Follow Me by Angela Clarke

LIKE. SHARE. FOLLOW . . . DIE

The ‘Hashtag Murderer’ posts chilling cryptic clues online, pointing to their next target. Taunting the police. Enthralling the press. Capturing the public’s imagination.

But this is no virtual threat.

As the number of his followers rises, so does the body count.

Eight years ago two young girls did something unforgivable. Now ambitious police officer Nasreen and investigative journalist Freddie are thrown together again in a desperate struggle to catch this cunning, fame-crazed killer. But can they stay one step ahead of him? And can they escape their own past?

Time's running out. Everyone is following the #Murderer. But what if he is following you?

Follow Me by Angela Clarke was a book I was looking forward to reading because it sounded like a really current read with the storyline set around the dangers of social media.

Having finished this book at the weekend I have waited to review this book as I had mixed feelings about it and I couldn’t quite work out what was missing for me or what I didn’t like about it because I just found that this book couldn’t hold my interest for more than a couple of chapters at a time. Having said that it still had something about it that kept pulling me back to read again so it wasn’t a book that I felt I just wanted to give up on.

The best thing about the storyline was that the author managed to pull the wool over my eyes, I had no idea the whole way through who the #murderer was. As each status was posted by the #murderer I was trying to solve the clues along with the characters hoping that they would make it in time to catch them before it was too late.

The storyline really addresses the dangers of social media and just shows how quick information can be circulated for not only good but bad and how it can draw attention to the wrong things.

Freddie was our main character and although she wasn’t a relatable or lovable character she still had likeability to her and she was a great main character. Nas seemed like the most competent officer on the case and I really liked her character. There was a mystery about Nas and Freddie’s past that also kept me guessing which helped to keep my interest in the book.

The detailed descriptions surrounding the crime scenes really helped me to visualise the setting and piece clues together. So the book had a lot of great points that ticked a lot of boxes for me but I think my problem with this book was the fact that Freddie who was just a normal every day person was pulled into this investigation because of her knowledge of social media and yet she seemed to be more able to find the correct clues and was all around doing a much better job than the police which all seemed rather farfetched to me especially when they were taking her to the crime scenes. It seemed to lose its chilling, gritty feel to it after the first murder scene.

For me this was a 3 and a half star read it showed great promise and I look forward to reading the next book by Angela Clarke to see how her writing progresses.

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