When Kate Mayfield receives a letter from Mrs Ivanisovic, she realises that the secret she has kept for more than thirty years is not so safe as she imagined. Haunted by the echoes of a vanished summer which changed her life for ever, Kate is forced to confront memories she would rather forget...a dead white face in a flickering beam, not flinching when the soil hit it...Mrs Ivanisovic is dying and demands to be told the truth, but is Kate's story of love, lies and murder really what Mrs Ivanisovic wants to hear? And how much does she herself already know? The danger is always there that a secret is going to find a way out...

My Thoughts:

The story is told by Kate and flits between present day where she is now retired and the summer of 1972 where she stayed with her boyfriend Danny, and his friend Simon. Along the way they pick up Trudie, then everything changes.

What I liked about this book is that at the end of each section I was left with wanting to know what was going to happen next. It offers many twists and turns with a very unexpected ending. I did remind me very much of the film ‘Shallow Grave’.

I really enjoyed this book which was very easy to read and I did want to keep turning the pages to see how it was going to end and enjoyed Katy’s narrative as she was very chatty. I would highly recommend this book and I am going to search out more by Diane Janes. ( )

An okay read like many books started good slipped a bit then a bit more picked up then finished ( )

This is a slow insidious gem of a crime novel, that takes you into the mind of Katy, a middle-aged woman to whom (it is intimated from the outset) something terrible has happened in the past. Trouble is, we don't know exactly what. It takes a deft hand to keep the plot slowly unrolling as each page takes us closer to discovering Katy's secret. This is a superb book, I just coudn't put it down. Great characterisation, and the setting of the 1970's is flawlessly described. If you can remember Slade and Rod Stewart then this book is for you. ( )

I found this to be a slow-paced, but gripping story of four young people. Katy and her boyfriend Danny, and his best friend Simon, go to stay at Simon's uncle's house for the summer of 1972. Simon's uncle has gone away and has asked Simon and his friends to do some work in the garden, in return for which they get to spend the glorious summer there.

They then meet up with Trudie, a younger girl, who starts to cause trouble amongst the group. To say anymore about what happens in the story would be to give too much away, but over 30 years later, Mrs Ivanisovic, Danny's mother, writes to Kate (as she is now known) asking her to go and see her to tell her the truth about what happened at that house all those years earlier, before it is too late.

The story is told by Kate, both looking back to 1972, and in the present day when she receives correspondence from Mrs Ivanisovic. This means that we see everything only from her point of view, but also that the ending is even more gripping because of it.

This is a well-written thriller/coming of age story. It has been compared to A Fatal Inversion by Barbara Vine, and I would agree that there are a lot of similarities, both in style and story. I enjoyed finding out what happened that summer, as the story as told by Kate unfolded, and I think the book has a kind of intensity that works very well.

There are a fair few twists and turns in this book, and although I didn't find it 'edge of the seat' stuff, I did really enjoy reading it. ( )

http://www.thebookbag.co.uk/reviews/index.php?title=The_Pull_of_the_Moon_by_Dian... ( )