I have had Flowers for the Dead waiting for me on my kindle for the longest time (it even has a different cover on there!) but I’ve booked my ticket to go and see Barbara Copperthwaite at The Deepings Literary Festival and, wanting to read it before that event, I bumped it up the to-be-read pile. Here is my review.

Laura is the sole survivor of a car crash that wiped out her entire family. Adam the only child of a horrifically abusive mother and uninvolved father. He was however loved by his gran who read him fairy stories and taught him all about the language of flowers.

Despite several false starts in his love life when Adam spots Laura he falls desperately in love with her knowing her to be ‘the one’ and in so many ways he is the perfect boyfriend. He cooks, cleans and looks after her. Making sure she has money in her purse and food in the fridge. Unfortunately, Laura is completely unaware he even exists and as she starts to release herself from the grief that has enveloped her she thinks she’s going mad when she notices the things Adam has done for her. The police don’t take her concerns seriously. Why should they when her flat hasn’t even been broken into?

I enjoyed reading this book. The characterisations are excellent. Laura’s grief and attempts to move on with her life, Adam’s obsessional existence and gradual unravelling and Mike, the policeman’s, struggles to come to terms with being widowed and a single father to his little girl are all completely believable. And then there is all the flower stuff which I found to be fascinating.

The creepiest part for me was Adam’s intrusion into Laura’s flat, the fact he was there while she slept and planted cameras to watch her when he was away is the stuff of nightmares. Shudder. Though I did enjoy his reaction when Laura started to turn the tables on him and he thought she was being flirtatious.

I also enjoyed the way it was written in that we saw the present day story but also the background to Adam’s life so we could see the escalation in his behaviour. I’m sure all those who enjoy psychological thrillers would love this.

Amazon UK

Amazon US

Spread the love
4 Responses to #TuesdayBookblog #bookreview for #psychological #thriller Flowers for the Dead by Barbara Copperthwaite @BCopperthwait
  1. Sounds really creepy, just the way I like my stories…

  2. What a lovely review – thank you! Lovely to hear you’ll be in the audience at the Deepings Literary Festival, too. I’ll see you there!


[top]

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *