The Girl on the Stairs

by Louise Welsh

Jane Logan is a stranger to Berlin and she finds the city alive and echoing with the ghosts of its turbulent past. At six months pregnant, she's instructed by her partner Petra to rest and enjoy her new life in Germany. But while Petra is out at work, Jane begins to feel uneasy in their chic apartment. Screams reverberate through the walls, lights flicker in the derelict building that looms over the yard, a shadow passes on the stairs...Jane meets a neighbour's daughter, a girl whose life she tries to mend, but her involvement only further isolates her. Alone and haunted, Jane fears the worst...but the worst is yet to come. Louise Welsh, the acclaimed author of The Cutting Room, delivers another masterful suspense novel. The Girl on the Stairs is a powerful psychological thriller packed with twists and turns to keep you reading well into the night. Read it, or be left in the dark.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Crime, Thriller, Mystery Thriller, Suspense, Germany

293 pages, Paperback

First published August 2, 2012

About the author

After studying history at Glasgow University, Louise Welsh established a second-hand bookshop, where she worked for many years. Her first novel, The Cutting Room, won several awards, including the 2002 Crime Writers’ Association John Creasey Memorial Dagger, and was jointly awarded the 2002 Saltire Society Scottish First Book of the Year Award. Louise was granted a Robert Louis Stevenson Memorial Award in 2003, a Scotland on Sunday/Glenfiddich Spirit of Scotland Award in 2004, and a Hawthornden Fellowship in 2005.

She is a regular radio broadcaster, has published many short stories, and has contributed articles and reviews to most of the British broadsheets. She has also written for the stage. The Guardian chose her as a 'woman to watch' in 2003.

Her second book, Tamburlaine Must Die, a novelette written around the final three days of the poet Christopher Marlowe's life, was published in 2004. Her third novel, The Bullet Trick (2006), is a present-day murder mystery set in Berlin.

The Cutting Room 2002
Tamburlaine Must Die 2004
The Bullet Trick 2006
Naming The Bones 2010

Prizes and awards
2002 Crime Writers' Association John Creasey Memorial Dagger The Cutting Room

2002 Saltire Society Scottish First Book of the Year Award (joint winner) The Cutting Room

2003 BBC Underground Award (writer category) The Cutting Room

2003 Robert Louis Stevenson Memorial Award

2004 Corine Internationaler Buchpreis: Rolf Heyne Debutpreis (Germany) The Cutting Room

2004 Scotland on Sunday/Glenfiddich Spirit of Scotland Award

2004 Stonewall Book Award (US) (honor in literature)

Reviews

[Blair · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set in contemporary Berlin - a city alive with history like no other - The Girl on the Stairs is the story of Jane, heavily pregnant and new to the city, where she has come to live with her German partner Petra. Lonely and paranoid from the moment of her arrival, Jane's state of mind is exacerbated by the fact that she speaks little German and is often alone in the clinical flat she shares with Petra. When she begins to suspect that her next-door-neighbour Alban Mann is abusing his teenage daughter, she becomes fixated on trying to help the troubled girl, Anna - an obsession that leads to further isolation. She remains convinced of Mann's guilt, even though nobody will believe her apart from an elderly neighbour with an addled memory, and progresses further into danger as she strives to prove her suspicions.

Welsh's narrative conjures up an exceptional sense of atmosphere that permeates everything and really holds your attention, making it a quick, compulsive read. I could picture Jane's claustrophobic, minimalist flat and its bleak surroundings (an abandoned apartment building, a sinister churchyard) in perfect detail, and her constant sense of being watched is palpable. Jane's own history looms large in the plot, influencing the way she reacts to almost everyone she meets and particularly the way she approaches Anna, as does the history of the city itself. The narrative sticks close to Jane's point of view, making her plight easy to sympathise with and her anxieties understandable, yet offers enough perspective that it's easy to understand how irrational her behaviour would seem to an outsider. There is also a clever but subtle feminist slant to the plot - Jane's arguments about the typical behaviour of abusers and their victims contain a lot of good points, intelligently made, but they fit very naturally within the narrative, and it doesn't feel like the author is preaching to the reader.

