Tom Meredith

This is the first of several anonymous guest posts people have submitted reviewing books they have recently enjoyed. Today's post is a review for the Blue Hour by Paula Hawkins which certainly sounds intriguing...

 

I am a feracious reader and was thrilled at the opportunity to contribute to this blog, although I am new to social media and little nervous! Hopefully you all enjoy this and next time I might feel up to sharing more about my reading journey! I decided to post a review for a book I have just finished by Paula Hawkins. The Blue Hour is a masterful journey into secrecy and art, loss and obsession and I think Paula has outdone herself with this one! It is richly atmospheric, emotionally complex, and built around an escalating mystery that is as much about the human heart as it is about buried bones. 

From the first pages, Hawkins immerses us in a setting that is itself a character, namely the remote Scottish island of Eris which is only reachable at certain times of day! Everything about the landscape whispers of isolation, of things hidden beneath surf and soil. It is how Paula Hawkins uses this setting which was most impressive to me. 

The premise is irresistibly mysterious too. I'll try not to give too much away, but Vanessa Chapman, a reclusive artist of rising fascination, is dead. One of her sculptures, once presumed to incorporate deer bone, has been called into question: might it, horrifyingly, contain a human bone? James Becker, a curator tasked with restoring and preserving Vanessa’s legacy, travels to Eris to retrieve remaining works.

What makes The Blue Hour especially compelling is the slow burn, although it never loses your attention. Hawkins doesn’t rush her revelations, instead letting the tension build, one layer of mystery at a time. It’s not about who is good or evil; it’s about degrees of deception, about how friendship, art, and grief can morph into something dangerous in quiet places. The characters are extremely rich. Grace is especially gripping: wounded, proud, and fiercely protective, even of the parts of Vanessa that most people would find intolerable. Becker, with his role as outsider-admirer, is sympathetic; he’s not perfect, his motives are mixed, but his vulnerability makes him deeply human. Even secondary characters feel textured, their motives murky and their loyalties shifting.

If there is a criticism, it is that at times the ending feels both satisfying and, in a curious way, devastating. The Blue Hour does not tie every loose end; some shadows recede but remain. Overall, The Blue Hour is one of Paula Hawkins’s finest. For readers who love psychological suspense, for those who relish character-driven narratives set against elemental landscapes, this book delivers in spades. Highly, very highly recommended, and thank you for reading this!