Halfway by B. E. Jones – Blog Tour Review.

About The Book

If everyone is lying, who can you trust?

The Halfway Inn is closed to customers, side-lined by a bypass and hidden deep in inhospitable countryside. One winter’s night, two women end up knocking on the door, seeking refuge as a blizzard takes hold.

But why is the landlord less than pleased to see them? And what is his elderly father trying so hard to tell them?

At the local police station PC Lissa Lloyd is holding the fort while the rest of her team share in the rare excitement of a brutal murder at an isolated farmhouse. A dangerous fugitive is on the run – but how can Lissa make a name for herself if she’s stuck at her desk? When a call comes in saying the local district nurse is missing, she jumps at the chance to investigate her disappearance.

The strangers at Halfway wait out the storm, but soon realise they might have been safer on the road. It seems not all the travellers will make it home for Christmas . . .

My Review

With thanks to the publisher for the copy received. Halfway takes place in a small community that has been practically cut off from everywhere due to a snowstorm. There has been a murder and as you read you start to slowly uncover what has happened.
At first, I couldn’t see how the narrative matched the synopsis. The author spends a lot of time setting the scene. It’s a slightly claustrophobic atmosphere and with the chapters covering the points of view of the hitchhiker, the old man, the law and the apprentice there is a lot to learn.
The parts that concerned the hitchhiker were my favourite. They were the most intimidating and thought-provoking. At first I thought the hitchhiker was one to be wary of, you are aware that there is something she was hiding, but as I got to know more about the nurse I started to suspect that something more sinister was happening.
The chapters covering the law were amusing with the rookie police officer’s actual actions compared with the type of officer she wanted to be. All based on the way that female police heroines are portrayed in the movies and TV shows.
When you actually realise what happened on the snowy night I was amazed. I had been duped from the beginning and now want to reread to see what I misread.
Halfway is one of the more original novels that I have read this year.