When Addie is ten the 7/7 bombers bring destruction to London and her father comes home covered in blood. Her sister tells her not to worry but a murdered woman's purse is in their flat. Every year on Addie's birthday a woman disappears and Addie suspects her father. Soon the police suspect him and he flees, living Addie to live with her sister. Her sister however is working for the husband of a victim and, as Addie grows older, she realises that there is more to the tale.
In many respects this is a great summer read. It races along at a great pace and there is the innocence of Addie to contrast with the terror of life in the big city. However it asks a lot of the reader in terms of great gaps in the plot which is frustrating as I think Locke is potentially a good writer of this sort of novel. ( )

I liked The Tall Man, Phoebe Locke's first book, but I really loved The July Girls. It's a fast-paced story which kept me turning those pages as fast as I could.

Addie is 10 in 2005 when the story begins. She lives with her father and her 17 year old sister, Jessie, in a flat in London. Her birthday is 7/7 and this is the year of the London tube and bus bombings on that very date. It's also the day that her dad comes home with blood on his clothes, acting shiftily. Jessie is almost like a mother to Addie but she's also very adept at keeping things from her, things that are important.

I thought Addie was a fantastic protagonist. The narrator of her tale, she's brave and old for her years, yet still vulnerable (she's only 10, after all). But she understands so much and when it becomes clear that every year on 7/7 a woman goes missing she finds herself starting to put two and two together.

The writing in this book is so engaging, it pulled me right into Addie's world. I watched her grow up and become a wonderful and strong young woman. I whipped through her story, finding it a little creepy and full of underlying tension, yet it's also a tale of a fractured family having to cope with what life throws at them.

The July Girls is very cleverly plotted. It kept me guessing and the denouement, when it came, was a complete surprise. I really didn't expect any of what happened. Whilst this is a thriller, it's also the story of a young girl coming of age, learning that the world can be a difficult and cruel place. I thought it was innovative to have a 10 year old as the main character and it allowed an air of innocence to accompany the murder spree that the killer goes on. I enjoyed this book, which has darkness at its heart, very much indeed. ( )