Cross Her Heart by Sarah Pinborough

Author : Sarah Pinborough

Title : Cross Her Heart 

Published : 2018

Publisher : Harper Collins 

Pages : 384

Genre : Psychological Thriller 

     Most of them are small white lies intended to make the life of her daughter, Ava, easier. But her biggest lie of all about to be exposed. Because Lisa is lying to everyone. Lisa isn’t who she says she is. Lisa isn’t even called Lisa at all. Her real name is Charlotte Nevill and as a child, she was convicted of the brutal murder of her half-brother, Daniel. Someone out there knows the truth. They’re determined to make Lisa pay. And they won’t stop until everything she loves is destroyed. 

     In coming to Cross Her Heart this is the second time that I have read this author. The first time was with Behind Her Eyes a book that I had mixed feelings about. In the most part due to the ending which came as such a shock that I was left feeling a little disjointed. But I know should never judge an author on one book alone. And it was hardly a terrible book for the most part I had enjoyed it. So I thought this time around I would go back to her and see if this time I would find something a little more suited to my own tastes. 

     As we get to follow this twisted tale of friendship from dual timelines we are introduced to two pre-adolescence girls both flawed and scared in there own ways. We get to see how these two dangerous minds feed off each other pushing further and further into the darkness. I like the way the author pushed this in small passable increments. There is no real snap point just a slow and persistent moving of what they think of as permissible. In contrast, when we move to the present we see how these actions take a whole and affect everything that they have become. Whilst no fully aware of the extent of such action as you read you know something truly wrong has taken place. This author is great at teasing the reader with what is to come and it made me want to keep going without looking up. 

     Whilst this one may be more of a conventional psychological thriller than Behind Her Eyes, the tensions and mystery were never lacking. She has shown me that through her style she can carefully and tactfully build layers that not only keep us as readers guess the whole way through but still keep us off guard. I suppose it is not only the manipulation of her character that we witness but of us as well. And I think for that is what makes up a pretty big key element of psychological thrillers. I want to be pushed in the wrong direction and to have what I think I know flipped around. There is also her the choice of the age range of her characters the plays on how vindictive and cruel some children can be. And whilst for the most part, really pre-adolescents will never take things this far there has been a scattering of cases where it has been. So for me, there is defiantly a true creepy crawl up the back of your spine element to this book. I feel that whenever you and children to such a book we always end up much stronger emotions involved and our emotions are pulled in many contradicting directions. 

     When it comes to Cross Her Heart I can safely say it is a book I thoroughly enjoyed from start to finish. The text kept me engaged and desperate to know how it would all come crashing down.  That the more you become entangled in a web of lies and secrets the hard it is to break free even when we think we are trying to protect those that we care for. It just goes to show we can never really outrun our pasts no matter how much we try.