Review: The Girl With a Clock for a Heart by Peter Swanson

George Foss never thought he'd see her again, but on a late-August night in Boston, there she is, in his local bar, Jack's Tavern.

When George first met her, she was an eighteen-year-old college freshman from Sweetgum, Florida. She and George became inseparable in their first fall semester, so George was devastated when he got the news that she had committed suicide over Christmas break. But, as he stood in the living room of the girl's grieving parents, he realized the girl in the photo on their mantelpiece - the one who had committed suicide - was not his girlfriend.

Now, twenty years later, she's back, and she's telling George that he's the only one who can help her...

Review
Boy meets old flame -his first love in fact- and she urgently needs his help. I'm hooked.

George is a kind of anti-hero, an average Joe thrown into circumstances far beyond his comprehension, and this isn't this first time that it's happened to him. He spends the majority of the novel being overwhelmed, queasy, paranoid or terrified - but then wouldn't we all be if we were in his shoes!?

It's a fast paced book, and I raced through it in a couple of hours. True to form there's an obvious baddie, an ambigious female character, danger, and plenty of twists and turns to keep you reading. It's a different kind of thriller to others I've read this year - and a very welcome change in tone and content. However - what kind of ending was that!? I was expecting at least another chapter and I turned over to find a load of blank pages, for a while I was convinced that my copy of the novel was somehow missing a chunk. I don't know if a sequel is planned, but this girl needs closure and you can't leave it like that!

Frustrations at the ending aside I really enjoyed this book and look forward to the impending film adaptation!