I have to admit that after all the tension that had been created throughout the book, I found the ending a little anticlimactic. Maybe that was because the rest of the book was so subtle, more about ideas and perception than actions, and the last few chapters became quite melodramatic: I felt like the cascade of revelations didn't really fit with how creepily effective the story had been up until that point. I did, however, love that there's a real sting right at the end... and the title ends up being rather ironic. Don't worry, that isn't a spoiler, but if you've read the book then you'll know what I mean!

I've been meaning to check out Louise Welsh's work for quite a long time now, and though I get the impression that The Girl on the Stairs is more conventional than her earlier novels, I'm glad I started with this. Despite a slight sense of disappointment about the ending, it was absolutely my kind of story - wintery Berlin, 'ghosts' everywhere, unreliable narrator! - and has stoked my interest in her writing. It took me a while to get hold of a copy of this book - I eventually found it at the library, after many fruitless checks - but it was well worth it.

[Patrick Neylan · Rating 5 out of 5]

If characters did the rational thing, fiction would consist solely of war novels and heroic fantasy. "Don't do it!" you shout as Macbeth approaches Duncan's bedchamber or Peter Rabbit scrambles into Mr MacGregor's garden.

'The Girl On The Stairs' is a psychological mystery in which Jane gradually descends into paranoia. She is pregnant and ensconced in an unfamiliar flat in Berlin, unable to speak German and with her 'lebenspartner' Petra out at work all day. Cut off from her familiar surroundings, June's psyche slowly and subtly unravels. Small events pick at the threads of her sanity until the only thing she is certain of is that Anna, her hostile 13-year old neighbour, is being abused by her father.

About two-thirds of the way through, you're about ready to slap Jane as she ignores the evidence that she's got things wrong. This being a mystery thriller, you expect The Big Twist where she's proved right, but thankfully Welsh is a better writer than that. The ending is subtle, unsettling but satisfying - in literary terms at least.

It's a short book - just over 200 hundred pages - and I rattled through it in two days without skipping work, cooking or going out in the evening. Highly recommended.

[Tess Makovesky · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sadly, I was really disappointed by this book. I loved The Cutting Room and enjoyed The Bullet Trick, so was looking forward to this with bated breath. But for me at least, it failed to live up to expectations. The book was well-written with some nice descriptions of Berlin and a great slice of claustrophobic atmosphere, but the biggest problem was that I simply couldn't accept the main character Jane's motivations for getting involved in the mystery in the first place. She's eight months pregnant and barely speaks the language, yet continually puts herself and - worse - her unborn child at risk, for the sake of a teenager she barely knows, and who has been barely civil to her the couple of times they've met (on the stairs, hence the book's title). A shame, as I felt if this central premise had been explained just a little more fully I'd have enjoyed the book a great deal more.

[Yvann S · Rating 2 out of 5]

Jane finds herself heavily pregnant in a new city, unable to communicate effectively, and with a partner who works too hard and isn’t home enough. When a girl in a red coat crosses her path and she hears raised voices next door, she becomes concerned for her young neighbour’s safety; a little too concerned for her own good.

I found the characters in this too extreme, and I suspect the author has a political agenda. The protagonist was both lesbian and pregnant, and consistently putting herself in danger with her obsession with the safety of the girl next door. She was in a foreign city; annoyed because her partner’s career had not been curtailed by pregnancy and her partner was travelling off to Vienna; her German is not very good, so she is quite isolated in her new city. Somehow, her vulnerability and difficulties were over-emphasised, and I struggled to believe her willingness to go walking about a creaky, potentially haunted apartment block in a foreign city while very pregnant.

