Troll by D B Thorne

Troll by DB Thorne
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - just under 2 days

Pages - 366

Publisher - Corvus

Blurb from Goodreads

A gripping and explosive psychological thriller about a young woman who disappears in suspicious circumstances having been hounded by a vicious online troll.

Years ago, Fortune gave up on his daughter, Sophie, after a troubled adolescence. ow she's gone missing, vanished without trace. And after weeks of investigation, the police have given up on her, too.

Driven by guilt, and a determination to atone for his failures as a father, he takes on the search himself. He soon finds that his daughter had been living in fear of a vicious online troll who seemed to know far too much about her. Could Sophie's disappearance be linked to this unknown predator? Fortune is about to discovers that monsters which live online don't always stay there...



My Review

Fortune is a man who is career driven and his family life suffered as a result, he has a daughter Sophie, now in her 20's, whom he doesn't really know anymore. Sophie has a great career as a journalist and has overcome a lot from her troubled past but now she is the target of an online troll. When Sophie disappears and the police are reluctant to see the disappearance as her father does, Fortune risks his job and much more to make amends and find his daughter.

The book opens with Fortune at the police, the investigation is being reclassified and stepped down, Fortune is angry and takes matters into his own hands. We flip to Sophie and before she disappeared, her life and the then interactions with the troll who doesn't keep to just harassing online. We follow the two story lines, with the father in the present and flipping between locations, Dubai for Fortune and then he comes to London for Sophie.

Narration also flips about, Fortune is in third person, Sophie's is first person. There is a fair amount of switching going on and I would have personally preferred the chapters to be signposted who if not where. The chapters with Sophie are eerie as the threats, intimidation and targeting become more intense. The reader gets drawn into the dark spiral and decline as Sophie questions everything around her, it also makes you realise how vulnerable you really are. Fortunes is, I felt a bit slower, as he knocks about from pillar to post trying to get some answers and direction to find his daughter. Self exploration plays a part too as he recalls all he missed because of his job and unravel Sophie's background of mental health issues, which raises questions of what actually happened.

It is a busy wee book and I was ensnared from the front cover, my proof copy was a screenshot of an online post Sophie made about a physical attack and interaction with said troll. I couldn't wait to discover what actually transpired and what Sophie's fate actually was. The book is a bit like an onion, you know what is being offered but as you start to read & reveal the layers the story is about much more than a stalker/thriller. Family life, regrets, self exploration, personal growth, mental health issues and the ripples that can follow even when you are a healthy individual, stigma still follows you. I think the under layers really get you thinking and I did enjoy the psychological thriller/mystery elements. 3.5/5 for me this time, this was my first dance with this author, I would read them again. Thanks to Corvus for sending me a copy, all views as always are my own. Available to buy from all good retailers from 1st of June 2017.

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