Author: Dorothy Koomson
Pages: 472 (Hardback)
Publish Date: June 27th 2019
Start Reading Date: December 26th 2019
End Reading Date: January 3rd 2019
My Goodreads Rating: 5*
Pieta is a single mum living in Brighton, who ten years previous had been kidnapped by a man called The Blindfolder.
Jody is a police officer, who recently moved to Brighton to solve the newest murder of The Blindfolder
The Blindfolder is someone who kidnapped black women, he told them to keep their eyes closed for 48 hours and he’d let them go, if they didn’t he’d kill them
First Thoughts
Before even picking the book up, I didn’t want them read any reviews on it; with any Dorothy Koomson books I want to make my own mind up, even though I know it’s going to be brilliant, I still want it to be brilliant without others ruining it for me.
While Reading
Less then 100 pages in, I’m loving it so far, but I will say that the layout of the book isn’t my favourite. It seems like there isn’t that much that’s on the page and it’s as if it had been centred more than anything.
I’m about 150 pages in, and The Blindfolder is looking for past victims, and he’s branding his victims. All of the victims seem to have ‘shady’ pasts, they have pasts where people who haven’t been through them will judge them, but Pieta’s past hasn’t yet been revealed in much detail, sure you find out she was bullied by a boy, who she is now working with but the past where people judge hadn’t been revealed
I’m just over 200 pages in, and I really want to know what happened in Pieta’s past for The Blindfolder to have targeted her in the first place.
I find Jody can be really blunt in what she says, especially when during the flashbacks she seems really nice and caring, it’s definitely down to her sisters death and the fact that her sister was also a victim of The Blindfolder. I think she’s been hardened because of the experiences.
For me so far, there are three suspects. Kind of. So Jody says to Pieta about her ex Jason and Ned (the photographer that through out Pieta’s life is there) know each other. In Jody’s mind they could be suspects. Jason for me less so than Ned, for the simple fact that the night that Pieta was taken she was on the phone to Jason, so she would have heard him etc. For me Ned is more likely because he’s in and out of her life.
As for the third suspect, I’d have to say Winston, Jody’s boyfriend. There is something about him that I don’t like and he’s only been in a small amount of the book.
A lot can happen in 100 pages of a Dorothy Koomson book, and this one is no exception. I knew my theory’s on the three suspects that I had were way out there, and they were just my theories, but it surprised me on who The Blindfolder actually is, and I don’t know how I feel about it if I am honest.
I wasn’t expecting that one of the victims to do what she did, I knew that The Blindfolder wanted Pieta, and the way that some of the victims are linked together, and the way that Pieta is linked back to The Blindfolder, and how she called him Peter to make him more human in ways.
I know with her books Dorothy likes to throw you curve balls and you have to look for them, but blimey this is just… I have no words… I’m utterly speechless… and the person who The Blindfolder is, was in plain sight.
The police officer Jody, has an inclination about the Blindfolder before it’s revealed who he is, and that’s the fact she thinks that there are two people involved because of how organized it seems, and how quickly everything seems to happen. Once it’s revealed who The Blindfolder is, I am now wondering if it’s true what Jody thinks and if someone whose been in the book all along is involved.
Ok, so I thought that the one victim was an actual victim but now I’m not so sure, and that she is the second person, that’s helping The Blindfolder. If Jodys theory was correct about the second person helping I imagined it to be another man,
Even though I know his name I am still calling him The Blindfolder because if anyone sees this review I don’t want to completely spoil it for them.
By this point in the book, we know why he’s killing his past victims is because he wants to get to Pieta who he believes loves him, because of how she acted towards him, when he held her. But what I want to know, and I’ve said it before is I want to know why he took her in the first place. Why she was one of his victims because all the other victims had ‘shady’ pasts, so what did Pieta do that made her past shady.
Do I believe the story of why the person whose behind it, a little, I can see why they would do something like they did with the reasons that they brought up, what happened to that person isn’t ok, but it’s not ok to go and kidnap, taunted, humiliate and kill women of colour because of your past. At the moment I don’t 100% believe the person is doing it because of the past, but I can see it happing. It’s simple things that happen everyday to people, yet the person can’t get over it.
The person who fell for Pieta I think is delusional, and while it was two people doing all the things to these black women, it was the brainchild of one person who manipulated their brother into helping, I think both became delusional and I feel like they are doing it all for the wrong reasons.
I don’t know what was more of a shock, the fact that I got the Blindfolder completely wrong, the fact that there were two of them, the reasons behind why they did what they did, the fact that one killed the other, the fact that the Blindfolder wanted Pieta because he was delusional and thought Pieta wanted him, and she had his kid, or the fact that the person behind it is willing to lie and cheat and kill, and think it’s ok in the reasons why.
The ending is really dramatic, and amazing
Conclusion
It obviously a very different story, but at times I felt like it was a little like Dorothy’s previous book The Brighton Mermaid. The fact that the person behind what was happening was in plain sight.
Even though it has similarities I think this book is brilliant, and obviously very different because it keeps you in suspense and questioning everything
I really enjoyed the book, and while I don’t agree with the reasons why the person decided to do what they did because of their past,
The book deals with so many topics that Dorothy Koomson covers so well in her books.
The book has a way of reminding you that you can’t always trust people, or what they say and that sometimes bad people are in plain sight.
“She isn’t complex and cleaver, she is just and everyday person who express her prejudices in a deadly way” - I don’t know why but this quote from the book really resonated with me. Wether you replace she with he, I feel like that’s how most racist people who kill think they are.
I loved how the book made me love and hate characters, and made me change my mind on some of the characters
When I got nearer the end of the book, everything is pretty much wrapped up and I have a few more pages to read I get that same feeling as I get with most of Dorothy Koomson books. I don’t want it to end.
Not in the slightest
Not at all
And yet here I am near the end.
It’s 100% a book I love and knew I would, once I got into it I knew I’d read it quick, and I feel like I’ve not read any of the book at all and I’m sad it’s finished.
What I love about the book, was just how in plain sight The Blindfolder is, and how the person behind the person who becomes the Blindfolder is as well (because if you’ve not noticed from above there are two of them).
I loved how even though there are these two bad people, that there are so many more better people there are in the book.
I felt bad for one of the police officers that was working the case, because from the get go Jody really wasn’t nice to her, yet you could see she was nicer to other people.
Despite her reputation I don’t think Jody is a completely bad person, she has been through a lot and I think that hardened her as a person
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