Maybe my reaction is a sheltered one, one of a person who likes characters to fit into certain boxes, and Welsh is trying to provoke a reaction and shock the reader out of their prejudices. Well, that may be, but I don’t think I am a reader who is all that easily shocked, and this felt political. In which case – fine, but advertise it; I felt ambushed, as I did by “Christian fiction” a few times in the past where a book with a strong agenda was dressed up as a middle-of-the-road thriller.

I found all of the characters slightly overdone, like I was watching a film from the perspective of a character on drugs which amplify all the sensory inputs (that took longer to write than I intended; either you will know the cinematographic trick that I mean, or you will not!). Petra is very businessy, very German (I have a strong link to Germany. “Very German” is not a negative comment!), very unemotional. The old neighbour downstairs has hallucinatory Alzheimers. The priest is very judgemental. The girl next door is aggressive. No one is just a person who serves a plot purpose.

Berlin, as a location, is done well. The buildings with facades hiding derelict courtyards and shameful histories, the underground train stations with a slight sense of menace, the openness of residents once you get past the initial aloofness; all are captured well. What is not conveyed is the energy and positivity of the city, but you don’t want that in a horror novel, do you?!

Quite spooky. If you don’t mind the LGBT agenda smacking you over the head every few pages, and you like Gothic horror stories, this might work for you. It was too much for me.

Additional information:
Copy kindly provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Publisher: John Murray, 288 pages (paperback)

[Tala · Rating 1 out of 5]

terrible.

[Helen · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didn't like this. I kept reading because I wanted to know what would happen at the end but I didn't enjoy the story or style and I didn't like the ending. As for Jane, the main character, I couldn't stand her!!

[Jess☺️ · Rating 2 out of 5]

the girl on the stairs was slow to begin with and that just put me off I was expecting something more but it never happened but It hasn't put me off reading something else by this author as many people have told me it's the wrong book to start with

[Kirsty · Rating 4 out of 5]

LOVED THIS. Review forthcoming in Gutter magazine.

[Daniel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have read quite a lot that has been translated and not suffered the "lost in translation" issue, but here I think it may be the case. Despite the idea initially seeming to be a good one, the language is clunky, the dialogue is uninspired, the characters poorly drawn and not easy to engage with. Add to this the fact that the book ends having told a fairly limp narrative that feels to have gone nowhere, and you have a rather underwhelming result. This book earns its extra star with a few fluke moments of inspiration, where I actually felt something was going to happen, but it quickly loses that momentum and we are back to the trudge. One of the most disappointing books I have read for some time.

[Tara Niland · Rating 2 out of 5]

I hate when you are really looking forward to reading a book and then it ends up been a big disappointment. How can I describe this book best? A psychological thriller that was very confusing & I mean very confusing, even at the end I was still wondering !!!! I had figured out most of it before the ending but it was still a bit twisted at the end x

[Kirsten · Rating 2 out of 5]

Die Geschichte beginnt vielversprechend. Jane zieht zu ihrer Freundin in eine neue Wohnung, aber sie kommt dort nicht wirklich an. So schön die Wohnung auch ist, sie wirkt nicht so, als ob sich darin jemand auf das Baby freut, das Jane erwartet.

Aber nicht nur die Wohnung, sondern auch die Umgebung haben auf mich bedrückend gewirkt. Das Hinterhaus ist noch nicht fertig und so, wie Louise Welsh das Haus beschreibt, wirkt es dunkel und kalt auf mich. Dazu kommen noch die Nachbarn: der alleinerziehende Vater mit seiner Tochter, die sich immer zu streiten scheinen und der alte Mann mit seiner offensichtlich Frau, die zwischen der Gegenwart und den Schrecken der Vergangenheit nicht mehr unterscheiden kann.

