A Novel
by Flynn Berry
Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published in USA
Jun 2016
240 pages
Genre: Thrillers
Publication Information
The award-winning psychological thriller about a young woman who finds her sister brutally murdered, and the shocking incident in their past that may hold the key to finding the killer, from the author of A Double Life
When Nora takes the train from London to visit her sister in the countryside, she expects to find her waiting at the station, or at home cooking dinner. But when she walks into Rachel's familiar house, what she finds is entirely different: her sister has been the victim of a brutal murder.
Stunned and adrift, Nora finds she can't return to her former life. An unsolved assault in the past has shaken her faith in the police, and she can't trust them to find her sister's killer. Haunted by the murder and the secrets that surround it, Nora is under the harrow: distressed and in danger. As Nora's fear turns to obsession, she becomes as unrecognizable as the sister her investigation uncovers.
A riveting psychological thriller and a haunting exploration of the fierce love between two sisters, the distortions of grief, and the terrifying power of the past, Under the Harrow marks the debut of an extraordinary new writer.
Edgar Awards, 2017
"A thrilling novel of psychological suspense…Under the Harrow contains similarities [to The Girl on the Train and Gone Girl]that will undoubtedly attract readers – but underneath its hard-driving, page-turning, compulsively readable narrative is a striking, original voice all Berry's own…[Her] precise sentences call to mind Hitchcock's meticulous storyboards and enrich the work with a cinematic scope." - Elizabeth Brundage, The New York Times Book Review (Editors' Choice)
"Exquisitely taut and intense... There's a subtle strain of Daphne Du Maurier's classic, Rebecca, in Under the Harrow... . [But] Under the Harrow is such a superbly crafted psychological thriller, it deserves to be celebrated for its own singular excellence." - Maureen Corrigan, The Washington Post
"A brisk and chilling psychological study about grief, paranoia, and memory; a smart portrait of a complex sibling relationship; and, more than anything, an effective murder mystery...Berry takes some of the big social struggles that have animated the feminist movement and makes them specific and personal, exploring the rippling effects of power imbalances across individual lives. There's nothing pedantic about the taut, tricky narrative, though. Like solving the whodunit, finding the bigger meaning is simply a matter of paying attention." - The Atlantic, "The Best Books We Read in 2016"
"Flynn Berry is engaged here with the linked subjects of women, violence, and memory, in a fashion reminiscent of A.S.A. Harrison or Paula Hawkins...A slender tale full of polished, watchful prose, with an interesting kind of icy desperation in its bones." - USA Today
"Surprise-filled ... [Flynn Berry] has written a psychological-suspense work fit to hold its own with many recent best-sellers. And she's done it with a narrator whose possible unreliability is not arbitrary but consistent with this well-wrought book's conception, thereby heightening the considerable suspense." - The Wall Street Journal
"Flynn Berry's debut novel imbues the classic murder mystery with rich emotional depth, describing Nora's anguish and grief so acutely that the reader feels the emotional impact of her loss as deeply as the desire to know who did it. The result is an investigation not just of the crime but also of the fierce, complicated love that exists between sisters." - Oprah.com, "Page-Turners You'll Devour in One Sitting"
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