Tag: thrillers

In search of a new life, seventeen-year-old Adriana Clark’s family moves to the ancient, ocean-battered Isle of Mull, far off the coast of Scotland. Then she goes missing. Faced with hostile locals and indifferent police, her desperate parents turn to private investigator Sadie Levesque.

Sadie is the best at what she does. But when she finds Adriana’s body in a cliffside cave, a seaweed crown carefully arranged on her head, she knows she’s dealing with something she’s never encountered before.

The deeper she digs into the island’s secrets, the closer danger creeps – and the more urgent her quest to find the killer grows. Because what if Adriana is not the last girl to die?

My thoughts: you know when you read some books and you finish them and you think, I wish I hadn’t read this book, I want to begin again as though I had no idea what was on its pages because it was just that good? Yep, this book is one of those. As soon as I finished it I wanted it to be brand new all over again.

Mull is having a moment, I’ve read several books set on the island, but none like this. Combining ancient beliefs with modern violence and science, manipulating the story for their own ends, a killer, or possibly killers, haunts the island. First one dead teenage girl, but then more terrible events take place and as Sadie (who I really liked) tries to solve Adriana’s awful death, her own life is put in danger.

The answers, when they come, are sad, shocking and tragic. There is no happy ending to be found here, for these people. Running away from your problems doesn’t solve them, lashing out in pain and fear fixes nothing. No one escapes this unscathed. But it’s so incredibly well done, that as dark as it gets, I just wanted to start it all over again afresh.

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

We were all at the party. Which of us wanted her dead?

As the smoke from the bonfire spirals into the night sky and the cool drinks slip down our throats, none of us can take our eyes off Lacey. She dances in the dunes, her long golden hair damp from her late-night swim, her smile dazzling, her blue eyes closed.

Everyone who is close to Lacey sits by the smoky fire. Her adoring boyfriend, who holds onto her, perhaps a little too tightly. Her little sister, always in Lacey’s shadow, sifting fine soft sand through her fingers, never taking her eyes off Lacey. And me. Sad and full of rage, after an argument forced the man I love to leave the party early.

When the fire burns out, we stumble away from the beach, along the cliff path – faces burned by the wind, hearts full of secrets. But Lacey never makes it home. The next morning, her body is found in the sand dunes, a heart-shaped locket missing from around her neck.

Who would have thought our beach party could end the way it did? Close friends gathered on the last night of a long hot summer – which one of us could have killed the girl everybody loved?

An absolutely gripping psychological thriller with an ending you will NEVER see coming! Strap in for a twisty rollercoaster ride that will keep you turning pages all night long. Perfect for anyone who adored The Holiday, The Guest List or Gone Girl.

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Amy Sheppard is a busy mum of two boys, living in Cornwall. Her obsession with making budget friendly family dinners, led her to writing two cookbooks. Amy creates recipes for her followers and for brands @amysheppardfood

Her debut novel is out in August 2022. A psychological thriller set in Cornwall called ‘The Beach Party’

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My thoughts: this was a really clever crime thriller, taking us into a small, tight knit community that has been shaped by a terrible crime that was never solved. The podcast Kate and Sophie are making drags a lot of things into the light, including long held secrets and painful memories. Kate grew up there and was a witness to Lacey’s murder but even she can’t guess where their investigation will lead or what she’ll learn.

Tense, gripping and with the sense of claustrophobia of all small communities, the killer is closer to home than they can guess. I was totally hooked.

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

Annie’s sister has gone missing. Why doesn’t anyone care?

Annie feels like she’s at a good place in her life. Happily married, expecting her first child, enjoying a vacation with her extended family at their beautiful coastal home.

But then her sister, Sunday, suddenly goes missing.

Annie is immediately concerned, but the rest of the family assure her that everything’s fine, this is the kind of thing Sunday does, she’ll be back…

But Annie knows in her heart that something is very wrong. And she won’t rest until she sees her sister safe and well.

As Annie digs for the truth, she realizes that some of her family are not what they seem. And as she draws closer to uncovering their horrifying secret, Annie finally understands that she and her unborn child are in terrible danger…

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Cathryn Grant writes psychological thrillers, psychological suspense, and ghost stories. She’s the author of twenty-three novels. She’s loved crime fiction all her life and is endlessly fascinated by the twists and turns, and the dark corners of the human mind.

When she’s not writing, Cathryn reads fiction, eavesdrops, and tries to play golf without hitting her ball into the sand or the water. She lives on the Central California coast with her husband and two cats.

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My thoughts: the family in this book is deeply creepy in so many ways, the constant touching of Annie’s pregnant belly, the way they all adhere to their dad’s outdated and quite frankly wrong philosophies, the gaslighting that goes on when Annie tries to get them to look for her sister, the rewriting of the past. I kept wanting to shout at Annie and her slightly useless husband to get out of there, there’s something deeply weird happening!

How many red flags do you need. And obviously it gets worse and weirder the longer they’re all there in the house, feeding each other’s strange behaviour and stoking Annie’s paranoia and fear. Disturbing but compelling to read. Makes me glad my family are a bit “normal”.

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

Bang. Bang. Bang. I jump as the knocks on the window crash above the roaring wind outside. Who could it be, at this late hour? I open the curtains and peer outside. ‘Hello?’ But the dark, the rain and the empty lane are all I see.

It’s been eleven years since I last saw Jonah, after his brother died that stormy summer night. And now, without warning, he’s back, living in his old house next door just like old times, on the remote Scottish island that is home. Where I used to imagine we’d stay, together, forever, sharing our lives and our secrets as we always had. But that was before.

Jonah’s not the sweet boy I once knew. His mood is changeable, his behaviour unstable, our brief conversations are forced and awkward. And then the knocks on my window begin. It can only be him, but why, and what does he want? I used to love him. Now I don’t even want to invite him in.

Because after all these years, I see our childhood secrets, the ones we swore never to reveal, in a newly terrifying light. Was his brother’s death truly an accident? Could Jonah’s secrets have been worth killing for? And how safe am I now, on this isolated island, with the man I used to love…?

A totally addictive and twisty psychological thriller with a jaw-dropping twist. Anyone who loves The Woman in the Window, The Wife Between Us and The Housemaid won’t beable to put Childhood Sweetheart down!

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Wendy Clarke was a teacher until the small primary school where she worked closed down. Now she is a writer of psychological suspense but is also well known for her short stories and serials which regularly appear in national women’s magazines.

Wendy has two children and three step-children and lives with her husband, cat and step-dog in Sussex. When not writing, she is usually indulging in her passion for dancing, singing or watching any programme that involves food!

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My thoughts: this is a very clever book, until the twist is revealed and then it’s also very, very shocking. And then there’s some more twists that put a completely different light on events. Ailsa is an incredibly brave woman and a devoted mum, she risks her life to protect Kyle, her autistic son. Even though the person she’s protecting him from is her childhood best friend and first love, Jonah. Or is he? What really happened that night on the Loch and where did Jonah and Callum’s dad really go?

Ailsa doesn’t necessarily want all the answers but then she realises she needs them to ensure Kyle doesn’t lose his home. And she has some reckoning of her own to do too. Moira might have taken them in, but she was keeping secrets too.

Dark and creepy, this is one of those books that makes your eyes widen as it slowly unfolds and the stories people tell themselves and others unravel.

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