Tag: thrillers

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.

Adam’s wife, Maryanne, vanished without trace whilst on holiday in southern France, more than two years ago. Unexpectedly, he receives an enigmatic message. It prompts him to return to the scene of her disappearance. His efforts to piece together what happened force him to
reexamine their relationship, coupled with his feelings of guilt.

Retracing events that led to that fateful day, he soon learns that his return has not gone unnoticed, and his efforts to find Maryanne are far from welcome. Adam is joined in his search by Abigail, Maryanne’s daughter from a previous marriage. It is February. The mistral is battering the streets and dark corners of the ancient towns across this area of France.

As more of Maryanne’s past is revealed, the search, enmeshed in a world of intrigue and deceit, with its past rooted in antiquity, becomes increasingly dangerous. They discover that some will
do anything to stop them from uncovering the final, terrifying truth.

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Robert Cole trained as a clinical psychologist but spent most of his career within the corporate business world, both in the UK and overseas. He has held senior positions in Human Resources within a number of large global companies.

Mistral is his second novel and is a powerful and sweeping drama set amongst the vineyards and picturesque towns and villages of the Languedoc and Provence areas of the South of France.

His well-received first novel, A Breeze Across the Aegean published in 2020, draws on his affinity with Greece and its diverse islands.
He is currently working on a sequel.

In addition to the UK he has lived in Singapore, Cyprus, the Netherlands and South Africa. Currently he divides his time between Surrey and Uzes in France.

My thoughts: The mistral is a fierce wind that batters parts of France in winter and spring, this ferocious weather makes it unlikely for many tourists to be visiting, so Adam stands out even more as he hunts for clues to his missing wife’s location. The strange postcard he received convinces him that she’s still alive and in the region. But no one he speaks to, especially the artist Jean, will admit to knowing anything.

He’s joined by Maryanne’s daughter, Abigail, she too has never given up hope of finding her mother. Together they search for her. Fragments of memory of Abigail’s childhood in Dublin, the people her artist grandmother hosted at her home, come back to her, and the pair wonder if there’s a connection.

Adam’s friend Caroline, who lives in the region, helps him, despite not being keen on Maryanne, and he worries that his wife’s history of mental illness and disappearances, including taking Abigail to a house not far from where she disappeared, as a child. They find that place, but it’s been abandoned.

As they look into the photographer Jean, and his strange brother, who both think they’ve seen before, a curious connection between Maryanne and the cult of Mary Magdalene emerges. Could this have something to do with her whereabouts?

Both Adam and Abigail risk their own lives to find out the truth and get answers to what became of Maryanne, why she vanished when she did and where she’s been for three long years. The police have stopped looking but Adam has never given up hope.

Clever, full of twists, shocking moments, obsession and darkness, as well as the terrifying wild boars, sangliers, who make their homes in the forests and mountains of this part of France, this was an enjoyable, if sinister read. Adam and especially Abigail are great protagonists, brave, resourceful and incredibly lucky.

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

How deep can you go into the mind of a killer before you lose your own?

Dr. Evelyn Shaw is a celebrated forensic psychologist, known for her ability to uncover the minds of the most dangerous criminals. But when she is asked to profile James Hawthorne, a cunning and manipulative serial killer, she finds herself drawn into a psychological battle unlike any she has faced before.

James is no ordinary murderer. He reveals unsettling details about his crimes—and Evelyn’s past. As their sessions progress, Evelyn’s carefully constructed life begins to unravel. Long-buried childhood traumas resurface. James’s eerie knowledge of her darkest memories forces her to question whether he is manipulating her or if her mind is betraying her.

As Detective Inspector Ziggy Thornes races to uncover the truth behind James’s crimes, Evelyn becomes increasingly isolated. The line between victim and accomplice continues to blur.
In a chilling finale, Evelyn must face her darkest fears and unravel her own connection to James’s crimes.

The Shadow Killer is a gripping psychological thriller that explores the thin line between sanity and madness, manipulation and truth, leaving readers questioning where darkness truly
begins.

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Catherine Yaffe is the author of crime thrillers that readers and reviewers frequently describe as compulsively readable. A creative writing student with the OU and a graduate of Curtis Brown
Creative, Catherine wrote her first crime thriller, The Lie She Told in 2020. On its release it debuted in the top 10 hot new releases on Amazon, achieved number 1 in the Amazon paid chart and to date has accrued hundreds of five-star reviews.
The Web They Wove followed as the second in the Tangled Web series and was released in 2021.
Again, it was received with widespread acclaim. The third book in the series, When We Deceive launched in April 2023 and flew straight to the top of the Amazon charts.
Catch Me Twice was released in May 2024, again achieving the much-coveted best-seller tag on release.
The Shadow Killer is the fifth book in the DI Ziggy Thornes series, though each book is self-contained and can be read as a standalone.
Popular with library borrowers and available in all major retail outlets, Catherine’s books have the unique ability to capture the readers imagination with fictional stories that read like true crime.
When Catherine isn’t writing she loves nothing more than gardening, horse riding and travelling whenever she can. She lives in West Yorkshire with her husband and a menagerie of animals.

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My thoughts: This is a creepy, sinister case, and Dr Evelyn Shaw, a forensic psychologist, finds herself caught up in the middle of it. She’s attempting to assess a rather nasty killer, one who enjoys playing with her, causing her to question her abilities and her past. Has she met this monster before?

The police think there might be a live victim out there, hidden somewhere and desperately need him to tell them, she might not have much time left. But he refuses to say anything, preferring to taunt and terrify Evelyn.

Then she disappears. It’s a race against time, to find Evelyn and solve the case, the so-called Shadow Killer is messing with them, but there’s real danger here and it’s far closer to home than anyone realises.

Clever, twisted and utterly compelling. I couldn’t put it down. It’s quite gruesome in parts and filled with twists you won’t see coming.

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

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