Monday 7 December 2015

Book Review - Follow Me by Angela Clarke - Blog Tour

Amazon UK
Title: Follow Me
Author: Angela Clarke
Format reviewed: Ebook
Source: Netgalley
Publisher: Avon
Publication Date: 3rd December 
Rating: 4.5 Stars


LIKE. SHARE. FOLLOW . . . DIE

The ‘Hashtag Murderer’ posts chilling cryptic clues online, pointing to their next target. Taunting the police. Enthralling the press. Capturing the public’s imagination.

But this is no virtual threat.

As the number of his followers rises, so does the body count.

Eight years ago two young girls did something unforgivable. Now ambitious police officer Nasreen and investigative journalist Freddie are thrown together again in a desperate struggle to catch this cunning, fame-crazed killer. But can they stay one step ahead of him? And can they escape their own past?

Time's running out. Everyone is following the #Murderer. But what if he is following you?

ONLINE, NO ONE CAN HEAR YOU SCREAM …

Follow Me is a very cleverly crafted, intelligent thriller, that raises very valid contemporary points about social media. Would you follow someone who appears to be the #Murderer just to see what they are up to? Would you ignore them, and what happens if that user follows you?

Freddie is a wannabe journalist desperate for her big break so she can stop working in a coffee shop on the night shift, and to be paid for her writing. When she spots her former good friend in a station, she reacquaints herself with Nasreen. She knows Nasreen is now a police officer, and so she follows, and ends up at a crime scene, and then later attempting to help the police since she understands social media. 

Not only does Freddie understand social media, but seems able to notice and solve the cryptic clues being posted by the twitter account, that she is positive is the murder. But how can she get the police force to start believing her, or taking her seriously. 

Follow Me shows just how powerful twitter can be, and also gives hints at various ways you can make your virtual footprint a bit less traceable. As a bit of a geek I found the technical talk very interesting, and could follow it all, as it made sense. 

It is very believable and scary that a user could be conducting murders and taunting the police on twitter, and the amount of people who initially doesn't take it seriously and thinks its highly amusing, until the death count rises. At which point the expected public outrage may occur. 

With regards the murders themselves, I had no clue who was hiding behind the twitter account, and up until the last second I still didn't have a clue. The final reveal did make sense though, it just wasn't an outcome I had thought of. 

There is quite a bit of police station action in Follow Me, especially as the police are struggling with this case, and I love seeing how police theories pan out.

I found that for the most part this book didn't get under my skin the way I was hoping it would do, I wasn't overly scared and oddly I wasn't put off from using twitter, which I had thought may have been an outcome before reading it. I thought it took a while to get going but all the time it was building suspense, and I was always curious to see what would happen next. By the last quarter I couldn't put it down. 

I believe this is Angela Clarke's debut thriller and its a brilliant story, and I can't wait to see what she comes up with next. Definitely an author with a promising future if Follow Me is anything to go by. 

Thanks to Netgalley and Avon for this review copy. This was my honest opinion. 


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