Brilliant blend of thriller and haunted house horror!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Blurb:
Could your dream home be your worst nightmare? After what happened in London, Kirsty needs a fresh start with her family. And running a guesthouse in the Welsh mountains sounds idyllic. But then their first guest arrives. Selena is the last person Kirsty wants to see. It's seventeen years since she tore everything apart. Why has she chosen now to walk back into Kirsty's life? Is Selena running from something too? Or is there an even darker reason for her visit? Because Kirsty knows that once you invite trouble into your home, it can be murder getting rid of it . . .
The Review
This is the reason to be part of Netgalley, because sometimes you get the immense pleasure of reading and reviewing a book as good as this. I'm new to Douglas' work and as a 'thriller over-indulger' I think I was just expecting a bit of a standard 'who-dunnit'. But this happily exceeded all my expectations.
I don't normally describe the plot of a book, feeling that the blurb is usually enough, but this is one that is particularly vague! So here's a slight expansion on the synopsis - Kirsty and her family (2 young daughters and her husband) move to Wales to go into business with her mother and run a B&B. (Already sounding like a terrible idea if you ask me - I mean, I love my mum, but....) We are drip fed that the reason they left London is because of something that happened to Adrian and they need a fresh start. Once at the B&B, some creepy stuff starts to happen. Kirsty's childhood friend/cousin/nemesis (Selena) is invited to stay by her mother and brings with her her daughter, who is curiously unwell. More family arrives (it's like a cast of the Walton's, there's so many of them at one point!) and all the skeletons start to come out of the closet.
I don't want to give too much away and spoil anything in this one for you, but it was definitely a LOT creepier than I was expecting it to be. In the 'hairs standing up on your arms' type of way. Especially if things with kids being a bit creepy, finding horrible old dolls and generally having stuff in the house *happen* seemingly on its own, is the kind of thing to send a shiver down your spine. It manages to be disturbing without crossing over into farcical as well, which is no mean feat.
There are quite a lot of characters in this book, as we meet many of the B&B guests as well as family members. However I never felt like I was overwhelmed by the amount of characters. They were all fleshed out cleverly and their back stories were intricately weaved together and slowly revealed. There are a few quite good plot twists, one of which I did not see coming, so that's always a plus point. The whole story is told through Kirsty's narrative which was actually more powerful than switching characters. Everyone seems to be keeping secrets from her & acting suspiciously and I genuinely felt her justified anger and annoyance at times!
All in all, this was a genuinely brilliant thriller, with lots of strands that Douglas pulls together seamlessly as we rush towards the frenetic ending. I absolutely could not put it down and look forward to reading more of her work.
Thanks to the Publisher and Netgalley for this preview copy in return for an honest review.