Just Like the Other Girls: Claire Douglas

Just like the other girls

Ambience, rich quality, magnificent home and the lure of getting paid a better salary was the incentive for Una Richardson to take a daring chance and agree to be the companion for Elspeth McKenzie. From the start you get an eerie and uneasy feeling when you enter the home, meet her and her daughter Kathryn who resents Una and feels she is being replaced. Getting to know her helps understand her fears about losing her place with her mother, the mother however does not consider her anyone special, would rather have a young girl watching over her and makes her own daughter feel less capable or needed. But, events change, Una will soon learn what happened to the two before her and will that alert her to taking herself back to her place with her friend Courtney? Lives will change as the author reveals that one girl was in a fatal car accident and the other found dead after a month in the snow and both girls when Una sees their photos online look just like her? When she learns about another child Violas, whey does Elspeth get upset?

They take long walks, shop in exclusive shops, talk about her gallery and seem to bond. But there is a tension between them at times and you wonder what the underlying secrets are that all three members of the house are hiding. Una does not realize what she has gotten herself into and when meeting with her friends and having a might out she does not realize that those people, minus Vince are her real world. Flashing back, we meet Katy as a child who is about to meet Elsbeth and Viola and hoping to be adopted but when the two girls are alone the threats come through and which one will survive as we wonder what really made Viola leave and what Katy might have done to cause it. Added in we meet Lewis the gardener who is hardworking why was he fired? When asked about him Elspeth gets defensive and claims he did not perform his duties the right way as she required. She will ask for a female gardener next time. There is something odd about her personality and her attitude towards men. Una tries had to stay in her good side of both Elsbeth and Kathryn, but simple things turn both against her. Deciding to meet Lewis the gardener and Elspeth and Kathryn wallows and basks in the light when Una has Elspeth’s wrath. Learning what Matilde was originally from Denmark and had no family. Her mother passed when she was a child. The police want answers but on one comes forward and then Jemima was found dead, but did she kill herself and when her brother enters the picture things get tense and Kathryn threatens Una. You hear several voices, Kathryn, Una, Courtney and then a new one later. Matilde died in a hit and run and why did Jamima take all her things? Why does Aggie tell her about Viola and when she questions Elspeth you won’t believe the reaction? Then she sees Kathryn coming out of her room. You get an eerie feeling and I ever know which Jemima would show up according to Lewis. When Una is told to go to the cellar for a specific wine, what she finds allows her to understand what might have happened to Jemima the bag with her belongings in there and how will she get it back so that both Elspeth and Kathryn do not know that she has it Courtney told her to deliver it to by police why didn’t she listen?

Then events change it all and the police are brought into the mix, and we learn that both Jemima and Una died while on the suspension bridge and Matilde in a care accident. Courtney could not handle that Una was alone on the bridge and lorded to her death but in the end you won’t believe who the killer is and the silent voice we hear taunting readers that someone would be next but why? Flashbacks to  Katy and Viola’s past we learn that Viola was cruel to her, used her to cover up when she was doing something wrong and then when she leaves, Katy or Kathryn promises not to tell on her what  happened to her and where di she goes? DS Holdsworth comes in with DC Reid , and questions all of them wanting to know where Willow has gone and is investigating the deaths of Matilde Jemima and Una. Jemima and Kathryn argued, and she did not want Elspeth to know what happened between them and the clothes in the bad were not Jemima’s. who was the voice that we hear threatening and saying I was relying on you? You’re going to regret it!

Everyone is not who they appear to be. Courtney learns someone and then Willow faces a harsh reality and someone close to her is not who she thought he was. Lives will change, truths will come out and the killer might just escape. But Kathryn has always been insecure and feared that Elspeth would leave out  in the cold  and when she  only wanted to be the most important child to her. Bout her sons was suffering, her marriage was going stale, and one child was into things that she needed to address. Then their Aggie  who always helped Katy to feel wanted and secure. But will she realize that she is trying too hard? The shocking twist at the end and the revelation that Willow will not believe and the truth behind the murders will surprise readers. Why did all three girls have to die? What was the killer’s motive and why was Willow in the middle of all of this? Truths, lies, deceptions, betrayals and one young girl named Willow that would have to decide where she really belongs and why. Just what did Kathryn really do? What about what she was hiding from her mother? Will she ever feel loved and secure? What about Daisy who worked with her at the gallery? What was she after? Why? As the police gets the evidence needed to take down the killer a revelation at the end will shock readers as Kathryn has a moral decision to make. As one young woman wants to start a new life, another promises to honor Una’s life and she visit her grave. But the ending will reveal a harsh reality and just how far will someone go to protect someone they love? Three girls and Willow the is last one: Will she survive, or will she wind up JUST LIFE THE OTHER GIRLS? Author Claire Douglas created a powerful mystery, psychological, thriller that will keep you wondering and riveted until the very last line. Can money and riches bring you the love you so need? Will Kathryn ever find her proper place in her mother’s life? Jealousy can destroy someone and envy too as each character learns something within themselves until the very last line and the revelation is revealed. A must read. The issues of insecurity, jealous, low self -esteem and the need to be accepted are primary in this novel.
Fran Lewis: Just reviews