I Am Watching You MP3 CD – MP3 Audio, October 1, 2017

I am really sick of the many, many mysteries that have become best-sellers lately which don't have any suspense or mystery in them.I feel like warning other people who love mystery not to bother -- unless you are quite forgiving and don't expect any real surprises or things that make sense.So, SOME spoilers*******The writing is flat, the characters are flat, but this didn't, at first deter me from reading it. Agatha Christie is not exactly a great prose writer, and she does manage to surprise the reader and to build interesting cliffhangers and plots.About 50% into the book I was getting a bit fed up, because there was NOTHING happening. There were chapters ending with stuff like "She couldn't tell anyone what she knew" or "He had done something disgusting" -- not exactly this, but this kind of attempt to create suspense.Well, if you do that, then DELIVER. Instead, it just kept going on, and on and on in the same vein, with us not finding anything else, just more of these from the same characters.One girl has a problem with an abusive dad (GROAN) and thinks he may have something to do with her friend's disappearance -- resolved off page. The dad of the disappeared girl has such a big secret he almost kills himself in a barn. The secret turns out to be so pathetic that I got mad at having to read his thoughts for chapters and chapters. Then, shoot, maybe the girl isn't dead, and we have several chapters of EVERYONE looking at the TV at some police negotiation with a kidnapper.But HEY, it isn't her. The way they saw that it isn't her is sooooo ridiculous that I laughed quite a bit.In the meantime, chapters and chapters about the woman who saw the girls on the train but didn't tell the police they went off with young men because she couldn't decide if that was slutty, dangerous or normal. She is supposed to be the main character and she goes on and on and on and on about her flower shop.Then about her son, who got his girlfriend pregnant. NONE of this has any bearing on the mystery.Then she hires a private detective because she is getting postcards saying "I'm watching you."A lot about the detective, his pregnant wife, their baby being born. Not a lot of detecting. Oh, also the "standard police trauma" (he shot an innocent kid) being introduced late in the game and in a perfunctory manner.There are some police people with a grudge against each other which means zilch to the investigation and changes nothing.Clues that are not clues (just people acting strangely) are given chapters and chapters and chapters to then mean nothing and often get resolved off book.About halfway into the story a POV in italics of the typical psycho ("I'm watching you...I don't like her to be watched...etc") gets introduced and is repeated in the same cliché way several times.FINALLY, the mystery is solved in the MOST RIDICULOUS POSSIBLE WAY. Not through anyone figuring anything out, not by the several police that have been introduced or the private detective -- but because the flower lady SEES A PHOTO.At this point I was covering my mouth in disbelief that any book that sells this much could be so awkward, badly written and unsurprising.Just think of the worst, most awkward episode of one of these TV series about crime. It will be better than this, because it will, at least, be forced to have clues and real suspects.I am AT A LOSS! Truly. I loved Gone Girl, I thought Girl on the Train was disappointing after 60%, this one was just a HUGE waste of time for anyone who truly loves mysteries and wants to follow clues, suspects and be surprised. If you're like that, give this a WIDE berth...

I think the author wanted to really get into the various characters, but I found the book very frustrating to read. What was supposed to be a hook at the end of many chapters, never led to anything. I really didn't care about the pages and pages of Ella's flower shop. It just seemed like filler. Something to fill pages. There was too much telling and not enough showing. Also, the mix of first person, then third person, was distracting.It's hard for me to get used to the British lack of tension in a mystery, if this is what this was. Using a knife as a weapon, though dangerous, isn't as scary as a gun. You can outrun, or outmaneuver a person with a knife, but it's hard to outrun a bullet. She tries to make the use of the knife seem really threatening. Maybe up close and if the assailant has a hold of you, but they have to catch you first. Any smart kid can dodge a knife. I just didn't find this very tension-filled at the end. Sorry for the spoiler alert.I found this an okay read, but I kept thinking, when is something going to HAPPEN! The author's attempts at ending chapters with a hook, left me frustrated. Nothing was revealed until the epilogue. If this is her style of writing, I probably won't read any of her other books. They make me want to throw it across the room, which I couldn't because it would break my Kindle.

