguingly in alternating chapters by Pippa and Amanda, headed Before, Now and After. It kept me in its thrall from the first page to the last. Both Pippa and Amanda experience changes in their relationships with their respective husbands over the time of the story and it becomes clear that the lives of all the characters are intertwined.
I couldn’t put this book down once I had started it. Its great appeal is in its difference. Pippa and Amanda both had expectations from the lives they had chosen but neither of them could have foreseen the eventual outcomes of those lives.
There is a very clever twist to the story which remains darkly mysterious to the end. There are a lot of great Australian writers and Sally Hepworth is one of the best.
Published by Pan Macmillan Australia
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