Es gibt viele Andeutungen, dass etwas Schrecklichen passieren wird oder vielleicht schon passiert ist. Auf der anderen Seite kann das aber auch nur Janes Eindruck sein, die oft nur Bruchstücke von den Streitereien im Haus mitbekommt und sich so ihre eigenen Gedanken macht. Von ihrer Freundin bekommt sie keine Hilfe. Auf mich wirkt Petra so, dass sie zufrieden ist, ihre Freundin jetzt bei sich zu haben und alles Weitere Janes Aufgabe ist. Petra ist keine angenehme Person und ich persönliche hätte Jane eine mitfühlendere Partnerin gewünscht.

Im Lauf der Geschichte verdichten sich die Hinweise, trotzdem nimmt die Spannung ab. Ich kann nicht genau sagen, woran es liegt. Vielleicht waren es zu viele kleine Geschehnisse, vielleicht lag es auch an Janes Verhalten. In ihrer Hilflosigkeit wirkte sie auf mich überdreht, manchmal fast schon hysterisch. Dazu haben sich manche Motive wiederholt, das hätte ich nicht gebraucht.

Für mich war The girl on the stairs eine Mischung aus vielen guten Motiven, die sich leider nicht zu einer runden Geschichte verbunden haben.

Ich habe das Buch im englischen Original gelesen und habe deshalb Janes Probleme mit der deutschen Sprache quasi live verfolgen können. Im Gegensatz zu anderen Büchern, die ich mit diesem Motiv schon gelesen habe, hat Louise Welsh diesen Teil gut gelöst.

[Bibliophile · Rating 3 out of 5]

I live in an apartment building. My neighbours are very nice, polite, respectable people. We say hello, I pet their dogs, sometimes somebody mentions the weather. It suits me perfectly. I firmly believe in keeping a healthy distance to your neighbours. Sure, they may seem well meaning with their dinner parties and strange smelling potions, but before you know it you're drugged out of you mind and giving birth to Satan's spawn.

This book has a lot in common with Rosemary's Baby to the point where it feels a bit clichéd: pregnant woman moves into apartment with her partner, sees disturbing behaviour from the neighbours, is accused of being paranoid. Welsh does it well - there is a menacing undertone to the story from the very beginning, which then escalates into full-blown creepiness. After all, what could be scarier than fearing your own neighbours want to kill you? Unfortunately, Jane, our pregnant heroine, chooses to deal with these death threats by walking into the potential killer's home and drinking coffee (with a strange flavour) with him. There is of course a reason for her stupidity, but all the same it's rather annoying.

However, there were things that I found more disturbing than the unpleasant neighbours. There seems to be something a little off with Jane's partner Petra and Petra's twin brother Tielo. Petra mostly acts as a loving, supportive partner, but occasionally lets slip some condescending remark about Jane's irresponsible ways. The way she dismisses Jane's concern about the abused teenage girl, flippantly calling the girl a whore, or casually states that all men have paid for sex at some point in their lives is very unsettling. Those comments alone made me shudder. The twin brother is an asshole who cheats on his wife and takes an unhealthy interest in the unborn baby, claiming he will be a father for it. Yikes!

If you'd like a quick page-turner, this'll work. If you're a pregnant lady, not so much.

[Annerlee · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found the book ok, but weak in a number of areas.

The author captured the atmosphere of Berlin quite well, especially the history, its social and cultural complexity and the feelings associated with living in a tenament block. Some of the descriptions were very atmospheric and well written. I felt the author understood the location and had probably spent time living in the city.

I didn't find the characters particularly well-rounded or likeable, however. The protagonist came across as a wimpy meddler and although there were hints of events in her past that might explain her actions, details were never really fleshed out. I didn't understand why she reacted like she did and I wasn't given much insight from the author. Other charactersation also felt quite flat.

The storyline was ok, but not riveting or fast paced enough for the book to be described as a 'thriller'. There were a couple of unexpected twists, but I was left with the feeling that I'd missed quite a few puzzle pieces... I'm still not quite sure of the full story.

It bothered me that the German police didn't find any clues as to what happened at Aanna's crime scene. There had to be a lot of evidence in the form of bodily fluids after all!

