Erik Therme – If She Dies

‘If She Dies’ by Erik Therme is a thriller that deals with quite intense, sensitive and heartbreaking subjects.

Erik Therme

We are introduced to Tess, whose five-year-old daughter was run over by a car driver and died. The driver of the car went to prison bit Tess is sure he hasn’t yet paid the full price of her daughters death. The man has his own daughter. A twelve-year-old named Eve who walks to Chandler Middle School every day. Tess knows this because she’s been watching Eve for the last three weeks. When she goes missing all eyes turn to Tess…but she wouldn’t go so far to make him pay the price of her own daughters death, would she?

As I said, a very emotive and sensitive subject which Erik Therme has dealt with very well. His portrayal of a woman almost mad at the world for the loss of her daughter is fantastic. I was reading this book on my kindle and when I had no access to my kindle I was reading it on my phone, I was that engrossed in Tess and her husbands story.

Tess herself is in such a deep state of mourning she seems selfish and self-centred but as the story develops we learn exactly what her state of mind is and I have never experienced a loss such as Tess has. Who am I to judge? Everybody is different, with this in mind I gave her the benefit of the doubt and opened my mind to her grief.

Of all the characters in this book, I felt like I should have been safeguarding Eve! She is surrounded by adults who have not been putting her first and my first concern was how was she in all this? My maternal side kicked in and I just wanted to hug her and tell her it would all be ok. The character development was excellent, each person had their flaws, which made them different and more realistic within the story.

A book that began with tension from the off and carried it on to a point that I almost felt as crazy as Tess did. I would highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys a tense and twisty thriller.

Thanks to Damp Pebbles Blog Tours and Thecker Books for the digital copy of ‘If She Dies’ and my place on the tour today.