The Broken Girls has been out as an e-book since March 2018, and this review coincides with the paperback release (out 29 November 2018). The story surrounds an old boarding school Idlewild Hall. The school closed in 1979 and in 2014 has been bought.
 
The tale flits between two timelines – when the school was still open and functioning in 1950, four friends who share a dorm room. And one of the girls goes missing. And 2014 when a reclusive millionaire has bought the school with plans to bring it back to life, and a local journalist, Fiona Sheridan, who with a hidden agenda wants to find out why?
 
Fiona is fighting her own demons; her sister was murdered and dumped outside Idlewild Hall, and it's not only ghosts from her past who are scaring her. The stories of the haunted school, the missing girl, the dead sister are woven together beautifully. I was fearful, mystified and curious for answers!
 
Such a good book, I hope we see more of Fiona Sheridan.
 
VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
 
Thank you so much the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a complimentary electronic copy in return for an honest review. 

Not a spoiler – the back cover says it all. Rosie's older sister went missing fifteen years previously, and Anna wonders about her real parentage is. What I thought was going to be a straightforward thriller, how wrong was I! It got murkier and murkier the further I read. I was completely embroiled in Anna and Rosie's stories respectively. And at one point shouting 'No!!!!!' at the book.
 
A fantastic debut from Ms Barber.
 
VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
 
Thank you so much the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a complimentary electronic copy in return for an honest review. 

A brilliant thriller. It was delightful to pick up the clues left as crumbs, with the red herrings thrown in. I loved Maggie Malone's character – a private detective who is a little rough around the edges but lives in stilettos.
 
The first chapter opens ominously – something bad has happened. Then we flash back to eight weeks earlier where the story is told chronologically from the perspectives of the three women – Maggie (the private detective), Helene (the suspicious wife), and Alive (Helene's stepdaughter). I was ahead of the game for one of the twists, but then they kept coming from all directions. It was a captivating finish. Maybe in vain, but I very much hope to see more from Maggie Malone and her Blue and White Detective Agency.
 
VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
 
Thank you so much the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a complimentary electronic copy in return for an honest review.