I've read several reviews on this book, and only hesitantly selected it for a quick read. I was initially thinking that I'd write a review that simply said "if you like to read about poor decision making and guilt, then this book is for you." However, as the story progressed, I've found that it became a powerful and impactful plot line with rich characters and a number of unexpected twists. It was quite a pleasure to read and potentially one of the better books I've read recently.Some reviews have made claims to the effect that an astute reader may figure out the ending. I consider myself reasonably astute, but I was so far off on my theory that I was thrilled at the actual ending. I'm impressed if you can figure this one out; you're a much better detective than I am.The character development is surprisingly rich. It starts off fairly flat, but gains depth and complexity as the story evolves. The author switches perspectives each chapter, and terminates each one with a mini-cliffhanger, leaving the reader somewhat frustrated at the dangling threads. However, by the end of the book, the threads are all tied up.So, I highly recommend the book, and suggest that you stick with it through the beginning where the tone comes across as dreary and whiny. It more than pays off for your patience in the end.Enjoy.

Really disliked this book. The premise showed promise, but I never bought it to the beginning, where we were supposed to believe the protagonist was expected to track down girls she didn't know and call their parents to report on their behavior on the train. Huh? Who on earth would do that? So the rest of the book never made much sense. Ella is quite possibly the most boring character I've ever read. Being in her pov was like sinking to the bottom of a very deep pond. Henry was almost as bad. And the ending was a huge WTH. The bad guy came out of absolutely no where and was so poorly motivated to go after Luke. What a waste of time reading this mess.

I'm a die hard reader of British and American crime stories. Just love them usually. I'll agree they can be somewhat formulaic (the murderer seems to appear at a certain point in a book, no matter what the book is, for example), but if they're well written, they can still be engaging.This book sees a 16 year old girl go missing after she travels to London (with her friend) to celebrate the end of her GCSEs. Along the way, it explores what happens to a witness who saw the girls travelling up to London, and the friend who "got cozy with" one of the ex-convicts they met on the train.It is a bad book.I've seen the book described elsewhere in reviews as slut shaming one of the girls for "getting cozy with" one of the ex-cons on the train (it's used as an excuse to explain why the witness didn't report the girls or the former prisoners). That wasn't slut shaming, it was more... an examination of a middle classed suburban woman's response to how the "youth of today" behave. To my mind I'm not 100% sure how a female character written by a woman can shame anyone in that way.One of the issues I have with the book is its presentation of class. It's made clear the girl being judged is a bright, sparky, working class kid. Yet here the poor girl is presented as living on spaghetti hoops and cheese sandwiches when she`s not around her "middle classed friends", and it made me wonder how many council estates Ms Driscoll has been to, and how many working class kids she's met. So that's one problem with the book.Another problem I have is there isn't much description of the characters. Beyond being typically disorganised 20-somethings, I have no idea what Karl and Anthony (the ex-cons) look like. Seriously, go back and read the book again if you've read it already. THERE ARE NO DESCRIPTIONS.More generally, people are described through their things (middle classed mums and their Agas, farmers and their quad bikes guns boots and dogs, working class families living on council estates, and eating rubbish). In short they're at best short hand descriptions, and at worst it's stereotypes. Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think I am.The final problem with the book is you have no way to work out who the murderer is. I know sometimes you're think "so he's been introduced here so he's a likely suspect" in other books, but you literally had no way to work out who the culprit was. Maybe it's because it's not written from the point of view of the police, who usually drive whodunits forward, so we don't get to see the clues as they come up, but trust me when I say there are so few clues, you won't be able to solve it on your own.The sad thing is you won't care either, because you won't be invested in the characters.

