BOOK DESCRIPTION
A drowned child. Estranged sisters. A once-perfect home.
Silence echoes louder than truth.
When seventeen-year-old Rachel’s baby brother drowns and her older sister, Imogen, escapes to live abroad with Simon, her musician boyfriend, Rachel must face the family’s grief and disintegration alone.
Twenty years later, Rachel is a successful businesswoman, with a daughter of her own, supporting her parents and their elegant Georgian home, The Old Rectory, that shackles them to the past.
Simon’s sudden death in Ibiza brings Imogen back, impoverished and resentful. Her family owes her, and she will stop at nothing to reclaim what she believes is rightly hers.
The rift between the sisters seems permanent. While Imogen has lived a nomadic life, filled with intrigue, in Spain and Tunisia, Rachel’s has appeared stable and successful but, behind the veneer, cracks are appearing. Now, she is vulnerable.
As the wall of silence and secrecy crumbles, danger stalks Rachel’s family. She must re-examine her baby brother’s death, find out what happened in Tunisia, and fight to hold onto everything she’s achieved –or risk losing it all.
Façade is a gripping tale of loss, guilt and danger.
As the old saying goes, you can choose your friends but you can't choose your family. The chapters of this story flipped back and forth in time and alternated between two estranged sisters Rachel and Imogen, sisters who were like chalk and cheese. The reader could tell from Rachel's attitude when she received the phone call informing her that Imogen was returning home to England that she wasn't very pleased. And it very quickly became apparent why when instead of helping Rachel cope with their father who suffered from dementia and their grief stricken mother, Imogen started making demands and stirring up trouble. On the surface Rachel's life appeared perfect but in reality she was struggling with issues with her daughter Hannah. Issues that Imogen was able to use to her advantage in her plan to ruin what she saw as Rachel's perfect life. It was difficult not to feel sympathy for Rachel and dislike her seemingly obnoxious sister but as the story unfolded the reader discovered that as in any good thriller, things were not as they appeared to be and that many of the characters were harbouring secrets. What had caused the rift between the sisters? Would they ever be reconciled or was the damage irreparable?
This is a well written story about redemption, festering grudges, family dramas and dark secrets that had some unexpected twists and turns, clever misdirections and a genuinely shocking final twist. The reader was drip fed clues as the various threads of the various mysteries were gradually drawn together. I really enjoyed this gripping page turner and would happily read more of this author's books in the future.
Author Bio..
Born in Cardiff, Helen read English at the University of Liverpool and worked in international development, consultancy, human resources and pensions management. She fled corporate life to work freelance while studying for a Creative Writing MA at Oxford Brookes University. Her stories and flash fiction have been shortlisted and published by Flash 500, 1000K Story, Reflex Press, Artificium and Love Sunday magazine.
She is a keen cyclist, covering long distances if there aren’t any hills, sings in a choir and once appeared on stage at Carnegie Hall, New York in a multi-choir performance. She loves spending time in France. Helen is an Ambassador for the charity, Unseen, which works towards a world without slavery and donates her author talk fees, and a percentage of royalties, to the charity.
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