The Watcher
By Sylvia Plath
3.5/5
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About this ebook
Whether you run or whether you hide, he’ll find you. And then he’ll kill you…
The game is simple–he is the Hunter. They are the prey. And they’re both entangled in a terrifying game of hide and seek…
Private investigator Griffin Powell and FBI agent Nicole Baxter know a lot about serial killers – they took one down together. But this new killer is as sadistic as they've ever seen. He likes his little games, and he especially likes forcing Nicole and Griff to play along.
Every unsolvable clue, every posed victim, every taunting phone call – it's all part of his twisted, elaborate plan.
And then the Hunter seeks out his most precious prey of all and Griff finds himself playing for the biggest stakes of his life.
Sylvia Plath
Sylvia Plath was born in 1932 in Massachusetts. Her books include the poetry collections The Colossus, Crossing the Water, Winter Trees, Ariel, and Collected Poems, which won the Pulitzer Prize. A complete and uncut facsimile edition of Ariel was published in 2004 with her original selection and arrangement of poems. She was married to the poet Ted Hughes, with whom she had a daughter, Frieda, and a son, Nicholas. She died in London in 1963.
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Reviews for The Watcher
30 ratings8 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5This is an Amazon Vine review of a free book. I'm reviewing The Watcher by Ross Armstrong Here are my thoughts:
^^ Lily watches birds as a hobby but it's really an excuse to spy on the neighbours.When a neighbour is killed, Lily becomes obsessed with finding the killer.
^^ I wasn't hugely excited with this book, and although I read to the end keen to find a resolution, there was something about the delivery which didn't engage me as much as I had hoped.
^^ I liked the idea that The Watcher was kind of Hitchcock themed, as it had similarities to Rear Window and hinted at The Birds, with the main character's love of bird watching.
^^ Nevertheless, I thought the way Lily gave each person she spied on a character name and made up fantasy lives for them, was done pretty well. Alas, it just was not gripping enough for me.
Overall: It wasn't my favourite read, as I found it a little flat, however, I did enjoy the final twist at the end, but not enough for me rate it higher than an "I liked it" three stars. - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I read this book back in 2016 so this is a reread of one of my favorite mystery writers. This is what I wrote in that first review. “Grif has some secrets in his past, and he shares them with Nicole as they get closer, and she shares some secrets as well about her father and her dead husband. It turns out Grif and Nicole have a lot in common. They share more than an obsessive passion to stop this killer before he kills again. If you like a good thriller, that isn't gory, (okay, maybe a little, tiny bit), you need to read this book.” 5 years down the road hasn’t changed my mind about the book or the author The main characters are still well-mannered and full of Southern charm… not counting the killer of course. Barton has created a cast of supportive and capable individuals who we would be glad to have fighting on our side…any day.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Clever, clever, clever. I read copious amounts of thrillers simply because it's one of my favourite genres, but as much as I enjoy them I always think there are 2 main problems facing authors - writing fully formed characters that we like enough to care about and not following a formulaic plot. Armstrong achieves this with the story of Lily, an unassuming inhabitant in a new build block of flats. Lily is a bird watcher and each chapter begins with her notes on what she's watching through her binoculars. Sometimes it's birds, but sometimes it's her neighbours. In amongst the new builds, the executives and the professionals are the old flats awaiting demolition, populated by tenants and squatters alike. When one of these neighbours is murdered, Lily becomes obsessed with finding out who the killer is. Her husband Aidan isn't much help, barely leaving his typewriter, barely speaking, so Lily is left to investigate alone. She is a thoroughly unreliable narrator - a technique I love in a book, because after all we are all only living our own reality. - but just how accurate are Lily's observations and who can she trust? A clever, dark and sad tale of a vulnerable young woman caught up in a series of events beyond her control.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5I had read a number of good reviews about this book and so was keen to read it. However, at no point did I feel able to engage with either Lily, the narrator or with the developing plot. Instead of feeling drawn into the story, which was meant to be full of tension and menace, I constantly found myself being hyper-critical of the author's writing style and, at times, disturbing syntax. I was tempted to give up after the first fifty or so pages but, because of the rave reviews I persevered but now wish I hadn't wasted valuable reading time! A real disappointment.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5This novel's narrator, Lily, is a bird watcher who begins to observe her neighbors through her binoculars as much as she observes birds. In due time, of course, she observes a neighbor's death and begins to suspect another of murder. I struggled with the writing in this book - while sometimes poetic, the combination of an edgy writing style that required un-encrypting and an unreliable narrator were enough to confuse a reader. Otherwise, a decent mystery and somewhat similar to The Girl on the Train.