Carole Johnstone – Mirrorland

‘Mirrorland’ by Carole Johnstone is a riveting psychological suspense novel with a cover that doesn’t just hint at the darkness inside the pages it showcases it.

Catriona and Ellice are identical or ‘mirror’ twins who their mother always called rare and special. As adults, they aren’t close as they previously were. Cat returns to their childhood home due to the news of El being missing-presumed drowned by either suicide or a sailing accident. Cat feels El is still alive as she feels she would just ‘know’ if her mirror twin was gone.

Their childhood home is now El’s home with her husband Ross. Cat arrives back to the place that was their ‘Mirrorland’. Their own safe space that they boarded ships and they created their own characters such as pirates, clowns, a witch and tooth fairy. They sailed the high seas and had adventures like no other. Carole Johnstone has nailed it with the imagery that is evoked with her descriptions of these girls highly detailed and complex imaginary world. I can just picture them playing out the scenes together.

Cat tells the police she doesn’t think El is dead as she would most certainly feel it as a twin, believing that she would somehow know if she were. This seems to become more and more likely as she begins to receive emails directing her to revisit parts of their fantasy world and seek out clues clearly left for her. Everything starts spiralling out of control as she revisits Mirrorland and is pulled back into the past of their imaginary world that exists for those who know where to look for it.

A stunning novel that pulls you into the girls fantasy world of the past and also runs with the police investigation of the present. A psychological suspense thriller that begins to appear out of the fantasy. As things from the past start to slowly unravel it shows not all is as it seemed then and how you see certain people alters.

A multi-layered story that is a dark and really twisted one. The ingenuity of Carole Johnstone is crystal clear. The skill upon which she has crafted this plot is undeniable. As the book begins it makes you wonder what you are reading, but she pulls you in with each individual plot thread and certainly pulls everything together to reveal this atmospheric, clever, moving but at times horrific story. The characters are really believable and the twins relationship is a difficult one and Carole Johnstone has depicted that so well.

A book that I feel my review does not even do justice to, but I have tried!

Thank you so much to Anne Cater of Random Things Tours for inviting me on this tour, Carole Johnstone and Netgalley for my copy of the book.