The Blue Hour

The Blue Hour is Paula Hawkins' much anticipated fourth novel. Having read two of her previous three, in my opinion The Blue Hour absolutely blows them all out of the water.

Eris Island is now home to Grace and was once home to Vanessa Chapman, a celebrated artist. When Vanessa died she left her collection to be housed at Fairburn House, a country estate and home to other great artworks and sculptures. James Becker is the curator of the collection and a Chapman aficionado, and when an alarming discovery linked to Vanessa is made, he must travel to Eris and seek clarity from Grace, a woman who knew her well.

There's so much more to this book than first appears. There is such depth to the writing, the emotions and the unfolding of events, show more and the plot is complex and twisty. It has an almost indefinable something that I love in books: a melting pot of a touch of mystery, a bohemian feel, and an undercurrent of simmering menace and tension. Add in not only a remote Scottish island but a country house too and it makes this book pretty much perfect.

Eris is an incredibly atmospheric setting. Grace has a lonely existence there, looking across to the houses in the bay, cut off from the mainland for half of every day when the tide rolls in. Becker proves to be both a welcome and unwelcome visitor, with the discovery opening up old wounds. Much of the story is told from the point of view of either Grace or Becker, interspersed with Vanessa's letters and diary entries, and Hawkins brings all the strands together expertly to create an edgy, thrilling and absorbing read.

I soaked up every bit of this book, savoured every word. I didn't want it to end but when it did, it did so in chilling style. Brilliant! show less

An artist who lived a reclusive life as the lone inhabitant on an island accessible only during low tide dies and leaves her works to be exhibited by her former lover’s foundation rather than leaving them to a woman who had been a confidante for years. A bone believed to be human is discovered as part of one of her pieces. Could it belong to her ex husband who mysteriously disappeared years ago? To investigate that and the fact that there seem to be some of her works missing, a young employee of the foundation, enthralled with the artist, is dispatched to meet with the confidante. But, there is so much more to this story…

There is a sense of something ominously foreboding throughout this novel. It is a study of insecurity, obsession, show more friendship, gender, love, the artistic process, loneliness, pathology. Written with multiple POVs and timelines and interspersed with the artist’s journal entries, there are twists and turns that are slowly revealed. I had a difficult time engaging with any of the characters or the plot. Fans of the author and art enthusiasts may well enjoy the story more than I did.

Thanks to #NetGalley and #MarinerBooks for the DRC. show less

This haunting gothic horror story revolves around a reclusive artist named Vanessa Chapman and her long-time companion, Grace. The narrative unfolds slowly at first but soon escalates dramatically. When Vanessa dies of cancer, she bequeaths all her artwork to Douglas Lennox, her ex-lover, which provides a much-needed boost to his small art gallery, Fairburn. Becker, the gallery's curator, considers himself an expert on Vanessa's work. He feels a special connection to her creations, believing that his deceased mother, a fan who owned one of her paintings, enhances this bond.

However, very little is known about the real Vanessa, who lived on Eris, a remote channel island in Scotland accessible to the mainland only during low tide. Grace, show more Vanessa's long-time companion, still resides on the island. As Becker starts visiting the cold, dreary island to unravel Vanessa's mystique, I could feel the chill seep into my bones.

The book takes its time initially, setting the stage and introducing a cast of compelling characters. Nonetheless, the potential for violence kept me engaged. By the middle of the book, I was utterly hooked. Still, nothing could have prepared me for the heart-stopping finale. The story is deliciously wicked. show less

My favourite of the four mystery thrillers by Paula Hawkins so far – an eclectic cast of predominantly unlikeable characters, a breathtaking setting, complex relationships, lost bodies, found bones - it ticked all the boxes until … the end.
The descriptions of the Scottish island of Eris are deeply atmospheric and inspirational to reclusive artist Vanessa Chapman, captured in oils, ceramics and objet trouvés, who buys the island in the late nineties. In the present day art historian and Vanessa Chapman obsessive, James Becker, is sent to Eris to retrieve pieces missing from the artistic estate bequest to his employer, the Fairburn Foundation, and question Grace, Vanessa’s former companion, about a shocking discovery.
The show more backstories along with excerpts from Vanessa’s diaries and notebooks reveal that there is more to everybody than meets the eye especially prim and proper, plain and secretive Grace, lonely and alone, dominated by the tides that cut Eris off from the mainland for twelve hours every day.
Even though I guessed some of the outcomes I loved the slow burn plot development, the building of tension and the unravelling of Grace until the last couple of chapters which, rather than reaching a satisfying crescendo, fell disappointingly flat. show less

This one should have been a DNF for me. I couldn't make myself interested in Grace or Becker, the main characters. I did love the descriptions of Eris, the remote Scottish island where a famed artist moved. All of the people involved were shallow, selfish, unsure of themselves, and petty. The second someone pursued a bit of freedom or was happy in their lives it was shown as a bad thing.