I had not heard of Teresa Driscoll before buying this book but I will certainly buy more of her books in the future. The crux of this book is the disappearance of a young girl, Anna, and the search to find out what happened to her. The book begins with Anna and her friend Sarah, travelling on a train from their home in Cornwall to London. They have just finished their GCSEs and as a special treat their parents have allowed them to go to London on their own for a few days. They have been booked into a hotel and have tickets for a musical. This is their first taste of independence and both are very excited. A woman comes on the train in Devon and sits near the girls and can't help but overhear their conversation. She watches when 2 young men come on the train and start to chat the girls up. When she hears that the young men have just been released from prison she becomes slightly concerned but concedes that there is nothing she can do. The next morning the woman switches on the TV in her hotel room only to hear that one of the girls, Anna, has gone missing. She immediately contacts the police to tell them what she witnessed. The two young men on the train are the obvious suspects and a search for them begins. The story starts at this point and covers the year up until the 1st anniversary of Anna's disappearance. The novel deals with the impact of Anna's disappearance on not just her family but also on Sarah who had been with Anna when she went missing. It also had an impact on the woman who had witnessed the girls on the train. We hear from all of these people in person and it becomes clear that all of them have secrets which may or may not have something to do with Anna's disappearance. All of them have either lied to the police or have withheld information which may be crucial. All of these secrets are gradually revealed as the novel progresses. As well as this, there is an unknown person who is on the sidelines watching events. We do not know who this person is or why they are watching. The denouement of the novel when we finally discover what happened to Anna and who the culprit is, was a total surprise - a real twist in the tale. I really enjoyed this novel. It was well written, with well drawn characters and the gradual revelation of the facts meant that it held your attention and you wanted to read on. Altogether this was an engrossing read.

Two girls on a train on a weekend to London get chatty with 2 boys who are just out of jail. A woman (Ella) watches this and wants to warn the girls off - but doesn't. Next day one of the girls is missing and Ella is wrought with guilt at not intervening. And so it begins. This is not a good book. Poor characterisation - you really don't care about any of them. Characters are picked up and dropped with no real purpose. The chapters just repeat stuff that went on before. Many loose ends are unfinished and when the final reveal comes it is totally weak and ridiculous. It is clear that the author had the initial theme as above (quite a decent premise) but then had no idea where or how to take it forward. It is not a page turner. It is not edgy or suspenseful or creepy or anything really. It just ambles along, repetitive, dull and mostly directionless. A very unsatisfying book.

I gave this two stars because it wasn’t so bad that I couldn’t finish it. But it was pretty awful. Suspense is built up by finishing a chapter by quickly shifting to banality. It would go something like this: the skydiver was plummeting through the clouds unsure whether the parachute would open when it popped into his head that his aunt Ethel liked 2 sugars in her tea. Join us in a couple of chapters, after the bit about flower arrangements, to find out what happened next.The story is not very interesting, and not well written. In fact it would have been better to have been told in one tenth of the pages.

I really wanted to like this book more than I did. It had me gripped, I couldn't put it down and I didn't see the twist coming. So what was so wrong with it that left me feeling cold? Several things actually,1.) Plot coincidences. All authors do it, but the "luck" in certain people being in certain places made my suspension of disbelief extremely difficult to keep up.2) Unlikable characters. I've never read a book where I have such distaste for every single character. None are sympathetic. The main character, Ella is a complete wet blanket. The way she molly-coddles her pathetic son is so outside of believable that I wanted to put my foot through my kindle. And the way he mopes around makes you just want to grab him by the scruff of his neck and tell him to take some responsibility for his actions!3.) Flowers. I don't know where to even start with this. Clearly the author loves flowers. I know this as I've just spent hours reading, in minute detail, about them. This served not purpose to the plot, other than at a forced last paragraph. Cut this out and you have a much leaner book.It's not all bad. Like I said, I kept with it, and I didn't see the ending coming, but there are just a few too many issues with this to make it anymore than average.