On my blog today, I’m taking part in the blog tour for the new novel by Helen Fitzgerald, Halfway House. With thanks to Anne Cater from Random Things Tours for inviting me to take part.
BLURB
They’re the housemates from Hell…
When her disastrous Australian love affair ends, Lou O´Dowd heads to Edinburgh for a fresh start, moving in with her cousin, and preparing for the only job she can find … working at a halfway house for very high-risk offenders.
Two killers, a celebrity paedophile and a paranoid coke dealer – all out on parole and all sharing their outwardly elegant Edinburgh townhouse with rookie night-worker Lou…
And instead of finding some meaning and purpose to her life, she finds herself trapped in a terrifying game of cat and mouse where she stands to lose everything – including her life.
Slick, darkly funny and nerve-janglingly tense, Halfway House is both a breathtaking thriller and an unapologetic reminder never to corner a desperate woman…
MY THOUGHTS
It is always a real treat to read a new book by Helen Fitzgerald, and Helen has written another wild and a highly entertaining read in her new novel, Halfway House. You always know that you are going to be in for something special, when Helen releases a new novel. Her main protagonist, Lou, is one of the most memorable and original characters I’ve come across in a long while. I think she is a character, who might divide some readers, but she is what makes this book so unique, and I loved her voice, which comes through so strongly in Helen’s writing. Lou’s personality really does shine through on the page, and you really do feel as though you are viewing the world from Lou’s perspective.
Lou has made the decision to leave her native Australia, to travel to the UK, Edinburgh specifically, and gets a job at a halfway house for high-risk offenders. This is where a lot of the dark humour occurs, especially as she and her colleague check up on specific individuals, and this is what Helen Fitzgerald always excels at in her writing. Some of the individuals who Lou meets really are some disturbed individuals. The humour is part of what makes Helen’s characters, who they are, and it really does bring them to life on the page, they all feel like real people.
Lou is the kind of person who you might want to steer clear from, if you were to meet her in the street. Some of the decisions she makes are definitely questionable, but by the end of the book I was rooting for Lou, especially in the tense final showdown, which had me racing through the final chapters. Things really do go from bad to worse for Lou, and as I was reading, it was hard to see how she would get out of the situation she found herself in, and you can really see the desperate situation Lou is in. The final chapters really were intense.
Halfway House is another highly entertaining read by Helen Fitzgerald that fans of her work will absolutely love. Lou is a character who you definitely won’t be forgetting about in a hurry. She is a character, who I think, will provoke a lot of discussion amongst readers. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I’m eager to see what Helen Fitzgerald comes up with next.
Publisher: Orenda Books
Publication date: 18th January 2024
Print length: 241 pages
Halfway House is available to buy:
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