The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes.

I fell in love with the cover of this book and couldn't wait to start reading it, despite it not being my usual type of book.

I don't normally read books that centre around time-travel as I often get confused by it, and this book was no different.  I found it hard to keep up with all the characters and the fact that each chapter was based in a different time period.  I was constantly flicking back to the previous chapter to check what year it had been then.

I liked the crime-based part of the story and found it interesting how all the victims were linked together.  I've read a lot of crime books and am used to reading quite graphic descriptions of crime, but the description of the attack on Kirby really affected me to the point of making my cry.
I really liked the character Kirby, and her fellow reporter Dan.  She was very strong and I loved the way he pulled through for her at the end of the book.

I found myself disappointed by the end of the book, I would have liked to know what happened to the main characters after events came to a conclusion.  I would also like to have known how the police responded to events.

I really liked the photos taken during the author's research at the end of the book, it was interesting to see places as she would have done whilst creating the story. And when I saw the photo of her 'murder wall' I realised it wasn't surprising that the plot sometimes confused me.

The back page blurb:

“It’s not my fault. It’s yours. You shouldn’t shine. You shouldn’t make me do this.”

Chicago 1931. Harper Curtis, a violent drifter, stumbles on a house with a secret as shocking as his own twisted nature – it opens onto other times. He uses it to stalk his carefully chosen 'shining girls' through the decades – and cut the spark out of them.

He’s the perfect killer. Unstoppable. Untraceable. He thinks…

Chicago, 1992. They say what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Tell that to Kirby Mazrachi, whose life was shattered after a brutal attempt to murder her. Still struggling to find her attacker, her only ally is Dan, an ex-homicide reporter who covered her case and now might be falling in love with her.

As Kirby investigates, she finds the other girls – the ones who didn’t make it. The evidence is … impossible. But for a girl who should be dead, impossible doesn’t mean it didn’t happen…

Title: The Shining Girls
Author: Lauren Beukes