Category: reviews

When the worst comes calling…

Scott and Blair Bagby are a happy, successful English couple living in the suburbs with their teenage son and Great Dane. Life seems good, until one beautiful spring morning when a detective inspector knocks on their door asking if their son is home, unleashing an unspeakable horror that blows apart the life they thought they had.

Police have discovered bodies buried deep in the Peasedale forest and the inspector suspects one is Jamie, the final victim of a brutal and prolific serial killer. But Jamie’s death is unlike all the others, starting with his emergency phone call that leads to a macabre burial ground near a dilapidated hunting shack and creates shocking suspicions.

With bone deep grief threatening to destroy their marriage and their sanity, Scott and Blair set out to investigate Jamie’s death, a journey that not only upends their perceptions of who they
are, but torturously reveals they may not have known Jamie at all…

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Heidi Field was raised in the beautiful countryside of the South of England with her parents and her two sisters. In her twenties she was a freelance Sports Massage Therapist. She achieved a Degree in Zoology at the age of thirty and then went on to raise two boys and became the stepmother of three more young children. She still lives near her family home with her partner, their Great Dane and the children that have yet to fly the nest.
In her early forties Heidi completed a Masters in Creative Writing at Winchester University. She entered the course hoping she would become a children’s fantasy writer and left with a burning desire to write contemporary mysteries and thrillers.
Heidi wanted to put relatable people in extraordinary situations, challenge
them, push them to their limits and watch them fight for their sanity. The Other Boy is her first novel.

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My thoughts: Sad, shocking and chilling, Scott and Blair’s quest to find answers to their son’s death at the hands of a sadistic killer lead them to unexpected and disturbing places. Grieving but unable to let go of Jamie’s last hours, they hunt for the titular other boy, a friend of their son’s who might just have been helping his killer.

Blair especially struggles with her grief, manifesting a version of Jamie that only she can see in order to cope with the loss. Time at an inpatient clinic helps her come to terms but only answers will help her finally let him go.

Scott, an investigative journalist, doggedly follows every lead, chasing down a burglar and hunting through his son’s things. He too wants answers, but more for Blair than himself.

Combining an exploration of parental grief with a quest for truth and answers to Jamie’s death, this is an unusual and highly enjoyable thriller.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.

The moment we moved in, I knew something was wrong.

We’ve finally found our dream home. It’s perfect for our little family: my hardworking husband Mike, my two-year-old daughter Poppy, and me. Three nice bedrooms. An Aga. A river view.
And, best of all, a garden for Poppy to play in.
But something is off.

A cracked stove. Scribbles on the wall. The lights flicking off every evening — always at the same time. Our daughter crying in the night, pointing at the corner of her room. “She has no face.”

Then I met Josie, the woman at No.3.
Pale. Polite. Smiling. Obsessed. She knows things she shouldn’t. Offers to babysit my daughter again and again. And when I told her no — she didn’t like that.
Now the gifts are arriving. Notes through the door. A bottle left in the kitchen with no explanation. And my daughter won’t stop screaming in her sleep.

Everyone thinks I’m imagining it. But I know what I saw. What I heard.
We finally found our dream home. But what if our worst nightmare lives next door . . . ?

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Rebecca Collomosse is a journalist with more than 20 years’ experience. She has worked on both business and women’s magazines, writing true life stories for magazines including Bella, That’s Life, Real People and Take a Break. She is currently an editor of three magazines within
the shipping sector.

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My thoughts: When I was little, my aunt and uncle lived in Twickenham, so I could picture the houses very clearly, it’s a lovely place to live, although they didn’t have a river view, like Clara and her family.

The house they move into seems like their ideal family home. Commutable to the city, local parks, a lovely nursery nearby, big garden, a good size for their family. Unfortunately it has a dark past and comes with slightly peculiar neighbours. There’s Mabel, who might be entering a cognitive decline and seems a bit vague, although kind and welcoming. Then there’s Josie, who’s a bit too intense.

Clara really doesn’t like Josie, she’s always watching them, seems obsessed with Poppy, Clara’s daughter, flirts too hard with Mike, Clara’s husband, and is always popping round uninvited.

Then someone posts newspaper cuttings about a tragic incident in the house, years ago. There’s strange noises in the attic, messages on Poppy’s whiteboard, and Poppy’s nightmares about a girl with no face aren’t easing at all. Is Josie somehow behind all of this?

As Clara starts to fear for her sanity, things are building to a head and can only get worse. Do they need to leave their dream home before it becomes their worst nightmare?

Gripping, shocking and intense, don’t read this if you live in a creaky house that bothers you, or do, if you don’t mind getting a bit paranoid!! Hope you like your neighbours!

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.

They came for an inheritance. They stayed for revenge.

Annabelle Marconi thought she’d already lost everything—first her father to cancer, then her mother in a brutal hit-and-run. But the worst blow comes at their double funeral, when a woman named Mary steps forward… with Annabelle’s half-brother, David.

The revelation of her father’s secret life shatters the family. Still reeling, Annabelle’s siblings make a reckless decision: they invite Mary and David to stay at the family ranch while the estate is settled. Annabelle can’t shake the feeling something is off—and when a strange car
begins following her and her sister suddenly falls dangerously ill, her instincts are proven right.

Someone is determined to erase the Marconi family for good. As paranoia spirals into terror, Annabelle must unearth the truth about her father’s past—and face a chilling question: What if the enemy is already inside the house?

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Theo Baxter loves writing psychological suspense thrillers. It’s all about that last reveal that he loves shocking readers with.
He grew up in New York, where there was crime all around. He decided to turn that into something positive with his fiction.
His stories will have you reading through the night—they are very addictive!

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My thoughts: This was very, very good. I really liked Annabelle, she had excellent instincts and knew there was something about Mary and David that wasn’t right. But her siblings, especially Isabel, were stubborn and wouldn’t listen to her or do any due diligence  – like hire a PI, which would have saved them all a lot of trouble and from nearly dying.

Thankfully the apparently disinterested detective at the police was paying attention and did his job, investigating Annabelle’s concerns, from being followed by a strange car, to Isabel’s poisoning, her medication going missing, someone prowling around the family ranch. Because they were all in danger.

That final twist, did not expect that. Shocking and edge of the seat stuff. So good.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.