11.4.16

BOOK REVIEW: Playing With Fire by Tess Gerritsen

What if your child wanted you dead?
Julia doesn't understand why her daughter has so violently turned against her, but she thinks she knows what's causing it. She is terrified for Lily, and for herself, but what scares her more is that no one believes her.
If she is going to help Lily, she must find the answers alone, embarking on a search that will take her halfway around the world, to Venice.
There, Julia uncovers a heart-breaking, long-buried tale of tragedy and devastation- a discovery that puts her in serious danger. Some people will do anything in their power to keep the truth silent...whatever the cost. 

Publisher: Bantam Press
Pages: 283

I've finally got round to reading Tess Gerritsen's latest book. I flew through it and enjoyed it but I did feel that it was very different to her other stand alone books.
Julia finds a piece of music hidden in an antique book that she buys. On playing the music, strange things begin to happen, especially to her daughter Lily who seems to have turned against her. Julia becomes terrified of her own child and she is convinced that her strange behaviour is connected to the music that she found. She sets out on a search that takes her all the way to Venice; a tragic tale with consequences reaching into the present is uncovered putting Julia in grave danger.
Playing With Fire flits between the present day and the time of the Holocaust. I really was not expecting the historical fiction element of the book but I felt that it was very well done. I thought that Tess Gerritsen presented the story of the persecuted Jews in Italy very well; it was not something that I knew a lot about and the research done in order to create an accurate account was clear to see.
This book felt a little more like a horror than a thriller, the scenes between Julia and Lily were particularly sinister and frightening and this tension was maintained throughout the book. I would highly recommend Playing With Fire, it was interesting to see Tess Gerritsen going in a slightly different direction and she is still one of my favourite authors.

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