My grateful thanks to Hayley Camis at Little Brown for a copy of The Girl in the Fog by Donato Carrisi in return for an honest review.

The Girl in the Fog was published in the UK by Abacus, an imprint of Little Brown, on 2nd November 2017 and is available for purchase here.

 

The Girl in the Fog

 

Sixty-two days after the disappearance . . .

A man is arrested in the small town of Avechot. His shirt is covered in blood. Could this have anything to do with a missing girl called Anna Lou?

What really happened to the girl?

Detective Vogel will do anything to solve the mystery surrounding Anna Lou’s disappearance. When a media storm hits the quiet town, Vogel is sure that the suspect will be flushed out. Yet the clues are confusing, perhaps false, and following them may be a far cry from discovering the truth at the heart of a dark town.

My Review of The Girl in the Fog

Detective Vogel is searching for missing Anna Lou Kastner and he’ll stop at nothing to solve the case.

The Girl in the Fog is a cracker of a book. Sublimely plotted it takes the reader on a roller coaster of a narrative. Of course I had it all worked out and of course I was completely wrong. Donato Carrisi leads the reader to erroneous conclusions with the same skill Vogel leads his investigations. The tension builds so that I kept telling myself I’d just read one more page until the whole book was devoured. I also need to say something about the quality of translation as not once did it feel as if I were reading a translated story. The prose flowed effortlessly, creating atmosphere and character exceedingly well and this is partly down to the skill of Howard Curtis too. I so appreciated the image of the fog, from the actual weather conditions when Anna Lou goes missing through the obfuscation of fact and lies to the foggy memory Vogel appears to have at the start of the book.

It’s always difficult to review this kind of thriller without giving away too much of the plot, so I’ll just say that I found it tightly written and very disconcerting, particularly the ending. It’s safe to say that we never really know our fellow human beings.

What is so engaging and clever about Donato Carrisi’s writing is his ability to create tension. My heart rate increased towards the end so that The Girl in the Fog truly is a thrilling read.

Although Anna Lou is the catalyst for events, she is barely present. Instead we get a fascinating insight into the minds of several men, but especially Vogel. He is devious, intelligent and manipulative and makes the reader question morality and whether the end ever justifies the means. For me, the requirement to think, to judge and, ultimately to be duped, makes The Girl in the Fog a story I thoroughly enjoyed.

The Girl in the Fog is a really good thriller and I recommend it most highly.

About Donato Carrisi

Donato Carrisi was born in 1973 and studied law and criminology. He won four Italian literature prizes for his bestselling debut The Whisperer. Since 1999 he has been working as a TV screenwriter, and he lives in Rome.

You can follow Donato Carrisi on Twitter @DonatoCarrisi and visit his website.