**SPOILER**
I'll admit I was disappointed in the predictable twist. Of course the "ugly" lonely woman was jealous and started killing people. It just felt so unoriginal. Of course a woman who is a capable doctor couldn't be happy in her life if her friends aren't completely obsessed with her. Ugh. I just didn't love that ending.

"All is fair in love and show more war, and friendship is love, too, isn't it? And a kind of war sometimes as well." show less

The Blue Hour by Paula Hawkins is a highly recommended, atmospheric, even paced psychological thriller.

The late painter Vanessa Chapman has a retrospective at the Tate Modern when a forensics expert says a bone in one of her sculptures is a human bone. The Fairburn Foundation manages her estate and sends James Becker to Eris Island, where Chapman lived for the last decade of her life, to discuss the matter with her companion, Grace Haswell, who was willed the property and is the executor of Vanessa’s will. Admittedly, Grace has been hesitant to hand over all of Vanessa's papers, journals, and art work, causing a dispute between her and the foundation. The Scottish Eris Island has only one house on it and is accessible only twice a show more day, at low tide.

There are many characters, rumors, obsessions, and secrets introduced in the novel and all of them centers on the enigmatic artist. It is clear that not all hidden truths are meant to be uncovered and some may lead to danger. Chief among the secrets is the disappearance of Julian, the notoriously unfaithful husband of Vanessa who disappeared twenty years ago. The Lennox family behind the foundation has their own secrets, as does the island itself.

The writing is masterful. The narrative is written through multiple points-of-view and follows several timelines. Interspersed between chapters are excerpts from the artist’s journal entries. The island setting is part of the atmospheric novel. Expect dislikeable characters. The pace is even and slowly reveals insights into the characters along with a few surprises. Thanks to HarperCollins for providing me with an advance reader's copy via Edelweiss. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2024/09/the-blue-hour.html show less

I first heard about this book last October in an interview with the author on the So You Want to be a Writer podcast. I enjoyed the interview and remembered the book sounded interesting, so when I saw it on the end of the shelf at the library and picked it up. The premise–an artist (now deceased) who lived on a remote island, and the mystery of whose bone wound up in a work of her art–was interesting enough, and I’d read and watched the movie adaptation of Hawkins’s breakout book The Girl on the Train. It had been awhile, so I only had a faint memory of my impression of that book, but Hawkins is described as a “nuanced storyteller” of “sophisticated suspense” so I figured The Blue Hour would be another entertaining bit show more of escapism. For the most part that was the case.
The book includes excerpts from the diary and letters of artist Vanessa Chapman alongside the story as told through perspective of Grace, Vanessa’s friend and caretaker who inherited the house and studio on the island; and Becker, an expert on the artist and a curator at the gallery to which she bequeathed her artistic estate. Maybe it’s to be expected that any mystery/thriller is going to be heavy on plot and light on character, but there are glimpses of something deeper in this trio.
When Becker is first introduced it’s established that he feels out of place among the “blue bloods” of the art world and there is tension beneath the surface with Grace too. Through letters, “in Vanessa’s ‘art voice,’ the pretentious one she used to impress people she thought were her social superiors,” Grace wonders, “How could they take themselves so seriously? They were painting pictures for Christ’s sake, not curing cancer…” Yet Vanessa’s artist friend writes that Grace is pitiable, “doling out antibiotics… so joyless!”
So while there is some depth to them, I did ultimately want more motivation from the characters. It’s established that Becker feels a personal connection to Vanessa’s art because of his dead mother, and he has plenty of complications in his personal life, but it doesn't seem to really drive him as he moves through the story. Grace, too, seems static, alone on the island when the story begins with Becker coming along to nose through Vanessa’s papers and ask questions about missing art.
I won’t give away of the plot, but thinking of mystery/suspense as a lesson in how a story moves forward and keeps us turning pages, I noticed lines like this one that piqued my interest at the end of each short chapter: “On the surface or beneath it, there is always some residue, some mark left when a path divides, when a life becomes a different one.”
And thoughtful passages like this one from the artist’s diary don’t hurt either:
Women aren’t supposed to look, are they? They’re supposed to be looked at.
And if they see something violent or ugly or frightening, they’re supposed to cover their eyes and swoon, they’re supposed to flinch. They’re supposed to look away.
They’re not supposed to move closer, to narrow their eyes and peer, to examine and observe and appraise.
They’re not supposed to make of horror something of their own. show less