Rewind

Freaky and Thrilling

Social media influencer Natalie didn't tell anyone where she was going before she left for the remote seaside town of Shanamore. That's why no one knows that she's missing until it's too late...
Andrew, the manager of Shanamore Cottages doesn't know who killed his only guest, and even more frighteningly for him, how they knew that there was a hidden camera in the bedroom, recording everything.
Audrey works for a hipster online tabloid, and is desperate to move up into proper journalism. When she is given the opportunity to write a piece on the missing social media star, she is ready to do whatever it takes to make this the story of her career.

I have to be honest, when I first picked up this book I didn't think show more that I was going to keep reading. The opening scene describes a grisly and frightening murder, and I was surprised by the way it just jumped straight in without any prelude. I don't mind violence and shocker-moments in books or film, but the cold cut direct approach to the start of this book put me off, and made me think it was going to be a gratuitous melee of tasteless gore.
However, I gave it another few chapters before throwing in the towel, and I am so glad that I did! Very quickly I discovered a twisty and intelligent tale of mistrust and blackmail, which switches between past and present adeptly, giving you a well rounded story.

The quick pace of this murder mystery is very enjoyable, and the search for Natalie will have you thinking hard and putting together the different pieces of the puzzle alongside the local policeman and Audrey the journalist. The small village setting is beautifully described, giving the story life and credence.

Something I found fascinating about this book is the way that you have at least two villains, in a sense. The way that it explores Andrew's story, even though we know from the start that he can't be the killer since he saw it happen, shows the inner workings of a deeply depraved and distorted man, which is normally a theme we would be exploring in the mind of the killer. I liked knowing that he didn't commit this crime, even as we found out about the horrible things he had actually done, it made the story more three dimensional, and the story more intriguing.

There are very mature themes throughout this book, and even though the opening scene is the most gratuitous passage of the book, I would still not recommend this book to the faint of heart.

After my initial reaction, I thoroughly enjoyed this fast paced thriller. The twists were brilliantly thought out, and the characters were each intriguing in their own ways. The switch between present and past tense gave the book dimension, and the foreknowledge that gave made it even more exciting to try and figure out what was going on. I would recommend this book to fans of Hannibal, Top of the Lake, and intense murder mysteries. show less

Rewind by Catherine Ryan Howard is a very highly recommended mystery set in a remote holiday town in Ireland that opens with a video of a woman being killed in a bedroom.

Andrew is the socially awkward manager of Shanamore Cottages, a set of six holiday cottages near Cork, but he's also a voyeur who watches his guests via a secret camera in the bedroom. Natalie O’Connor Kerr is a social media influencer on Instagram. She suspects her husband, Mike, is having an affair and clues point to him staying at the Shanamore Cottages. When she tells her followers she's taking a few days off to relax, what she is really doing is going to spend a few nights at Shanamore to try and uncover proof of Mike's affair. When she isn't heard from in a week show more and has seemingly disappeared, Audrey, a reporter for an online gossip rag, is assigned to try and find out some information about what happened to the Instagram star. Audrey, who wants to move up to the newsroom and do some actual reporting, digs deep into the story and becomes a part of the investigation. Adding to the suspense is a mystery woman who is in love with Mark and hates Natalie.

Opening with the murder encourages readers to follow the action and look carefully to clues in this clever whodunit mystery. The narrative jumps back and forth in time, using rewind, fast-forward, play, rewind to start, and pause, all with timestamps, as chapter headings. It also alternates between the points-of-view of the different characters. And there are several appropriately creepy suspects moving around whom all have had encounters with Natalie before she disappeared. The pacing of the plot is steady, allowing the tension to slowly build as you try to piece the clues together. Interwoven into the plot is the backstory of Andrew.

Characters were introduced and developed as needed within the plot. I appreciated the carefully controlled release of information and clues. It kept me glued to the pages, trying to figure out who was the creepiest of the assorted creeps. With the alternating points-of-view and timelines, you do have to pay attention to who is narrating the chapter, but as the characters are so different that is relatively easy to do. The setting of Shanamore is like and additional character and richly described, making the setting seem even more sinister.

Rewind is a good choice for readers who like solid mysteries with an interesting cast of characters. 4.5 rounded up.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Blackstone Publishing.
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My thoughts:

At first, I was unsure if I would like this book. The first chapter describes a bloody and vicious murder on a sleeping woman, all captured on a hidden camera. Honestly, I dislike opening with such violence before I know or care about either character. Even then, I understood that Howard had a master plan and that there were valid, good reasons for this opening, but it was still a risky strategy. My notes mentioned this, adding, Hope the payoff is worth it.

I’ll tell you straight out: it was worth it.

Here’s why:

That strategic opening

As I’d suspected, this opening was strategic. It’s the event that every other event revolves around.

The chapters are labelled rewind, pause, fast-forward, and play. The narrative skips show more around in time. Sometimes it fast-forwards into the future, presumably after the death. At other times, it rewinds into the past before the killing. Then it plays, once more, bringing us closer to the central events. And sometimes, it pauses to dwell on a particular character.

