The Orphan Choir by Sophie Hannah

In the beginning I had a few reservations about this book. I wasn’t sure how long the author could use the noisy neighbour as the focal point of the story and it seemed as though things weren’t moving along as quick as I would expect. I am pleased to report that there was in fact a good reason she focused on this part of the story and that soon after there was a turning point in the story that not only made it worth the time to read, but surprised me in the process.

I enjoyed this book. Sophie Hannah has a way of drawing the reader into the world of her characters with her unexpected and witty dialogue. I liked the realism of her character’s speech and her ability to make things seem as though they were happening in the same room with me. ( Julian will agree with me when I say it is refreshing to see a book set in Cambridge that isn’t crap.)

Admittedly, I have a thing for creepy novels and stuff that goes bump in the night, but because of this I find it hard to enjoy a lot of books in this category. it seems authors usually go for a set model of how everything is going to go in this type of novel and that bugs me. This author took some risks by breaking away from the expected and I thought that worked in her favour.

The ending of this novel was not the least bit predictable and I appreciated that. Try as I might to figure out exactly what was going to happen, I wasn’t able to until the final page.

If you enjoy suspenseful novels with a heavy dose of psychological terror, this will be a book you want to check out.

This review is based on a digital ARC from netgalley and provided by the publisher.

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