Reviewed by Kerrie Smith
"When I last saw Ashleigh, she was lying in a pool of blood . . . Her eyes were open, staring sightlessly into the sky. I’d like to think she saw the stars before she died; that in her last moments she flew, soaring on serotonin, dreamy with dopamine. I’d like to think she didn’t suffer . . ."
A beautiful young law student dies on the concrete below her third-storey window in chilly Dunedin. It’s clear enough how she died. What isn’t is why — or who’s involved.
Plenty of people had a reason to hate Ashleigh, with her straight As and perfect looks. She’s fallen out with her flatmates, and her boyfriend Xander is having second thoughts about their future together. And then there are the weird messages. The Night She Fell is a gripping psychological thriller from one of New Zealand's most multi-talented contemporary novelists..
This appears to be the author's first adult crime fiction novel.
Set in Dunedin where Ashleigh and Xander are university students living in different flats. Xander is a medical student and Ashleigh a law student. They have been together for seven years but Ashleigh is dominating while her parents have been financially generous to Xander and his family.
Xander's eye has been recently caught by Ronnie, a psychology student with a room in Ashleigh's house. And then one night Ashleigh dies, jumping from a third floor window.
It is just a week since she and Xander broke up.
The structure of book centres around Ashleigh's death. The main voices are Xander and Ronnie and the chapters are Before and After. The puzzle is what caused Ashleigh to jump. Is anyone or anything to blame?
Very engrossing.
Kerrie Smith is a renowned Australian crime fiction reviewer and the creator of Mysteries in Paradise, an outstanding online crime fiction resource where this review was originally published.
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