Book Review: His & Hers

"Sometimes I think I am the unreliable narrator of my own life. Sometimes I think we all are," muses BBC anchor Anna Andrews in Alice Feeney's twisty psychological thriller His & Hers, cleverly foreshadowing what's to come next. Abound with characters none of whom are what they first seem to be, Feeney passes the narrative baton back and forth through the perspectives of Anna and her ex-husband cop Jack, who is tasked with leading an investigation into a series of murders in the quaint English village of Blackdown. The setup is tailor-made for pulling the wool over readers' eyes through well-timed reveals, only to pull the rug right out from under them. While the killings stretch limits of credulity and the procedural aspect of the case comes off more as an afterthought, it makes for a compelling story about loneliness and the ever-shifting idea of truth as it's about two flawed individuals who realise they still care for each other despite the animosity, lies and secrets that defined much of their relationship in the past. ("We are a species capable of horrific acts, and incapable of learning from the lessons our own history tries to teach us.") A taut fast-moving suspenser that will have you guessing and guessing again — and chances are that all your theories are probably wrong.