Annabel Lee (Coffey & Hill Book #1)

I thought this was a brilliant book. It kept me engaged and turning the pages late into the night, to find out the secret of Annabel Lee.If you like suspense and mystery I would highly recommend this book. All the characters are equally enthralling and so you don't mind switching between them.Lived it.

Eleven year old Annabel Lee lives with her uncle Truck, a dubious character, with plenty of security protecting his property, including his best marksman, The Mute. With his home under fire from enemies, Truck takes Annabel to a secret underground bunker, and bundles her in with his dog. He tells her not to open the door to anyone, not even him, without the secret code.Annabel is now alone with only the dog, that terrifies her, for company, unsure why she has been placed in the bunker, and when she will be allowed out.Above ground, explosions and gunfire are tearing the house apart, and Truck’s lifeless body is sprawled out on the floor for a mysterious figure to see. The Mute, from his hiding place has witnessed everything and knows that it is too late to help his boss. Now it’s up to him to implement Truck’s plan for this turn of events.Elsewhere, PI Trudi and her ex-husband Samuel (who works for Truck), find themselves in a spot of bother, when a mysterious, ageing man comes calling. When they manage to give him and his bodyguard the slip, the two of them find themselves on the run and having to stay together, if they are to survive.Just who is Annabel Lee? Why did her uncle hide her in the bunker? The answers will be revealed in this gripping novel.When this book arrived, I was really excited by the synopsis and couldn’t wait to read it. I certainly wasn’t disappointed, as I loved every minute of it.The plot has you on the edge of your seat throughout. What makes it more exciting is that it is told from the various viewpoints of Annabel, The Mute and Trudi, so you get to witness, and feel, each persons’ aspect of what was happening to them.Annabel is a very likeable character. She is clearly very well educated, and advanced for her age. I’m not sure many eleven year old’s would cope with being locked in a room all alone for weeks on end, not knowing why they were hidden there and when they would get to see daylight again.The Mute is a very loyal character. He is called The Mute, as he can’t speak. He is a very serious, well-trained military personnel. It often felt like he had some kind of super sense, especially the way he could assess a situation so accurately.Trudi and her ex-husband Samuel, are the characters that brought the humour to the story. They often fought like cat and dog, yet you get an understanding of how much they still love one another.The book made me lose track of time, as I was fully engrossed in the story, and the real world just melted away. It often felt like I was standing in the middle of a scene watching it play out, not reading about it.A fantastic novel that I fully enjoyed, and if you like mysteries I’m sure you will too.Reviewed by Stacey at Whispering Stories Book Blog**I received a free copy of this book, which I voluntarily reviewed**

Actual rating: 3,5Annabel Lee was somewhat interesting read.It’s a suspense thriller, and I naively fooled myself into thinking I’d read horror (don’t even ask me how I managed to do it, I’ll just blame the cover) so my whole reading experience was similar to the one one would have if he turned on TV thinking he would watch House at the End of the Street, but ended up watching an episode of CSI Miami instead.However, I enjoyed reading this book.The story follows three perspectives: Trudy’s, Mute’s and Annabel Lee’s.Two of them are told in third person (Trudi’s and Mute’s), while Annabel’s was written in first person (later in the story we find out that her perspective are actually pages from her diary).The story talks about 11 years old girl, Annabel Lee, who’s uncle locked her in the basement (with his dog whom Annabel is afraid of) and gave her an order not to open the door to anyone, not even to him, without a secret code.We don’t know why Annabel’s uncle Truck did what he did, nor was it done with an aim to protect Annabel, or protect someone else from Annabel.We get an impression that Annabel is important, even special in a way, but we don’t know why.Right after her put her in the basement, Annabel’s uncle was killed and Mute witnessed the murder.Now, Mute’s mission is to keep the girl safe, before bad guys take her. In order to save her, Mute has to get her out of the basement, but he has no secret code.That is where spouses from Coffey & Hill come in (Trudi and her ex husband Samuel). Samuel got the secret code from Truck years ago, and now all three of them work together to save Annabel.Nappa’s writing style is solid and although this book reads quickly, the pacing is very slow, with lots of descriptions.I enjoyed reading all of the perspectives, but Annabel’s POV was my favorite.She is really smart, educated and patient little girl who gets under reader’s skin so easily.Regardless, I have to state that I didn’t like how she often sounded like a 30 years old women, instead of like 11 years old girl that she is.Mute was my best-loved character in this story.What I liked the most was the relationship between the girl and her uncle’s dog.It’s development was described so well, and I welcomed how at the very beginning anytime Annabel talks about the dog she calls him “it”, and along as the story progesses, “it” becomes “he”.When it comes to the bad guy who wanted to take Annabel, his idea was mean, but yet genius at the same time.I don’t want to sound weird here, but I kind of admired his purpose.One thing that needs to be stressed is that Annabel Lee is piece of Christian fiction.To be honest, I am not sure why is that, because I didn’t feel like anything religious was forced in this story (or maybe I am just blind to those kind of things).One thing that I noticed was that in the basement, among so many books, there was also a Bible.And once, closer to the end of the novel, Annabel said something about Jesus and his purpose.It was only one sentence and it felt more like a general thought.This is the first book in the series, but the story it covered is completed.In the next book, The Raven, we follow Trudi and Samuel solving another case.I already have the book in my possession, and I plan to read it pretty soon, while the characters are still fresh in my mind.

Starts off a little slow. Gradually becomes hard to pur down. i give three stars as i waa a little disspointed at the end.