It was difficult for me to judge the effectiveness of the labels. Reading an e-book on my smart phone sometimes does strange things to manuscript formatting. (Not anyone’s fault. It just happens. Occupational hazard.)

But the changes in time are effective at building suspense. She knew exactly when to cut away from a scene, at the exact moment when I didn’t want it to end, and force me to fast-forward or rewind or pause. And of course, I kept reading. I had a migraine and I’d read the ending first (as I always do), but I still had to keep reading Rewind.

The perception versus reality theme

Another thing I loved was how Howard used Instagram-era obsessions.

Natalie is revealed as a social media junkie. She judges scenery by its potential for Instagram-worthy shots, gets the jitters without her phone, and knows the exact moment when she lost her signal. She’s absolutely lost without the internet. She judges all “real” things by their Internet counterpart: her walking time versus Google maps’ estimate, the scenery of Shanamore versus the images of it on the web.

No surprise, though. She’s a rising micro-influencer on Instagram with thousands of devoted and sometimes crazy followers. She makes a living off the differences between perception and reality.

Many of the characters use this, though each has different motivations. Audrey is a tabloid reporter for an online paper’s entertainment section. Actually, it’s clickbait articles, the type that exploits our cultural need to know exactly what our celebrities are doing, complete with lots of innuendo and lies.

Andrew, of course, is caught by his addiction to watching hidden camera images.

Even the architecture reminds us of a curated reality. When Natalie checks into Shanamore Cottage No. 6, she notes the floor to ceiling windows and the contrast between the inside’s neutral tones and the outside’s vivid colors. It is “as if the floor-to-ceiling windows were screens and some amazing filter had artificially enhanced the view” (Chapter titled “Rewind 0:00:20”). Note the irony that it’s nature that appears artificial, not the decorated living room.

A creeping sense of dread

Howard is good at developing a sense of impending doom. Dread creeps throughout the lines. The book feels claustrophobic, with the characters trapped in a warped reality that blurs with perceptions, even when describing the vast world of the internet. The plotting is well-paced.

Realistic and sympathetic characters

I liked Audrey immediately. She’s being forced to find a new place to live in less than a month, her job pays almost nothing, and her ambitions outsize her experience. When she begins investigating Natalie’s disappearance, it’s obvious that she’s out of her depth and feels awkward interviewing others. But she’s smarter than others think. I sympathized with her, even though she’s exploiting Natalie’s disappearance to gain website clicks and further her career.

It took a while to warm up to Natalie, more for personal reasons than anything else. But once I did, I felt sorrow at how her life has turned out.

And some creepy characters

Richard Flynn, Shanamore Cottages’ “handyman” with a tendency to ignore personal space conventions. Jennifer, a bed-and-breakfast manager, whose love for a married man is outsized only by her arrogance.

And then there’s Andrew.

It might sound strange to feel sympathetic toward Andrew. Most readers will hate him, I think, and understandably so. He’s a disgusting, evil person. But he also knows that he’s disgusting, even when he tries to justify his immoral actions. (Which he knows aren’t justifiable.) He isn’t sure how to live with himself, either. That small degree of self-knowledge and remorse saves him from being a caricature. And that’s what made my loathing for him tinged with sympathy.

This was a thrilling read.

It’s guaranteed to keep you reading. It might also make you rethink your social media accounts (or at least what you share on them).

Thanks again to NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for a review copy in exchange for an honest review. show less

Andrew, manager of Shanamore Cottages, does not trust his eyes when he watches the camera he secretly installed in the bedroom of the cottages: his only guest has just been murdered. Yet, he surely cannot call the police but has to cope with the situation. Rewind. Strange things seem to happen in the life of influencer Natalie. However, her husband Mike does not believe her, supposedly because he himself is behind it all. He not only seems to have an affair but also wants her to believe that she has gone nuts. The key to it all seems to lie in the cottages where her obviously spent several days, so she packs her bag and spontaneously goes there. She knows immediately that this has been a mistake, the place is not only remote but more show more than literally abandoned in November and the people out there more than creepy. She does not know how correct her assessment of the place is and how wrong she was about the connection between this village and herself.

I have read Catherine Ryan Howard’s former novel “The Liar’s Girls” about Dublin’s Canal Killer and had liked it a lot. That’s why I was eager to read another of her thrillers and I wasn’t disappointed. Again, she starts with a murder and the reader has to figure out how this character ended up killed. “Rewind” is cleverly constructed and it takes some time to connect the dots and to make sense of it all. Yet, suspense does not decline once you see through the plot as there is still a chance that the actual culprit might simply walk away without ever being discovered and charged.

What I found strongest apart from the carefully composed plot, was the atmosphere the author creates. The small village of Shanamore really gives you the creeps only when reading about it. This place – added the time of the year, November, which is in itself often spine-chilling due to the cold and darkness – is perfect for hideous murders and you wouldn’t expect anybody else than weird and dubious characters walking around there. But also the action taking place in Dublin that makes Natalie feel increasingly hesitant and insecure about herself adds to the overall frightening ambiance of the novel.