It was also odd that the protagonist didn't care when Anna died. She showed no remorse, despite being 'oh so concerned' about Anna's wellfare earlier in the book - was she just a meddler after all?!? Her concern fizzled out to nothing and the book seemed to end in the same way!

[Cathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought it was OK, gripping enough, and I read it very quickly (perhaps too quickly) and fairly compulsively.

I particularly liked the portrayal and description of Berlin - it was almost a character in its own right, a city of facades, both old and new, and so much history that its inhabitants are still coming to terms with.

I'm not always the quickest to pick up on clues, but even I felt the impending menace was perhaps a little over-signposted tho. The end seemed to come quite quickly and I did feel, oddly perhaps, that it could actually have been spun out a little more.

As well as the thriller part, I also liked the more thoughtful parts, particularly how relationships (of whatever make-up) change when pregnancy is thrown into the mix.

I read Welsh's The Cutting Room years ago, and probably enjoyed it more, and was certainly more affected by the ending of that book, but would still look out for more by this author.

[Louise · Rating 3 out of 5]

There was a sinister undertone through the whole of the book, but you get that when you don't know if your main character is crazy, or everyone else is just saying she is.
There were enough small plot lines to keep you busy,I was particularly horrified by the partners brother might be anonymous sperm donor one...... but right up to the end I didn't fully believe that the good doctor was according his daughter......

[Deb Omnivorous Reader · Rating 1 out of 5]

Alfred Hitchcock famously claimed that to make a horror all you need was a likable character(s), an isolated location and let the shenanigans begin. Yes, I know he didn’t phrase it exactly like that.

This book seems to start on this premise indirectly promising a little horror to the plot. Jane is heavily pregnant and has voluntarily left her job, her home in London and moved to Berlin to be wholly financially dependent on her partner in a country where she cannot speak the language. Oh, yeah, in winter with inadequate clothing. Sounds like isolation to me. Initially Jane was likable enough, though her life choices left me a bit aghast but then slowly she became such a batshite crazy train-wreck that one squirmed with embarrassment whenever she did something or opened her rabidly crazy mouth. By then, personally, I wanted something bad to happen to her. ASAP.


Long before page 100 I was sick to my stomach of Jane’s ridiculously unbalanced obsession with her next door neighbour’s teenage daughter Anna. A tiny throwaway paragraph attempting a band aid explanation as to how Jane had promised to ‘never turn a blind eye to abuse’ or something like that, was no explanation and no excuse (it read like a afterthought a despairing publisher may have begged for since nothing on either theme receives any further development). Jane ought to have been committed for psychiatric care and the plot, revolving around her insanity, is so poor I nearly stopped reading. However, as a light, fast read, 278 pages of double spaced large font writing, I decided I could as easily finish it as not.

By page 200, nothing remotely supernatural, mysterious or horror-ish had happened, (unless you include the fact that the dangerous, raving lunatic Jane was still loose in the community, that was pretty damn supernatural). Now is the time to reflect that I picked up the book thinking there was an element of… if not little supernatural at least a little ghosty, maybe unexplained mystery? They say ‘never judge a book by its cover’ but in one way at least you do; the blurb on the back cover is there to give you a notion of the contents and in this case, it does the novel no favours. Bluntly the blurb lied, do not be taken in as I was. There is nothing supernatural or mysterious about this novel, despite constant teasers thrown in earlier to keep you reading. Nothing is even a bit ‘haunted’ here, it is just about a batshite crazy woman whose hysterical assertions to the police and everyone else that she ‘knows’ things about what is going on next door are manifestly ridiculous and without any realistic basis.

Now having said all that I will add that it seems to me the author is not a bad one, surprised?

Don’t get me wrong this book is terrible, should probably never have been written, should most definitely never have been published and did not deserve a single cent of my money (Thank goodness, $2 on a sale table). However embedded deep within the compost the strengths of the author do shine through. Welsh has a deft, believable and delightful way of setting scenes; Berlin sprang instantly and charmingly to life as a city while I was reading, it seemed so real I could almost smell it. The apartment or indeed any location described were real visceral and visual.

