I read Broken Light by one of my favourite authors Joanne Harris earlier this year (see my blogs on Vianne, A Narrow Door, Peaches and chocolate and The Strawberry Thief) and was always going to enjoy a book about a fellow 49-year old menopausal woman who decides to right the wrongs of abusive men.

Bernie has a power she hadn’t used since being a child, to get inside of people’s heads and direct their actions. She decides to use it when a woman is murdered in a local park, starting off a chain of consequences which causes her to re-evaluate her marriage to Martin, re-kindle a childhood friendship with Katie and face her past.

As she begins to use her power, first preventing a sexual assault, her world expands and she makes new friends. Intoxicated by no longer being ignored as a middle-aged woman, she finds herself unable to stop, despite losing control of the consequences of her actions.

This is an un-put-downable thriller that builds and builds to a shocking ending, where Bernie has to chose between her own life of the life of her friend.