A modern day Agatha Christie.   

As the front covers says everyone’s invited, everyone’s a suspect. Halfway through the book you’re so acquainted with the characters they’re practically friends. And yet you still you have no idea who the killer is OR the victim. The level of suspense is precariously high, but it stands strong. There are clues on every page, from the party of friends, the staff, and the surprise Icelandic visitors. Even as the book was coming to a close, all the secrets and lies kept tumbling, keeping the true killer out of sight until the very end. Bravo Ms Foley!

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.

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. 

The book is interspersed with chapters from the view of the killer, and the perspective from the law rushing against the clock to find him. Even though the reader is sometimes one step ahead having the killer's method in mind, there is twist after twist. Predictably, there is a new policeman in town but that's where any certainty ends. It's impossible not to fall for the beautiful and broken DI Callanach with his back-story woven into the story in small segments like a jigsaw puzzle.
 
The gore of the action is sometimes too gruesome. And there were a couple of times I gasped aloud and turns in the plot. When the finale presented itself, it could have gone a number of ways and I was not able to put the book down until I had finished it.
 
VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

An absolutely excellent read. The novel is less did-he-do-it and more about the judicial system that is in place (not at all boring or procedural), and the challenges a he said/she said legal process presents; how is a jury ever to know what to believe?

The story is told (mainly) from two perspectives the (was she long-suffering?) wife, and the prosecuting barrister with her own agenda. These two sides offer two strong and individual female stance on sexual assault.

Just as I thought it was over, the last few chapters threw more curve balls.  An enjoyable and riveting read.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

2018 is certainly shaping to be the year for exceptional debut writing!