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The Wicked Girls

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The Wicked Girls

By: Alex Marwood
Narrated by: Anna Bentinck
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About this listen

One summer morning, three little girls meet for the first time. By the end of the day, two will be charged with murder. Twenty-five years later, journalist Kirsty Lindsay is reporting on a series of sickening attacks on young female tourists in a seaside town when her investigation leads her to interview funfair cleaner Amber Gordon. For Kirsty and Amber, it's the first time they've seen each other since that dark day when they were just children. But with new lives - and families - to protect, will they really be able to keep their wicked secret hidden?

©2012 Alex Marwood (P)2012 Hachette Digital Crime Fiction Mystery Suspense Thriller & Suspense Fiction Crime Exciting Scary

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Critic reviews

"This incredible story will play on your mind. Two weeks after I read it, I can't stop thinking about it. The book of the year." ( The Sun)
"Dark, twisty and full of good surprises and insights. Marwood has delivered a compelling debut crime novel." ( Daily Mail)
All stars
Most relevant

What made the experience of listening to The Wicked Girls the most enjoyable?

The story was excellent and unravelled enticingly so you didn't want to stop listening. It is told from the two perspectives of the main characters who are both believable and you start to care about them right from the start. There are lots of twists and turns but it keeps the suspence building right to the end.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Wicked Girls?

The part I found the most disturbing was the way the main character was hounded by the public when they found out her true identity and the way the mob behaved to her and her pet dogs.

What does Anna Bentinck bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

I think the book was read in such a way that the characters came to life - you felt their differences and it seemed more real.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The ending which sometimes falls flat in some books was brilliant and really finished of the book well.

excellent book well written and well read

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This is a totally absorbing and moving story, with superb narration. The author gives an understanding of how a childhood event has changed the lives of the main characters forever and how easy it is to judge children as if they have the maturity of adults. The author describes realistically the world of tabloid journalism and how we are misled by the editor's need for a good headline. It moves along at a cracking speed and the outcome is unexpected.

Can't wait for this author's next book.

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I have just listened to this book for the second time and found it as compelling as the first and with the same outcome - I thought about it for several days. One can't say too much without giving away the quite convoluted plot but how they become 'wicked girls' and what happens to them in later life is fascinating. All the characters are very well rounded and believable. Anna Bentinck is one of the best readers Audible has, and I discovered this book by going through the list of what she has read. I see that one reader was disappointed by the book which I find hard to understand but I guess it depends on what you're looking for in the first place. This certainly doesn't fit into the crime genre - it's more concerned with the outcome of action and how that action is sparked off. If the book has a fault I would say that it's in the use of flashback so that it takes some pages to get into the swing of the story, and I think that maybe I got into it more quickly the second time because of that. I hope Alex Marwood will produce many more such books, as so many of our better writers are becoming elderly and we need new blood!

Brilliant first novel

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After a slowish start, this book soon became an outstanding listen. Told from the perspective of two women, cleaning supervisor Amber and journalist Kirsty who re-connect during the investigations into the 'seaside strangler' case based in the fictional coastal resort of Whitmouth. The memory of a summer day back in 1986 when both girls were eleven-years-old comes back to haunt their present.

It is extremely difficult to sympathise with child murderers, but the author makes the characters so three dimensional that it's interesting to hear their point of view. Marwood's journalistic experience enabled her to write a very detailed critique of the media circus.

Special mention must also be made of the narrator, Anna Bentinck, who was truly excellent and performed a wide array of believable accents and dialects.

The Wicked Girls

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Alex Marwood is a fantastic story teller, this book should be made into a film. So well written I felt as if I was there. A difficult subject done so well. Narration was perfect.

Excellent

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