Book Summary and Reviews of Second Life by S. J. Watson

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Cloggie Downunder

Another thought-provoking page-turner.
“I realize with sudden clarity that we’re wearing masks, all of us, all the time. We’re presenting a face, a version of ourselves, to the world, to each other. We show a different face depending on who we’re with and what they expect of us. Even when we’re alone, it’s just another mask, the version of ourselves we’d prefer to be.”

Second Life is the second novel by the acclaimed author of Before I Go To Sleep, S.J.Watson. When her sister, Kate is murdered in a Paris alleyway, happily married London photographer, Julia Plummer is devastated. She feels acutely that she has let her sister down, and is determined to uncover the facts. The box of Kate’s effects she has been given by Kate’s flatmate, Anna, lead her to question what she knew about her sister: she soon finds herself risking everything she holds dear in an online relationship with someone who could be the murderer. “There’s a point where an online dalliance might become dangerous, but who can really say when it is?”

After a decidedly slow start, Watson once again gives the reader a gripping tale with a plot full of tension that twists and turns multiple times before reaching a shattering climax. His cast of characters is believable, although many have secrets and some are definitely not what they first seem. Quite unlike Watson’s protagonist in Before I Go To Sleep, this narrator will exasperate readers with her naïveté, her more-than-occasional stupidity and her self-absorbed state of mind; her selfishness, too, will leave the reader gasping.

This is a psychological thriller that graphically illustrates the dangers to be found online, where no one is necessarily what they appear or claim to be. It demonstrates how, once you dispatch it by email or social media, you lose control over any image or piece of information. Today’s technology means almost anything can be faked and makes the potential for extortion of the unwary virtually limitless. Another thought-provoking page-turner.
4.5 stars

FictionZeal

from FictionZeal.com re: Second Life by S.J. Watson
‘Marcus in the Mirror’ – that’s the enlarged photo hanging in an art exhibit. Julia took the photo years ago when she and Marcus were lovers. He died. She moved on. Or so it would seem. Now she’s been married ten years to Hugh, a surgeon. They have a comfortable life in North London. They have an adopted teen, Connor. Actually, Connor was her younger sister Kate’s son. Kate was only sixteen when she gave birth to Connor; she begged Julia to take care of him. But, more recently Kate has been making demands to Julia to return Connor to her … that is until Kate is attacked and killed in an alley in Paris.

Julia meets Kate’s flat-mate Anna at Kate’s funeral service. Julia discovers the world that both Anna and Kate have been involved in and it’s not pretty. Online-sex, Phone-sex, sex-sex, you name it. They pick up these men they meet on website encountrz.com. The police have little to go on. Julia thinks she can do better. She accesses encountrz.com using her sister’s user name and password. She’s looking for her sister’s possible killer; then, she meets ‘Lucas’. Can anyone say ‘fatal attraction’?

This story grips hold of your little eyeballs and draws you completely into this psychological thriller. At times, indeed many times, you’d want to grab Julia by the shoulders and shake some sense into the woman. I did find it difficult to consider why someone would lose themselves so completely into seduction and sex because they’ve lost their sister. Oh I know — part of the reason was she was looking for a connection to her sister’s killer. But to look for people and information didn’t mean she had to follow her sister down that same rabbit hole performing the same sexual acts for a man she didn’t know. It’s almost as if she were out to destroy her own marriage of ten years over the matter. Nevertheless, you won’t want to put the book down until you find out what happens. And then … it doesn’t give you a complete ending. After reading 415 pages, I feel I deserve to know the end. If I have to use my own imagination, I opt for a happy one. Rating: 3 out of 5.