The character descriptions were as vivid, complex and impressive as the scenes. The ability to quickly sketch a character to make it believable and real is a talent, the ability to then successfully develop that character sketch with ongoing character development is another talent. Welsh clearly has both talents in spades, the supporting characters were real and fascinating, even some that never utter a word seem believable. Sadly, we saw little enough of other characters as we had to follow batshite crazy Jane around on her insane perambulations all the time instead.

And what was that ending? Batshite, just…. Agh.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jane has relocated to Berlin from London to join Petra, her German partner. She misses her former flat but as she is in her last months of pregnancy, she realises her old lifestyle can no longer be sustained. She met her partner at a restaurant where city banker Petra was having a dinner with colleagues and Jane was working as a waitress. You get a sense of the imbalance of their relationship from the early days; Jane who was drifting through life and enjoying her small London flat and ambitious Petra was has taken in Berlin a sleek apartment in an old building. Jane becomes obsessed with Anna, a teenage girl who lives in the same apartment block. She believes that the girl is being abused by her father, Doktor Alban Mann. She also becomes obsessed by a derelict building that can be viewed from the back of the apartment and the strange lights that appear in the tenement at night.

Despite the thriller element, this was a book of surprising depth and subtlety. We come to see Jane as an unreliable narrator and we are never sure if her perceptions have been skewed by her disorientation at her new setting, her advanced stage of pregnancy which heightens her senses and makes her fearful about the people around her, or by a genuine fear of the situation in the building. Welsh is very good at subtlety giving details about the dynamics of a relationship and characters seen even fleetingly are brought to life on the page.

Berlin, seen through the eyes of Jane, comes across as provincial city that could be found anywhere in Europe. The effects of the Second World War are still present though and are woven into the narrative with a light touch to increase the sense of menace. As readers, in a few places we are led to believe that we are one step in front of Jane, although again our perceptions are skewed by the impression of malevolence bubbling under the surface. The denouement when it comes is slightly over the top and it is only here I think we have to suspend disbelief a little. The book was an excellent read and I’d recommend it to anyone looking for an engrossing thriller with an unusual setting.

Review also on my blog: http://crimepieces.wordpress.com

[Claire · Rating 3 out of 5]

A deeply unsettling psychological thriller about a pregnant woman’s suspicions that her neighbour is abusing his daughter, and how far she’s willing to go to intervene.

Jane has moved to Berlin to be with her partner Petra, a banker. She’s financially dependent, has no friends outside Petra’s family, and doesn’t speak the language. But despite her extreme vulnerability she goes to extraordinary lengths to unravel the mystery surrounding the Mann family after overhearing “domestic disturbances” and seeing Anna bruised.

Alban Mann is a gynaecologist who runs a clinic for women in the Red Light District, and his wife Greta — long since gone — exited to be with him. His motives and culpability are among the many ambiguities of the novel. But men exploiting respected positions in the community to harm women and girls is a recurring theme, and one which unfortunately mirrors the world in which we live. The gritty realism works very well in this respect.

Not all of the narrative questions are answered by the conclusion — and, though that works well with a psychological thriller, there was one thing that bugged me.

There are some major red flags in how Petra treats Jane. She disregards Jane’s fears because of her traumatic past, is self-centred and controlling, and uses charm & humour to get away with pushing Jane’s boundaries. There’s a point when Jane is in physical jeopardy, but grows frantic only when her brother-in-law tries to alert his sister. Why? Because Jane's freedoms will be further restricted. But the unhealthy nature of this relationship is never addressed, implicitly or explicitly. And that was frustrating in a book that is otherwise so alert to the possibility of abuse.

