The narrative of Flashes centres around Charley, a seventeen year old girl living in Marsh Bay, and Tom Henson, a newly transferred police officer. Charley has flashes of murders that she believes to have been committed.

When Charley has a flash of a murder on the railway tracks, she and Tom set out to finding out the truth of the mysterious death, while at the mean time trying to prove that her flashes are real.

Firstly, I know you should never judge a book by its cover, but for this one I will make an exception as the cover is incredible and should make you just want to read the book all in one go. I had high expectations of Flashes and it certainly did deliver.

Charley is relatable to other teenage girls (the flashes aside) and therefore the context of the novel seems as realistic as it could be. Her character is also portrayed as the underdog which is not something new in young adult books but I felt that it gave me a reason to want Charley to succeed in proving her flashes to be real, as no one believed her.

I felt that Tom Henson was introduced as a really likeable character, it was easy to understand the motives behind his actions and he offered some welcomed humour to the book. This book really does deliver well on all characters.

At first I was a little disappointed as the narrative seemed to allude to a really obvious resolution to the crimes that Charley witnessed. However, Flashes just keeps you guessing with the storyline as things begin to get really strange and the answers are never the obvious ones. I found the end quite a shock and it makes the novel well worth the read.

I felt as if some loose ends were never quite tied up, for example (spoilers) when Charley starts communicating with Kerry, the girl found dead at the train tracks, it was never quite explained how that was happening; was Kerry using a phone? That aside the content of the novel fits well together creating a really gripping read and gives a new edge to crime/mystery books.

Overall Flashes is well worth the read and a definite 4 stars. I hugely recommend it to those who already love supernatural genres, go get reading!

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