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Well, this book wasn't what I was expecting at all! Lily Gullick, the main character, is a bird watcher and lives in a block of flats by a reservoir. In true Hitchcock style she ends up watching the people in neighbouring blocks and sees things that she wishes she hadn't.Lily is the ultimate in unreliable narrators and finds herself in all kinds of bizarre situations. The story starts quite oddly and I did wonder at the beginning if I was going to like it but then I found myself pressing the button on my Kindle as fast as I could as I got more and more engrossed in Lily's rather kamikaze search for her neighbour's killer. It did take me a while to get to grips with the way it was written. It was like I didn't fully understand what was going on and who Lily was addressing, as she is telling her story to a third party rather than to the reader. But then I started to get a bit suspicious and all of a sudden it all slotted into place. A lot of things made sense but still there was this unreliable narrator and right up the end I didn't know what was real and what wasn't.The Watcher is definitely a page turning psychological thriller. Sometimes quite comical with some heart-stopping moments in there, this is probably one of the most unique books I have read for a while. I actually quite liked Lily and I thought the way the author combined her search for a killer with bird watching techniques and ways of recording sightings was really clever. Being a nosy parker myself, I could sort of understand how interesting she found it to peer into her neighbours' lives, although it did all get rather out of hand!It's a riveting read and it's a little bit bonkers. It's an accomplished debut novel from a writer with an unusual style.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Watcher - Ross ArmstrongIf I’m grumpy today, Ross Armstrong, it’s all your fault. If you hadn’t written The Watcher I might be properly refreshed after a good night’s sleep. But because I simply could not put the book down until I had finished it I am now tired, bleary eyed and …………….grumpy. So if it affects my review you’ve only yourself to blame!As I read the opening blurb I yawned a little as the premise is not a new one, its been done before so I wondered how and if this writer might deal with it and make it different and engaging. The ‘how’ might cause me to offer spoilers which I must try not to do but the answer to the ’if’ query is, yes, he does make it different up to a point.Opening paragraphs made me think Rear Window meets Girl on the Train but the prologue was tantalising. Crucial with a thriller because if it isn’t you can so easily lose your reader. What I also found interesting was a male writer with a first person female protagonist. Probably down to past experience but alarm bells go off in my head. However I think a very good, convincing job was done here. Much has been said and written about the differences between the male and female mind so it is always interesting to see how a writer deals with the exchanges and interactions and responses from a mind set that is not their natural one. The structure of the novel written in the form of one person addressing has been done before. If done well it works, be it diary, letter, journal etc, it is intriguing to wonder who the recipient is, and it also allows the writer to convey aspects of the narrative that wouldn’t work with direct unfolding of events. I liked the chapter headings which piqued my curiosity but ultimately they didn’t deliver with the impact I was hoping for. The novel began slowly, scene setting and allowing the reader to adjust and relax? Not for long. The pace accelerates and without wishing tor reveal too much it seems to mirror the pace of our heroine’s mind. Lily is yet another troubled character that seems to populate the so called psychological thriller so much in vogue at the moment. But without an unreliable narrator there would not be quite so much of a story. And do we enjoy reading about flawed characters because they make us feel better about our own quirks?Once could examine the story deeply and find some social comment but there’s no compulsion to. It can be enjoyed as a darn good, debut thriller. I did piece together what had happened to a certain extent which pleases me but there were also some twists that were unexpected. That also pleases me. The conclusion isn’t one that ties up all the ends neatly. If you look for that in a novel it might disappoint but on the other hand if you want to go away thinking about what you’ve just read you’ll be delighted. I appreciate that I received an uncorrected, proof copy but I found mistakes in abundance and I do hope these are spotted and dealt with accordingly. It would be a shame if they find their way into the finished product.Thanks to Real Readers for giving me the opportunity to meet another promising novelist.Consider my appetite whetted.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Griffin Powell and Nicole Baxter are hunting a killer again. Theres a hunter and he's toying with victims, he has Nicole in his sights. He's also playing with Nicole and Griffin by feeding them a few clues and teasing them about saving his victims.It's a rollercoaster of a ride and while you do know the murderer the characters don't and you get to see him setting them up occasionally. The romance didn't quite gel with me and I found myself finding it somewhat stretched. Still it was an interesting read.