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    A Double Life: A Novel
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    A Double Life: A Novel
    Unavailable
    A Double Life: A Novel
    Audiobook7 hours

    A Double Life: A Novel

    Written by Flynn Berry

    Narrated by Fiona Hardingham

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    A gripping, intense, stunningly written novel of psychological suspense from the award-winning author of Under the Harrow

    Claire is a hardworking doctor leading a simple, quiet life in London. She is also the daughter of the most notorious murder suspect in the country, though no one knows it.

    Nearly thirty years ago, while Claire and her brother slept upstairs, a brutal crime was committed in her family's townhouse. The next morning, her father's car was found abandoned near the English Channel, with bloodstains on the front seat. Her mother insisted she'd seen him in the house that night, but his powerful, privileged friends maintained his innocence. The first lord accused of murder in more than a century, he has been missing ever since.

    When the police tell Claire they've found him, her carefully calibrated existence begins to fracture. She doesn't know if she's the daughter of a murderer or a wronged man, but Claire will soon learn how far she'll go to finally find the truth.

    Loosely inspired by one of the most notorious unsolved crimes of the 20th century—the Lord Lucan case—A Double Life is at once a riveting pause-resister and a moving reflection on women and violence, trauma and memory, and class and privilege.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateJul 31, 2018
    ISBN9780525631095
    Unavailable
    A Double Life: A Novel

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    Reviews for A Double Life

    3.5/5

    76 ratings12 reviews

    What did you think?

