The Flower Girls by Alice Clark-Platts

40
Written by Norrie

A harrowing story about crime, grief and punishment, The Flower Girls is a fast paced and twisty read that is bound to make you uncomfortable.

flowergirlsThe Flower Girls by Alice Clark-Platts

Genres: Mystery, Psychological Thriller
Published: 24th January, 2019
Goodreads
Series: N/A
Rating: 4

YOU’LL NEVER FORGET THE FLOWER GIRLS

The Flower Girls. Laurel and Primrose.

One convicted of murder, the other given a new identity.

Now, nineteen years later, another child has gone missing.

And The Flower Girls are about to hit the headlines all over again…

I absolutely love a good psychological thriller, and it seems when I’m not freaking myself out with stories about terrible marriages, I’m hanging out with murderous children.

The Flower Girls is a totally in-your-face suspense, with a chilling premise: two little girls murdered a toddler nearly twenty years ago, and while one of them is still behind bars, the other one is living her life, free as a bird, under a knew identity, barely even remembering the crime that had been committed.

Joanna, the murdered toddler’s aunt is still campaigning for longer sentences, and through her story the author examines the effects of grief and the inability of letting go. Is it really the best thing to hold onto that all consuming anger? Is it possible to rehabilitate children who committed serious crimes?

Hazel (a.k.a. Rosie) is seemingly free and can live as she pleases, but when a child goes missing in the hotel she stays with her boyfriend, it still sucks to be her. She does whine a lot about this, to the point where I couldn’t even feel sorry for her anymore, but as the police search getting more desperate, another problem pops up. An author recognizes her and comes up with the brilliant idea to write a book about Hazel, so she can tell her side of the story, and free herself from all past guilt. Also there will be money… lots of money.

There’s the obligatory debate about nature vs. nurture, and of course we can’t have a story like this without someone posing the question whether it’s possible that some children are born evil. Well… Through disturbing flashbacks you will get all the details of what took place in 1997, so you can decide it for yourself. I personally came to the conclusion that I don’t know anything about anything anymore, people suck, and I just want to hang out with the cat.

Although The Flower girls is a brilliantly written, twisted and thought provoking thriller, there is such thing as one too many plot twist, so while I thoroughly enjoyed the ride, it ended with a tiny eyeroll for me.

I received a copy from the publisher via NetGalley, but all opinions are my own.

40 Comments

    1. Oh, yes, hehe. 😁
      I think i enjoyed the writing style a lot more than i expected for the genre, so my rating is reflecting that 🙈. I wanna see what she writes next.

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  2. The plot of this sound similar to a real case that happened in the 90’s. I’m really intrigued about the whole nature/nurture debate, especially as a psychology and criminology student. Great review!

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    1. There was mention of some real eveven in the author note. Defo an interesting debate! Do you think you’ll specialize in this sort of psychology?
      I think i personally would be too chicken… kids should be cute, not scary 😂

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  3. Hanging out with the cat is always best! Wonderful review, Norrie. It sounds like this one was just a little too much of a good thing but overall enjoyable. I never tire of the nature/nurture debate stuff. ♥️

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    1. Thank you! Same. Gonna find some documentaries over the weekend i think.
      Too many plot twists can just ruin it for me, but overall i liked it a lot.

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  4. This sounds like one too many real events, like Jamie Bulger was it? Anyway, another one to check out. And can we ever know if people are born killers or become killers, and maybe, it’s a little of both.

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    1. Yes, i think she even mentioned that exact case in the notes. Some real creepy shit that was.
      I watched some videos by this psychiatrist woman, who does them in a foeform Q&A and she was making some interesting comments on psychopath vs sociopath and this whole debate. Gonna have to watch some more of that

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  6. Hmmm…my initial thought was “sounds a smidge like the true story of author Anne Perry and her bestie”, which rather appeals to me. Though I’m also not a fan of overly complex plots, it still sounds brilliant. On the TBR pile it goes!

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      1. Oh, do check her out. She’s got at least two very lengthy mystery series (Victorian? Edwardian? Can’t recall) and quite a few standalones. When I read the first in her William Monk series, I had no idea about her past. When I was raving about the book on an FB book group, someone lambasted me about how they’d never read her work because…so I researched it. Quite interesting. Peter Jackson of LOTR and Hobbit fame directed a movie about the crime, which apparently was a very big deal in NZ at the time.

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        1. Oh, damn, of course! The girls who were even had a movie made of their early life & murder career! Saw that movie, it was awesome. Just didn’t remember their names. 🙈

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  9. I’m glad you enjoyed this one! I two starred it in the end and ended up ‘downgrading’ it from 3 stars but that’s just because I started thinking on stuff and realised I had more problems with the book than I thought. I also agree with the eye roll because the ending was just.. I don’t know. Disjointed perhaps?

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  10. Well Norrie I do recall years and years ago when young children (less than 8 year old I think) killed another smaller kid (five or less). And it was not an accident! I don’t recall the specifics only that I was really frightened because yes, are they born evil?

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  13. Hmmm… sounds really interesting. Need to know why only one had to go to jail. Too many plot twists might make my roll my eyes too but I’m still gonna add it to the list. 🙂

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  16. Nice review! 🙂 Sounds interesting (even if it sounds like they went a bit nutty with all the extra plot twists!) lol
    I’ve read about and seen a few documentaries that talk about some real life killer kids like this before and it’s definitely unsettling to think of a kid being capable of murder like that. Like you said, people really suck sometimes. Just hang out with kitties and you can’t be disappointed. 😛

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    1. There were a few other books on the topic i quite liked, like Baby Teeth, about a horrible little girl, and Rumour, which again had the child murderer thing, but from a different angle.
      I enjoyed both a lot 🙂

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