Catherine Ryan Howard provides a lot of wrong leads that make you readjust the picture again and again and ponder how all can possibly fit into the picture. The solution is plausible and does not leave any question unanswered. “Rewind” is a perfect page-turner that I read in just one sitting since it hooked me immediately. show less

Natalie O'Connor is an Instagram sensation with thousands of followers. With her loving husband Mike what more could Natalie want. Peace and quiet is what she wants, so Natalie books her self into Shanamore Cottages for a few days. Andrew is the manager of the holiday cottages and has a hobby, watching his guests on hidden cameras, but didn't expect to see a guest murdered.

From the premise this book came over as a creepy thriller with Norman Bates vibes. The story begins with a murder then goes back and forth with how everything came about. The story really had me invested and I wanted to see what happened and to find out more about the murder.

The story follows a few main characters, Natalie the wife, Audrey the reporter, Andrew the show more manager and Jennifer. There's also creepy Richard the local. All have a tale to tell and as the story unfolds all becomes clear and everything is explained.

The story had me hooked from the beginning, but didn't quite go how I thought it would. I think some things seem a little bit far fetched but doesn't spoil the story. It's always hard to explain too much where thrillers are concerned as it could give it all away.

This book certainly was a page turner and I would read more by this author. A book for me about obsession, good and bad and how it can play out in peoples lives.

Thank you to @readersfirst, and the publisher #corvusbooks for the opportunity to read and review the book. show less

In the opening chapter a woman is brutally murdered. Who is she? As the story gradually unfolds, not chronologically, but through a series of flashbacks and the use of first and third person narratives of a number of key characters, the reader discovers the connections between the characters and how they contribute to the developing story. Natalie is a very popular and highly successful Instagram influencer, living an apparently perfect life, in a perfect home in Dublin, with her perfect husband, Mike. However, when she suspects him of having an affair she posts a message to her followers, informing them that she is taking a short break but that she’ll be “back soon” before heading off to the bleak Irish coastal village of show more Shanamore. She’s booked to stay for a few days in Shanamore Cottages because she is convinced that her husband had spent time there with the other woman. Other characters include Andrew, the creepy character who owns the cottages and who has secrets he’s desperate to preserve; Guard Seanie, the only policeman in the village, who has childhood links to the area which he hasn’t revealed; local odd-ball “Icky-Dickie” Richard who possibly knows something about the murder.
And then there’s Audrey, almost thirty, living in her sister’s spare room and an online journalist who is frustrated by the re-hashed reports she is expected to post about what minor celebrities are getting up to. When Mike eventually reports his wife missing and Audrey’s editor, thinking Natalie’s disappearance is perhaps a publicity stunt, asks her to look into it, she realises that this could well offer her the opportunity to shine as a “serious “ journalist and so she decides to follow Natalie’s trail to Shanamore.
It didn’t take me long to adjust to the author’s “play”, “pause”, “rewind”, fast-forward” and “stop” narrative device and so I didn’t have much difficulty in following the storyline in this psychological thriller. Although I’d guessed the outcome by about a third of the way through the story, there were some extra twists which served to keep me sufficiently engaged with the developing plot and to read to the end. I thought that the author managed to create an ominously creepy tension throughout her story-telling and that she made good use of some evocatively atmospheric descriptions of a bleak seaside village in the off-season to contribute to her scene-setting. I enjoyed her use of some thought-provoking contemporary themes, including her exploration of our fears about the highly manipulative power of social media, the pressure it can exert on people’s lives and behaviour, fake news etc. Intertwined with these themes were the familiar ones about the effects of secrets and lies, obsessional and delusional behaviour and manipulative blackmail. These wide-ranging themes certainly offer the potential for some interesting discussion in reading groups.
Although I found this a relatively entertaining read, I think it isn’t one which will remain memorable for me, mainly because I didn’t feel sufficiently engaged with any of the characters to care over-much about what happened to them. As this is a well-written story, my three-star rating feels perhaps a little harsh, but I didn’t feel able to give it four stars – ideally I think it deserves three and a half!
With thanks to the publisher and Readers First for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. show less

Rewind is a book about obsession. It is written in a clever way, present, forward, pause, and rewind. It is a story of an Instagram star, Natalie, who believes her husband, Mike, is having an affair. She tries to find evidence of the affair to confront him, but in doing so, ends up in a tragic situation.
As people are engaged to find out what happened to Natalie, a down on her luck reporter, Audrey, takes an unusual interest in the mystery, deciding to follow it past her boss's recommendation and interest.
Audrey finds out some truths about Natalie's disappearance, while meeting some unsavory characters in the little town where Natalie disappeared. Andrew is the manager of the holiday cottages where Natalie was last seen, and Richard is show more an unkempt stranger in the town. Both of them are hiding secrets. Then, there is a woman that is unknown to many, but also manages a hotel - Jennifer. She has secrets she is hiding as well.
This is an eerie tale of what can happen when we put our private lives on display for others to witness. And, how others use our private lives to manipulate us. Privacy is more and more fleeting in our world of technology.
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