A skull looks up at Jennie from the trench, but it’s not the chalk-white bone and grimacing teeth that send her reeling. It’s the heart-shaped gold pendant, its delicate chain snapped in two. The necklace Hannah never took off. It can’t be Hannah. But it is.
When Jennie Whitmore arrives at her school reunion, she immediately regrets her decision. Why would she choose to surround herself with people who were never nice to her? Who still aren’t, even now she’s a police officer? The only person who truly looked out for her all those years ago was charming, beautiful Hannah. Until the day she disappeared.
Jennie is ready to finally put White Cross Academy behind her, the old school building demolished the morning after the party. But with the demolition comes a call: a teenage girl’s remains have been found on the grounds.
The instant drop in Jennie’s gut tells her that the remains might be Hannah’s, but when she’s called in to examine them, the truth becomes undeniable. Hannah didn’t run away and abandon Jennie thirty years ago; in fact, she never left White Cross at all.
Suddenly, Jennie has a murder to solve. The murder of her best friend. But can she do so before her colleagues discover just how closely connected she is to the victim? Before a mystery stalker makes good on his threats to silence her for good?
It's my pleasure to be hosting the blog tour for The Reunion by M.J. Arlidge and Steph Broadribb today. Many thanks to Orion Books and Tracy Fenton from Compulsive Readers for inviting me and for my advance copy of the novel, received through Netgalley.
The Reunion is one of a series of books in the Orion Publishing Group's new writers' room project led by M. J. Arlidge, working in collaboration with five different authors. As with the other standalone novels in the series, the idea for The Reunion was conceived by M.J. Arlidge but in this case, Steph Broadribb was responsible for bringing his ideas to life.
Having read a number of Steph Broadribb's earlier books, I know she excels at writing strong, believable female characters and so my only disappointment with Jennie Whitmore, the main protagonist in The Reunion, is that this is a standalone novel because I would love to see more of her. The development of her character is impressive, beginning with the prologue which finds her planning to run away from her troubled home life. However, when her best friend, Hannah fails to show, the teenage Jennie feels abandoned and ends up making very different choices.
Thirty years on and with the old White Cross Academy due for demolition, she attends a reunion party, despite having lost touch with her old friends since the end of their A-Levels. The awkwardness she feels here is almost palpable as she comes face-to-face with the girls who bullied her and with the other members of the darkroom crew, the mismatched group who found sanctuary together beneath the school. It was Hannah who introduced Jennie to their group but after her disappearance, Jennie eventually drifted away from the others and rather than becoming a photographer, joined the police. She is now a DI, running a team in the Major Crime Unit in White Cross, which puts her in a challenging position when a body is discovered on the grounds of the old school.
Although readers know this is Hannah, the tension felt by Jennie, who is called out to the scene of the crime and has her worst fears realised, is powerfully expressed. Her grief, anger and determination to discover what happened to her friend are immediately evident but there's a touching sense of guilt too as she recognises she was never abandoned, as she'd been led to believe. Hannah has been lying under the pipes where she was buried in 1994 and even though Jennie knows that her close ties to the case means she should step away from the case, she makes the decision to conceal just how close she was, both to the victim and to the people who become some of the main suspects.
I did have to suspend my belief a little here, especially as it would seem likely that any court case could result in her being accused of compromising the investigation. However, it's clear why she would take such a risk and her fear of being exposed adds a further layer of suspense to the storyline. There are a number of moments which find her nervously trying to alter the course of the conversation or forced to take drastic steps to hold onto the case, and the inevitable impact it has on her relationship with her colleagues is never overlooked.
Jennie's memories of the past are intertwined with the events taking place in the present throughout the book and it gives readers a real insight into exactly what Hannah meant to her. It also means her reluctance to consider her former friends as suspects is understandable. The twists and turns of the investigation are relentless – almost everyone called in for an interview either blatantly lies or withholds something about what really happened back then. Meanwhile, Jennie also becomes aware that somebody is stalking her, with malevolent intent. Are they trying to stop her from uncovering the truth about Hannah or is she being targeted for another reason?
The plot is fast-paced and compelling throughout, with the eventual resolution to both mysteries coming as a surprise. As Jennie untangles the web of lies, the gripping climax is particularly tense. It is also a deeply emotional moment; the grim tragedy of Hannah's death and what it meant to all involved is heartbreaking. The Reunion is an intriguing, exciting and moving police procedural. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
The Reunion is published by Orion, purchasing links can be found here.
Follow the blog tour, details are below.
M.J. Arlidge
M.J. Arlidge has worked in television for the last twenty years, specialising in high-end drama production, including prime-time crime serials Silent Witness, Torn, The Little House and, most recently, the hit ITV show Innocent. In 2015 his audiobook exclusive Six Degrees of Assassination was a number-one bestseller. His debut thriller, Eeny Meeny, was the UK's bestselling crime debut of 2014 and has been followed by ten more DI Helen Grace thrillers - all Sunday Times bestsellers.
Steph Broadribb
Steph Broadribb was born in Birmingham and grew up in Buckinghamshire. Most of her working life has been spent between the UK and USA. As her alter ego - Crime Thriller Girl - she indulges her love of all things crime fiction by blogging at www.crimethrillergirl.com
Steph is an alumnus of the MA in Creative Writing (Crime Fiction) at City University London, and she trained as a bounty hunter in California.
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