The Heights - Louise Candlish

I discovered Louise Candlish last year when I read her previous book, The Other Passenger. It was an excellent read and I added Candlish to my 'must read' list.

Her newest book, The Heights, has just released - and it's an addictive page turner as well. I was hooked immediately with this opener...

"Kieran Watts has been dead for over two years when I see him standing on the roof of a building in Shad Thames. It can't be Kieran Watts, I tell myself. And if anyone can be sure of that it is me. Because I'm the one who killed him."

Oh, the places this plot could go! Candlish's plotting is so very clever. I love the 'book within a book' device. And there's a third level as The Sunday Times is also writing about Ellen Saint. Ellen is penning the story of herself and Watts in her writer's group. We know the outcome, but the how and why are yet to be unearthed. Candlish does this in back and forth, past and present timelines. Again, always an effective device - I can't help but to read 'just one more chapter' to see what will be revealed in each timeline. Foreshadowing at the end of chapters just whetted my need to know. While the first parts are told from Ellen's point of view, a supporting character is given a voice nearing the end of the book - and they bring a different look at things. 

Ellen was a difficult character for me. I understand her tension, stress, emotions (and they do run high), but at the same time she crosses so many lines in her obsessive quest for vengeance. Which is quite different from justice. The supporting characters will provoke strong reactions as well. And the reader may be asking themselves - "What would I do in the same situation?"

And what could make this already good book better? Oh yeah, some twists! My guesses (and emotions) for what the end might bring changed numerous times as Candlish changed things up.

A great page turner for this reader. See for yourself - read an excerpt of The Heights. 

The Heights as a title can be applied in so many ways. It's the name of the building Ellen spots Kieran at. Ellen has a condition called high place phenomenon' - "characterized by a sudden compulsion to jump." At the height of, dizzying heights and more.