Stella is a radio show host. She loves her job and you can tell because she is so good at it, speaking to her listeners as if addressing each person personally. However, she is leaving and tonight is her last show. She has decided that the theme of her last show will be secrets. If you tell her yours, she'll tell you some of hers.
And she does have secrets to tell, which she slowly reveals throughout her show and the reader gets to understand the complexities of Stella. She has a boyfriend Tom and a relationship that is complicated and fascinating, her mother who has returned into her life after being absent for fourteen years and a father she has never known.
Then someone calls the station and they tell Stella they have information on who killed Victoria. Victoria was pregnant and brutally murdered in an alley by the station, just three weeks ago and the police are still hunting for the killer.
The tension is so creepy, especially when we know that Stella is all alone in the station and it is late at night and a killer is out there. Wonderful plotting.
Stella is a great character, when you understand the trauma she has suffered in the past you really do relate to her.
The writing is, as always with Louise Beech, beautiful and moving. The plot is scary, full of tension and conflict and twists and turns. The ending is completely unexpected and shocking.
Although it is a psychological thriller, it is also a very moving, very sad story about abandonment and love.
Brilliant reading that I recommend to everyone.