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      My mom recommended this book to me, and I read it in a day. I liked the idea of a character’s father being a murderer, and I loved the suspense of not knowing what happened to him. It was well done and was hard to put down. I would have given it four stars, or even five depending on the ending, but… SPOILER ALERT: I feel like this has happened in a lot of books lately so maybe I’m just being overly sensitive, but I hate that the character was pregnant at the end. It didn’t matter to the story, but it just disappointed me. Are we supposed to think, “Oh, great, she’s perfectly healed and will now raise this baby wonderfully?” Especially the way it was just shoved in the last bit of the book, with a random father for the baby… A woman does NOT have to have a baby to get a happy ending!
    • 3/5
      I listened to this book and remember the storyline was ok, but it drug on. There was nothing engaging about it.
    • 1/5
      This was bad, I kept thinking it was going to get better, but it did not. Claire's dad is accused of attacking her mother but ended up killing the wrong person and has been on the run for over a decade and she believes his rich socialite friends helped him. She befriends one of the daughters of his friends hoping to find out more information about where he may be. Sounds decent right, but there is zero character development for anyone, not even the main character. This book felt it could of used an extra 100 to 150 pages of story because once she starts befriending the other woman everything moves quick to a point where major developments to the story are kind of glossed over and I was left wondering how did she come to certain conclusions
    • 4/5
      Claire is a doctor in London living a seemingly normal life. Only a very few know that her father was a member of the upper class who was accused of murder and who fled the country rather than face prosecution. Claire was eight when someone broke in to their house and killed the nanny and attacked her mother.After the attack and the manhunt and Claire's mother being vilified by her father's friends, her mother changed their names and moved the family to Scotland. Claire's brother was only fourteen months old when all these events went on. It wasn't until Claire was a teenager that she began to do some research on the whole incident that she remembers only in nightmares. She becomes obsessed with finding her father. Even after getting her medical degree and moving to London to begin her career, she can't put the mystery behind her. She tracks and follows her father's friends and ingratiates herself into the life of one of their children to see if they know where her father is now. Meanwhile, her brother has become addicted to Tramadol - an opioid - and Claire is trying to convince him to go into treatment. She is constantly worried about him and his seizures show her that her worry is justified.In the continuum of writing styles which range from Hemingway to James Joyce, this book is much nearer the James Joyce end of the spectrum. The present and the past are integrated and entwined through the story. Claire has her mother's diaries to help her recreate the life her mother shared with her husband. She also has some childhood memories which make her question what happened. My main complaint about the story was that the long buildup of Claire's life and attempt to track down her father comes to quite an abrupt and surprising ending. Fans of introspective mysteries will enjoy this one.
    • 4/5
      Loosely based on a real case we meet Claire who is still dealing with the aftermath of a tragedy that happened when she was a child. Her nanny was murdered and her mother nearly so with her father the main suspect. He disappears before he can be questioned and Claire still cannot get over wondering if it was him and if so why he did it. When a false sighting happens she decides to try once again to find him even if it puts her life in danger. We get pieces of what happened that fatal night as well as background on her parents that help to keep the plot moving at a blistering pace. Can Claire find him and at what cost? A great beach read choice for you to find out!
    • 2/5
      Claire's father Colin disappeared after his estranged wife and his children's nanny were attacked, presumably by him. After 26 years, Claire is obsessed with finding her father and she stalks his former friends for clues to his whereabouts. She is also terrified that her father will reappear and kill her. The story switches back and forth (rather jarringly) between the marriage of Claire's parents and the present day Claire. Somewhat improbably, Claire is now a doctor. I don't know how she would have made it through med school. Stalking takes a lot of time. I made it a third of the way through this book before giving up. There was no suspense and the writing was very choppy. I also didn't like "Under the Harrow", so at least I now know that I should avoid this author, no matter how intriguing the blurb may be. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.
    • 2/5
      I did not care for this book. I found the unfolding of the past very confusing and had to re-read certain passages to fully understand what was going on. Further, the story line is ludicrous, characters not likable, and I was bored.
    • 3/5
      Unfortunately I found Claire, the novel's main character, unsympathetic and annoying. I never expected that character as written to be able to find her father or much of anything else. I wasn't impressed by the ending, it felt disconnected from the initial two thirds of the book.So readable, but disappointing.
    • 3/5
      Sometimes the structure of a book interferes with the reading. Here Ms Berry writes the interior life of Claire, daughter of an accused murderer who has been on the run for decades. The damage done to Claire and her family has lingered and triggered drug addiction in Claire's brother. Claire has become a high functioning obsessive.This book does not appeal to me for a lot of reasons. It is written in the first person, a form I think is difficult to do well. Then there is the entanglement of backstory and present day action. Then there is the carefully repeated history of the crime that Claire could not know: the exact sequence of events during her parents' courtship, her mother's exact thoughts, her emotions. Claire's mother could not have ever spoken in this detail and so these many segments must be products of Claire's obsession. If Claire is imagining some of the story, how much?I like a more straightforward story, one that does not give itself away from the beginning. I read the first chapters, getting oriented and settling in to the story before I realized how irritating it was. Then I jumped to the last 10% to read the end because there were only a few ways this could turn out.I received a review copy of "A Double Life" by Flynn Berry (Penguin Viking) through NetGalley.com.NB The New York Times published a review of "A Double Life" in the book section 2018/07/20.
    • 4/5
      A Double Life had a fast-paced and cleverly put together plot with a well-developed protagonist in Clare. I particularly liked the manner in which Clare's trauma from the crime committed while she was a youngster was presented. Not overdone, the effect of that crime on her life showed up in sometimes sublte ways; yet, as one could only imagine, repeatedly in her inner thoughts. Very realistic in my view was the way Clare went about solving that long-ago crime. The suspense builds to a unique and unpredictable conclusion, which seemed refreshing.
    • 4/5
      I listened to this book while doing some major house cleaning and I don’t know if that affected feeling on the book, but I struggled to really get into the characters. It was a very good story, especially knowing it was based on a real case, but I did not feel like I really knew the characters. 3.5
    • 4/5
      There was a simplicity aspect to the book that I really enjoyed. The author didn't try to make this an overly complicated mystery with so many twists and turns that end up hurting the story rather than enhancing it. The book itself is only around 270 pages so the story doesn't drag on and on as you are wondering what happened to the father who disappeared after a woman was murdered. Ended up finishing this in a day as it was an enjoyable read and I find it fascinating that the book was loosely based on a true story. Thank you to First to Read for the opportunity to read an advance digital copy! I was under no obligation to post a review and all views expressed are my honest opinion.