Battersea, 1961. London is just beginning to enter the swinging sixties. The world is changing - but not for sixteen-year-old Violet. She was born at the exact moment Winston Churchill announced Victory in Europe - an auspicious start, but now she's just stuck in her family's fish and chip shop dreaming of greatness. And it doesn't look like fame and fortune are going to come calling anytime soon. Then she meets Beau. Beau's a rocker - a motorcycle boy who arrives in an explosion of passion and rebellion. He blows up Violet's grey little life, and she can't believe her luck. But things don't go her way for long. Joseph, her long-lost brother, comes home. Then young girls start going missing, and turning up murdered. And then Violet's best friend disappears too. Suddenly life is horrifyingly much more interesting. Violet can't believe its coincidence that Joseph turns up just as girls start getting murdered. He's weird, and she feels sure he's hiding something. He's got a secret, and Violet's got a dreadful feeling it might be the worst kind of secret of all...
My thoughts
I am a huge fan of Alison Rattle's work and will read anything she writes. I was therefore incredibly excited to get my hands on a copy of this book.
As always with an Alison Rattle book the historical detail was rich and superbly done. I was absolutely fascinated with it. The story itself was fast paced and exciting too. Much of it was centred around a murder mystery whuch kept me guessing throughout.
I adored the main character Violet. I loved her awkwardness and her frustrations which the life she is being made to follow because of the society she lives in. I adored it when she decided to go teen rebel turning her back on bad friends and going against her family's expectations.
Just awesome and highly recommended.
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