Who can you trust?
Who wants you dead?
They’ll kill for what they think you have.
A little girl dressed in a Snow White costume walks into a store and steals an apple . . . then the store blows up. One of the staff, Maggie Rogers, is conveniently out of the store when all this happens. Maggie turns out to have a past full of secrets and betrayal, and attracts the attention of the police as well as more sinister forces. Maggie and the little girl end up on the run, not knowing who’s on their side or even what their pursuers really want.
Then they seem to have reached the end of the line. Nowhere else to run, nowhere else to hide. Maggie and the little girl face a desperate struggle for survival.
Review
The Girl Who Stole the Apple by Peter Tickler was quite different from what I expected when I decided to get the book. I read the blurb and thought that the mention of Snow White(plus the apple) meant that the book had some aspects of the original fairy-tale perhaps integrated into the thriller as a retelling. However, the book is more of a police procedural or a crime thriller.
The story is narrated in multiple POVs. There is Maggie who is on the run with a little girl. I liked her narration because most of what was happening was around her. It was hard to know who to trust based on her perspective which heightened the suspense and unpredictability of the story. There was also an alternative POV from the villains who were looking for Maggie. There are also investigators working the case and so we get to follow the investigation. There are minor POVs that I also enjoyed like Maggie’s dad. I liked the guy and found myself sympathizing with him. He ended up being one of my favorite characters in the book.The girl in the snow white costume (Beth) was endearing and so I found myself looking forward to the sections that involved her.
The book is quite fast-paced. The first chapter starts with drama and tension which is maintained to the last page. There are also quite a number of twists that made the story unpredictable. The only thing that I didn’t enjoy was fact that I didn’t get the answers that I needed at the end. I felt as if a number of things remained unexplained. I really didn’t get why Maggie was on the run or why she was being followed. Due to this fact, I didn’t enjoy the book as much as I thought I would. It could be that I missed something in the narration. Nevertheless, the ending was a bit off for me despite the fact that I did enjoy the first sections of the book.
I received an ARC of this book via NetGalley in return for an honest review.
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