Welsh’s writing is mesmerising, and she creates such a vivid sense of place. And with her characterisation she was unafraid to explore the darker side of human nature. No character is entirely trustworthy or sympathetic in this story, which at times makes it hard to feel an emotional connection, but the pacing is truly exceptional. It felt like I read 70 pages in five minutes. And that takes remarkable skill as a writer.

[Elaine O'Brien · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this subtle psychological thriller. A fast-paced read that is very difficult to put down once you start it (I read it in 2 days).

It tells the story of Scottish Jane, who is 7 months pregnant and has just moved to Berlin to be with her partner, a German native. Jane is unfamiliar with this city and it's language, and things become more difficult for our protagonist when she hears shouting in the neighbouring apartment. She quickly becomes concerned about the welfare of her 13-year-old neighbour Anna, and the story moves forward from here.

Adding to the overall creepiness of the plot is the setting. The apartment block Jane lives in is overshadowed by a dark and foreboding derelict building where Jane often sees lights flickering at night. The November damp and chill, and the bare branches of the trees in the graveyard, add to the sense of impending doom.

I highly recommend this book, and will be looking into Welsh's other novels.

[Kirsty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Louise Welsh is a Professor at my current University, and I was pleased to receive a copy of The Girl on the Stairs for Christmas so that I could see what her writing was like. The plot itself is so intriguing (as the majority of her books sound, it must be said!). Set in Berlin, a city which I love, The Girl on the Stairs becomes more and more unsettling as it goes on. Whilst slim enough to read in an afternoon or evening, the plot itself is very meaty; it pulls one in, and then proceeds to get better and better. Whilst I did guess one of the twists, the plot is so clever that I could barely put it down. A must if you enjoy crime fiction and thrillers.

[Helen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I struggled to put this book down. This was part horror, part murder mystery = my idea of fun. At the same time it was a thought-provoking read - meditations on pregnancy, homophobia, child abuse and more besides... The protagonist is fascinating - she is as complex as they come - irritating, helpless, interfering - and worse - yet also sympathetic - I hope I haven't said too much! Read it - it's amazing! I must catch up on this author - I haven't read all her published work yet and I am missing out. Big recommend!

[Damian Dubois · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have to be shallow and admit that the cover sucked me right into buying this one and to also say that I wasn't let down at all. A very fast paced read with tons of atmosphere that is slow to build but culminates in a fine finish with a hint of a twist thrown in for good measure.

The only downside is that it is a little short and would have benefited by some more character development especially in the case of the titular character, Anna.

Overall, solid and recommended.

4/5

[Charlston Goch · Rating 2 out of 5]

To tell the truth I think the build-up was a little disappointed by the denouement. I really wanted there to be more to it, or even possibly less in that she could have just been completely paranoid after all. That would have made the slight dislike I felt for the main character more acceptable. I found the book not credible. Sorry. Wasn't my cup of tea but as always I find it interesting to read books that I don't really like for the reasons why and so for that I am grateful.

[Jo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pregnant Jane moves to Germany to be with her lover Petra. In the apartment where they live is a doctor and his teenage daughter. Jane soon becomes suspicious that the father is abusive but is he or is it just her hormones making her see things that aren't real. Enjoyable quick read although I wouldn't say it was amazing.

[Jeanette · Rating 2 out of 5]

Cannot see how this book gets more than two stars - bought this book after searching for a scary book ( was in that kind of mood !) but this wasnt. It was slightly interesting, very right on, and the main character was confusing.
Having finished this book today, already the ending is receding from my mind, so unsubstantial that it was.
Disappointing, in my view

[Leanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was well written, very much to the point and delved right into the story. It's very easy to read and the mystery surrounding the characters really kept me gripped.

[Helen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ho hum. Didn't live up to it's promise and nowhere as good as her previous novels.

[Lorna · Rating 4 out of 5]

A weak 4 as not as good as her others. Scene is Berlin but the main character somehow just misses the mark in spite of the usual black humour. A good build up of psychological suspense but .....

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

OK

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable read that I finished in 3 sittings over 2 days