After She Fell by Mary-Jane Riley

AFTER SHE FELL by MARY-JANE RILEY

AFTER SHE FELL by MARY-JANE RILEY

After She Fell is a psychological suspense/mystery set in and around a private school in remote Norfolk. Conflicted seventeen-year-old Elena Devonshire falls to her death from a remote clifftop late one night. But did she fall, commit suicide, or was she pushed? This is the central mystery the plot revolves around.

Alex Devlin is a freelance journalist investigating what happened to Elena and has been asked to look into it by her old friend Catriona Devonshire, who is also Elena’s mother. The story is told by Alex and Elena in alternating chapters and, for me, it is Elena’s first-person chapters that really bring the book alive. Elena is a believable and sympathetic teenager and suffers from many of the teenage maladies that most of us have struggled with at that age, including the pitfalls of falling in love. But she is also a strong character and you find yourself rooting for her all the way, even though we know of her awful end right from the beginning. Creating suspense when the reader already knows the outcome is no easy thing, but Mary-Jane pulls it off.

Alex is another feisty female character but is also believable: she is strong but also sympathetic. Alex is a likeable character but lacks some of the vivid emotional turmoil of Elena’s narrative. There is also a subplot involving her son in Ibiza looking for his biological father. This is the second book in the series but readers are caught up with the events of the first book as the story goes along so it can easily be read as a standalone.

The ending was enjoyably twisty and satisfying and I didn’t guess the end, which is always great. Also, all of the questions except Alex son’s father are tied up effortlessly at the end and the plot is very well constructed.

Overall, this is a solid, enjoyable, easy to read mystery with a bit of an edge, two likeable protagonists and a plot that keeps you guessing till the end.

3/5