My Rating
Book Review
It’s been almost 4 years since I read The Memory Woods by Sam Lloyd and to be honest, the story still resonates in my mind, haunting me with the most complex portrayal of its protagonist. The People Watcher by the same standards is another example of phenomenal writing by the author whose central character carves a piece of your heart. Mercy Lake is a woman who has recovered from blunt trauma to her brain, with coordination and mobility issues, her vertigo hitting her at inopportune times and causing mayhem, her eyes suffering from heterochromia and to top it all her irrevocable fear of daylight leading to an invisible existence as a Night person.
Her life in Cranner’s Road is a lonely one but the simple acts of kindness she bestows on the people she watches at night give her a reason to plod thru and it is that loneliness that allows her to open up to Louis who walks in like an angel but soon becomes something more.
The story is engrossing and trust me, when I say this that you better get all your chores done before taking this up coz, no way you are gonna be happy about letting time come in between the events unfolding in Mercy Lake’s life. Sam Lloyd’s fantabulous writing captures the town and the residents that Mercy watches in all its technicolor and the nicknames adding to the charm of these people whose life Mercy intervenes in. The surprising twists and the revelations of the trauma that Mercy suffered are thru flashbacks and it takes its time to get there but the reader is made to feel the uneasiness of an explosion just waiting to happen as Louis begins to control Mercy’s action and takes it upon himself to play judge and jury.
A slow burn thriller that leaves you with goosebumps, The People Watcher is yet again a cracking page turner from Sam Lloyd.
Masterful indeed!
Book Blurb
The gripping, original, standout new thriller from the author of THE MEMORY WOOD and THE RISING TIDE.
*******
‘I watch them because I think they need help.’
Mercy Lake likes to fix things. To fix people. Trapped inside during daylight hours, hostage to her phobias, she uses the cover of night to watch the people in her town. And if someone needs her help, she steps in – secretly and with compassion.
When Mercy meets Louis, her lonely, unusual life is suddenly filled with excitement. Because Louis likes intervening in other people’s lives too, only he prefers a more direct – even violent – approach. As they grow closer, Mercy is enchanted but frightened by his actions. How many lines is he willing to cross? And how much is he prepared to risk?
And then there’s Nadia. Nadia knows she’s being watched, even if the police think differently. But with her own secrets to protect, she’s not going to wait around for the watcher to make their move. She’s going to stop them dead.
‘Small acts of kindness are far less effective than fear’
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Many thanks to Net Galley, Random House UK, Transworld Publishers, and the author for a chance to read and review this book. All opinions are expressed voluntarily.
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