The Murder of Graham Catton: A Book Review

The Murder of Graham Catton is a dark, psychological thriller about love, abuse, and grief. 

The story follows Hannah, the wife of Graham Catton. Graham got killed in their bed with a knife plunged to his neck. Hannah does not remember what happened or how Graham got murdered. 

Ten years later, Hannah has moved on from the murder of her husband, and their daughter, Evie, is now a teenager. Hannah has welcomed Dan in their life, someone who loves Hannah with all his heart and takes care of Evie as his daughter. 

Everything was going well until the podcast Conviction decides to prove that Mike got wrongfully convicted for the murder of Professor Graham Catton. 

With each episode, Hannah’s life starts unraveling. And some of her memories start coming back to her. But her life is now spinning out of control.

With all the judgments and hatred raised from the Conviction podcast, Hannah is losing the concept of reality. She cannot trust even Dan or Evie. She has no friends left and nowhere else to go. 

Hannah narrates the story in the first person. The author created a tense environment. The reader could feel they are inside the mind of the protagonist. The readers could feel her distress and desperation. 

The story jumps multiple timelines, giving the readers background about Hannah and Graham and how they met, to the time they got married. 

The premise of the story is dark and looks at the memories and mind from a different perspective. The central theme is abuse and judgment we try to pass without understanding its consequences. 

The characters of the book are well developed. Each character has some quirks and feels they are hiding something. Hawkwood House is the inanimate character of the book. The dilapidated psychiatric facility that once housed Margot, Hannah’s grandma. Margot got incarcerated for killing her husband and a kid and was pronounced to remain in the Hawkwood House. This house had some hold over Hannah. She could not stop herself from contacting her fellow doctor, Darcy. Darcy wants to renovate the facility for a new psychiatric hospital. She keeps going back here, despite her better judgment. The author described the house with a precision that readers will be spooked and scared.

The Murder of Graham Catton is a dark, twisted tale of betrayal, abuse and grief. 

Thank you, Netgalley and Harper Collins, for the copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.

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