Tag: suspense

I Am Watching You – Teresa Driscoll

~ Eden Haslam ~ Leave a comment

Rating: 2.5 out of 5.

Synopsis: I Am Watching You starts with a woman (Ella) watching two teenage girls on a train as they start chatting to two guys just out of jail. The next day one of the girls has gone missing and Ella is wracked with guilt at not calling one of the girls’ mothers and intervening.

The rest of the story follows the points of view of 4 people – the witness (Ella), the father (Henry), the investigator (Matthew), and the friend (Sarah). After a few chapters it moves forwards one year, the teenager Anna Ballard has still not been found and Ella has started to get threatening letters. As the story moves on it becomes clear that there is more to the story, everyone has secrets of their own and some are lying about what happened the night Anna disappeared.

Review: Every review I write for a mystery/suspense/thriller style book always includes me going on about how much I love this genre, and this love is so important because it leads to high expectations which unfortunately were not met in this case.

This story has good potential. Yes, everyone had secrets, not all of them relevant to Anna’s disappearance, which I enjoy as it keeps you guessing. And it was interesting to hear how Anna’s disappearance affected the different people in her life. However, there was not enough information given to the reader throughout the book to keep them invested. Multiple chapters ended with a vague statement with the intention of generating suspense – something along the lines of ‘she couldn’t tell anyone what she knew’ – but there was very little resolution to these statements which quickly lost their impact.

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The Stairwell – Dean Bryant

~ Eden Haslam ~ 1 Comment

Frightful visions. An unknown manipulator. A force from beyond reason.

Brandon Chapman arrives home to a horrific scene. His wife, Stephanie, is exhibiting behaviour that he can only describe as that of someone possessed – yet he doesn’t even believe in the supernatural. He soon realises that it was nothing other than a frightful, haunting vision.

After discovering a dark secret about Stephanie, Brandon meets a strange figure with knowledge about his own life that no one could possibly know. As his visions become more frequent and terrifying, he begins to question his sanity.

Brandon must either side with this figure or his wife before his daughter comes to harm.

Alice Hamilton, a shy and quiet university student, meets handsome Niel Curtis whilst on a night out with friends. They very quickly fall for one another, but their happiness is short-lived when Niel ends up in a coma after a traffic accident.

Alice fears he may never wake up again and, unaware of the consequences, strikes a deal with a strange voice. When Niel awakes, his behaviour changes drastically, and Alice – like Brandon – becomes subject to nightmarish, violent visions.

Are Brandon and Alice caught in a never-ending nightmare?

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Review: This book is so fantastically creepy. It manages to be disturbing and uncomfortable and yet so difficult to put down. I raced through it determined to delve deeper into the unsettling world that Bryant has created. I will admit I don’t read too many horror stories but the mix of manipulation, paranoia and the paranormal within this book felt exciting and unique.

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The Book Club – C.J. Cooper

~ Eden Haslam ~ Leave a comment

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Synopsis: Lucy moves to an idyllic village in the Cotswolds to escape a failed affair with her boss back in London. She’s hoping to leave her old life behind her and start anew somewhere peaceful, far away from prying eyes. And then her new neighbour Alice moves in. Lucy decides straight away that there is something wrong with Alice, that this woman cannot be trusted. But, when a book club is suggested, all Lucy can do is sit and watch as her friends are manipulated and secrets are exposed. It turns out that things in the village are not as quiet as they seem.

This story alternates between the perspectives of Lucy, Alice, and the other members of the book club – Rebecca, Maggie, and Tom. Using flashbacks, it follows the game of cat-and-mouse between Lucy and Alice, culminating in a show-down as Alice attempts to get her perfectly planned revenge.

Review: This book perfectly captures the uneasy, shivers-up-your-spine, constantly-looking-over-your-shoulder feeling of having your every move watched. It even managed to put me on edge when I know I have no creepy neighbour watching me so have nothing to fear! Alice is the perfect antagonist, so cold and calculating that throughout the book you are poised, waiting for her to finally reveal her true nature, and praying that the characters will realise the type of person she really is before it is too late.

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The List – Carys Jones

~ Eden Haslam ~ Leave a comment

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Synopsis: The List tells the story of the damaging potential a seemingly innocuous list of names can hold. Found deliberately placed in the woods by 29-year-old Beth, this simple slip of paper contains five names with no clear connection, but the third name on this list is Beth’s. Already plagued by nightmares which are never too far from her mind, this list turns Beth’s nightmares into a reality as she scrambles to learn who the other names on this list are and why her name is on there before she runs out of time.

As well as Beth’s perspective, the story gives the perspective of two others – 12-year-old Ruby who is struggling to talk about an event that has resulted in her ending up in an institution, and an unidentified narrator who is author of the list of names that threatens to wreck the perfect life Beth has made for herself.

Following these three characters, The List explores the pressure and paranoia that can come from attempting to outrun your past. Each character is fixated on a certain event that has greatly impacted their life and, no matter how hard they try, they are unable to separate this event from the direction they want their life to take.

Review: The book starts with a quote from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein “when falsehood can look so like the truth, who can assure themselves of certain happiness” which effectively sums up the entire premise of the story. In Beth’s life, the lines between truth and lies are blurred and, within the book, even when you think you have figured out the truth, the story moves in an unexpected direction.

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Blood Orange – Harriet Tyce

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Rating: 3 out of 5.

Synopsis: Allison is a character who appears to have an ideal life. She has a loving family, a great job and a bright future. However, it soon becomes clear that this perfect life is a lie. She drinks too much, works too much, and, despite continuously claiming she will stop her destructive behaviour, cannot seem to end her affair with a colleague. All this uncontrollable and negative behaviour results in Allison not spending enough time with her family, something her controlling husband constantly berates her for.

The story follows Allison as she is given her first murder case to defend. A woman accused of stabbing her husband who is willing to plead guilty and go to jail. As both a lawyer and wife, Allison can tell that there is something which does not add up in the story the woman is telling and uncovering the truth shows Allison more about her own life than she wants to admit. If this was not enough, on top of the pressures of her home and work life, Allison is receiving threatening messages every time she is with her secret lover. Someone knows the truth and is not afraid to expose her.

We see as Allison’s life falls apart around her. Her successful career is not enough to hold together her family and amidst a tangled web of lies and deceit one wrong move could destroy everything.

Review: This book somehow managed to be compelling whist uncomfortable to read. The characters were highly dislikeable, almost frustratingly so, and yet whilst Allison’s self-destructive behaviour drove me mad it was also relatable. There is very little good to be found in her situation and any sympathy you would have for her family due to her drinking and overworking quickly evaporates due to her husband’s controlling and critical behaviour.

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The Hunting Party – Lucy Foley

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Rating: 2 out of 5.

Synopsis: The Hunting Party tells the story of a New Year’s celebration gone horribly wrong. A group of friends, tied together by the time they shared at university, visit a hunting lodge in the Scottish Highlands for their annual New Year’ celebrations. Among this group are four couples, one baby, and singleton Katie. In the space of three days, the secrets and resentments these friends have been holding on to start to take their toll and cracks begin to form in the nostalgia which holds them all together. By New Year’s Day someone is dead and someone else at the lodge is the culprit.

The book switches between a number of viewpoints including members of the group of friends and the workers at the lodge. Alternating between the time after the murder, slowly revealing details about the person’s death, and the events of the two days running up to it, the mystery concludes with a big reveal where all the secrets are uncovered and all questions answered.

Review: First of all, I didn’t hate this book. The cold, unforgiving Scottish Highlands act as the perfect setting for these ‘friends’ to get snowed in, leading to their secrets being exposed and ultimately one of them being murdered. It was interesting having chapters switch between different character’s points of views, if not somewhat inconsistent, and I really enjoyed the side-plot exploring the workers at the Lodge and why anyone would choose to live so isolated. However, whilst the premise was interesting and book easy to read, I did find it underwhelming. I love a good murder mystery and feel like there are other books who do what Foley is attempting but much better.

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